Vinyl, to buy or not to buy that is the question

so i've started to get pretty keen on buying vinyl, but sometimes when i speak to those more "in the know" they'll tell me that not everything is worth buying on vinyl and in fact i'm better off buying the album on CD instead. what are your thoughts on this?

Vinyl is more expensive, less convenient, pricier and stupid. Avoid at all costs.

Not my thoughts, but when it comes to topics like this, I'd turn to the people who study this stuff:

 

http://www.sciencefriday.com/segment/02/10/2012/why-vinyl-sounds-better-than-cd-or-not.html

 

The short version: CD most closely resembles the information that is put into the medium, but vinyl has a "warmth" (i.e., a kind of distortion) that some people like.

Buy what you want.

I buy some albums on vinyl and others on CD.

 

I usually consider a few factors:-

 

- How much more is the vinyl in comparison to the CD? (If it's double, then I usually go with the CD. If it's a smaller increase then I often go with the vinyl)

- Is the price increase justified (i.e. does the vinyl come nicely presented with nice art work? Does it include the CD or download code?)

- Is it an album I've been anticipating for a whlie or an on the spot purchase? If the former, I often buy regardless of cost difference.

- Is the sound suited to vinyl or CD? If the sound of the production is quite clean and polished, I think it will benefit from being heard on CD. If the production is more analgoue or crunchy, then I think it benefits from being heard on vinyl.

 

Also, of course - how much money have I got at the time? Can I afford to throw £20 at the triple LP or does it make more sense to just buy the CD, which is probably £8 at Amazon?

Edited September 17, 2013 by KGW

My brother swears by vinyl. I reckon if you've got a decent turntable or two for scratching and mixing that's the way to go. But it's obviously impractical for mobile listening.

buy whatever the hell you feel like buying

good advice guys, thanks.

  On 9/17/2013 at 3:01 PM, 2WV said:

buy whatever the hell you feel like buying

Aye absolutely - I mainly buy CDs or digital downloads, but sometimes if the genre suits it (dark ambient etc.) I love to go for vinyl instead. Especially if it has ace artwork, I mean my Leyland Kirby trilogy is just fit for framing -

 

  On 9/17/2013 at 2:58 PM, KGW said:

I buy some albums on vinyl and others on CD.

 

I usually consider a few factors:-

 

- How much more is the vinyl in comparison to the CD? (If it's double, then I usually go with the CD. If it's a smaller increase then I often go with the vinyl)

- Is the price increase justified (i.e. does the vinyl come nicely presented with nice art work? Does it include the CD or download code?)

- Is it an album I've been anticipating for a whlie or an on the spot purchase? If the former, I often buy regardless of cost difference.

- Is the sound suited to vinyl or CD? If the sound of the production is quite clean and polished, I think it will benefit from being heard on CD. If the production is more analgoue or crunchy, then I think it benefits from being heard on vinyl.

 

Also, of course - how much money have I got at the time? Can I afford to throw £20 at the triple LP or does it make more sense to just buy the CD, which is probably £8 at Amazon?

 

^Good considerations.

 

As mcbpete mentioned, artwork is a big factor for me as well, vinyl is inherently more substantive by it's sheer size and when you have elaborate sleeves or colored discs, you're essentially paying for artwork with music pressed on it!

 

I'm a big cassette nut: with few exceptions they almost always come with .flac or 320kps downloads on bandcamp. I've only had one cassette purchase that was a bit disappointing in terms of packaging. Prices range from $5-10 (tops) and shipping is usually $3 or so. They usually sound surprisingly good. Often they are hand-signed and have runs of say, 50 or 100.

 

I don't buy vinyl unless it's a really important album to me. I don't have much to spend on music, so when I do it's nice to pay a little extra for a physical item than to merely buy the digital copy.

i'm seeing some cassettes now that are crazy expensive. case in point http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Cassette-Store-Day-2013-Los-Campesinos-A-Good-Night-For-A-Fist-Fight-Live-100-/171124142877?pt=UK_Music_Cassettes_GL&hash=item27d7cb331d

 

wow look what i found http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Aphex-Twin-I-Care-Because-You-Do-TH-Cassette-/251187885875?pt=Music_Cassettes&hash=item3a7bf6f733

Edited September 17, 2013 by MadameChaos

Was informed by a friend recently that longer albums on vinyl run the risk of losing sound quality - anything over 12-15 minutes (iirc) per side and it starts getting lossy because the grooves are spaced closer together. If you're a major audiophile that would be a consideration maybe

If it's gonna benefit the artists you like then do it. Both CDs and vinyl have advantages obviously - CDs have exact sound/more portable especially if you're moving house, Vinyl has tactile quality/ritual/artwork, and like someone else said, some things are better on one medium, some another

 

Just don't get too caught up in being a collector if your money could be spent on some kind of fun creative endeavour or saved to give you more freedom in the future

 

Better to have a few records you really love than hundreds that become a burden

Hmm that's a really good point.

I hate the large format of vinyl 12" albums and isn't really interested in collecting physical records anymore, I love music as files! But I also love the sound of vinyl, not the crackle and pops but the more airy and not so brickwalled overly compressed sound as CDs and downloads got. For really important stuff (like ae, villalobos and a few others) I buy vinyl to get rid of the crappy "loudness wars"-CD masters. I just play any 12" I got once and that's when I rec the track to my computer with an apogee audio interface. 24/96 aif to Apple lossless for archiving and home listening and 256 Kbps AAC for mobile listening.

don't do either, go digital.

ergh!!!! i hate digital

With vinyl you usually get a more reasonable dynamic range in recent releases if you're interested in that, because you can't master vinyl as hot as CD. In releases from the mid-90's the CD has a decent dynamic range already, so if the vinyl is not cheap then an old pressing of the CD should be good enough. Before that with vinyl you get a recording which comes from the original master and has not been tampered with, which is usually a good thing but could be irrelevant sometimes (and even a bad thing in a few cases.)

buy the vinyl record, record it and make the compact disc, cassette and digital files. vinyl provides you with the ability to have everything in one go

  On 9/17/2013 at 4:00 PM, MadameChaos said:

i'm seeing some cassettes now that are crazy expensive. case in point http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Cassette-Store-Day-2013-Los-Campesinos-A-Good-Night-For-A-Fist-Fight-Live-100-/171124142877?pt=UK_Music_Cassettes_GL&hash=item27d7cb331d

 

wow look what i found http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Aphex-Twin-I-Care-Because-You-Do-TH-Cassette-/251187885875?pt=Music_Cassettes&hash=item3a7bf6f733

 

Well yeah that's supply and demand and price gouging and novelty. That could go with anything.

 

Example:

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/VERY-RARE-Newt-Gingrich-Bedtime-Stories-for-Orphans-Cassette-Tape-MINT-11010-/300930913719?pt=Music_Cassettes&hash=item4610e155b7

 

or this:

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Only-Built-4-Cuban-Linx-Pa-By-Raekwon-The-Chef-Cassette-The-Purple-Tape-/321206816533?pt=Music_Cassettes&hash=item4ac96b0f15

 

  Quote

^This shit is in mint condition! Also its one of the 1st prints because it has the Shallah Raekwon Autopgraph on the tape itself!

  On 9/17/2013 at 5:53 PM, Redruth said:

buy the vinyl record, record it and make the compact disc, cassette and digital files. vinyl provides you with the ability to have everything in one go

 

ah yeah i can make mp3s with my turntable. not quite figured out how though...

  On 9/17/2013 at 6:31 PM, MadameChaos said:

 

  On 9/17/2013 at 5:53 PM, Redruth said:

buy the vinyl record, record it and make the compact disc, cassette and digital files. vinyl provides you with the ability to have everything in one go

 

ah yeah i can make mp3s with my turntable. not quite figured out how though...

 

 

If you buy vinyl from blrep you often get the digital files free. Personally I don't know why anyone would choose to buy a compact disc now that digital is so readily available. If you buy the vinyl, just DL the digital files from Bloop for your iphone etc, and if you want burn a cdr for your cd player (if you have one). In the end you get all formats for the price of the vinyl.

 

But I'm biased, I love t he way vinyl sounds and looks. Buying a vinyl record and taking it out of the sleeve and placing the turntable, watching it spin, adjusting pitch etc. etc. is just a completely different experience to downloading or popping a compact disc in a player. Owning vinyl is special. IMO

  On 9/17/2013 at 6:43 PM, Papillon said:

  On 9/17/2013 at 6:31 PM, MadameChaos said:

 

  On 9/17/2013 at 5:53 PM, Redruth said:

buy the vinyl record, record it and make the compact disc, cassette and digital files. vinyl provides you with the ability to have everything in one go 

 

ah yeah i can make mp3s with my turntable. not quite figured out how though...

 

 

If you buy vinyl from blrep you often get the digital files free. Personally I don't know why anyone would choose to buy a compact disc now that digital is so readily available. If you buy the vinyl, just DL the digital files from Bloop for your iphone etc, and if you want burn a cdr for your cd player (if you have one). In the end you get all formats for the price of the vinyl.

 

But I'm biased, I love t he way vinyl sounds and looks. Buying a vinyl record and taking it out of the sleeve and placing the turntable, watching it spin, adjusting pitch etc. etc. is just a completely different experience to downloading or popping a compact disc in a player. Owning vinyl is special. IMO

Shit I didn't know you could do that. I paid for vinyl and digital for tomorrow's harvest. :(

 

QFT. (Quite Fucking True)

 

  On 9/17/2013 at 6:31 PM, MadameChaos said:

 

  On 9/17/2013 at 5:53 PM, Redruth said:

buy the vinyl record, record it and make the compact disc, cassette and digital files. vinyl provides you with the ability to have everything in one go

 

ah yeah i can make mp3s with my turntable. not quite figured out how though...

 

 

I use one of these:

 

 

(Mainly for oddities like 7" singles/eps and 10" that aren't available in any other format)

  On 9/17/2013 at 7:36 PM, hello spiral said:

 

  On 9/17/2013 at 6:31 PM, MadameChaos said:

 

ah yeah i can make mp3s with my turntable. not quite figured out how though...

 

 

I use one of these:

 

 

(Mainly for oddities like 7" singles/eps and 10" that aren't available in any other format)

 

 

If you have a receiver with phono input for your turntable, you can just record the output into your computer and covert it as you wish from there. Or record it onto tape to a deck connected to the same receiver. You just need a few RCA cables. You can find one on CL or ebay easily.

 

new...

 

...or vintage:

 

Edited September 17, 2013 by joshuatx