audioexchange

You will forgive me for the semi disjointed nature of this column. There was a fair amount of “stream of thought” writing and not a lot of time.

Are Vinyl Record Buyers suckers, hobbyists or just people who never grew up?

I have thousands of records that I have been buying intermittently since the 1970s. I have a mountain of CDs and lots of SACDs, DVD audio discs, boxes of tapes, DVDs, BluRays, and hard drives full of bootlegs, high res downloads etc. And that doesn’t mention books. Enough stuff to fill a storage unit. My brother, 12 years younger, owns no physical music media, no books, no video tapes or movie discs. He could pack his life into a suitcase. Mine is full of records. My overhead – hundreds of thousands of pounds, dollars and euro over several decades. Opportunity cost – a holiday home in the South of France? Maybe.

What makes me different from my brother? I have a paid subscription to Qobuz (and Deezer), Scribd and Audible and various video streaming services, and bring a Kobo on my vacations. I only listen to records when I am sure to be left alone for more than 20 minutes at home. Otherwise, much of my listening is via iPhone or at home to Roon, streaming High Res, DSD or 16/44 from Qobuz or from my own NAS. He listens to music on a small portable bluetooth speaker So what is the point of owning all of those records (most of the CDs – except for the box sets – are actually in storage)?

One argument is that music fans just want a definitive version of their favourite recordings. I mused about this in 2013 and came down on the side of vinyl (in years that followed I developed a taste for DSD). A lot of folks out there clearly think the same way. It is completism. And, yes it is bonkers to have 8 different vinyl versions of “Exile on Main Street” or, in my case, “Kind of Blue.” It’s your business unless the kids are starving. In my home country approximately €1000 is gambled (most of it lost) per person per year. That grand will buy a lot of records (or one copy of Bill Evans Riversides from Acoustic Sounds). Buy a new car – 25% of it’s value is lost year one. Sometimes more. Drink “gourmet” coffee, buy lottery tickets, buy branded groceries, smoke? Then don’t judge my record buying habits.

Music is life. Each one of our lives has a soundtrack. It doesn’t matter if your musical life started with the Wombles, Gary Glitter, ABBA, Girls Aloud or Ariana Grande. Your memories are encased in music. It entertains us, relaxes us, cheers us up when we are down, prods us awake in the car, keeps us company when we are alone. It can be a shared experience amongst strangers or provide a bond between friends and lovers.

During my teenage years most people were interested in only music and sport (preferably both). Your tribe was your friends with whom you would argue endlessly about the music you liked and loathed. As we grew older and drifted apart, I wondered if their passion remained or was it replaced by the mundane life experience of work, the family, the bins, the garden and the pub. For me music was and has been a constant, a hobby. A distraction.

I believe that the world is divided into the following groups: 1. Casual listeners; 2. Fans of artists – who follow certain artists and groups and go to concerts and buy merch etc; 3. Music fans – who spend a lot of money at concerts, buy a lot of audio product or both, and read books and magazines about music and musicians; 4. Record collectors – often being more interested in the provenance and value of the product than the contents; 5. Audiophiles – who are more interested in the sound of their system than the music that they are playing on it; 6. People who have no interest in music (complete weirdos in other words).

Realistically, most audiophiles love music – maybe not a diverse range. Most record collectors have audiophile tendencies and have their own favourite recordings. Most music fans like to hear good reproduction of the products that they buy. A lot of this is based on income. If I was rich I would have a state of the art audiophile system in a purpose built room adjacent to my purpose built audio library. Most of the time I am listening to music on my iPad (Roon>iPad>Chord Mojo>Sennheiser HD800 – not shitty Beats headphones).

Are vinyl record buyers just suckers when we can stream HiRes digital from Qobuz/Amazon/Tidal?

Sometimes records just sound so much better than their digital counterparts. I have been listening to Lennie Niehaus’ small group recordings, for Contemporary Records, for several months. It astonishing how much energy and musicality that engineer John Palladino was able to encode on wax – that really is absent on digital versions of the albums. These are, of course, original pressings or early reissues not 21^st century “audiophile” remasters. While I was really looking forward to the Acoustic Sounds Contemporary Records reissues series  – particularly having watched the video featuring John Koenig, Chad Kassem and Bernie Grundman mastering the records in 2015 – aside from “Art Pepper Meets the Rhythm Section” in mono (appropriately released with the “Stereo Records” label) – I haven’t been overly impressed. And this is the crux of the reissue business. Viny reissues may be a lot better than CDs, but they are not necessarily better than the original records. Moreover, and certainly this is the case with the Blue Note Tone Poets, often the reissues are selling a lot more copies than the album sold back in the 1950s and 60s.

Why do we buy reissues? I believe that there are ten reasons for buying vinyl reissues:

1. Original pressings and even all analogue reissues are extremely rare and prohibitively expensive. This is very much the case with the Blue Note catalogue.
2. When released on vinyl, previously, the sound was really bad – this was particularly the case of the limited amount of vinyl that was produced and sold between 1998 and 2012: really lazy CD mastered onto vinyl.
3. Original vinyl pressings in really good condition pressed on high quality vinyl that sound good are really hard to find. This is true of popular 1970s and 1980s vinyl releases – and is the reason why Better Records are in business.
4. A lot of people are nostalgic for the records of their childhood – but their records are scratched to pieces and now that they have bought a turntable they want a fresh copy. Hence – the gazillion digitally derived copies of Dark Side of the Moon that are sold each year.
5. A lot of people are nostalgic for CDs of their childhood and want a vinyl copy – which they may never play.
6. Record companies hype 180g vinyl as audiophile and people believe that these new pressings are superior to originals.
7. Records bought to decorate the apartment and indicate “good taste” – no turntable; enough said.
8. Records bought as investment vehicles or collectors items for future profit – hmm. This goes on a lot – and is a real problem with “Record Store (->ebay) Day.”
9. “I’m a hipster, records are cool” – well this is obviously true even if you are a dick and you buy your records from clothes shops.
10. Compulsion – buying records is your hobby, just as stamp collecting might be or historic movie posters or artwork. It’s your thing. I believe that most of these people (and I think I am one) love music but not necessarily all of the music that they buy on vinyl.

At the end of the day there are really two types of people who buy vinyl: the ones who listen to their records and the ones who don’t. Amongst the latter are the collectors who are afraid to devalue the product and the hipsters and others who are more interested in image than audiophilia.

Do records sound better than CDs or High Res Audio files (including DSD)?

A lot of the time – yes. And this is not because there is some inherent flaw in vinyl that convinces our brains that it sounds better.

Psychoacoustics

From my own experience – and I cannot explain why – it is much easier to sit down and listen to records (whether derived from analogue tape or digital) than to digital formats – it is less fatiguing. And most audiophiles will say the same thing. And I love digital for its precision, dynamic range, clarity and convenience. However, I am still not certain, after 40 years, that digital recording and digital to analogue conversion has really managed to be fully transparent. I have a Benchmark DAC and Poweramp that sound absolutely extraordinary playing digital material – astonishing levels of detail that would really wow a visitor to the house as a demo. But sustained listening is not an option – and I play my records back through a tube poweramp.

Mastering

Since 1994 – digital releases have significant bass boost and dynamic range compression. This makes hearing your album on a car’s CD system easier (overcoming the engine noise – prior to electric vehicles). It may be beneficial in the club or pub – by it is really unpleasant for home listening. This “loudness” process is also a major problem with pretty much all digital reissues from 1996 to 2016 (and most CDs still have a lot of compression). Modern records tend to centre the bass and widen the dynamic range – otherwise the needle will not stay in the groove. They are not loud. Compare a modern record to it’s CD equivalent and there is a huge dynamic range difference.

If you watch the Abbey Road and Analogue Productions videos here you will see the value of good mastering. Engineers spend weeks and months carefully constructing albums in their studios – and then the mastering engineer either botches the CD or brickwalls it (on request from the artist). With high quality vinyl (and SACD) reissues from companies like AP, MOFI, Speakers Corner etc. a flat transfer of the album will be mastered and the record will sound significantly better.

The Listening Experience

I believe that frustration with the music industry’s inability to move physical media forward has led to the “vinyl renaissance” – which has directly benefitted the music industry. Two generations – mine (Gen X) and those in their 20s – early 30s have embraced vinyl out of frustration. The want carefully curated physical product to spend their disposable income on. Millennials don’t care – they stream.

Beware Rant Ahead:
The music industry has failed miserably in the digital era to provide us with an enhanced experience when listening to digital media. People like record covers. They enjoy reading the blurb on the back cover. I can’t even read the liner notes on CDs these days without a magnifying glass. They did make an effort with CD-interactive content and Dual Disc – and certainly Deluxe Editions contained DVD videos and concerts. But this became moot in the Youtube era. SACD, DVD-Audio and Pure Audio Blu Ray were introduced and abandoned rapidly.
Worse is the ridiculous situation with SuperDeluxe Editions that contain CDs, DVDs, BluRays (Pink Floyd the Later Years) and, frequently, Vinyl as well. I cannot think of any reason why anyone who would lay down real money for a box set would even want a DVD when they can have a BluRay and I hate the cynicism of the record companies who force fans the pay $100 + tax for the SDE so that they can get a 5.1 version of their favourite album – in a big unnecessary box including several CDs filled with material that few listeners want.

The Value of Discogs / eBay and others

Most of the records that I buy these days are from Record Shops around Europe that use the Discogs platform (unfortunately the UK is no longer really an option). Whenever I travel, I visit record shops and dig through the bins – new and used. It is a great way to pass an hour. Unfortunately most of what is in the bins is dross. Forget about second hand records anywhere in Mediterranean Europe (bad pressings) and Ireland (overpriced and poor condition along with poor range). Northern Europe, UK, Germany and Scandinavia are good for second hand records. Most of which are dross. You are not going to find a first pressing of a Gerry Mulligan Pacific Jazz album in the “Jazz” bins of a random record shop in a touristy area. What you will find is a 1970s or 80s reissue – that may or may not sound good – at a reasonable price. It would take me 5 seconds to find the original album on Discogs. My experience is that I am much more likely to buy second rate records in mediocre condition directly from a record shop (when I am in a bit of a rush) than from (notoriously overgraded) Discogs.

Discogs and Ebay have been a major advance in the new analogue era by liberating record collections from the attic and providing those of us living in vinyl deserts with online oases.

Completism

Is completism the quickest route to insanity?

My heart goes out to the elderly man who paid $3000 for the MOFI one-step copy of Abraxis. He wanted the “complete set.” I recall reading forums a decade or so back, where a couple of participants described how they bought the entire Music Matters Blue Note set (it was subscription based back then to get the numbered editions): they bought 2 copies of each release – one to listen to and one “mint” to collect. Thankfully, Blue Note decided to toss in a Casandara Wilson album early in the Tone Poet series, so I wouldn’t go all completist. I’m sure that there are volumes of psychology periodicals that explain the mindset of the collector and marketing textbooks and seminars that seek to educate business people in how to exploit them. It is important to separate normal from dysfunctional psychology. People who collect “stuff” are all a bit odd; completists are odder still. Having the “ultimate” sounding version of recording is a version of completism. Save you condensation for QAnon followers.

What has changed for me since 2013?

By 2013, I had good vinyl copies of most of my favourite records (I eventually got a copy of Skylarking – I prefer the newer 33rpm) – is that my new music exploration – primed by streaming – has been in vintage records from international sellers at reasonable prices. In the description above I am 25% music fan, 25% record collector, 25% audiophile and 25% fan of specific artists and record labels. I have acquired 50+ year old records, sealed, tore open the packaging and played the album immediately.

I play my records. Do you?

Final Thoughts

Record Store Day – in general a good idea, but records are overpriced and overrated. A RSD sticker on an album or single seems to increase the asking price by 50%. I really don’t like RSD exclusives – particularly if the numbers pressed are very few – as it discriminates against enthusiasts who don’t live near record shops. Allowing online retail after 24 hours is a good step forward, nonetheless.

Picture Discs – no no no no no. These are souvenirs. They should never ever be part of a Super Deluxe Box set (Tattoo You).

Coloured Vinyl – nearly all coloured vinyl is pressed at GZ. Vinyl Me Please seem to do everything – unnecessarily – on coloured vinyl but the records sound really good. I am completely ambivalent: I would choose clear (natural) first, then black. I can see why some people think coloured vinyl is cool (one of the Lennie Niehaus singles from 1954 above picture came in red translucent vinyl). Nearly all new release records come in “limited edition coloured vinyl” editions for about 25% more than the basic black. This is total bollocks. Do fans buy multiple copies in multiple different vinyl colours – I suspect so. Whatever.

Warps / Off Centre Pressings / Infill – seems to be a problem although if you read the forums it seems that some people are either extremely picky or extremely unlucky. I have had bad experiences with Amazon deliveries from the US – almost always warped and difficult to return (I suspect that they leave the boxes out in the sun in Atlanta). Overall, I seem to be lucky and – you can always return the record to the shop or to the online retailer. Most infill issues are resolved by playing the record.

Buying from Discogs – can be a bit of a “crapshoot” – the best approach is to find reliable sellers will large numbers (or, surprisingly, a small number – usually people selling their collections – they tend to be honest) of reviews. Search the reviews for “overgraded” or evidence that disputes have been “resolved” (i.e. the buyer was pissed off about overgraded vinyl and got a refund of sorts). Avoid these. Again, Northern European’s tend to grade correctly, and Southern Europeans – well I have had some bad experience (WTTJ in Rome is a major exception, they are great) particularly in Italy (a place where they have lots of great used vinyl – you just have to dig it out).

I’ll update this if I think of anything else.

Abbey Road Use Benchmark DACs and ADCs

~ by Pat Neligan on July 28, 2022.

Posted in High Resolution, Retromania, Vinyl
Tags: Audiophile, Audiophile Vinyl, audiophiles, blue note 80, DSD, record collectors, Streaming, vinyl buyers, vinyl reissues