Vinyl records make a return

these... imaginary people. these... irl socks.

As Skot and others have noted, an article on the subject actually WORTH it.

http://thewire.co.uk/in-writing/essays/collateral-damage_numero-group-on-the-vinyl-bubble

Good piece, and timely; I've been having a twitter chat with a handful of vinyl-head friends of mine about the increasing occurrence of bad pressings this year; anecdotally it seems as if quality control has gone down - "Savages, Vampire Weekend, Suede, Lubomyr Melnyk have all required three copies this year. Several needed two" - was one comment.

Vinyl's been marketed in such a way that people assume it's a premium product from the off, but, whilst demand has increased, I doubt the infrastructure is any better than it was 3-5 years ago, so it seems as if corners may be being cut in manufacture. I also understand that the gimmicky packaging foibles outlined in that Wire piece - coloured vinyl, decorated vinyl, weird speeds, etc - are usually more tricky to manufacture and no good for sound quality, which is part of the promise vinyl is being sold on.

yup, I stopped buying new vinyl a couple years ago after figuring out that pretty much every LP I bought sounded like crap. Why pay extra for a product with sibilance on every S?

hmm I almost just ordered the Vampire Weekend vinyl yesterday... altho tbf I buy mostly old vinyl. or reissues. new stuff I tend to purchase digitally.

Half of the ridiculous format gimmicks cited were at the hand of Jack White alone. The point stands but it's not like liquid filled records are as common as clear vinyl for instance.

Otherwise the article is a bit too true.

It's hard to not get caught up in the guilt associated with not owning the limited pressing of a new or reissued record. So many releases come in at least 2-3 versions and the practice is so interwoven that it kind of trains buyers, and many times I fall victim admittedly, to desire to own a copy over the desire to actually play it.

― Evan, Tuesday, June 11, 2013 11:56 AM (15 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Trying to fight that mindset- it's particularly tough because as a kid I LOVED to collect cards... so that compulsion just kind of carried over and applied itself to my music collecting.

― Evan, Tuesday, June 11, 2013 11:58 AM (13 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

xpost from other thread...

yup, I stopped buying new vinyl a couple years ago after figuring out that pretty much every LP I bought sounded like crap. Why pay extra for a product with sibilance on every S?

― skip, Tuesday, June 11, 2013 11:24 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Last two records I bought new on vinyl were Dylan's Tempest and Iris DeMent's Sing the Delta. Tempest had sibilant S's on some songs. Delta had inner-groove distortion. Both were on heavy-ass vinyl, but I never had those problems with older (or thinner) records.

i think the pressing plants are just at maximum overload. reading how the big plant down south is running 24 hours a day 7 days a week there are gonna be fuck ups. until people actually start opening new ones. and how likely is that? plus, the equipment is old. and the people who really knew how to make records are old too or retired or dead.

so much vinyl being churned out in eastern europe on soviet-era machines.

Yeah, the 180g thing is snake oil.

one good thing about new 180g is that its less likely to be warped. i see a LOT of newer regular weight vinyl that is warped. again, i think that's because of plants rushing to fill orders.

like if you are gonna pick up any of the Scorpio cheapo sun ra reissues, always go with the 180g. the regular versions are almost guaranteed to be warped.

was speaking with some people who run labels recently and they say the issues with the pressing machines are that demand is so high that one of the european pressing plants actually retrieved a machine they'd gifted to a museum so they could keep up with their output, but the profit margins aren't high enough to produce any further pressing machines - that the tools to build these pressing machines themselves no longer exist.

^^I read somewhere that part of how the plant in Texas is still going is the owner purchased gear from plants as they closed, and they use that stuff for parts on their machines.

That article is mostly OTM, but this bit seems far-fetched to me:

The vinyl marketplace is probably permanently contracted, but rather than over-serving the superfan, it should pivot toward super-serving the casual fan. Anyone should be able to walk into any record store in the world and buy a standard vinyl copy of Nevermind for a reasonable price, rather than confronting the 180 gram pressing or the deluxe quadruple LP that fishes for their cash from a lofty wall display.

Vinyl players cost extra money, vinyls are a hassle to use compared to digital formats, plus they require more storage room... I'd say the vinyl market hasn't had chance of attracting casual fans ever since CDs became popular. Why would someone who's not a music geek buy vinyl, when he can get the same music in in a more convenient and easy-to-use format? The supposed idea that "vinyl sounds better" is not something casual fans notice or care about either.

The Daft Punk album, after all the audiophile hype, doesn't sound that much better on LP than on CD.

Thinking that vinyl objectively “sounds better” is wrong anyway, different? yes, and I love it for that, but lossless digital formats will usually technically be better - probably 90% of the albums you buy have been digital at some point before the pressing stage.

(To pick a figure out of thin air)

Jonesy has dropped science on other threads (one about minidisc for instance) in the past about how digital objectively sounds better than vinyl. Some people just prefer vinyl sound.

i guess vinyl could sound better, but i'm betting the entry-level price for a record player that would make vinyl sound better would be much higher than a similarly serviceable CD player or ipod dock etc. personally, i'm no audiophile, i just love the ritual of putting it on and the big sleeve and the smell and all that.

you can get a nice older turntable for 200+ that will make records sound very nice.

here's one:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dual-506-Vintage-Turntable-with-Ortofon-TKS-55E-Cartridge-/330939973368?pt=Vintage_Electronics_R2&hash=item4d0d8f3ef8

nice too:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/PHILIPS-ELECTRONIC-212-TURNTABLE-Belt-Drive-/221240112432?pt=Vintage_Electronics_R2&hash=item3382f03530

oh there are loads of nice turntables for sale that won't kill your wallet. most people are lazy though. and don't want to be bothered. there's no actual law that says you have to care about good or great sound reproduction though. or care about analog sound. but for people who are into it its not a big deal. i've been listening to records for 44 years and its never been a big deal or a hassle. its one of the easier hobbies to have. there are records everywhere. and the more you learn and know the more fun it can be.

the profit margins aren't high enough to produce any further pressing machines - the tools to build these pressing machines themselves no longer exist.

― data halls and oate (stevie), Friday, June 14, 2013 3:15 AM (12 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

They're called "machinists". Look into them, record companies.

Duals are the shit. My dad replaced his speakers and amplifier a few years ago, but kept his Dual turntable which is approaching 40 years old and still sounding amazing. Never had to have it repaired, either.

There's also this guy in Iowa: http://fixmydual.com

most people are lazy though. and don't want to be bothered.

I'll cop to this. But for me it's less about getting up and flipping the record over, or cleaning the record, or cleaning the needle; and more about worrying about shit like weight and tracking force and whatever the fuck is causing the inner-groove distortion on my Iris DeMent record.

xp - My first turntable was a Dual 1229. That illuminated strobe dial thing looked mad cool.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7157/6768086793_04a03b5011_z.jpg

probably just a crappy new pressing! i listened to my iris dement tape for years. never had a problem. must have played My Life 500 times.

x-post

for me it's less about getting up and flipping the record over, or cleaning the record, or cleaning the needle; and more about worrying about shit like weight and tracking force and whatever the fuck is causing the inner-groove distortion on my Iris DeMent record.

― Tarfumes The Escape Goat, Friday, June 14, 2013 3:42 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

get an '80s Technics with a P-mount cartridge and you won't have to deal with either.

Thanks for the suggestion; I may look into that.

And I think you're right, Scott, as I don't have that problem on any other record. Fortunately, it came with a download card, but I didn't buy the vinyl to listen to a download.

P-mounts really easy to install too - no need to adjust alignment or anything. Apparently some other manufacturers besides Technics adopted them too. The SL-1200 doesn't use it, but their cheaper mainstream turntables did.

http://www.vinylengine.com/images/forum/p-mount.gif

i love records. have i ever mentioned that on here?

don't think you have. Ever thought about owning your own record store? would be v cool

Tuomas is 100% otm though, for the casual music fan vinyl is more trouble than it's worth.

I think I said this before once, but since I loooove my stereo, one of my great pleasures now is helping friends pick up nice gear. AR and Pioneer tables, Klipsch speakers, Pioneer and Marantz receivers, etc.
love this guy: https://www.facebook.com/BrooklynVintageAudio?fref=ts

Fortunately, it came with a download card, but I didn't buy the vinyl to listen to a download.

― Tarfumes The Escape Goat, Friday, June 14, 2013 3:53 PM (24 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Many people do essentially, so they feel like their money went towards something tangible and hip.

i'm being so enlightened about consumption rn

I wonder how many people download illegally or listen on spotify and then buy the vinyl and never redeem the download code or listen to the record?

my technics sl-q300 is p-mount

Fortunately, it came with a download card, but I didn't buy the vinyl to listen to a download.

― Tarfumes The Escape Goat, Friday, June 14, 2013 3:53 PM (24 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Many people do essentially, so they feel like their money went towards something tangible and hip.

― Evan, Friday, June 14, 2013 3:20 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

my SO's former roommate had a few cartons on vinyl records that she never listened to. she had one of those incredibly shitty USB record players and I'm not sure she even opened the box when she moved in. she just downloaded everything on iTunes and bought the vinyl for... i dunno actually. i guess it supports the artists so good on her.

cartons OF vinyl records

should say crates instead of cartons though

It's no fun to buy downloads especially when most people have the wrong mindset that everything downloadable should be free. The fact that there is no sense of ownership when it comes to files. And similarly many people consider buying CDs a thing only their parents would do. So what's left to not feel guilty about doing? Buying hip vinyl to mine free downloads.

Q: Vinyl sales are steadily increasing in the past few years. Why in your opinion people are going back to vinyl?

A: Well, my vinyl sales aren’t increasing, they’re decreasing – and markedly. People who buy vinyl because they just bought some crappy portable turntable in Urban Outfitters and want to have some 180 gram deluxe reissue of the Velvet Underground and Nico’s album sitting on their coffee table because it looks cool might be temporarily driving some portion of the market up, but I can safely say, from vantage point, that it’s harder and harder to sell the same amount of records, year after year. And most of my peers are in the same boat.

Eothen ‘Egon’ Alapatt interview.
http://www.dustandgrooves.com/eothen-egon-alapatt-los-angeles-ca/

People who buy vinyl because they just bought some crappy portable turntable in Urban Outfitters and want to have some 180 gram deluxe reissue of the Velvet Underground and Nico’s album sitting on their coffee table because it looks cool

amazing to think lester bangs made this exact same grumble about posers about 40 years ago

well minus the UO and reissue bits

People who buy vinyl because they just bought some crappy portable turntable in Urban Outfitters and want to have some 180 gram deluxe reissue of the Velvet Underground and Nico’s album

Kids don't know how good they have it. My first VU was this, which was the only thing I could find by them on CD at Best Buy in the mid-90s:

http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/_/28630743/The+Best+of+The+Velvet+Underground+Words+and+Music+Folder.jpg

I don't know ... I think it would be kind of awesome to own only one record and have it be a 180 gram edition of Velvet Underground and Nico and only listen to it on a shitty portable with built-in speakers.

damn, that guy has some awesome records. I guess he probably paid serious money for all of that though. funny because I sort of snobbily don't consider that serious cratedigging, but whatever.

i don't really think there's a way in which Egon can't be considered a serious crate-digger. read the notes to stones throw's sixteen corners compilation, for starters.

yeah, I didn't read the whole thing. at first it sounded like dealers just bring him records they know he'll like but now I see I misread.