Nothing new for most people here, but a nice article nonetheless.

The Wall Street Journal
POSTMODERN TIMES
JANUARY 27, 2012

It's Alive! Vinyl Makes a Comeback
By ERIC FELTEN

The digital revolution was supposed to do away with a lot of fusty old relics. First compact discs took their toll on the long-playing (and long-played) vinyl record; then iPods and digital downloads began doing the same to CDs. But long after the eulogies had been delivered, the vinyl LP has been revived.

The LP still represents just a sliver of music sales. But last year, according to Nielsen SoundScan data, while CD sales fell by more than 5%, vinyl record sales grew more than 36%.
[FELTEN] Johanna Goodman

Those who collect LPs swear by the virtues of analog.

The majority of vinyl sells in independent record stores, which have championed the format in their quixotic quest to survive. But now big-box stores such as Best Buy are carrying vinyl. Amazon—loath to let any niche escape its domination—has a "Vinyl Store" and recently introduced shipping boxes designed to coddle LP records in transit.

Not just the sales of records are growing, but the equipment to play them, too. As David Bakula, who follows LPs for Nielsen, puts it: "When I walked into Target and found turntables, then I knew we've arrived."

United Record Pressing, the Nashville factory where the Beatles' first U.S. singles were stamped nearly 50 years ago, is feeling the boom: "This plant often runs 24 hours," says Jay Millar, its marketing director.

Who's buying? Hipster-centric indie genres skew vinyl-heavy—alt rock, garage, punk. The list of last year's best-selling LPs includes discs from the Black Keys, Bon Iver, Fleet Foxes and Radiohead. Classic jazz does pretty well, and then there is classic rock: For several years running, the Beatles' "Abbey Road" (1969) has been the top-selling vinyl LP.

Which is one clue to vinyl's appeal. Yes, "Abbey Road" is an essential recording. But it also features what may be the most recognizable image in rock—the fab (and by then estranged) four scissoring across the street on a bright summer day. Such album artwork just isn't quite the same shrank down for CDs or iPods.

Then there is the sound: Those who collect LPs swear by the virtues of analog. For decades a vinyl-dedicated subset of hard-core audiophiles have resisted the digital onslaught. They've rightly derided the brittle compression of CDs and given the cold shoulder to even the more robust digital formats, such as super-audio CDs. (Don't get them started on the hopeless degradation of MP3s.)

And yet that narrow niche of audiophiles with their Ferrari-dear sound systems isn't what has kept LPs alive. Even, it would seem, in the rarefied world of classical recordings. When the San Francisco Symphony packaged its acclaimed recordings of Gustav Mahler's orchestral works, the set was first made available on SACD. But now it has been released on vinyl as well. According to the symphony's general manager, John Kieser, the idea to release "The Mahler Project" on LPs started a few years ago with his then-teenage son, who collected vinyl and insisted that music sounds different in the old analog format.

Mr. Kieser was also keeping track of the sort of sales statistics Nielsen collects. The symphony released the 22-LP Mahler box in part because "vinyl is the only hard format that has seen any growth." There were 500 boxed sets in the initial run, substantial both in price and heft—$750 and more than 30 pounds. Mr. Kieser says only one or two of the sets are left, a month after the official release.

The Mahler box features heavyweight 180-gram discs. That sort of luxury LP makes up about a quarter of the vinyl market. "It's like picking up a toaster from the '50s," says Mr. Millar of United Record Pressing. "You feel like you've got something substantial."

Substantial. That's the word I keep hearing from the fans of vinyl. Records are admirably physical, the antithesis of the everywhere-and-nowhere airiness of "the cloud."

The embrace of vinyl isn't just some retro fad, but a push-back against the techno-triumphalism that insists there is no future for physical artifacts like books and newspapers. It's a small declaration of independence, a refusal to let the march of progress stomp on one's pleasures.

Vinyl is an assertion that efficiency isn't everything. Cars may have done in the buggy, but there still are people who like horses. Engines on watercraft have long obviated the need to mess about with furling and unfurling canvas, luffing and gybing and all the other soggy inconveniences. And yet there are those who choose sailboats. Who needs wine corks when bottle-caps do the job?

Vinyl is decidedly inconvenient, which is the very reason it appeals. To play records, you have to be relatively engaged in the activity. The disc has to be taken off the shelf and out of its sleeve. It has to be placed on the platter. The needle has to be lowered just so. How different that is from the way we've been encouraged to consume music—as a sort of automated aural wallpaper best achieved by a digital playlist in shuffle mode. Vinyl demands—and encourages—more attention. "If I'm cooking or cleaning around the house, I'll plug in the iPhone or play CDs," says Nick Blandford, managing director of the Jagjaguwar record label, home to the indie-folk-rock band Bon Iver. "But if I'm sitting down deliberately to listen to music, I'll listen to vinyl."
—Write to me at EricFelten@WSJPostmodern.com.

Ivan
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Having recently gone through the whole process of mixing, mastering, and releasing a record, I had good oportunity to closely compare the master tape to the subsequent vinyl, CD, and mp3 versions. The vinyl version is closest in sound to the master tape, sounding almost identical to the master. While I'm happy with the CD, when you compare, the difference is HUGE

https://www.facebook.com/coffindagger
http://coffindaggers.com/
http://thecoffindaggers.bandcamp.com

I like the last sentence, in which the author writes, "But if I'm sitting down deliberately to listen to music, I'll listen to vinyl." That just about completely sums up my listening habits too. I shut my library door and close my eyes, and just listen, to LPs.

This is Noel. Reverb's at maximum an' I'm givin' 'er all she's got.

Here is a link to a spreadsheet with all of my records for anyone that is interested: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Ag9dyXKf2OQhdFBDem9wS3pPTUNNRWc5SHVUMEN4emc

I wish I had the discipline to put all of my albums on a spreadsheet! Nice job, Jake! And a GREAT collection I must add!

Matt "tha Kat" Lentz
Skippy and the Skipjacks: 2018-2020
Skippyandtheskipjacks.net
https://www.facebook.com/skippyandtheskipjacks
Otto and the Ottomans: 2014-2015
The Coconauts surf band: 2009-2014
www.theamazingcoconauts.com
Group Captain and the Mandrakes 2013
http://www.gcmband.com/
The Surfside IV: 2002-2005, 2008-2009
the Del-Vamps: 1992-1999, 2006-2007
http://www.dblcrown.com/delvamps.html

I've got quite a few from my teenage years. I liked that you had early Cocteau Twins and such.

Matt "tha Kat" Lentz
Skippy and the Skipjacks: 2018-2020
Skippyandtheskipjacks.net
https://www.facebook.com/skippyandtheskipjacks
Otto and the Ottomans: 2014-2015
The Coconauts surf band: 2009-2014
www.theamazingcoconauts.com
Group Captain and the Mandrakes 2013
http://www.gcmband.com/
The Surfside IV: 2002-2005, 2008-2009
the Del-Vamps: 1992-1999, 2006-2007
http://www.dblcrown.com/delvamps.html

Yeah, it is just my vinyl. I have 1200 CDs or so at last count. They are all packed away at the moment due to space issues.

I don't have Animals, but I have "Wish You Were Here" and other Floyd on CD and digital. I just don't have them on vinyl.

Of my top 10% bands, I bought all of their stuff on vinyl, but other stuff I had on CD I haven't made it priority to get that stuff on LP. I'd rather get into more stuff than to replace my CD collection.

I was going through my vinyl yesterday because I just, after several years, got another record player (freebie from my in-laws) and moved my modest stack of vinyl from a box to a shelf. I actually have original but rough copies of "The Jimi Hendrix Experience" and Pink Floyd's, "Dark Side Of The Moon" and "The Wall." I didn't remember them and have no idea how I got them. Same goes for a lot of the vinyl I've picked up here and there and not touched or looked at in years.

I don't think I've ever gotten any sound advantage from my vinyl because for my entire life, up to a few years ago, I listened to everything through a very old Panasonic stereo system with one side blown. I had to keep the volume very low to keep it from distorting. My father-in-law was kind of a home stereo guy in the '80s and gave me his old Onkyo player, which I'm connecting to the Onkyo system and small, JBL speaker cabs my wife's had since she was a kid. I imagine the speakers are a good deal better than what I got rid of. Am I going to have a revelation when I fire it up?

The Mystery Men?
El Capitan and The Reluctant Sadists
SSS Agent #31

Personally, I don't miss this hiss & pop at all.

METEOR IV on reverbnation

One think to remember, is that mastering for vinyl is different from mastering for digital in many aspects. So for a true AB test, one needs to compare the vinyl to a digitized version of the same master.

That said, even the most amazing playback of a session, is at best a recreation of the recording (incl. mics, preamps, recording media etc.), not the same and never can be as being in the same room with the musicians. Not to mention the mix (panning+dynamics at the very least) and other processes. Also, stereo (and even surround) are at best a close approximation of the real space. Most of the time it's not even meant to be.

If it sounds better than the CD version, then it just does, without need to compare it to the live session. When you record it, it's already different. I do find Digital to be taking away some of the feel, the excitement that vinyl can deliver.

Vinyl is awesome, when all the components are adequate, even on a not-super-high-end-audiophile system.