anyone here collecting vinyl? i never dumped my vinyl when cd's took over but in the last couple of years about 98% of my music i've been getting on vinyl. most come with download cards so you can have a digital copy to burn a cd from. just wondering since i haven't see much talk here about it.

I buy vinyl but strictly used. Mark-down bins and thrift stores are my favorite hunting grounds and I love to find bargains. I recently found the first Santana album in great condition (and on the original Columbia label) for 50 cents, and I've grabbed albums by War, Curved Air, and Jimmy Smith (on Blue Note) at similar prices. The prices they want for new vinyl these days are out of my budget.

I got back into vinyl this past January and since then have picked up nearly 200 LPs - mostly jazz, but a few classical and rock. All of it is stuff I do not have on CD. I've also been buying jazz on 10" shellac, again, stuff I don't have, as well as the odd 45rpm. I have a little record player with built-in speakers on my work desk and love it. I don't pay "collector" prices for rare jazz LPs, but look for the best condition for as cheap as possible. I'm constantly amazed at how many jazz and classical sides were never released on CD. Wifey loves to thrift so I always browse through the used records section, but usually find the obligatory Kostelanetz and Camelot soundtrack LPs in massive quantities. Occasionally, a score is made tho.

I've wanted to make the jump back to vinyl for some time now. I personally have no problem with compact discs as a great medium for music listening but frankly, many of the new releases I get are nearly unlistenable due to the ridiculous amount of brickwalling. I'm happy with the vast majority of older catalog titles I have on compact disc.

But everytime I consider getting a turntable, I read yet another story about crappy vinyl pressings on high profile releases which makes me pause and wonder how much of a crapshoot it is to start buying titles on vinyl again. When they screw up the pressings of things like Led Zeppelin IV and Houses of the Holy in a huge, high profile reissue campaign like the recent Zeppelin reissues, it makes me wonder just how many inferior vinyl pressings there are. And those were pressed by Pallas, who have a pretty good reputation. Apparently there is an error in the European vinyl pressing of Iron Maiden's Somewhere In Time, another very high profile reissue campaign, and that was pressed by Optimal which is considered by many to be the best in Europe. Add in that I do the vast majority of my music buying by mail-order and then have to worry about receiving warped vinyl...everytime I start seriously consider getting a turntable there always turns out to more negatives than positives.

If I ever do get a turntable again the first vinyl purchase will be the self-titled Queensryche album released in 2013. The CD for that album is a complete train-wreck.

These days, vinyl is about all I buy.

buying vinyl........

a medium that you wear out every time you use it (even with high end turntables and stylus's), vs. CD's which have no friction on them whatsoever, so no wear whatsoever.

vinyl = pops, ticks, scratches, hum, rumble, needle noise and drag, warping, and is very difficult to clean.

CD's = virtually zero noise of any kind and very easy to clean. unless you use them for a frisbee or a coaster, basically indestructible. and CD rot..........in almost 30 years i have yet to see it happen, if fact in almost 30 years i have exactly one CD-R fail.

i will never go back to vinyl, the sound of the needle hitting the record is like fingernails on chalkboard (do they still make chalkboards?) to me.

The only vinyl records I buy these days are Record Store Day releases, mostly the Stones and the Beatles, purely for collector's purposes.

Storage was always the big problem with vinyl. Thank God for the CD. Imagine it was never developed and our homes were sinking with the weight of 30+ years of vinyl!

A good friend of mine only collects vintage jazz vinyl. Visiting his place is awesome. Amazing sound system and thousands of LPs stored on custom wall shelves. Milk cartons everywhere. The sheer coolness of his place is probably what convinced me to choose vinyl when I had to rebuild my collection from scratch. The only CDs I buy now are from local live acts or the ones that come with music magazines.

The younger people in my circle of music geek friends are either vinyl or digital-only. They laugh about CDs. "Do they still make those?"

That makes me laugh.

I'm having huge CD storage problems.

Most of my new vinyl is RSD releases, with an occasional piece thrown in here and there. I have little willpower if they're selling vinyl at a concert I really enjoy (thank you, Dethklok and Vintage Trouble! - although I did pass on the Ghost vinyl at something like $50). I do pickup some used pieces more frequently.

Don't really collect vinyl but I still buy it, new & used. It's music I like I collect, regardless of the format.

I kept approx. 70% of my vinyl and I am glad I did. I only sold the basic, cheap Nice Price stuff and kept the Japanese, MFSL and other special pressings.

Also much of late 70's & 80's Punk/New Wave stayed. Of course non-cd released albums also remained in the collection as well.

I do not buy any now due to price (and space). But I can see the appeal, especially for the young kids.

A very popular store in St.Pete about a year and half ago really downsized his CD sales (and totally discarded used CDs) and has gone 90% vinyl. He has many customers in the store when I visit but how much they buy (and afford) is another thing. When I talk to the kids they get excited about the vinyl, packaging and all.

Good for them, I was that way as well at one time, all those years ago.

Rick A.

NBC Nightly News had a interesting segment this evening about the resurgence of vinyl and about a pressing plant in New Jersey coming back to life after decades of non-use.

Rick A.

I recently liquidated all my vinyl other than around 10 titles which were worth too much for what they buyer was willing to pay.

I don't currently have a turntable.

In my opinion:

Vinyl can sound better than digital (much better than 44/16 cd) but with one HUGE caveat: for that to happen, the price of entry is well over $2,000. I don't have that kind of money. Also with vinyl, I have to sit in front of the stereo, it doesn't play on the pc, in the car, etc. And to truly do it right, you need a $1k needle that gets replaced every 6 months, a quality phono stage preamp (price of entry for quality is around $500) & many wealthy audiophiles even buy $500 record vacuums.

It deteriorates, and different pressing plants (& different countries in general) have an incredible variance of vinyl quality.

That $2k turntable takes at least an hour to set up optimally for best sound, & I don't have the skills to do it right.

I hate ticks, pops, wow, flutter, inner groove distortion, etc.

If one has the right gear & is obsessive beyond belief, vinyl can sound amazing. With inexpensive equipment I don't hear the superiority of vinyl & it's a big hassle.

That's really why I'm so into the hi-res downloads: IF MASTERED DECENTLY (vinyl can't be brickwalled or the needle will jump out of the groove) it has 90% of the benefits of top notch vinyl, with none of the detriments.

geff,

you use the word detriments and that really hits the nail on the head. the detriments of vinyl far outweigh it's sound quality.

to do vinyl right you need lots of money, lots of patience, lots of leisure time, and lots of room.

just not worth the hassle.

renny

You must have better ears than me, because I've got a $350 turntable and my whole setup cost less than $2G and it sounds pretty darn good to me (even though I only have those Pioneer Andrew Jones bookshelf speakers).