Posted on 09/07/2019 9:08:03 AM PDT by fidelis
Sales of vinyl records have enjoyed constant growth in recent years. At the same time, CD sales are in a nosedive. Last year, the Recording Industry Association of America’s (RIAA) mid-year report suggested that CD sales were declining three times as fast as vinyl sales were growing. In February, the RIAA reported that vinyl sales accounted for more than a third of the revenue coming from physical releases.
This trend continues in RIAA’s 2019 mid-year report, which came out on Thursday. Vinyl records earned $224.1 million (on 8.6 million units) in the first half of 2019, closing in on the $247.9 million (on 18.6 million units) generated by CD sales. Vinyl revenue grew by 12.8% in the second half of 2018 and 12.9% in the first six months of 2019, while the revenue from CDs barely budged. If these trends hold, records will soon be generating more money than compact discs.
(Excerpt) Read more at rollingstone.com ...
Sort of the same feeling as changing spark plugs, adjusting distributer gaps and brake pads only dont do these while stoned.
“Good news: incredible sound - as close to the master tape as one can get”
Digital can get closer. Particularly when you consider the info from the master tape is modified before the cutting.
Yeah - I have a USB in my car that I load up with about 4K songs a rotation so i can listen to what I want when driving....try doing that with a spindle and some vinyl...
But there is also value in things you cannot chart and graph.
Sure, there is "ease of use" and sheer volume storage capacity among other positive attributes of digital sound.
But they are no more real than the things I high-lighted in Post #120.
Some times it's OK not to speed through life at 200 mph.
I've been working on and with combat aircraft for 40+ years - a quiet, rainy afternoon with old record albums and a turntable can be relaxing in a way digital media just cannot meet. Can I prove that with metrics? No, but I can feel it in my bones.
I’ve actually heard original master tapes - both Doobie Bros and Frank Sinatra - with the re-mastering engineer.
I have the Doobies acetate as well as a CDR burned direct from those master tapes. Alas, “only” CDRs burned from the original master tapes of Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Peggy Lee, Simon&Garfunkel, Eva Cassidy, Doors...and so many more.
Conclusion: nothing is really close to those original master tapes...but using a high-end turntable/arm/cartridge/phono stage - the acetate cut with a $35k 300B amplifier easily comes the closest albeit with a very limited life. The acetate is light years better than the commercial vinyl release, too.
That said, my CDR copies from the original master tapes can sound extraordinary - especially the versions I have burned BEFORE the reverb was added for the commercial release. In fact, some of my CDRs are not only “dry” but have studio chatter that was not on the final commercial release.
An aside - mastering can make all the difference...especially if the mastering engineer can avoid the dreaded compression and noise reduction; however, often the label makes that decision for the mastering engineer.
2nd aside: I have the original Beatles albums - UK first pressings - considered to be THE best sonic version. I also have the relatively new ReMix/ReMaster 24-bit versions of SP and White albums. The latter are superior in terms of transparency, detail, dynamics & tonal accuracy. Finally, McCartney’s bass can be heard.
I sometimes would like to have a turntable and some vintage vinyl because it is as you say as far as giving the warm nostalgic feelings....but I also love the portability of digital tunes and the ability to pick and choose.
Plus, I subscribe to a newsgroup provider for $2.95 a month and there’s literally millions of tunes to be had for free - especially some “arcane” older music....
Indeed!
One of my favourite Heinleins.
“Conclusion: nothing is really close to those original master tapes...but using a high-end turntable/arm/cartridge/phono stage - the acetate cut with a $35k 300B amplifier easily comes the closest albeit with a very limited life. “
First, the file is modified by the RIAA standard before cutting the disk. The LP will not even handle the original.
The die cannot accurately follow the intended path. It is mechanical. Sometimes the back edge will even over-write the front edge cutting.
The turntable and needle are mechanical. Wow and flutter from the platter and distortion in the needle movement.
Dynamica are limited so the needle will stay in the groove. There is no true separation between L/R channels.
Then you have to apply filtering to ‘back-out’ the RIAA pre-cut filtering. These filters are not perfect and the original info is not truly restored.
If have some digitally recorded tracks high resolution FLAC files and they knock my socks off!
There is no way LP tech can even approach the dynamics and separation of those.
If you want reality, go digital. If you want distortion, go LP.
Clearly you have NOT heard master tapes, 300B driven acetates and premastering CDR burned from the raw master 2-channel mix tape.
The acetates and raw CDRs I have are private gifts from a mastering engineer...in addition to receiving album credits for my technical support.
“Clearly you have NOT heard master tapes, 300B driven acetates and premastering CDR burned from the raw master 2-channel mix tape.”
I was only addressing the LP!
“Clearly you have NOT heard master tapes, 300B driven acetates and premastering CDR burned from the raw master 2-channel mix tape.”
Actually I did address one point on tapes. Tapes are analog and have their own built in distortions.
It has been said that one reason studios like the tapes is that they distortion cleaned up a lot of the ‘noise from the mics and amps because they weren’t able to accurately reproduce those signals.
Now studios have better mics and amps and are learning how to master the more accurate digital signals.
There is no question that digital is more accurate.
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