Vinyl, CD or Digital - Progressive Rock Music Forum

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zeqexes

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Posted: June 16 2013 at 16:32

I get mainly CDs, but I love vinyl too.

AlexDOM

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Posted: June 16 2013 at 16:41

zeqexes wrote:

I get mainly CDs, but I love vinyl too.

Same, but I buy vinyls of albums I really love. I wish Neal Morse would release his albums on vinyl. I'd get them. But yeah I most get Cds. But I feel its a tie between the two, but there is something very special about vinyl!

Gerinski

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Posted: June 16 2013 at 18:34

With all the new technologies, can't they make vinyls which do not get scratched nor bent by heat or wrong storage, which can play for 70 minutes without having to flip the side, do not wear a physical stylus, and don't need to be cleaned every time before being played?

Nah, I too like the classicism of vinyl but let's be honest, besides the size of the artwork, what is its real advantage? Let alone a very important feature, vinyl does not have the 'skip to next track' function, so useful when you listen to modern Dream Theater Wink

Man With Hat View Drop Down

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Posted: June 16 2013 at 18:47

CDs

Dig me...But don't...Bury me
I'm running still, I shall until, one day, I hope that I'll arrive
Warning: Listening to jazz excessively can cause a laxative effect.

The.Crimson.King View Drop Down

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Posted: June 16 2013 at 19:12

CD. I grew up in the time of vinyl/cassette/8 track and I used to buy whatever media had the album I was looking for. I recall first buying "The Lamb..." and "Chocolate Kings" on cassette, "Islands" & "Selling England..." on 8 track and just about everything else on vinyl. 8 track & cassette were horribly unreliable...hitting a speed bump while listening to your new $5 "Starless and Bible Black" cassette could ruin it in a second. Besides, vinyl had the best artwork.

When CD's came out I waited a while before taking the plunge but the ability to listen to an album as a whole (rather than 2 20+ minute halves) and not having to worry about pops/scratches/warps made it worthwhile. Nowadays, maybe 5% of my collection is digital but CD is still the king.

Mutiny in Jonestown : Progressive Rock Since 1987

Mormegil

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Posted: June 16 2013 at 20:06

Vinyl, as I grew up with it and fell in love with the richness of the sound (until either it or the needle wore down).
Digital for the convenience as a close second.

Welcome to the middle of the film.

Barbu

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Posted: June 16 2013 at 20:16

Cds

Dean

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Posted: June 16 2013 at 20:32

Gerinski wrote:

With all the new technologies, can't they make vinyls which do not get scratched nor bent by heat or wrong storage, which can play for 70 minutes without having to flip the side, do not wear a physical stylus, and don't need to be cleaned every time before being played?

Of course they can, but there is no demand. Anything that alters the basic concept and material would be seen as sacrilege.

The polymer used (poly vinyl chloride acetate) is ancient technology and the material science of polymers has advanced considerably in 50 years - creating a polymer that is resistant to scratches and is stable over a wide range of temperatures is easily achievable with modern plastics. If the technology had continued unevolved since the 1940s then albums would still be made of shellac and the merest thought of changing to vinyl now would meet with huge resistance from the diehards and so it would be with changing from vinyl to a more robust plastic.

It is also possible to engineer play-back mechanics that do not touch the groove, working laser transports have been around for decades but the development of them stalled because of low demand. Since laser transports could play normal vinyl albums without the laser physically touching the platter it would be technically feasible to cover the grooves with a coating of clear varnish, making them practically scratch and dust proof. Modern discs playable only on an analogue laser transport could be easily made to have a scratch-proof clear layer to protect the audio tracks.

Using the same technology as CD and laser discs (a laminate of acrylic and aluminium), it is also feasible to record analogy waveforms direct into the aluminium layer that could be played back using a laser, this would require two parallel tracks to record stereo, but that is not difficult to achieve technically.

The playback time is limited by the width of the groove, which is goverened by the size of the stylus, using lasers the grooves could be much thinner and the playback time increased.

The problem with all those approaches is the vinyl enthusiast themselves. Because they are discerning (read: finickety) they would detect faults and discrepancies in the new technology even if none actually existed, and they would continually harp back to the authenticity of the original vinyl album and elliptical diamond stylus.

Gerinski wrote:

I can't read the text on a CD inlay without a microscope, let alone appreciate the artwork - and don't get me started on the jpeg artifacted thumbnail that accompanies downloads.

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For me vinyl is a nostalgia thing because that's how it was when I got into buying music in a big way. It is impossible to recreate that and buying vinyl today is not the same pleasure it was back in the day. Modern vinyl vendors actually spoil that experience for me, (just as guy-who-knows-everything does in the comic book store). I also prefer not standing next to another enthusiast when leafing through stacks of albums, If I find a gem I don't want some 'expert' looking over my shoulder, buying albums is not a team event.

I miss the uninformed indifference of the 70s shop-assistant and back then you would actually see (and meet) girls in a record store - I've been to modern vinyl record fayres - not a female to be seen for miles.

Whether they sound better or not is not a discussion I'll get drawn into - all those superlative adjectives like "warmth" and "sterile" are not something that concerns me - I get both from either source and it's nothing to do with the medium being used.

I buy CDs because they are convenient and sound absolutely fine.

ClemofNazareth wrote:

Yeah storage and transport can be an issue. I've moved 15 times in the past 30 years and there has been some challenges and collateral damage to the collection. When I was in boot camp and my first couple years in the Marines I had to store my vinyl at one of my brother's houses and a couple hundred records 'disappeared'. After I got married we moved from the Mojave Desert to Chicago during the summer and the logistics of keeping vinyl from melting in the truck were daunting. And when we moved from Chicago to Kansas City I made a separate trip in my car just to haul the records (got two speeding tickets in Missouri along the way).

But in the end I'm glad to still have them even though most of my listening today is via streaming or mp3s.

When I last moved house I carefully packed my vinyl collection myself, but allowed the removal men to shift it from the old house to the new as the strain on my little VW's suspension would be too much. With the first box they attempted to lift and carry I heard them quip - "What's in here then? Heavy Metal?", and they continued to say that for the next thirteen boxes... twice!

What?

Metalmarsh89 View Drop Down

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Posted: June 16 2013 at 20:57

Digital is convenient, but I'm not a fan. I collect CD's because I can rip them to my computer with ease and they are good, small size. Vinyls are something I'd pursue down the road, but that's when I have my own place, and/or a good sound system set up. I love the size of the artwork from vinyl though, and it does offer a much warmer feel for the music than CD's (which in turn are warmer than digital).

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Posted: June 16 2013 at 21:49

Dean wrote:

This pretty much perfectly describes me, perfectly written, thanks for posting.

Ian

Host of the Post-Avant Jazzcore Happy Hour on Progrock.com

https://podcasts.progrock.com/post-avant-jazzcore-happy-hour/

The Rock

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Posted: June 16 2013 at 22:14

Vinyl and CDs.Mostly vinyl.

What's gonna come out of my mouth is gonna come out of my soul."Skip Prokop"

Kestrel

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Posted: June 16 2013 at 22:39

Vinyl and digital downloads. CDs are mostly pointless these days: a physical object to contain the digital format without the same convenience.

dr wu23

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Posted: June 16 2013 at 22:42

Snow Dog wrote:

I wish people would stop saying vinyl sounds so much better. It doesn't.

I agree...it doesn't sound better....and I grew up with vinyl and still have about 400 pieces of it.

One does nothing yet nothing is left undone.
Haquin

Dayvenkirq View Drop Down

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Posted: June 16 2013 at 23:50

I've no actual direct ear-to-vinyl listening experience. I have heard something through the movies, though I'm not sure if that actually counts. I don't think I'd get much of a kick from it, what with all the pops and slight hiss.

That said, CDs are nicer because the sound is cleaner, but the artwork is much smaller, though that's not a problem for me.

Lastly, as far as digital purchases go, that depends. If you are buying music online for Windows (or maybe even Linux), I'm not sure if there's any backup coming with it. Apple provides you with a virtual backup on iCloud, so that it doesn't actually take up physical space, unlike the CDs. Only one pickle though - there is no artwork. Someone better get their asses up and working on digital renditions of artworks and liner notes. But hey, it's not like I care much for artwork or the liner notes. It's the music that counts for me big time.

To sum up, digital purchases is the way to go for me.

Edited by Dayvenkirq - June 17 2013 at 00:03

Floyd Steely View Drop Down

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Posted: June 17 2013 at 01:21

CDs. Period.

I've never paid a penny for an mp3 download, and god strike me dead if I ever do. The mp3 format, as well as streaming, is very useful for previewing an album. If I like it, I buy the CD. If I don't, I delete the mp3 because... well, of what use is it?

People who don't purchase the physical product are NOT true music lovers. And on that point, I will never be dissuaded.

The Mystical View Drop Down

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Posted: June 17 2013 at 01:29

I consider myself to be a vinyl collector, but I often buy CDs because it is easier to find an opportunity to play them. While CDs offer a clean and relatively good quality sound, I think that vinyl is the way of the future.

I am currently digging:

Hawkwind, Rare Bird, Gong, Tangerine Dream, Khan, Iron Butterfly, and all things canterbury and hard-psych. I also love jazz!

Please drop me a message with album suggestions.

Floyd Steely View Drop Down

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Posted: June 17 2013 at 01:43

Dayvenkirq wrote:

^ Not true music lovers? What was I doing, f$&king off?

Long answer: What you were doing was missing out on an enormous and essential part of the music experience: going to record stores, searching through bins, getting turned on by what you heard in the store, talking to other people, having a story to go along with each item, and going home with a prized new possession that you'll perhaps love and cherish forever. It may be impossible to comprehend if you're of the post-Napster age (I have no idea how old you are), but today's younger listeners are unwittingly denying themselves the real pleasures of building a personal music library and loving the full experience thereof.

Short answer: Yes.

Chris S

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Posted: June 17 2013 at 02:35

I love my Vinyl collection and my CD collection, tape collection, but digital in an ' iCloud' world is incredible so there went my vote. Nostalgia is great for record sleeves, crackles and jewel cases but the soft version is so much more portable - 160GB of music instantly accessible, globally is mean Approve

<font color=Brown>Music - The Sound Librarian

...As I venture through the slipstream, between the viaducts in your dreams...[/COLOR]

Junges

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Posted: June 17 2013 at 05:47

Snow Dog wrote:

I wish people would stop saying vinyl sounds so much better. It doesn't.

I wish people would stop saying vinyl doesn't sound so much better. It does.

I've heard CDs all my life, since I was a kid. I changed recently to vinyls and the difference is HUGE. The instruments sound better, I noticed a lot of details that one couldn't hear before in the CD. And you can feel the difference by far.

Research about the difference on the internet. Watch youtube videos playing the same record on vinyl and cd. You will see the difference.

Edited by Junges - June 17 2013 at 05:52

Dean

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Posted: June 17 2013 at 06:48

Junges wrote:

Watch youtube videos playing the same record on vinyl and cd. You will see the difference.

Think about that for 1 minute.

If you don't see what's wrong with that statement then I have some snake oil I can sell you.

Edited by Dean - June 17 2013 at 06:48

What?

Poll Question: Which do you prefer to collect? and why?
Poll Choice	Votes	Poll Statistics
Vinyl	26	[28.26%]
CD	52	[56.52%]
Digital	14	[15.22%]
This topic is closed, no new votes accepted