Does anyone still play records?

Wolfe Tone

I recently had the pleasure of listening to Deep Purples "Deep Purple in Rock" and "Machine Head" on a friends record player. It sounded phenomenal, I'm not saying it was better than the CD versions I have, but it somehow sounded more authentic and natural, I preferred it.

So does anyone here still use vinyl records, or think they sound better than their CD counterparts? Do the aul boardsies still have their records and give them a spin every now and again?

7sr2z3fely84g5

Yeah i do,own a few,if had won the lotto i buy this-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0_uEQp2Vg8

BluesBerry

I have a box of really old records in the attic but sadly nothing to play them on Can you even buy record players now?

4zn76tysfajdxp

I've considered getting a record player and some LP versions of my favourite albums but it's too hipsterish for me to pull off. And I know a particularly pretentious guy who owns a few records but no record player which just turned me off the idea.

Misticles

I know a girl who got a record player for her birthday a few weeks ago. She raided the house for her parents records and some bought her records.
She had elbow on vinyl

Dravokivich

my dad still does. dont have a record player myself yet...

1 of the lads who posts on tGC collects'em as well.

admiralofthefleet

i have a few wolftones 33's

7sr2z3fely84g5

BluesBerry wrote: »

I have a box of really old records in the attic but sadly nothing to play them on Can you even buy record players now?

Ebay/adverts,you can get usb connectable players,great if decide to archive.

Absurdum

Wolfe Tone wrote: »

I recently had the pleasure of listening to Deep Purples "Deep Purple in Rock" and "Machine Head" on a friends record player. It sounded phenomenal, I'm not saying it was better than the CD versions I have, but it somehow sounded more authentic and natural, I preferred it.

So does anyone here still use vinyl records, or think they sound better than their CD counterparts? Do the aul boardsies still have their records and give them a spin every now and again?

classic rock on vinyl is awesome, I have a bunch of Kiss, AC/DC, Lizzy, etc stuff on vinyl, like you said, it's natural

I also have a lot of black metal on vinyl, that sounds incredible as well

7sr2z3fely84g5

its great buying vinyl from uk,can be got extremely cheap.

Wolfe Tone

They have vinyl in the HMV on Grafton street, at least they did th last time I was there.

Sticky_Fingers

Raina Loose Vaccination wrote: »

Yeah i do,own a few,if had won the lotto i buy this-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0_uEQp2Vg8

That song is freaking amazing :eek:

Absurdum

someone needs to invent a vinyl car stereo NOW dammit

4zn76tysfajdxp

I saw an unused, vinyl album by The Who for sale for €10 in Finland a few months ago. I can't imagine it being sold in Ireland for less than twice that.

7sr2z3fely84g5

Bosco had vinyl release called bosco sings,i never seen or heard it though!.

Lumbo

I've been Djing for the last 15 years but have been collecting Vinyl for the last 25 years. I've thousands of vinyl of all genres. My Mam works in a charity shop so she gets me a big bag of obscure vinyl every month and a good few of my relatives handed over their records when they'd no need for them anymore.

My gf gets a bit pissed off with the amount of room they take up but they are my babies. They're not going anywhere.

stovelid

Have loads of decent records still but my old turntable is bust. Keep meaning to buy a new one but the seductive ease of music files is too tempting. Plus I was never that much of a beard stroker when it came to audio quality.

Naomi00

New rock albums get released on vinyl too but they cost a bit more than the cd.

Yeah I prefer that sound, I'm not a fan of music that's sounds really polished and over-produced if you know what I mean. I like how Foo Fighters recorded their new album on tape, it sounds better like that.

Lumbo

I always love the hiss you can hear when the needle hits the record.

You don't get that with CD's.

Dravokivich

Wolfe Tone wrote: »

They have vinyl in the HMV on Grafton street, at least they did th last time I was there.

hmmm it'll depend on the production of the recording from the studio / mixing / mastering.

the reason why old vynil sounds like there's more to it, is becuase analogue records harmonics that we naturally cant hear. digital sample rates arent able to capture as much of it. this has been shown by getting dogs to react to whistles recorded through an analouge setup that they wouldnt react to when recorded through a digital setup.

even though the sound itself is above the frequency range we can hear, we still perceive it as missing.

so if it was produced digitally, i'd be weary of the worthiness of getting them in hmv. dance producers release them like that as a gimic most of the time, not the "quality"

7sr2z3fely84g5

i think we get ripped off here on vinyl,except in the charity shops i guess.

mike65

Loads of albums but not a player to be seen. Something about a big slab of deep cut black vinyl that's positively sexy.

iamstop

I've been collecting for about 16 years. It helped that I've lived in the US and shipped records back from there.

If anyone is looking to find their unused collection a good home then hit me a pm.

Kensington

Don't really understand the attraction of vinyl at all (although I've grown up in the "digital generation").

It doesn't have better quality than a well mastered CD - CD's don't have that very annoying crackling.
A well looked after CD will play for years - every time you play vinyl it wears it out slightly.
A CD you can stick on the iPod, back it up on the PC, back it up on the internet *ahem* - one scratch or heavy knock to vinyl and you're snookered.

marcsignal

Was thinking about getting one of these, seriously.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cd9YPHuU8TM

zeppe

Been collecting vinyl the last 5 years.
Still pretty cheap on ebayuk, bought a load of used Hendrix and Fairport Convention last week, prefect nick , sound amazing.

I've also bought some new records on ebay, Wilco, Radiohead type stuff. Its a good deal, they throw in a copy of the CD(in cardboard case) with the vinyl too, about €15 in total.

DublinWriter

mike65 wrote: »

Loads of albums but not a player to be seen. Something about a big slab of deep cut black vinyl that's positively sexy.

Well, you need to buy my Linn Sondek then Mike...

http://www.adverts.ie/home-audio/linn-sondek-lp12/704727

I've got 2,000+ LP's, mostly from my radio and record dealing days in Temple Bar.

The only thing that beats vinyl hands down is reel-to-reel 1/4 tape. Most of the major labels released LP's on this format in the early 70's and it's the closest you'll get to the master tapes.

The only thing that worries me about vinyl is the inherent audiophilia that develops and the attendant madness of reading reviews of mains cables and wooden tables to put your turntable on, graded in terms of their 'musicality'.

At one stage in a hi-fi show in the UK in the mid-80's I saw a guy with a stall selling 'ionised-water' that was supposed to make you hear better at ten quid a pop.

Anyway kids, vinyl is the daddy, but just don't get too hung up on all the gear.

The Scientician

Bruvnor got me a record player in Lidl or Aldi a while back, does a grand job. I've got loads of secondhand vinyl and lots of new Irish releases. I don't listen to records all that often but it's nice to stick on a record when making dinner or what not.

7sr2z3fely84g5

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ebWYwyDk_Y

Yep, got a record player a few years ago for Christmas.
Have a few vinyls of albums I like, use a fair bit.

mike65

DublinWriter wrote: »

Well, you need to buy my Linn Sondek then Mike...

http://www.adverts.ie/home-audio/linn-sondek-lp12/704727

nice and so far beyond my means I feel you have just insulted me! :pac:

DublinWriter wrote: »

The only thing that worries me about vinyl is the inherent audiophilia that develops and the attendant madness of reading reviews of mains cables and wooden tables to put your turntable on, graded in terms of their 'musicality'.

At one stage in a hi-fi show in the UK in the mid-80's I saw a guy with a stall selling 'ionised-water' that was supposed to make you hear better at ten quid a pop.

This sort of thing used to make me laugh back in the day, people worrying about lead piping in the walls near their amp or speakers or swearing they could tell the difference between 10 quid speaker wire and 100 quid speaker wire. Well maybe some can but the fridge humming in the next room will have a greater impact.

OPENROAD

Haven't for years, but Rabbits on The Run which is released in 30 minutes and was recorded by Vanessa Carlton on tape as opposed to digital is being released on vinyl,as well as the usual cd, iTunes so will be buying it on vinyl, thankfully I didn't throw out my record player

cml387

mike65 wrote: »

nice and so far beyond my means I feel you have just insulted me! :pac:



This sort of thing used to make me laugh back in the day, people worrying about lead piping in the walls near their amp or speakers or swearing they could tell the difference between 10 quid speaker wire and 100 quid speaker wire. Well maybe some can but the fridge humming in the next room will have a greater impact.

I think of all the bullsh!t about consumer electronics,nothing beat audiophiles of the 1970's/80's.
We had the valve freaks, who believed that valve powered (look it up kids) amplifiers were better than their transistor powered equivalents.
We had a serious audio magazine which reviewed records by recording the sound on a graph and showing the results.
I only qualified in electronic engineering in 1981,but believe me it took no expertise to recognise voodoo nonsense when you saw it.

Records have no advantages over digital/cd (and I still have a Pioneer turntable stored away as a collectors item).
The crackles and pops might be atmospheric,but don't much add to the
listening experience.Most pop records were badly manufactured on inferior vinyl which wore out after two or three plays (and don't even mention K Tel records).

Kids, you missed nothing.

Run_to_da_hills

Only real DJ's only use vinyl.

If anyone turns up at a gig with just a laptop they are not a DJ.

Kensington

Run_to_da_hills wrote: »

Only real DJ's only use vinyl.

Christ, don't bring that one up :eek:

Forest Master

Kensington wrote: »

Don't really understand the attraction of vinyl at all (although I've grown up in the "digital generation").

It doesn't have better quality than a well mastered CD - CD's don't have that very annoying crackling.
A well looked after CD will play for years - every time you play vinyl it wears it out slightly.
A CD you can stick on the iPod, back it up on the PC, back it up on the internet *ahem* - one scratch or heavy knock to vinyl and you're snookered.

Firstly, everything I listen to now is MP3 - iPhone in car, iTunes on PCs, Squeezebox in kitchen, Xbox media server in sitting room. I do have lots of vinyl, but haven't owned a player in around 10 years. I like technological progression, but..... Vinyl is better quality than any digital format - that's not subjective - it's a fact.

http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/question487.htm

I personally don't like the hiss & crackle off a record or tape either - but that does become inaudible when the music starts; especially on vinyl - cassettes are muck.... but the music on vinyl does capture more sound frequencies during the recording process, so the part in bold above is actually wrong.

epgc3fyqirnbsx

I have actually never listened to a record but I do want to listen to Dark Side of the Moon in a smokey room

Forest Master

Run_to_da_hills wrote: »

Only real DJ's only use vinyl.

If anyone turns up at a gig with just a laptop they are not a DJ.

Yeah, because being a DJ is really hard to begin with... :rolleyes:

Yeah, it takes awesome skillz to play someone else's music. Wow - look at him take that record out of it's sleeve & put it on the turntable - what talent!

Run_to_da_hills

Kensington wrote: »

Christ, don't bring that one up :eek:

I must also include CDJ 1000's or else Ill get booed off :eek:

mick.m

Found a few records in my nan's house a few year ago, the likes of Blondie, Brendan Grace and the Pope's visit in 1979. Threw them on a record player and fell in love with the novelty, the warmth of the sound and the physical "feel" of them!

Recently pulled an old hi-fi from going to the dump and was given Daft Punk's "Discovery" by a friend (without the sleeve), which he found in college accommodation. One of my favourite possessions and hangs on my bedroom wall!

Also, the DJing with vinyl argument is nonsense, would love to be able to afford a collection and a nice pair of technics, but the MIDI route is much more viable..

Scuid Mhór

i've only read op's post but for the record guys, vinyl sounds ten times better than a cd does. it's all about sound compression.

7sr2z3fely84g5

Fawlty towers was released on vinyl.

Kensington

Forest Master wrote: »

Firstly, everything I listen to now is MP3 - iPhone in car, iTunes on PCs, Squeezebox in kitchen, Xbox media server in sitting room. I do have lots of vinyl, but haven't owned a player in around 10 years. I like technological progression, but..... Vinyl is better quality than any digital format - that's not subjective - it's a fact.

http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/question487.htm

I personally don't like the hiss & crackle off a record or tape either - but that does become inaudible when the music starts; especially on vinyl - cassettes are muck.... but the music on vinyl does capture more sound frequencies during the recording process, so the part in bold above is actually wrong.

I wouldn't accept a HSW article as fact
Nyquist-Shannon's theorem on digital sampling, on the other hand, is fact (and just so happens to completely strip the above article of any credibility).

You're going on what vinyl can theoretically do, but realistically, most commercial vinyl pressings are muck (or questionable) quality and unless you've taken out a mortgage for a turntable and cartridge, you haven't a hope of reproducing these ultrasonic frequencies even if they did exist on the vinyl (and most production is done in the digital domain at some stage, but at far higher spec than audio CD).

I can see one upside of vinyl possibly, and that's the package design and artwork that comes with a vinyl album. But sound quality wise, nah, digital is best particularly for the most accurate reproduction of the sound.

holystungun9

cml387 wrote: »

I think of all the bullsh!t about consumer electronics,nothing beat audiophiles of the 1970's/80's.
We had the valve freaks, who believed that valve powered (look it up kids) amplifiers were better than their transistor powered equivalents.
We had a serious audio magazine which reviewed records by recording the sound on a graph and showing the results.
I only qualified in electronic engineering in 1981,but believe me it took no expertise to recognise voodoo nonsense when you saw it.

Records have no advantages over digital/cd (and I still have a Pioneer turntable stored away as a collectors item).
The crackles and pops might be atmospheric,but don't much add to the
listening experience.Most pop records were badly manufactured on inferior vinyl which wore out after two or three plays (and don't even mention K Tel records).

Kids, you missed nothing.

Old guy, you've missed something.

Maybe the old Top of the Pops albums you have from 30 years ago may have all the crackles and pops and be made out of poor quality plastic or it may have been the rusty steel nail you had as a stylus but this is not the case nowadays. I have about 2 to 2.5 thousand records and the oldest being maybe 15 years old. I'm not going to squabble about analogue vs. digital recordings as it is done to death and people just have different experiences and preferences, but I don't want people to read your post and think that vinyl serves no purpose and doesn't exist anymore. It certainly has its fans. Lots of electronic music, rap, r'n'b, soul, rock, metal, and lots in between is still released on vinyl and will continue to be for some time.

Run_to_da_hills

Scuid Mhór wrote: »

i've only read op's post but for the record guys, vinyl sounds ten times better than a cd does. it's all about sound compression.

One is analogue while the other is digital, no comparison, even in hardware such as amplifiers etc.

Forest Master

Kensington wrote: »

I wouldn't accept a HSW article as fact
Nyquist-Shannon's theorem on digital sampling, on the other hand, is fact (and just so happens to completely strip the above article of any credibility).

You're going on what vinyl can theoretically do, but realistically, most commercial vinyl pressings are muck (or questionable) quality and unless you've taken out a mortgage for a turntable and cartridge, you haven't a hope of reproducing these ultrasonic frequencies even if they did exist on the vinyl (and most production is done in the digital domain at some stage, but at far higher spec than audio CD).

I can see one upside of vinyl possibly, and that's the package design and artwork that comes with a vinyl album. But sound quality wise, nah, digital is best particularly for the most accurate reproduction of the sound.

I did say I preferred digital. I was just pointing out that analogue can capture more frequencies than digital - it may be boll*cks though:

http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-blogs/audio-designline-blog/4033509/Vinyl-vs-CD-myths-refuse-to-die

holystungun9

Kensington wrote: »

Don't really understand the attraction of vinyl at all (although I've grown up in the "digital generation").

It doesn't have better quality than a well mastered CD - CD's don't have that very annoying crackling.
A well looked after CD will play for years - every time you play vinyl it wears it out slightly.
A CD you can stick on the iPod, back it up on the PC, back it up on the internet *ahem* - one scratch or heavy knock to vinyl and you're snookered.

This is really nothing to worry about at all for any regular user. The one and only time I have worn down a record so much that the sound was affected was from scratching one single sound back and forth for hours and hours and hours. That may be hard to believe but if anybody knows the 'aaaahhh' scratch sample they may understand what I mean. It certainly doesn't count as 'reasonable use' of the record.

Kensington

Forest Master wrote: »

I did say I preferred digital. I was just pointing out that analogue can capture more frequencies than digital - it may be boll*cks though:

http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-blogs/audio-designline-blog/4033509/Vinyl-vs-CD-myths-refuse-to-die

It can in theory. But analogue is completely random in real-world.

At the end of the day though, it's personal preference. Personally, I have no interest in vinyl and see no merit in it for me, but there's no point in getting hung up on the geeky maths side of it, if it sounds good, just bloody sit back and enjoy it!

Lumbo

Forest Master wrote: »

Yeah, because being a DJ is really hard to begin with... :rolleyes:

Yeah, it takes awesome skillz to play someone else's music. Wow - look at him take that record out of it's sleeve & put it on the turntable - what talent!

:rolleyes:

Clueless or should I turn on my sarcasm radar?

Forest Master

Lumbo wrote: »

:rolleyes:

Clueless or should I turn on my sarcasm radar?

Neither.

Why don't you just explain how it takes skill to take a record or CD out of a case and play it?
I'm not referring to proper DJs who can scratch & mix - that actually takes skill (when they can actually do it well, which most can't) - but 99% of DJs just play song after song - that takes no skill at all. It's not even their own stuff - they just bought it.

For example, I saw this guy play a few years ago: he has skills, because he actually composes, scratches & mixes his own stuff, mixed with other records & samples:
http://www.djkormac.com/listen-watch/

Most "DJs" don't & can't do this. They just buy a record & play it, followed by another... 99% of DJs fall into this category. And don't try to claim "feeling the vibe of the people" is a skill. It just takes basic cop on how to bring people up & down with the intensity of music - every single band does this with their set-list construction - the main difference being they write the own sh*t...

o1s1n

Pff, vinyl. Reel to reel is where it's at!

I had one of these hooked up a little while back. Been sent to the attic for the forseable future until I get some space sorted out. Hypnotic to look at.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XqW5HSzO1U