Why vinyl?

Hi William!

Yes, I can see that, like Elmucy, that if ticks and pops just happened to drive you crazy that going analog would not be for you. I would say that, yes, I don't like them either, but I've also found that as my analog rig has gotten better, and I've used a record cleaning machine, and taken care of my records in that context, that such distractions have lessened significantly.

I know that there are some people that will never get past the ticks, but with the above progression, I think, if you allowed yourself to go that way, many of those people might find that the remaining ticks become, for listening purposes, insignificant.

Tape: ends up running through your fingers like sand...

On analog vs. CD, its an old topic, and I keep up with it, like many do, because every once in a while someone gets a TT and gets terrifically juiced about our 'lil mutual quest. How can that be bad?

I like vinyl for the "cheapness". Just today I bought a stack of 45's and a couple LP's at Goodwill for four dollars. Last week, I was in the next town north of where I live picking up some VW parts I bought off of E bay; I casually mentioned that I had fixed a turntable I got off of E bay. He said, You listen to records??? and then went inside and got a stack of records - mostly rock from the sixties an early seventies and asked, Is Fifteen dollars fair??? I said yes!
Even in High School in the eighties, I bought new records for eight or nine dollars each instead of a CD for fifteen. The sound was great to me then, and I had one of those "linear tracking", "P-mount" turntables. I'd record those records on a cassette and after buying the blank cassette, it was still less than the price of a new CD. I still play those cassettes, and they still sound good to me.
All of those records I bought new in the eighties are still at my mom's house, mostly unplayed for the past fifteen years. I finally got myself a "good" turntable, and records sound better than ever - from old Beach Boys and Temptations, to Virgil Fox and E. Power Biggs on the Organ, to some new 2002, unopend, hip hop records I bought the last time I was in the City...
I do buy CDs now, but most of my CD's are bought directly from "small-time", independent musicians and bands that I hear live. I always buy the CD when the musician or band sells them after the show. Never does the CD sound as good as the live performance.
I did buy the Alan Parsons project CD that was released around 1992. I thought the sound was harsh (on a late eighties Kyocera CD player) I recorded it onto a cassette, and that smoothed out the sound, to my ears. But that is a different issue, the variances from cassette deck to cassette deck and variances between brands and types of casette tapes. -JB

no one loves vinyl more than me...but its about the music..not the software..how can anyone say that compact discs are a bad thing if they get the masses to spend more time playing music.

I agree with that too jrd, wholeheartedly. But it would be nice if they could hear analog too - good analog - and make their decision from that point of reference, if they are so inclined. Good point to remember though.

It is about two years ago, that I started experimenting with open reel tapes again, comparing Studer and Otari machines and finally settling for an Otari, where good ICs and PCs made the biggest difference. I built up a small collection of r2r tapes through Ebay and found the sound of big bands like Hampton's, Basie's and Ellington of course simply stunning. Tape hiss was minimal. The same experience with classical music tapes, even most of the DGGs were excellent. Well recorded tapes have a better presence and immediacy than the LPs of the same performance, so I must say, that Elmuncy really does raise a good question. Comparing CDs to tapes, especially with classical music makes me want to get rid of my CD-rig and buying more old tapes for the money even more than I would, when comparing those silver things to vinyl. Listening to a well set up r2r frontend really drives home the bitter thought, how much has been lost and how music lovers all over the world have been misled and cheated by those perpetrators of "perfect sound forever".