Why are LP vinyl records back?

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I was in Barnes and Noble today. Noticed they had a selection of vinyl LP records. And they weren't cheap!:eek: Why all of a sudden are they bringing back a technology that's over 100 years old?
Now if they would just bring back 8-Tracks, I'll be cool again.:cool:
Jim
 
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I had a small fortune in vinyl LPs. Then, I had a house fire that destroyed all of them. I miss a lot of the out-of-print classics, but the new technology beats the heck out those old fragile, temperamental, discs. I've heard that vinyl provides a "warmth" that's absent in CDs, but I don't notice anything but the improved clarity and durability.
 
Because people who really dig music are realizing that they really miss all of the clicks and pops and hiss (of a technology that actually does deliver a warmer, fuller, more superior sound and listening experience).

That and all of the extra exercise getting up to flip it over in 20 minutes.
 
Some people, probably no one who shoots magnum hand guns believe there is a better quality of sound available. There was a time whem Columbia had a division which pressed only classical music and they took great care with the process and did have a very high quality sound. I believe Columbia pressed the very high quality Windam Hill label.
 
Yeah, I guess I've read they have a higher sound quality. My ear ain't that sophisticated.
I do have a couple of turntables that still work, and a whole bunch of old records.
I am a proud dinosaur. Glad I ain't alone.:cool:
Jim
 
All my LPs went to my ex-wife who later lost them all to a flood, what a shame. I do have an old Garant (sp)? turn table out in my shed I maybe should put in this weekend's garage sale. I wonder what they go for now?
 
I still have several hundred.
Back when- one of my buddies had the album with Louie Louie on it.
Louie was kind of worn. The song before Louie was a trench.
Folks would pick up the arm and drop it on the record to replay Louie.
Most of mine are in better shape than that.
 
They never really went away. Vinyl devotees / collectors have been as rabidly devoted as they've always been. It's just that the major media retailers are catching on and it's becoming more visible.

B&N and the like still can't hold a candle to a genuine old-school record store, many of which have been chugging right along for many decades now.

In Denver we have Twist & Shout, Wax Trax and several others. Amazing stores. The owners of T&S are two of my high school English teachers.

I once had a massive collection but after moving it around for 25 years, I liquidated. Took me nearly four years on ebay and collector sites, but my profits realized were astonishingly high. Following that I helped a few old collector buddies move some of their vinyl treasures. The market has always been quite robust.
 
it's a phenomena I don't understand.
the LP was, and still is, the single most convoluted media in all of audio.
ever wonder how they got stereo out of it?
lateral movement makes one side, vertical movement is the other.
it was a trip to mix and master for vinyl as each channel needed its own frequency curve and a few heinous bias tricks to get an LP to sound right

personally, I'd take the master reel just before it was butchered for vinyl.

then there is the warmth of LP ...
how much of the signal chain do you think was vac tube when these things were pressed?
theres most of your warmth ... valve amps and inductive artifacts of the gear that produced it.
 
Too many years of shooting without hearing protection have left me with thirty years of tinnitus, severe high-frequency hearing loss, and a left ear that's greatly impaired.

I can't tell the difference. I'd kill for one of the wonderful Bose systems, but my ability to appreciate it is less than many folks have.

Still, for old times' sake I'd like to have some of the old records I grew up with, some of them 78rpm stuff: early Victor Borge, the Spike Jones "Nutcracker" Suite, Toscannini (I think) conducting the first Grieg "Peer Gynt" Suite, and others. Sure, probably I can find them digitally re-mastered. But the old thick wax slabs would be time travel material.
 
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I like the idea of records becoming popular again.Shame at the same time,years ago-I gave away my entire collection of about three hundred albums. I got tired of lugging them around every time i moved house.
 
I've got a shelf 3' wide full of 1960's and 70's albums. All the Beatles, most of led Zepplin, the Woodstock album, All of Cream, some Jethro Tull and a few others.

Heck the COVERS bring back memories, much less the music.
 
At first people said.....

People said CDs had to be perfect because they were digital. That wasn't true because the sound was produced by a jagged wave resulting from the integration of the analog wave. It took awhile and the introduction of 'oversampling' to smooth the wave back out to resemble an analog wave. Since then I don't look back at vinyl except that I have some old records that I would really like to digitize. I think that, at least to me, I got used to hearing some old records sounding a certain way, and it's more familiarity than better sound.

Vinyl can't touch the dynamic range that is available on digital. Old recording were 'compressed' in dynamic range because vinyl couldn't handle it. Tape at 7"/second came closer, but still the same animal. And background hiss and the noise floor are tons lower on CDs.

One thing that bothers me is how long printed (bought) CDs will last. CD-R are thought to have a rather limited life span and early on people bought printed CDs they said wouldn't play any more.
 
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Not much on LP's I'm a digital man myself but I happened into a bunch of LP's for sale as some store and MY GOD!!!-I had forgotten how wonderful some of the cover art was :D I mean some of those old records has amazing cover art-sometimes even more memorable than the album itself. Who can forget the Rolling Stones classic album cover to "Sticky Fingers" or any of the Grateful Dead covers. I mean that was something to behold!!
 
Havent listened to any vinyl in at least 30 years so I don't know if there's a difference in the sound.It is interesting that Steve Jobs supposedly had a huge collection of LPs.
 
CAJUNLAWYER said:
Not much on LP's I'm a digital man myself but I happened into a bunch of LP's for sale as some store and MY GOD!!!-I had forgotten how wonderful some of the cover art was :D I mean some of those old records has amazing cover art-sometimes even more memorable than the album itself. Who can forget the Rolling Stones classic album cover to "Sticky Fingers" or any of the Grateful Dead covers. I mean that was something to behold!!
Click to expand...

Taste of Honey
Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass.

Been a fan of the ladies ever since.
 
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