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Vinyl now outselling digital!


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Old 13-12-2016, 10:06
Dirtyhippy
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I buy vinyl and I play it too, its all about the ritual and the artwork rather than "collecting".

Listening to music on a decent TT fed through an equally decent amp & speakers does sound really good, though its all subjective on the sound quality - my CD player sounds pretty good too - though vinyl is less tiring over long periods of high volume listening.

My set up is quite budget - Rega Planar 2 fed into a vintage Sony amp (huge thing with VU meters) and Acoustic Energy Evo 3 floorstanders - its just a pleasure to listen to, warm yet detailed and a sweet, clear midrange .
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Old 17-12-2016, 15:26
TheBigBoy
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Of course Vinyl is out selling digital downloads, Vinyl isn't cheap to buy brand new. Digital downloads for a single song only cost £0.99 but Vinyl album's cost nearly £18 or £20 depening where you buy Vinyl from?
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Old 18-12-2016, 12:26
Heanor_Man31
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I've just treated myself to a Bush portable turntable from Argos.

Have a few ancient vinyls at home and the child in me is loving the fact I can make someone sound like Alvin & the Chipmunks when I choose the wrong playback speed .
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Old 18-12-2016, 19:35
starry_rune
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This is the newest music format, so it looks like both vinyl and downloads and streaming have had their day
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbGD...ature=youtu.be
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Old 18-12-2016, 19:49
Peter the Great
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I've just treated myself to a Bush portable turntable from Argos.

Have a few ancient vinyls at home and the child in me is loving the fact I can make someone sound like Alvin & the Chipmunks when I choose the wrong playback speed .
A Bush turntable from Argos? At any speed all records will sound blooming awful on that.
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Old 18-12-2016, 20:13
Inkblot
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This is the newest music format, so it looks like both vinyl and downloads and streaming have had their day
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbGD...ature=youtu.be
The video says it's FLAC, so is that any better (or even any different) than downloads or streaming of high quality audio?
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Old 19-12-2016, 14:28
Glawster2002
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Entirely a matter of personal opinion. I'm one of those old fogies mentioned a few times and I have a large vinyl collection and a nice working turntable but these days I listen almost exclusively to CDs and lossless streaming through my Hifi setup.

Give me a decently recorded lossless digital recording any day over vinyl, for the convenience and crackle-pop-free sound. You can't beat the big album covers and artwork you get with vinyl but for clear interference-free sound, digital wins every time for me. But you do need a high quality hifi system to get the best out of digital; I suspect that vinyl smoothes out the rough edges of some music systems.

As for 96/192 kHz 24 bit sound, well I have tried that too but I cannot hear *any* improvement of the same original recording over 16 bit. Maybe my old ears aren't up to the job any more but I suspect they sometimes take more care in the production of 24 bit audio than they did with the 16 bit versions and so we are not comparing like with like. Or maybe it's just a "young person ears" thing.

As for the original topic title, well clearly vinyl is not "outselling digital", CDs also being digital of course (not to mention streaming subscriptions). It's not even close.
This article explains very well why you can't hear any difference...

24bit vs 16bit, the myth exploded!
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Old 19-12-2016, 14:32
Glawster2002
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These 33 year old ears can't tell the difference between 24 bit and 16 bit FLAC either so I don't think it's an age thing. Sometimes I can't even tell the difference between a well encoded 320 kpbs mp3 and FLAC. I do prefer FLAC for archiving purposes though.
The difference in quality isn't anywhere near as wide as most people believe.

I still buy some vinyl, I certainly never threw my old vinyl collection away when CDs came along, but it tends to be the exception for me these days. Limited editions, etc.
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Old 19-12-2016, 14:49
Dirtyhippy
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This article explains very well why you can't hear any difference...

24bit vs 16bit, the myth exploded!
Interesting article and I believe it. - so many factors affect sound quality from the mastering process - i.e. the mixing of the levels and instruments through to compression to the manufacture of the physical product and then the equipment its played on, the ambient noise and finally the listeners ears/brain. Its mostly entirely subjective.

But buying decent audio equipment - and by decent I mean at least entry level separates you can have pretty good sound for not very much money.
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Old 19-12-2016, 15:12
Glawster2002
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Interesting article and I believe it. - so many factors affect sound quality from the mastering process - i.e. the mixing of the levels and instruments through to compression to the manufacture of the physical product and then the equipment its played on, the ambient noise and finally the listeners ears/brain. Its mostly entirely subjective.

But buying decent audio equipment - and by decent I mean at least entry level separates you can have pretty good sound for not very much money.
I agree.

As with most things you have to be careful not to spend money unnecessarily but a good quality sound system is an investment for a lifetime I think.
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