Vinyl all the way for me. The issue with digital is the 44.1kHz sampling rate, meaning you get just two points on a curve to describe a high pitch sound, like a Symbol. Higher res digital sounds so much better. Also with vinyl you get a proper look at the artwork, lost that on CD. Putting a record on has an element of ritual about it too.
Interesting. I guess that as you say, the equipment you listen to it through plays a big part. I initially embraced digital, and quickly gave up vinyl as I didn't think I could hear a difference, well, apart from the lack of hum and scratches anyway! Now I have gone full circle, and am really starting to hate the cleanliness, and lack of proper bass, of digital, to the point where it really does my head in.. To be fair, due to a lack of space, I haven't had a turntable for years, so maybe I'm remembering vinyl through rose tinted ear holes, but I'm sure it used to sound way better in the olden days.. I was kinda hoping you would say that the difference is night and day, so I could use that as an excuse to somehow cram some new separates into the flat
Excellent answer! Although leads to another question... is decent vinyl readily available these days? Or is it best to buy scratched to death original albums?
Excellent question. I’m not really up on this new fangled 180g vinyl, I only own one example (Booker T & the MGs ‘In the Christmas Spirit’ ) so I’ll be interested in other answers. Mostly I stick to searching out decent original copies: I enjoy the fun of rooting through boxes of records when I get the opportunity; and if it’s something I really want, hunting down different label variations for 1st pressings etc, gatefold sleeves, embossed covers, lyric inner sleeves, really geeky kind of stuff I’ve not quite gone as far as downloading an album yet, I still like the whole physical ownership thing, but I’m sure it will happen! I can’t get my head around Spotify. I am a pleb!
Specialist shops like Diverse Vinyl and The Vinyl Adventure are very good, the later deals with very limited very high quality remasters, these are great for a favourite album etc but quite spendy, Diverse do a wider range of repressings and new releases at realistic prices. I run into both if these folks at the shows I help out at. Although I hate to admit it, in many cases, you can't go wrong with Amazon.
High quality vinyl is different, you can hear the difference..... lows are deeper and highs are brighter. I use a Cambridge Audio Alva TT turntable for day to day listening and a VPI Prime for the "special" vinyl, neither are particularly cheap but are worth the money. Everything runs through custom built Cybernet valve amps.
I stick my cd's in the DVD player and listen to them through my tv. Sounds fine to me......what's that?....pardon??
I worked for the inventor of the mp3 and he also came up with the idea of the jog wheel that was used on the first iPods. His idea was for the technology to be used in recording studios, as a means of storing recordings easily with no loss, unlike tape reels, that could be accessed easily and quickly. I think he may have even imagined a central server to store it, much like iTunes. When his patents ran out, he couldn’t raise enough to renew them, so Apple stole his ideas for free and he made nothing and the rest for Apple is history. Some years later Apple were being sued in America by a company who claimed they had invented the mp3, Apple actually got the guy I met to go to America on their behalf to appear 8n court to say it was his idea they’d nicked rather than the other companies. You’d think he’d have been looked after by Apple for doing that but when I met him he was living in a modest rented house in Hitchin. I have to say he was a very nice guy and I couldn’t help but feel sorry for him, but he didn’t seem bothered. his name was something like Kane Cramer. At the time I thought his story might be a bit of a porky, but I looked it up online and found several references to him being the inventor of the mp3.
