Hello, and welcome to my blog on the wonderful world of vinyl records. I have been collecting vinyl records for over thirty years and have built a nice collection of classic vinyl LPs that span the ‘50’s to today. I also have a large collection of CD as well and do continue to purchase CDs, but vinyl records remain my favorite format for enjoying the wonderful world of recorded music.
Now I know many of you out there may be asking the question: Why vinyl records? My answer would be: Why not vinyl records? There are literally hundreds of thousands of vinyl records that have been released over the years and records are the oldest (and longest lasting) format for the distribution of recorded music. The very first music recordings (issued on wax cylinders) were issued in the 1880’s and through the replacement of the cylinder with the disc record in the early 1910’s to the development of the LP and 45 in the late 1940’s, the lowly record has enjoyed a longer success than any other home entertainment format. The introduction of the compact disc in the early 1980’s was predicted to be the vinyl record’s death knell, but the record has survived into the new millennium and today vinyl records have been enjoying a renewed resurgence in popularity.
Now don’t get me wrong, I do enjoy CDs; however CDs, although incredibly resilient in their ability to provide the same sound quality 20 years after their pressing, have a problem that many have addressed but the majority of listeners don’t realize: the sound of many CDs is compressed during the mastering process. This is because CDs are a digital format and many times the sound must be compressed in order for the music to fit on the disc. Usually this compression is barely noticeable to the average listener but a trained ear can tell the difference, especially in music that is particularly heavy in bass responses. This issue seemed to be more of a problem in the first fifteen years of CD production but has largely been remedied – this is one of the reasons that many early CD releases have been reissued with new re-mastering. So my collection contains many CDs that reside comfortably with vinyl LPs.
Sadly, the era of CDs may be coming to an end. It probably won’t happen for awhile, but the popularity (for some unknown reason) of the MP3 has severely eaten into CD sales; thankfully the rising resurgence of the LP has not been affected. I have serious issues with the MP3 becoming the de-facto format for recorded music. Sure, you can download an album in seconds without ever leaving your home – but with MP3’s there are serious trade-offs. Remember I mentioned earlier about compression? Well, with MP3s the compression is even more severe, sometimes much more severe. Music that would have a wide dynamic range on LP or CD, now sounds muddy and sounds about as good as the old AM radio stations that we used to listen to years and years ago. Unfortunately another major problem that has surfaced is the re-mastering of classic albums with the MP3 in mind. In 2010, Concord Jazz acquired the rights to Frank Sinatra’s Reprise Records catalog and many of their recent re-issues of these classic 1960’s & 1970’s albums have been re-mastered with MP3 mastering techniques appearing on the CD releases. An issue of Sinatra’s classic album Strangers in the Night (originally released in 1966 as Reprise FS-1017) has revealed a narrowed stereo image and many believe that this is a result of the album being re-mastered with the MP3 in mind. If you listen to your music the majority of the time through headphones (which in my opinion is not good for your ears, but that’s another matter) you don’t need a wide stereo field. Sorry, you can keep your MP3’s, I want music that I can listen to on my stereo not through a set of ear buds.
My collection is large, but not overwhelming, and though many who collect vinyl concentrate on one or two areas (artist, label, genre, etc.) my musical tastes are so wide and varied that I have never been able to concentrate my collecting in one or two areas. When I first started collecting I concentrated mainly on movie soundtracks and original cast albums, but as the years went on I began collecting other types of albums as well. So you’ll find a mix of pop, rock, jazz, country, classical, 12” singles, and of course soundtracks and cast albums.
With this blog, I’ll be posting items from my collection, as well as new finds that I acquire; there will also be CDs posted as well. I also hope to pique your interest in vinyl; if you had records in the past, perhaps you may want to re-acquaint yourself with the wonderful world of the vinyl album; if you are too young to remember vinyl albums, maybe through this blog you may be inspired to start your own collection. There are so many good quality, used vinyl albums out there for reasonable, if not downright cheap, prices that its easy to start collecting – and if you don’t have a turntable you can still purchase a good quality turntable for $100-$300.
HAPPY LISTENING!!!
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