Vinyl making a comeback?

[JerryMungo]

http://www.popularmechanics.co.za/blogs/in-a-spin-with-vinyl/

By deciding to stock vinyls again, Musica is sending a positive signal to those of us – go on, call us diehards, simple-minded, Luddites, we can take it – who believe that the record industry euthanased the LP before its time. It’s also helping spread the gospel of black discs to a whole new generation. That’s all good.
At the same time, I’m thoroughly browned off. Because of the decision by the country’s biggest music chain to re-introduce vinyls to its roster three weeks ago*, only at selected outlets, I foresee hordes of eager new vinylophiles scouring the second-hand bins to feed their habit.
- See more at: http://www.popularmechanics.co.za/blogs/in-a-spin-with-vinyl/#sthash.Y5GACERC.dpuf

If I didn't have a family to feed, I might get myself a good old school hifi and get my vinyl collection out of storage. Back when the hifi was the centerpiece in the lounge... good days.

 

[sand_man]

Musica are doing it to starve off bankruptcy. Looks like a last ditch effort to remain solvent to me.

 

[noxibox]

I don't miss vinyl at all. I do wish they'd made a full switch to 24 bit digital audio and killed off the CD, but I'll take CD over the irritation and bad sound quality of vinyl any day. My only other gripe is the lack of options to buy music in a format like FLAC or ALAC.

If I didn't have a family to feed, I might get myself a good old school hifi and get my vinyl collection out of storage. Back when the hifi was the centerpiece in the lounge... good days.

Mine still is. Family doesn't change the need for good sound. Reasonable equipment and decent placement are non-negotiable. But I have no interest in wasting good money on a turntable.

 

[waynegohl]

last year sometime I started selling my vinyl records and had a collection of maybe over 1000 odd records. A DJ from the Eastern cape contacted me through gumtree and I was shipping him like 20kg of records every two weeks or so and we have never spoken in person only via email and we are now friends on facebook. He wanted to own a 1000 or so records and I helped him on his way to achieving that goal.

I have just sold my hi fi system with turntable today.

 

[deweyzeph]

Musi...who? Didn't even know they were still around. Can't remember the last time I set foot in any music store.

 

[satanboy]

I used to buy a lot of vinyl in the 80's and the quality between a German/UK pressing versus a SA one was VAST. Lets see which direction Musica chooses.

 

[GreGorGy]

I don't miss vinyl at all. I do wish they'd made a full switch to 24 bit digital audio and killed off the CD, but I'll take CD over the irritation and bad sound quality of vinyl any day. My only other gripe is the lack of options to buy music in a format like FLAC or ALAC.

The only FLAC I ever got was from that Metallica live site - of the Cape Town concert. Where else would one look?

 

[JerryMungo]

I don't miss vinyl at all. I do wish they'd made a full switch to 24 bit digital audio and killed off the CD, but I'll take CD over the irritation and bad sound quality of vinyl any day. My only other gripe is the lack of options to buy music in a format like FLAC or ALAC.


Mine still is. Family doesn't change the need for good sound. Reasonable equipment and decent placement are non-negotiable. But I have no interest in wasting good money on a turntable.

We like our tech for different reasons. I like vinyl mostly for nostalgia - back when music wasn't so easy to copy and you appreciated your collection instead of having everything on tap while actually listening to 10% of it. Vinyl is about collecting. As for the scratches, you definitely need a good turntable and needle.

 

[nivek]

hmmm, selected outlets - which ones?

 

[sh4rpz]

I don't miss vinyl at all. I do wish they'd made a full switch to 24 bit digital audio and killed off the CD, but I'll take CD over the irritation and bad sound quality of vinyl any day. My only other gripe is the lack of options to buy music in a format like FLAC or ALAC.


Mine still is. Family doesn't change the need for good sound. Reasonable equipment and decent placement are non-negotiable. But I have no interest in wasting good money on a turntable.

wow. tone-deaf opinion if ever there was one.

 

[sh4rpz]

mega stores at the moment. Still prefer buying from WOWHD / Popmarket (free shipping to SA and cheap) or uVinyl - good quality too!

 

[murraybiscuit]

Musica are doing it to starve off bankruptcy. Looks like a last ditch effort to remain solvent to me.

The writing was on the wall for ages. The question is, what would you have done as the musica owner? I think cd warehouse sold out at the right time just short of a decade ago without losing equity. Now you're musica, past the point of profitability and sale. Do you just cut your losses and close up shop? Do you change your business model to sell audio/video hardware/who knows what else? Or do you milk a long tail of diminishing returns?

 

[genetic]

I don't miss vinyl at all. I do wish they'd made a full switch to 24 bit digital audio and killed off the CD, but I'll take CD over the irritation and bad sound quality of vinyl any day. My only other gripe is the lack of options to buy music in a format like FLAC or ALAC.

Rubbish.

You clearly don't know the difference between 16bit and 24bit recordings. It's got nothing to do with audio quality.

So, 24bit does add more 'resolution' compared to 16bit but this added resolution doesn't mean higher quality, it just means we can encode a larger dynamic range. This is the misunderstanding made by many. There are no extra magical properties, nothing which the science does not understand or cannot measure. The only difference between 16bit and 24bit is 48dB of dynamic range (8bits x 6dB = 48dB) and nothing else. This is not a question for interpretation or opinion, it is the provable, undisputed logical mathematics which underpins the very existence of digital audio.

So, can you actually hear any benefits of the larger (48dB) dynamic range offered by 24bit? Unfortunately, no you can't. The entire dynamic range of some types of music is sometimes less than 12dB. The recordings with the largest dynamic range tend to be symphony orchestra recordings but even these virtually never have a dynamic range greater than about 60dB. All of these are well inside the 96dB range of the humble CD.

http://www.head-fi.org/t/415361/24bit-vs-16bit-the-myth-exploded/795

 

[midnightcaller]

Vinyl takes so much space to store.
And how Eco friendly are they?

 

[JerryMungo]

last year sometime I started selling my vinyl records and had a collection of maybe over 1000 odd records. A DJ from the Eastern cape contacted me through gumtree and I was shipping him like 20kg of records every two weeks or so and we have never spoken in person only via email and we are now friends on facebook. He wanted to own a 1000 or so records and I helped him on his way to achieving that goal.

I have just sold my hi fi system with turntable today.

DJ from the EC? From East London perhaps? Name start with M?

 

[JerryMungo]

mega stores at the moment. Still prefer buying from WOWHD / Popmarket (free shipping to SA and cheap) or uVinyl - good quality too!

Thanks for the WOWHD / Popmarket tip!

 

[JerryMungo]

Rubbish.

You clearly don't know the difference between 16bit and 24bit recordings. It's got nothing to do with audio quality.



http://www.head-fi.org/t/415361/24bit-vs-16bit-the-myth-exploded/795

Another point - it's the same with the TV crowd - fitting more pixels into a 42" screen - does it matter? Up to a point, yes, beyond that, who can actually see the difference, or why do we even care? Again, it's motivation for what we do that differs.

 

[waynegohl]

DJ from the EC? From East London perhaps? Name start with M?

Dj-Qone

 

[bassplayer]

I don't miss vinyl at all. I do wish they'd made a full switch to 24 bit digital audio and killed off the CD, but I'll take CD over the irritation and bad sound quality of vinyl any day. My only other gripe is the lack of options to buy music in a format like FLAC or ALAC.


Mine still is. Family doesn't change the need for good sound. Reasonable equipment and decent placement are non-negotiable. But I have no interest in wasting good money on a turntable.

I love vinyl for a few reasons. Nostalgia.I grew up listening to my dads records. A vinyl has a distinct sound, touch and smell to it. That vinyl collection was my inspiration to to take up music.

I disagree with you that cd is better than vinyl. You are comparing two very different types of recordings.Alot of artists and music fans prefer analog to digital recordings. A didital recording captures a soundwave differently, and never captures a full sound wave. Im not going to get technical but both are very different. In countries like USA, vinyl is still very popular. Almost every band sells vinyl for their fans.You can even buy a slipknot album on vinyl.

I have a massive old gramaphone, that works with valves. It has a beautiful tone to it. I love cd's as well, but vinyl still has a place in the music industry.

 

[bassplayer]

The writing was on the wall for ages. The question is, what would you have done as the musica owner? I think cd warehouse sold out at the right time just short of a decade ago without losing equity. Now you're musica, past the point of profitability and sale. Do you just cut your losses and close up shop? Do you change your business model to sell audio/video hardware/who knows what else? Or do you milk a long tail of diminishing returns?

I think the whole music industry should change their business model. For far too long the record companies, distribution companies and stores like musica have exploited the artists and consumers, due to greed. As an example, a local artists cd on sale for R120 at musica. The artist only receives between R5-R10 per cd sold.Sad but true.