Can anyone explain the vinyl renaissance?

[MattHooper]

I’m a huge fan of soundtracks and I’ve absolutely luxuriated in the number of soundtracks that have been re-released, or remastered, or released the first time on vinyl. So many of the soundtracks sound so great. This Carrie vinyl sounds incredible on my system. I have a large CD collection of soundtracks and I can’t think of one that sounds better, in terms of sheer vividness
of the sound:

Waxwork records are absolutely stellar quality:

Vinyl

Waxwork Records is a record label specializing in the release of classic cinema, horror, cult, and sci-fi film scores in the highest quality LP packages available.

waxworkrecords.com

 

[MattHooper]

Lot of big and significant vinyl collections lost during the recent California fires:

What's it like to lose your record collection? Like, the whole lot?

Now, we know.

boilerroom.substack.com

 

[Chubbs McCallister]

And nothing of value was lost except the owners attachment to plastic.

 

[MattHooper]

Well, if you have an incredibly shallow understanding of human psychology…

 

[Chubbs McCallister]

What part is shallow? The attachment to plastic?

 

[MattHooper]

Yes, that part of your analysis. ;-)

 

[Chubbs McCallister]

Yes, that part of your analysis. ;-)

The albums are fungible. You can replace any one of them with another and no one would notice. That means no one of them is special. Forgive me if I don't cry if one burns in a fire, . Just replace it and no one will notice.

 

[MattHooper]

The albums are fungible. You can replace any one of them with another and no one would notice. That means no one of them is special. Forgive me if I don't cry if one burns in a fire, . Just replace it and no one will notice.

I guess you didn’t read the article. Of course there are worse things in life than losing a record collection. But if that’s your passion and it’s taken a huge amount of work and time and expense, it’s understandable people would be upset.

People lost collections that took half their life to build. And since they were enthusiast, this was a centerpoint of their passion.

But I guess the attitude “ since I don’t care about those things, nobody else should” is more convenient.

I only have about 1000 albums. They represent about 9 years of careful searching and plenty of money. I own plenty of very hard to find records (I’m into a genre of records that were never even released to the public and were printed in very low numbers, and most aren’t available digitally).

If my record collection burned up I wouldn’t have the money to replace it. Or if I did, it would have to be at a similar financial pace as to how I built the collection, which would take years. Just to hopefully even get back what I had lost.

So I’m finding your take on this to be pretty facile.

 

[Dimitri]

A rip (will be removed in a couple of days). Emil Gilels Brahms Piano concerto 1 DG (original source). Recorded straight into my Mac mini 44.1 kHz/24 bits via my Muffsy phono preamp, no noise or click removal.

Dropbox

www.dropbox.com

After listening to it I feel my ears got an upgrade !

 

[Chubbs McCallister]

I guess you didn’t read the article. Of course there are worse things in life than losing a record collection. But if that’s your passion and it’s taken a huge amount of work and time and expense, it’s understandable people would be upset.

People lost collections that took half their life to build. And since they were enthusiast, this was a centerpoint of their passion.

But I guess the attitude “ since I don’t care about those things, nobody else should” is more convenient.

I only have about 1000 albums. They represent about 9 years of careful searching and plenty of money. I own plenty of very hard to find records (I’m into a genre of records that were never even released to the public and were printed in very low numbers, and most aren’t available digitally).

If my record collection burned up I wouldn’t have the money to replace it. Or if I did, it would have to be at a similar financial pace as to how I built the collection, which would take years. Just to hopefully even get back what I had lost.

So I’m finding your take on this to be pretty facile.

No, I did not read the article and I'm not gonna read 500+ posts to get caught up.

But I thought I was enough caught up relative to the present comment in the thread.

Perhaps I was wrong.

In any case, you are talking about rare albums that NO ONE HAS and WILL NEVER HAVE.

Of course that is different.

Congratulations, you have rare albums, My statement still stands.

 

[Dimitri]

And nothing of value was lost except the owners attachment to plastic.

There is a special place someplace for those minimizing someone else's loss especially given the circumstances

Congratulations, you have rare albums, My statement still stands.

Passed a certain degree of crassness, other than owning it there is nothing else to be done.

 

[Chubbs McCallister]

There is a special place someplace for those minimizing someone else's loss especially given the circumstances

Passed a certain degree of crassness, other than owning it there is nothing else to be done.

Kinda dumb to not differentiate between easily replaceable items and family heirlooms. Pay attention.

 

[Groove01]

The albums are fungible. You can replace any one of them with another and no one would notice. That means no one of them is special. Forgive me if I don't cry if one burns in a fire, . Just replace it and no one will notice.

That’s kind of like saying comic books are fungible, so what if it’s a first edition, they reprinted it.

Understand you may not appreciate vinyl, but for those that do, early pressings, certain jacket covers, etc., are a part of history, rare, and very collectible. No different than first printing, first edition comics, etc.

 

[Chubbs McCallister]

That’s kind of like saying comic books are fungible, so what if it’s a first edition, they reprinted it.

Understand you may not appreciate vinyl, but for those that do, early pressings, certain jacket covers, etc., are a part of history, rare, and very collectible. No different than first printing, first edition comics, etc.

If it's unique, and rare, then it has value.

 

[Dimitri]

If it's unique, and rare, then it has value

It's sad you insist. Unfortuantely that's neither rare nor unique. Go ahead and have the last word so we can be done with this.

 

[Galliardist]

I believe it's a collection of "design choices".
There is more "engineering" going into direct-drive turntables than belt-driven models.
Have you seen what passes as a belt-driven table nowdays ?
Unpublished specs, and when published, shamelesly worse than what was available 30-40 years. Progress !

Maybe a visit to the HiFi News website is in order for you. There is practically no difference between the two types noted. A couple of dB in weighted noise. Bearing quality would seem to be more important than drive type for good measurements.

I have a vague memory of some past measurements showing that direct drive noise was lower in frequency which might be relevant in some systems.

Some ploughing through old reviews may tell us more, but the myth of direct drive superiority seems to be no more based in measured reality than the belief in belt drive superiority.

 

[antcollinet]

And nothing of value was lost except the owners attachment to plastic.

Well that earned an instablock.

 

[MaxwellsEq]

Maybe a visit to the HiFi News website is in order for you. There is practically no difference between the two types noted. A couple of dB in weighted noise. Bearing quality would seem to be more important than drive type for good measurements.

I have a vague memory of some past measurements showing that direct drive noise was lower in frequency which might be relevant in some systems.

Some ploughing through old reviews may tell us more, but the myth of direct drive superiority seems to be no more based in measured reality than the belief in belt drive superiority.

That makes sense to me. I certainly don't recall, in the turntable heyday, engineers, reviewers or suppliers presenting measurements showing direct drive to be superior to belt drive for playback noise (or vice versa). They both have strengths and weaknesses, but whether the LPs sound quieter should be largely the same, I expect.

 

[Robin L]

The albums are fungible. You can replace any one of them with another and no one would notice. That means no one of them is special. Forgive me if I don't cry if one burns in a fire, . Just replace it and no one will notice.

I had to eliminate all of my LPs before making the biggest move of my life. I moved from a large house with plenty of room for LPs to a much smaller house with not even enough room for all the CDs I owned. Some of the LPs were quite rare - there were a lot of Celtic folk albums, including BBC field recordings, Dick Gaughan and Kathleen Ferrier, obscure performers like June Tabor. But I had a lot of friends in the Fresno Folklore Society, brought those LPs over to a weekly Jam session and let everyone know that they could take what they wanted. Fortunately, they did, so I knew that someone who appreciated that kind of music could listen to it. I also had nearly all of the grey-label early mono releases of Frank Sinatra on Capitol. Those were appropriated by someone who appreciated that music.

Not all albums are "fungible". Albums like these are very hard to replace with the same as there was a small supply in the first place and the supply gets smaller year by year. I wanted to be released from owning all these objects, but I also wanted the best of them to find new homes. But the LA fire meant that a lot of record collections literally went up in smoke. And to the people who collected these records over the years this is a big hit, with so many irreplaceable LPs.

So don't cry if that's where you're at, but don't expect anyone here cheering you on either.

 

[MatrixS2000]

That makes sense to me. I certainly don't recall, in the turntable heyday, engineers, reviewers or suppliers presenting measurements showing direct drive to be superior to belt drive for playback noise (or vice versa). They both have strengths and weaknesses, but whether the LPs sound quieter should be largely the same, I expect.

Some Grado cartridges and DD TT are not a good match because the cartridge starts to pick up motor hum as the needle nears the spindle. Other than that, I don’t see a significant difference between either. I have a belt drive.