Bought no vinyl for 10 years. Where to (re)start now?

[DTTOM37]

Maybe I should add that part of the idea is to purchase some items that represent the current technical state-of-the-art in the field of producing records.

I am not sure that you'll find the current state of the art in the field of recording technolgy represented in the music you love to hear.
In turn, listening to the sota tec with music you don't fully enjoy is a strange concept to me.
However, I would consider - given I would have that particular interest - this strategy:
- Find out which recording studios / mastering services / lacquer cutting mfs use your idea of sota technology - and since when.
- use Discogs to filter out their oeuvre in that particlar timeline.
- select the recordings you are interested in
- try to listen to them with a free one monthe online subscription of a quality streaming service
- make your decision if it is still worth to invest the money for the vinyl

I love to remember my vinyl episode (lasted about 35 years) but I would consider that adventure as less fullfilling sound quality wise than the digital experience.It has other fond memories connected to it ;.)
For the last decade, or even longer, vinyl pressing had been a by-product for the music industry, and imho only a minimal percentage of pressings were actually mastered in audiophile quality for that medium. Which in turn makes it very difficult to put sense into re-starting vinyl without a great investment in both, time and money, to find actually good sounding productions (which might not be your cup of tea artistically ...).
However, the other way could be to find 2nd hand mint vinyl copies of the music you love which were produced before the loudness wars started to change the way music is produced/mastered/consumed. Time/expenses might be comparable ...

I would recommend the following sources as guidelines to get more knowledge about what sounds good and what's to avoid ...
https://www.youtube.com/@pbthal/search

Club TBVO with Josh Mound

Club TBVO will look at out-of-print CDs and the latest digital releases, revel in the fun of collecting, and try to separate myth from fact when it comes to tracking down the best digital versions of beloved music.

audiophilestyle.com

Good luck with your adventure

 

[JeffS7444]

I'm attracted to really well-packaged LPs and exclusive extras, and IMO, the packaging of Wayne Shorter's "Emanon" LP set is a thing of beauty.

 

[GXAlan]

Maybe I should add that part of the idea is to purchase some items that represent the current technical state-of-the-art in the field of producing records.

McIntosh SESSIONS Volume 1: The Peter Erskine Quartet

An album crafted with attention to every detail in pursuit of sonic excellence. Recorded and mastered with utmost precision on analog tape, it promises a high-fidelity vinyl listening experience.

shop.mcintoshlabs.com

 

[Deleted member 77012]

Basically anything from Gondwana Records.

Their Hania Rani stuff sounds quite nice to me.

Can you share first-hand experience regarding pressing/vinyl quality?

 

[Joe Smith]

I buy new vinyl and new CDs sparingly, as at age 65, I am beginning to think logical things like "how many times will I actually play this in physical format rather than via streaming?" But a few things do make the cut every year.

If you like Beatles, I can't say enough good about the Giles Martin remix/remasters of late. Sgt. Pepper is probably the largest improvement, White Album, Abbey Road sound very good. I think the fairly recent Pink Floyd and Led Zep reissues sound quite good also.

A surprise discovery for me last year was Caroline Polachek - she is not everyone's cup of tea, but her latest album, "Desire, I Want to Turn Into You" is good and was nominated for Best Engineered Album last year at the Grammys. The earlier "Pang" is good but I think the vinyl pressing does not sound as good as digital.

Electronic - lots of good vinyl being issued from Aphex Twin, the artists who release on Warp and Kompakt labels, etc.

Folk/Country - I recently on here recommended Gillian Welch's "The Harrow and the Harvest" as an excellently recorded album. Again, not everyone's cup of tea, but I think it's some of her best work and sounds great, if dark bluegrass is of interest.

If you like modern jazz, ECM label albums, while a little pricier, are always excellent recordings and pressings and sound superb. The older ones of course do too.

For older jazz, Blue Note continues I believe to issue excellent but pricey product.

Good advice above re how to narrow as musical taste and interest is so varied. I think a lot usually before I spend above $20 on a single piece of media.

 

[Balle Clorin]

I rarely buy new release vinyl, I just buy second hand to fill gaps in my 40-50 year old collection, on some occasion I buy new like this one , I love the band and were present in the audience during the live recordings.

So I bought a signed vinyl copy after a concert. My only new release purchase this year. The new music today is just not so exiting that I need to buy more, and Roon is always there if I need

Norwegian Recordings SIGNERT UTGAVE LP & CD! - Grappa.no

"Norwegian Recordings" er Hanne Boels 22.album. Med over 2,5 millioner solgte album er Hanne Boel den bestselgende kvinnelige danske artist gjennom tidene. I over 30 år har den prisbelønte artisten med den sjelfulle vokalen stått på toppen av den danske soulpop-scenen, og siden debuten med...

grappa.no

Standing on the Edge of Love (feat. Jens Runge & Jacob Funch)

Stream Standing on the Edge of Love (feat. Jens Runge & Jacob Funch) by Hanne Boel on desktop and mobile. Play over 320 million tracks for free on SoundCloud.

m.soundcloud.com

 

[mike70]

I did try to get back into vinyl some years ago bought my former Thorens TD160 (again) this turntable i used at the time in the 70 and 80ties. A decent element of Ortofon with an new eliptical needle was installed. Also the original cinch plugs were changed for neutrik plugs. So i dig up some records like Ahmad Jamal - Rossiter Road. When i did an a/b comparison in the late 80ties i was stund regarding the difference basicly it was dead silence on the cd compared to vinyl. Because of that i could hear details like wispering from left to right an visa versa that was on vinyl more or less barely notable because of background noise. Same sort experience with Miles Davis - Tutu. For me the reason to leave vinyl asap. Now the same experience was their again. IMO it looks like Vinyl is more a sort of life style thing as so many things as food clothing cars etc etc an thats fine. Probably if i had still my about 1000 lp's ( that i gave away late 80ties no regrets) i would keep the Thorens an listen when i am in a nostalgic mood.

With decently cleaned records (I have RCM) and fine line stylus (microcline / shibata) ... my experience is totally different.
Great experience and sound quality ... And sometimes much better than my compressed mastering CDs.

So ... opinions are respectable ... but we need to see the context, the full picture. Vinyl can be very enjoyable.

 

[Snarfie]

So ... opinions are respectable ... but we need to see the context, the full picture. Vinyl can be very enjoyable.

I agree Vinyl can be very enjoyable. Regarding respecteble full context the full picture we can have a endless discussion/facts about Vinyl limitations. Found the MoFI lawsuite quite revealing confusion all over. In the end it's about what You like and or feels comfortable with.

 

[Robin L]

Maybe I should add that part of the idea is to purchase some items that represent the current technical state-of-the-art in the field of producing records.

If you want the current technical state of the art, then you won't be looking at LPs. That said, I'd be looking at LPs in a 45-rpm format, like recent reissues that spread what used to be a single LP across two discs. Can't offer any ideas as regards musical content, as my taste in music reflects my age - I'm listening to CDs of Classical music. But technically speaking, if you're looking at LPs a playing time of about 15 minutes a side is the upper limit if you want the best sound quality.

 

[Robin L]

Well, I noticed that Karajan/Bruckner news the other day. Problem is, I don’t like classic music so much that I would spend 300 Euros or so for the 9-records box.

Remastering Karajan's Bruckner for Deutsche Grammophon

Recently, Deutsche Grammophon released a remastered vinyl box set of Karajan's Bruckner recordings. In this video, the two sound engineers explain the remastering process from the original analog 8-track master tapes. If you are not interested in the discussions, start the video directly at...

www.audiosciencereview.com

I'm pretty sure that this would be more than 9 LPs. In fact, it's 17 LPs. They will be very expensive. And unless you're a fan of the music of Bruckner, it will probably not be worth the investment of well over $300. Also, Bruckner would be some of the most difficult music to properly reproduce on vinyl thanks to loads of massed brass and extreme dynamics. I'm a fan of Bruckner. If you aren't already a fan but are interested there are a number of budget recordings on CD that have better engineering than Karajan's (mostly from analog sources) set. George Tintner on Naxos (excellent digital sound) is about as good as it gets.

 

[pderousse]

We don’t know what you like and can’t know what will sound best in your rig. If you have the ability to quick switch at matched volume between a stream or CD and an LP, you can at least start to compare what sounds best to you, as you begin to pay attention to pressings. I’ve really liked the dozen or so pressings I have from Acoustic Sounds (I do not have them all!). Your ear will probably forgive poorer pressings’ peccadillos for titles you just plain like, but if you can compare a digital version on the spot, you will probably find yourself favoring either a digital or a vinyl disk pressing. Then begins the fun.

Those who speak in absolutes about the absolute capacity of this or that medium are absolutely correct. Nevertheless, you will find some vinyl sounding better sometimes. When that happens, be sure to self-flagellate with premium xlr cables while you scream mea culpa! Mea culpa! Mea maxima culpa! Then wonder how it can be… and then remember why and for whom you listen to music at all.

 

[Deleted member 77012]

I'm pretty sure that this would be more than 9 LPs. In fact, it's 17 LPs.

You are right. The 9 is true for the number of symphonies covered.

 

[MaxwellsEq]

Nevertheless, you will find some vinyl sounding better sometimes... Then wonder how it can be…

And it is in the "wondering" that scientific enquiry starts!

Given Red Book has better signal to noise ratio: better low frequency behaviour; lower noise; lower distortion; better crosstalk; lower timing errors; no high frequency resonance: consistent performance (even at the end of an album) than vinyl, you have to decide what is it that you are enjoying. Perhaps it's distortion; noise; wow and flutter; crosstalk; high frequency resonance: end-of-side distortion; limited-mono bass, or perhaps a combination of all of these.

 

[Sokel]

I noticed by my self when listening to my ripped cd's an downloaded high+res files music that i roam the internet to find specific info about what im listening to. There is really an abundance of information you can find an spent a worthwhile evening. No cover from an cd or lp could match that. IMO informative site like A history of rock music in 500 songs is so much informative/fun to listen to or read in. https://500songs.com/series/a-history-of-rock-music-in-500-songs/

It depends I guess.
Big works like the Red Seal 63 CD Fritz Reiner's RCA collection has very extensive info in the booklet,some Operas have the libretto,etc.
Of course you can find them online too but it's not the same premium feeling.

 

[Koeitje]

Yes absolutely covers are nice what’s inside not so much, I haven’t played any records ( voluntarily) since CD.
Keith

I haven't bought vinyl in a while, but when I still did I almost never played them. I just like the artwork and looking at it while listening. So I just ended up streaming from my NAS or playing the CD to have the best of both worlds: nice artwork and better sound quality.

 

[Snarfie]

It depends I guess.
Big works like the Red Seal 63 CD Fritz Reiner's RCA collection has very extensive info in the booklet,some Operas have the libretto,etc.
Of course you can find them online too but it's not the same premium feeling.

Got still my cd's and a couple of lp's. The cd booklets i can't hardly read them it is so small. In that respect lp's are a better choice. Years ago i was looking for some Steely Dan back ground info an stumbled on the recording engineer of Steely Dan Roger Nichols who recorded most of Steely Dan records about transients that already disapear from analog mastertapes with in a few hour fascinating to read that.

Part of the Nichols interview:

Roger Nichols: Yes, and it’s mostly because when I record something on a digital machine..um, you know, and I play it back ten years from now it will sound exatly the same. So if there is some little artifact because it’s digital, it’s a majorable (sic) artifact, and it’s going to be the same artifact ten years from now. If I record something on Analog tape and it doesn’t matter whether I’m do using Dolby SR, Dolby A or DBX or no noise reduction or whatever it is, if you record something on a piece of analog tape and play it back later the same day, the same program is not on the tape. And there’s nothing so far that anybody’d been able to do about that, you know, like those little magnetic particles are made to be able to wander around and they do so by themselves while the tape is just sitting there. I’ve made DAT copies when I’m cutting tracks, and then have an automation snap shot of the mix and then later that evening put the tape back on, play it back, compare it with the Dat, and there’s already starting to be a difference. And by the time a week or two weeks go by and it’s time to mix, a lot of the transients have started to disappear. If you use this as a tool, some people like what this does, and it sort of helps to mix all their music together, that’s fine, but, you know, you can’t say that Analog tape with Dolby SR is as good as Digital. It might be as quiet, and but it’s not going to retain the signal, you know, as long as Digital tape. So that’s my biggest worry about Analog tape.

 

[dualazmak]

How about to get and try newly released 45 rpm thick heavy (ca. 180 gm) vinyl disk of luxurious groove cutting?
Just for your possible interest reference, I recently (oh, it was March last year!) did it;
- Another comparative listening; on-the-fly remastered vinyl LP vs. remastered CD: Bill Evans jazz piano trio, analog recorded in 1977; remastered (2021) vinyl LP (45-RPM 188-gram) vs. its CD release: #740 on my project thread.
I wrote there;
Furthermore, the merit of the “45-RPM sound quality” pressed on high-quality vinyl material is just amazing; it would be rather difficult describing it properly by words since English is not my mother language. I would like to suggest you, therefore, just trying this 45-RPM LP if you have excellent HiFi LP listening audio setup. It is very much interesting and impressive looking at the track-7 of only-6-minute music actually occupying the whole surface of the B-side of the second LP; what an extravagant/luxury cutting and LP press!

This post would be also of your reference, I assume;
- Summary of my motivations reviving vinyl TT (turntable) in DSP-based multichannel time-aligned multi-SP-driver multi-amplifier fully active stereo audio setup: #758

 

[JaccoW]

Their Hania Rani stuff sounds quite nice to me.

Can you share first-hand experience regarding pressing/vinyl quality?

I honestly haven't had a single bad pressing from them. Some of it is even mastered at half speed.

Even the translucent vinyl sounds great. Here is what I have.

 

[dualazmak]

The cd booklets i can't hardly read them it is so small.

In case if I would like to read intensively through specific CD booklet having very small-print characters, I scan the whole booklet by 400 or 600 dpi resolution into one digital PDF booklet, and then spread the pages on my large desktop PC monitor; in my office upstairs, I use dual PC monitor of EIZO FlexScan EV2750 enables 5120x1440 pixel desktop area on 1190 x 360 mm screen.

The digitized PDF booklet is of course saved in the same folder of SSD music library (ref. here for my digital music library organization).

 

[mike70]

And it is in the "wondering" that scientific enquiry starts!

Given Red Book has better signal to noise ratio: better low frequency behaviour; lower noise; lower distortion; better crosstalk; lower timing errors; no high frequency resonance: consistent performance (even at the end of an album) than vinyl, you have to decide what is it that you are enjoying. Perhaps it's distortion; noise; wow and flutter; crosstalk; high frequency resonance: end-of-side distortion; limited-mono bass, or perhaps a combination of all of these.

... or simply you can have a bad mastering / recording in your CD. That's all.

I agree with you, but we need to live outside "theory land" ... science is also facts. I have many awful CDs and I prefer the analog versions night and day.

Think about recording a 128 kbps mp3 in CD, the format have that great SNR/blah blah, but sounds like s*** ... think about the compression you can apply in a digital master (and the engineers do, oh yes), etc. Recording / mastering is the most important aspect in the final sound, much more than the format.

Food for tough.