LPs

[Santo Neuenwelt]

Saw an article today on Google News that for the first time in more than 2 decades, LPs were out selling CDs...I would be surprised if that applied to classical music. But, of course, I don't know...

Whether they are or not, I am not sorry I have hung on to my nearly two thousand LPs and two Bang and Olufsen turntables...though, I must admit, I almost never have a chance to go back and listen to them.

[terry martyn]

I have kept hold of my thousand LPs and also my B and O turntable. So you are not alone.................

[Alan Howe]

I chucked mine out years ago - scratches, swishes, end-of-side distortion and all. And good riddance. No more trying to listen to long stretches of Tristan through snaps, crackles and pops, etc...



The sales of LP will almost certainly be of pop music in which the aforementioned problems hardly matter.

[dhibbard]

oh yes  I have mine also with my turntable.   I still listen to a few LPs every weekend.

[kolaboy]

I Couldn't part with the lps. Some were terribly hard to come by...

RE the snaps, crackles, and pops.
Just pretend you're listening to Tristan next to a crackling campfire. Very bucolic. Works for moi.

[Alan Howe]

But not for me. LPs as a recording medium for classical music have had their day. I've kept a few that have sentimental value, but I've long since replaced them all with CDs.

[Justin]

I have only LPs and downloads, not CDs. The ambient noise on vinyl as well as the analog quality is appealing.

[Santo Neuenwelt]

I have been very careful almost from the start of collecting LPs using linear tracking tone arms and turntables. At the time, I had no idea CDs were coming and thought I would be listening my LPs for the next four decades so I made the effort. Also stored each LP with a plastic cover over the cardboard disk jacket. I also have used Diskwasher and a static comb and I have had very few snap, crackle and pops. Nowadays, I have no time for my LPs but they are in good shape and will go to my children, both good string players, one professional, one amateur.

I must say though that I never found the sound on vinyl superior to what I heard on CDs. Could be my ears, or it could be that subjective feeling akin to high joggers and cigar smokers often describe...

[jasthill]

I can think of at least 100 plus reasons why I have kept my LP's even though some have ended up as digital d/l's or CD's. A lot of them never made the transaction to digital - let's see: some Supraphon's of Blodek, Kittl, Martinu, a lot of Melodia's like Rozhdestvensky conducting Spendiaryan, bunches of RCA's like Toscanini Dukas Ariane et Barbe-bleue suite, Columbia's, EMI's, the list goes on.

I'd much better listen to any of them forgoing all the snap, crackle, pop, skip, struck grove, etc. then the latest wiz bang flavor of the month conductor's distinctly nuanced and uniquely articulated (or is it the other way around) interpretation of yet another iteration of the basic 50 repertory performed by most trendy HIP, chamber, or regional orchestra around. Fellow curmudgeons will understand.

[Sharkkb8]

I'd much better listen to any of them forgoing all the snap, crackle, pop, skip, struck grove, etc. then the latest wiz bang flavor of the month conductor's distinctly nuanced and uniquely articulated (or is it the other way around) interpretation of yet another iteration of the basic 50 repertory performed by most trendy HIP, chamber, or regional orchestra around. Fellow curmudgeons will understand.

I suspect most members of this forum would agree.  Certainly, it's better to own a snap-crackle-pop LP version of a favored or historic recording, than it is to *not* own a cd version of the same thing.   But let's compare apples to apples, oranges to oranges.  Take any favorite recording which is available in both formats: would you rather have/play a cd or an LP? 

My best buddy in Scotland, who owned an electronics business for decades, absolutely insists that the sound from vinyl is superior to sound from a cd.  We kid each other about it (as we do with pretty much all-things-British vs all-things-American), but I keep sending him study after study, which concludes that *if* LP sound has any superiority to that of cd's, it's far too subtle for the normal human ear to detect.  I'm perfectly open to being proven wrong on this, but I'm skeptical.  My suspicion is that any difference in the sound originates more in the specific listener's brain than in his ears.   

In my own case, I've progressed from LP's to cassette tapes to cd's, and now I have all 108,000 cd tracks digitized & in the cloud, which I can play in the whole house speakers (or anywhere in the world, for that matter) with a few mouse clicks or phone taps.  So, with the assumption of no difference in sound quality, I find this immeasurably superior to LP's, at least in a functional way. (Especially if one is worried about an earthquake tremor while that phono-needle is doing its thing on treasured, historic vinyl. I only mention because I went through all the Southern California earthquakes of the 70's, the 1989 San Francisco one, and the 6.7 in Hawai'i in 2006, shortly after we moved here.  When people find out that they're following me around, they tend to back away slowly.... )

[matesic]

I may be wrong but I don't think any new recordings of classical music are being issued on vinyl.  Pretty soon there won't be any on CD either

[Mark Thomas]

I'm firmly of the view that the superiority of vinyl over digital is in the ear of the beholder. For some, LPs as artefacts have nostalgic, aesthetic and what might be called "ritual" appeal (all the things needed to keep them in good condition and playing perfectly which Santo wrote about) with which I can entirely identify as someone with a good dose of OCD. That said, I go for the zero maintenance, spontaneity, universal availability and convenience of digital - I too am digitising all my CDs for the very reasons Sharkkb8 outlined, regaining precious space in the house and exchanging it for the ability to listen to my music whenever and wherever I want. There were a few LPs, but surprisingly few, which I digitised to preserve a particular performance not available, or repertoire not replicated, on CD, and I've also kept some of them (mostly of Raff, of course) for sentimental or "collecting" reasons, but otherwise I haven't regretted the LP>CD>digital transition for one moment. 

[terry martyn]

Maybe it´s because I am a firm supporter of the Reinecke tradition in German music, but I refused to buy a single CD until the autumn of 2017. The Tudor boxed set of Raff at a bargain price proved too much even for this particular reactionary and I have been making up for lost time in the past three years.

[MartinH]

There are indeed new classical LPs being made. Reference Recordings has quite a few, including a terrific Saint-Saens Organ Symphony and the Elgar Enigma Variations.

https://referencerecordings.com/format/lp

I, too, have kept too many LPs and other than transfer some to CD haven't listened to them in over 30 years. During this Covid lockdown I have made attempts at unloading quite a few. I imagine that someday they'll all wind up in the landfill. Same with CDs - that era is over, too, it's just that us classical types are the last holdouts. But now that concerts have all gone quiet, I never knew just how much I appreciated my collection.

[matesic]

Well, right you are! But at $35-50 per disc their appeal is what you might call "specialist"