Vinyl
So what is it that people love and hate about vinyl?
I admit that vinyl has its failings, for example it takes up a large amount of storage space, it is fragile when compared to cd and its newer brethren. You don’t get remote control or track skip (which could be a blessing).
If stored in a reasonably upright position within a normal temperature range vinyl won’t cause any problems and if you have enough of it it actually adds insulation to the wall, in my house vinyl probably saves me £30 per year off the heating bill.
Remote control is obviously missing, but we are all told these days that we should get more exercise and what better way to get it that moving vinyl about, the tactile nature of vinyl just feels so right. Track skipping is not listening to music so do you do it because you don’t like the music that you are listening to or simply because the quality is not as good as vinyl and you don’t care enough to listen to a full album?
You have to get the turntable setup right, with VTA, Tracking force, Arm height, and Platter speed. Then if your using a moving coil cartridge you have to setup the phono stage settings of loading and gain. It may all seem complicated but it is all fairly logical and your ears will tell you when you have it right and the best bit is that you only have to do it the once then your good to go.
When the setup is completed you get the most amazing sound quality and music flows from the speakers. I can and do listen to CD after all you can’t get everything on vinyl but I make a point of listening to CD at the beginning of a listening session, I know that if I put a record on first it will be records all night as I will be all to painfully aware of the drop in subjective quality.
I get a buzz out of searching for vinyl, car boot sales, markets and charity shops as well as shops trading in new and second hand vinyl. Typically paying £1 - £3 per album. You physically cant spend too much as it gets to the point where the weight of vinyl would pull your arm from the socket.
My essential bit of equipment is a record cleaning machine. The better your arm and cartridge the more music you can extract from the grooves of records, which lesser decks will struggle with. A record-cleaning machine is essential when buying second hand records. A clean record will give your stylus an easier time tracking the grooves and will wear the stylus less. A record full of dust and dirt particles is just like a fine sandpaper wearing away at your stylus.
My recommendation for keeping your stylus in tip top shape is Last stylus cleaner and also Last Stylast stylus treatment fluid (as recommended by Michael Fremmer of Stereophile). Double check with your stylus manufacturer first but I have never heard of anyone having any problems with Last products. You may get a surprise the first time that you use Stylast at the improvement in sound quality.
Is the end result worth it, a resounding YES I have yet to hear a higher resolution format. Make no doubt SACD and DVD-A are much better quality than the humble CD but the highest resolution format of all with the largest supply of software is VINYL. I have yet to hear an SACD player that I prefer to my record player.
Below are a selection of recent releases which I lifted from Paul's website Diverse Vinyl just to give you an idea of the rate of current releases.
| Artist | Title | Label | ||||||
| Rock And Pop | ||||||||
| Arctic Monkeys | Whatever People Say I Am | Domino | ||||||
| Beatles | 1 (Compilation Of Number Ones) | Apple | ||||||
| Beatles | Abbey Road | Apple | ||||||
| Beautiful New Born Children | Hey People! | Domino | ||||||
| Belle And Sebastian | The Life Pursuit | Rough Trade | ||||||
| Black Flag | Damaged | SST | ||||||
| Bloc Party | Silent Alarm | Wichita | ||||||
| Byrds | Cancelled Flytes (5 x 7" Set) | Sundazed | ||||||
| Byrds | Columbia Singles 65-67 2x180g | Sundazed | ||||||
| Byrds | Preflyte Sessions 2LP | Sundazed | ||||||
| Clap Your Hands Say Yeah | Clap Your Hands Say Yeah | Wichita | ||||||
| Clearlake | Amber | Domino | ||||||
| Elected | Sun, Sun, Sun | Sub Pop | ||||||
| Film School | Film School | Beggars Banquet | ||||||
| GG Allin | Res Erected | Roir | ||||||
| Infadels | We Are Not The Infadels | Wall Of Sound | ||||||
| Isobel Campbell/Mark Lanegan | Ballad Of The Broken Seas | V2 | ||||||
| Kooks | Inside In/Inside Out | EMI | ||||||
| Mars Volta | Scab Dates (Live) | GSL | ||||||
| Neanderthals | In Space | Munster | ||||||
| Omar Rodriguez (Mars Volta) | Omar Rodriguez | GSL | ||||||
| Pearls & Brass | Indian Tower | Drag City | ||||||
| Pelican/Mono | Split LP | Hydra Head | ||||||
| Richard & Linda Thompson | Shoot Out The Lights | 4MWB | ||||||
| Robert Pollard | From A Compound Eye | Merge | ||||||
| Strokes | First Impressions Of Earth | Rough Trade | ||||||
| Sufjan Stevens | Michigan | Burnt Toast | ||||||
| Sufjan Stevens | Seven Swans | Burnt Toast | ||||||
| Swearing At Motorists | Last Night Becomes This Morning | Secretly Canadian | ||||||
| Tim Buckley | Goodbye And Hello | 4MWB | ||||||
| Tortoise/Bonnie Prince Billy | The Brave And The Bold | Overcoat | ||||||
| Various | Alright,This Time Just The Girls 2 | SFTRI | ||||||
| Jazz | ||||||||
| Jimmy Caravan/His Jazz Blues Organ | Hey Jude | Vault | ||||||
| Mulatu Astkatke | Mulato Of Ethiopia - 180gm | Worthy | ||||||
| Nina Simone | At Town Hall | 4MWB | ||||||
| Nina Simone | The Amazing Nina Simone | 4MWB | ||||||
| Indie/Alternative | ||||||||
| Husker Du | Zen Arcade | SST | ||||||
| Americana/Country | ||||||||
| Charlie Rich | Lonely Weekends | Sundazed | ||||||
| Jens Lekman | Oh You're So Silent Jens | Secretly Canadian | ||||||
| Ryan Adams | 29 | Lost Highway | ||||||
| Uncle Tupelo | 1989-93 An Anthology 2LP | Sundazed | ||||||
| Folk | ||||||||
| Luka Bloom | Innocence | Big Sky | ||||||
| World/Fusion | ||||||||
| Mulatu Astatke/Ethiopian Quintet | Afro Latin Soul - 180gm | Worthy | ||||||
| Rap/Hip Hop/R&B | ||||||||
| Various | Electro Vol 3 | Streetsounds | ||||||
| Various | Electro Vol 4 | Streetsounds | ||||||
| Exotica/Easy Listening | ||||||||
| Rubber Band | The Cream Songbook | GRT | ||||||
| Reggae/Dub | ||||||||
| Various | Sound Dimension Soul Shake 1 | Soul Jazz | ||||||
| Various | Studio One Soul 2 | Soul Jazz | ||||||
| Jazz Dance/Fusion | ||||||||
| Bobby Valentin | Bad Breath | Fania | ||||||
| Buddy Rich | The Roar Of '74 | Groove Merchant | ||||||
