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Why I don't think I'll ever return to vinyl - brief rant

I am not a vinyl guy. I have a half decent turntable and a half decent cartridge and a mid-fi at best phono preamp.

But I do get the bug every now and again and will buy a vinyl album. These are mostly from new-ish artists. I buy them from their websites hoping to support them. Sometimes I am rewarded. Mac Saturn’s only album sounds really good. The Tesky Brother’s album Run Home Slow sounds amazing and is better than the CD and streaming options. I suspect it is less compressed.

Well, the bug bit again recently and I bought the Red Clay Stray’s double live album recorded at Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. It was $45 on their website. There is no CD for this album. The vinyl is thin. The edges are rough. They had some type of dusty residue on them. At then end of one of the album sides there was a spot that looked like some sort of stain or smudge. I cleaned the records and got all the residue off of them. But the one side with the stain on it, that produces an audible pop, would not come clean. The pop persists. It is at the very end of a song, mostly in the crowd noise but it still sucks.

I contacted ’support’ on their website but never got a reply. No big deal. Its $45 and it supports a band that I like.

But that sure puts me off from buying more vinyl.

n80
n80 OP
2,163 posts
 

@tomic601 The 350Z is indeed not made for the corners.

 

@parkergetdean I can feel the love!

mapman's avatar
mapman
23,669 posts
 

I won’t be going back to horse and buggy either. 

roadcykler
353 posts
 

News flash, most LPs from the last many years are from digital recordings but nostaligia is a heckuva drug.

mahler123
4,136 posts
 

This has been a really educational thread for me.  I don’t buy much vinyl and when I do it’s an LP that I had back in the day where I have found the digital mastering wanting for some reason.  
  The points that really interest me here are:

1) artists want to capitalize on the vinyl resurgence who can’t afford to make quality products , and who are aiming their releases and the younger unsophisticated listeners 

2) most new releases are made from digital masters.

  I feel like Mr Spock in noting that both of these points are based upon illogical premises.  Even well recorded music if packaged in an inferior delivery system (I.e. a poor quality pressing) will be problematic.  And recording in the digital domain and then embedding the files in a slab of petroleum has never made sense to me.

  However the consumers are not looking for logic but rather embracing a dogma, namely that if a file has been placed in vinyl it is by definition superior to any other medium .

  Vinyl can sound excellent, but imo every link of the chain should be analog

audphile1's avatar
audphile1
8,204 posts
 

@n80 I’ve listened to most of the Live At Ryman album. I like this band and the recording quality is great on Tidal. I looked into it some more. Same producer who is responsible for several Grammy Award albums by Chris Stapleton.
So no surprise that the recording quality is at this level. But a shame the vinyl is messed up. By the way, Amazon has it in stock and so does Music Direct. Around $30. So if you get your money back for the defective copy, you can try buying from Amazon or MD. 

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