Can anyone explain the vinyl renaissance?

[egellings]

Part of the draw of vinyl is its fiddly nature. If you change a cart, arm, or preamp, there may well be a sonic difference between them, so there's that sort of "something to play with" sort of an attraction. With digital, it's boringly perfect.

 

[mhardy6647]

So... hear me out. This "vinyl" thing is very simple really.
Like a 1952 Vincent Black Lightning , a [fill in the name of your favorite & ridiculously expensive and desirable] Swiss mechanical watch, or the aforementioned 1920s Herschede "grandfather" clock in our living room -- a good rekkid playa's got soul.

PS and it probably goes without saying that playing 1952 Vincent Black Lightning on a nice rekkid playa is [the] sine qua non.

 

[MattHooper]

The problem is that you take them waaay too seriously. (And you like to argue .)

??

Did you really see my joking reply to Audio Maestro as taking that post way too seriously?

 

[fpitas]

Part of the draw of vinyl is its fiddly nature. If you change a cart, arm, or preamp, there may well be a sonic difference between them, so there's that sort of "something to play with" sort of an attraction. With digital, it's boringly perfect.

But digital glare!

/OK, I'll go away

 

[MattHooper]

But digital glare!

/OK, I'll go away

Can be reduced by using using green pens and magnets on your CDs though. Makes the sound more analog. (Though still can’t catch up to real analog) ;-)

 

[USER]

??

Did you really see my joking reply to Audio Maestro as taking that post way too seriously?

No, that was funny. I didn't mean him only ones getting on your/our nerves. You are right about the red meat though, it's what this has come down to.

 

[Atmosphered]

The vinyl resurgence is nostalgia. That's about it. It's like all these modern TV shows and movies trying to recreate 80's (and sometimes 70's) styles, cultures, and themes.

Given a well produced and engineered high resolution digital recording packaged as uncompressed or losslessly compressed data, an LP gets sonically trounced six ways to Sunday.

 

[MattHooper]

The vinyl resurgence is nostalgia. That's about it. It's like all these modern TV shows and movies trying to recreate 80's (and sometimes 70's) styles, cultures, and themes.

Given a well produced and engineered high resolution digital recording packaged as uncompressed or losslessly compressed data, an LP gets sonically trounced six ways to Sunday.

First, if you are trying to make sense of the vinyl renaissance, you are least likely to get an accurate answer from someone who doesn't care for vinyl. We tend to be pretty poor at understanding why other people do things that we personally don't care for, and thus tend to resort to more facile "explanations" (e.g. "it's just a hipster thing" or whatever).

^^^ (Or "just nostalgia")

 

[AdrianusG]

Not sure if this is a joke. Apologies if it is! That's where we are unfortunately. May I suggest that anyone interested in "spacing" to listen to the samples I posted? The track was deliberately chosen because it plays with silence, sound stage width, and sound separation during the second half. Crosstalk (channels bleeding into each other) is much lower (that is, is worse) than in digital. Is it evident?

Can anyone explain the vinyl renaissance?

Please can you explain? They are referring to the increased dynamic range on the vinyl version versus digital, due to the digital version being subjected to dynamic compression.

audiosciencereview.com

Tried to find the author and could only find this, lol.

View attachment 304358

pffff, good to hear, for a little while i thought (and feared) it wasn't meant as satire.

 

[levimax]

I'm not interested in inaudible technicalities. That's why I never advocate high res audio over sonically-transparent standard definition digital audio. And that's why saying "oh, I happily admit that it is technically no match for digital", and not rating the two media sonically, is a cynical side-stepping ploy. Finish the sentence.

I am waiting for the vinyl defenders to admit that it is sonically second-tier. Which it is. Just admit it. C'mon guys, line up and fess up.

Or admit that you feel otherwise and are of the opinion that in controlled listening conditions, vinyl playback will be preferred over the studio master or good digital master. Which is an opinion not substantiated by any evidence.

Also no more repetition posts about poor mastering of some of the digital catalog, some of which has a better vinyl master available. Nobody denies that that is one sound-wave-based reason to sometimes pay stupid per-song money for vinyl, so if you want to complain about something having already been said too many times after it has long and often been acknowledged, complain about that.

I understand that vinyl is technically no match for digital and that vinyl play back vs the exact same studio master will seldom if ever be preferred. So now what? There is still a vinyl renaissance going on, mastering and remastering differences between digital and LP's still abound and in many cases dwarf the digital vs LP technical differences, the historical and artistic context of LP's both sonically and visually still have an appeal to some, physical media still has an appeal to some, nostalgia still has an appeal to some, higher noise level has an appeal to some, interesting mechanical devices have an appeal to some. The sonic differences being argued here are not what is driving LP sales obviously.

Answering the OP's original question, playing LP's is more interesting and involving for some people than playing files or streaming.

 

[antcollinet]

??

Did you really see my joking reply to Audio Maestro as taking that post way too seriously?

I was also somewhat confused.

 

[antcollinet]

The vinyl resurgence is nostalgia. That's about it. It's like all these modern TV shows and movies trying to recreate 80's (and sometimes 70's) styles, cultures, and themes.

Given a well produced and engineered high resolution digital recording packaged as uncompressed or losslessly compressed data, an LP gets sonically trounced six ways to Sunday.

And many TV shows (whether set in the day, or in modern times) portraying the spinning of vinyl as cool.

 

[egellings]

Can be reduced by using using green pens and magnets on your CDs though. Makes the sound more analog. (Though still can’t catch up to real analog) ;-)

Also, there are those little clear plastic equilateral triangular pyramids that the CD can be stored in. The pyramid power will enhance the CD's sound quality.

 

[afinepoint]

Part of the draw of vinyl is its fiddly nature. If you change a cart, arm, or preamp, there may well be a sonic difference between them, so there's that sort of "something to play with" sort of an attraction. With digital, it's boringly perfect.

And as mentioned nostalgic fun. When I drop a needle on an LP not only the music but the clicks and pops take me back to happy(ier) days. Odd I know. Plus I love working with my hands and vinyl like my reel to reel let's me become part of the music.

 

[fpitas]

The clicks and pops just take me back to the days of my youth, when I wished vinyl had no clicks or pops.

 

[afinepoint]

The clicks and pops just take me back to the days of my youth, when I wished vinyl had no clicks or pops.

 

[computer-audiophile]

... I love working with my hands and vinyl like my reel to reel let's me become part of the music.

I think it's called immersive.

 

[computer-audiophile]

The clicks and pops just take me back to the days of my youth, when I wished vinyl had no clicks or pops.

This got better with me over time. Most of the LPs I have today show very little noise during playback.

 

[fpitas]

This got better with me over time. Most of the LPs I have today show very little noise during playback.

I am fully aware I have as much nostalgia as your typical brick does. I guess I missed that memo.

 

[Leporello]

Thank you for this quote from Dr Toole. You made my day.
No one here is, or should, argue that Digital is not technically better, more practical and less expensive. It is obvious, or should be, to anyone. It is that fact that makes this thread so intriguing.

With digital being so vastly superior, why have we witnessed, for the last 10 years, a steady vinyl revival? Are those people mad, as some here seem to believe? No, they are not, that is a simplistic, childish way to react .

Some things are at play, this thread among all the noise, is probably the best place on the internet to have an adult exchange on trying to find out what the mechanism fueling this revival are.

Vinyl listening is a valid high end medium that provide musical listening pleasure to thousands of happy users around the globe, apparently, the numbers of those listeners is growing as part of the vinyl revival.

That you like listening to vinyl occasionally, like me, most of the time or none at all, has nothing to do with the subject of this thread.
"Can anyone explain the vinyl renaissance?"

Fad, fashion, coolness, wrong-headed technical beliefs and various extra-musical passions surrounding the cult. There is also the mistaken idea that just because one prefers the sound of vinyl it must be better. None of these will make vinyl a 'valid high end medium'. That ended in 1983.