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May 2, 2008

Vinyl ()

by fluffy at 7:29 PM
So, my new record player arrived today. After running to Radio Shack to get some RCA couplers (for some reason this turntable has an integrated interconnect cable, which is way too short) I got it hooked up, and finally put on an album I picked up in a pile of free stuff at Amazon a couple years ago.

There's something surprisingly satisfying about hearing the needle hit the groove with a nice "pop," then the subtle crackling which comes before the music starting. I won't say the sound is any better than CD (not that I've heard this album before in CD format or anything) but it does sound nice and crisp, and the bass is exceptionally clear. Now that I've made sure that this player works and doesn't, say, destroy records put onto it I might try out Radiohead - In Rainbows since until now I've only heard that in CD form (actually, only in 160Kbps mp3 and later as 192Kbps AAC). Most likely I'll listen to the first track on vinyl and then on CD (via my PS3).

Of course the most annoying thing about a record player is it's so huge. In order to fit this onto my entertainment center I had to move my TV forward and put the AppleTV onto the TV's base (although there's a better place to put it if I tidy things up a bit). All for the ability to listen to music in a format which was made obsolete two generations ago.

Oh well. Now this gives me an excuse to head over to Amoeba.

Comments

#10832 05/02/2008 07:57 pm
Okay, just listened to the first part of 15 Step on vinyl, then on CD, then on vinyl again, and then I synced them up and started switching between them as they both played. I can't hear much difference between them. They both sound very similar but I'd say the CD sounds a bit better. The vinyl master still has the same clipping on it, but its high-end doesn't sound as crisp.

Considering In Rainbows is a 45, this is as good as the sound can get on vinyl, right? Okay, granted this isn't exactly a high-end turntable, either, but it's supposedly a brand-new stylus on a turntable which is surprisingly highly-rated (especially considering how cheap it is). And of course I'm unfairly biasing the test toward CD since I'm playing it on a purely-digital connection from a player which does the best upconversion on the market.

So, vinyl is great for collecting old and weird stuff, but I'm not about to start espousing it as the Almighty Perfect Music Medium.

The next thing I tried was the CD (upconverted) with my 192Kbps AAC rip, streamed via AppleTV. The CD sounded just slightly cleaner and clearer, but not enough for me to care. And of course with the AppleTV it's even more convenient than on CD since it's all streamed from my computer which has my complete collection. Lazy technology wins. (Lazy technology also lets me listen to my music anywhere via iPod and cellphone, and if I want to hear something that's not on there I can just ssh home and grab a copy too.) Sorry, audiophiles.
#10833 05/02/2008 08:00 pm
Also, it's a bit less than enthralling to have to flip or swap big cumbersome oh-shit-don't-drop-it discs every few songs.
#10834 05/02/2008 08:11 pm
To me, the big problem with record players always seemed to be that they're inherently destructive to their media. I've listened to some old records a relative has had since the 80s, and it's been played so much that it's almost impossible to listen to. If I grew up in the age of records, I'd have been hesitant to listen to music at all, knowing that each time I played a record it became a little bit closer to sounding like crap.

I guess it's still good for listening to old, obscure stuff that hasn't been reissued on CD, but knowing that it's rare and probably a collector's item would make me even MORE hesitant to play it. If I were that into old music, I'd probably be wealthy enough to get one of those ridiculously expensive laser turntables and use it exactly once to make a digital copy of the record, then seal it away somewhere and let it appreciate in value.
#10836 05/02/2008 08:47 pm
Yeah, on the plus side the tonearm of this turntable is very lightweight and I don't expect to listen to records very often, so I'm not too worried about long-term damage or anything. I'm more interested in just picking up a bunch of crap from thrift stores and Amoeba and so on, things that I wouldn't really care about being pristine anyway.
#10838 Anonymous 05/04/2008 09:40 am
mashuren:
To me, the big problem with record players always seemed to be that they're inherently destructive to their media. I've listened to some old records a relative has had since the 80s, and it's been played so much that it's almost impossible to listen to. If I grew up in the age of records, I'd have been hesitant to listen to music at all, knowing that each time I played a record it became a little bit closer to sounding like crap.

I guess it's still good for listening to old, obscure stuff that hasn't been reissued on CD, but knowing that it's rare and probably a collector's item would make me even MORE hesitant to play it. If I were that into old music, I'd probably be wealthy enough to get one of those ridiculously expensive laser turntables and use it exactly once to make a digital copy of the record, then seal it away somewhere and let it appreciate in value.


You can flip that on its head, though.. An ephemeral nature is cool in its own way, too. The music's meant to be played, and if it's on an inherently destructive thing then maybe you should just savor it while it's there. It's like expensive wine, or cheese, or whatever else: it's made to be consumed. But the mentality there about being hesitant to play anything at all ever, that's foolish. It's a long path to total aural destruction. This coming from a guy who works at a radio station that's been in operation since 1945 and has seen more than a few well-played LPs (the Talking Heads section of our library, for instance, gets pulled out by a DJ just about weekly). More likely than vinyl shattering or being overplayed is scratches, which can become awful, but not with care.

Also, yes, a lot of vinyl was cheap to begin with and hasn't aged well. (Like wine.) But if people take care of their LPs and if they were, say, virgin 180 gram vinyl to begin with, and you take care of your turntable, it's not a very big deal.