Vinyl is Better for Listening

   I was thinking the other day, there are a crazy amount of options if you wanted to listen to music. I mean how exactly do you listen to whatever your're into, like the iPod or other portable .mp3 player device. They're great for on the go listening while in the car or exercising it's also probably the most popular way in this era. But I was thinking about all the ways I've used, besides my iPod, like cd's, the cassette tape, vinyl records, and eight tracks. And okay, I'm not old enough to have actually used the eight track format in any real capacity, but I know what they are and at one point had a player for them. The cassette is what I used most growing up, I had a few in my collection I listened to constantly, and then cd's became popular when I had a way, which wasn't very good, but a way none the less to get some money, so I have a collection of cd's that is almost respectable. However, all that being said my favorite way to listen to music are vinyl records. I had barely a few as a small child, and even now I really don't have that many  and those that I do have have a special place. I'm not Rob from High Fidelity, though I would not mind having that deep of a collection at all.

     First things first, when you use the vinyl format to listen to music, you're most likely settling down to give whatever you put on an actual listen, because there aren't exactly portable players for these things. I'm not saying you can't do anything else, you can, but if you are going to take the time to bust out the record I think you're more likely to pay attention to the music. When was the last time you took the time to listen to you're favorite album and really took in the beat and followed the bass line, or followed the notes on the guitar solos, even followed the flow of lyrics on some good hip-hop. Most likely it's been awhile, maybe you should take the time and rediscover what made you like that particular album to begin with.

     Secondly, I like the physically bigger format. It makes for bigger artwork, and I love sitting there listening and studying the album cover, going over the songs on the back one by one so I can learn the names of them instead of just saying, "Well yeah that third track was awesome".  And on one of the records I do have, Alanis Morissette's Suppsed Former Infatuation Junkie, which is a double album, so not only do you have to flip the record over, but there are actually two of them for four sides of awesome, when you open it up on the left side is all the lyrics to all the songs in one place, not in a little booklet like you get in cd's. And just the records themselves have a good asthetic look to them. As colorful as the bottom of a cd might be as light reflects off the bottom, no matter how closely you look you can't really tell where one song stops and the other beginns. On a record however you can see all the bands representing the music, if you inspect closer the way the light makes the rings on the record have a shimmer to them, that's all the grooves imprinted on the media. You have a physical representation of the music, that's something you don't have on a majority of formats.

     Lastly, and most importantly of all, is the way they sound. Today's .mp3 and other digital formats leave music very clean, which is good for many things, but it also leaves something behind. That staticy hiss before the beginnging and all the slight imperfections really give the record a real soul like quality to them. It's the analog quality to the music that gives it that. Just putting on record in the turntable and dropping the needle on and watching it spin around in circles makes it feel special. If you bought a song off itunes or amazon and got something that sounded like that it';d be a little dissapointing, because you know that they couldv'e used a higher bitrate, or had a cleaner file, ubt the record has a definite charm to the quality.

     Listening to vinyl records is not for everyone. The person who needs clean sounding audio can be a real stickler for what makes a record a record, but those who choose to sit and listen to not just music, but the subtle undertones of the format itself know there in for something special every time they put on a record.

   I was thinking the other day, there are a crazy amount of options if you wanted to listen to music. I mean how exactly do you listen to whatever your're into, like the iPod or other portable .mp3 player device. They're great for on the go listening while in the car or exercising it's also probably the most popular way in this era. But I was thinking about all the ways I've used, besides my iPod, like cd's, the cassette tape, vinyl records, and eight tracks. And okay, I'm not old enough to have actually used the eight track format in any real capacity, but I know what they are and at one point had a player for them. The cassette is what I used most growing up, I had a few in my collection I listened to constantly, and then cd's became popular when I had a way, which wasn't very good, but a way none the less to get some money, so I have a collection of cd's that is almost respectable. However, all that being said my favorite way to listen to music are vinyl records. I had barely a few as a small child, and even now I really don't have that many  and those that I do have have a special place. I'm not Rob from High Fidelity, though I would not mind having that deep of a collection at all.

     First things first, when you use the vinyl format to listen to music, you're most likely settling down to give whatever you put on an actual listen, because there aren't exactly portable players for these things. I'm not saying you can't do anything else, you can, but if you are going to take the time to bust out the record I think you're more likely to pay attention to the music. When was the last time you took the time to listen to you're favorite album and really took in the beat and followed the bass line, or followed the notes on the guitar solos, even followed the flow of lyrics on some good hip-hop. Most likely it's been awhile, maybe you should take the time and rediscover what made you like that particular album to begin with.

     Secondly, I like the physically bigger format. It makes for bigger artwork, and I love sitting there listening and studying the album cover, going over the songs on the back one by one so I can learn the names of them instead of just saying, "Well yeah that third track was awesome".  And on one of the records I do have, Alanis Morissette's Suppsed Former Infatuation Junkie, which is a double album, so not only do you have to flip the record over, but there are actually two of them for four sides of awesome, when you open it up on the left side is all the lyrics to all the songs in one place, not in a little booklet like you get in cd's. And just the records themselves have a good asthetic look to them. As colorful as the bottom of a cd might be as light reflects off the bottom, no matter how closely you look you can't really tell where one song stops and the other beginns. On a record however you can see all the bands representing the music, if you inspect closer the way the light makes the rings on the record have a shimmer to them, that's all the grooves imprinted on the media. You have a physical representation of the music, that's something you don't have on a majority of formats.

     Lastly, and most importantly of all, is the way they sound. Today's .mp3 and other digital formats leave music very clean, which is good for many things, but it also leaves something behind. That staticy hiss before the beginnging and all the slight imperfections really give the record a real soul like quality to them. It's the analog quality to the music that gives it that. Just putting on record in the turntable and dropping the needle on and watching it spin around in circles makes it feel special. If you bought a song off itunes or amazon and got something that sounded like that it';d be a little dissapointing, because you know that they couldv'e used a higher bitrate, or had a cleaner file, ubt the record has a definite charm to the quality.

     Listening to vinyl records is not for everyone. The person who needs clean sounding audio can be a real stickler for what makes a record a record, but those who choose to sit and listen to not just music, but the subtle undertones of the format itself know there in for something special every time they put on a record.

I like vinyls, I have lots of vinyls.

It's just plain fact that vinyl sounds better because it's analogue and not digital. But really, I listen to most music when I'm out and about, so vinyl is more of a rare listening treat for me.

Fuck yeahhh

I think having nostalgia for technology is stupid. That is like saying I watch VHS tapes because I like having the case with the artwork and having a feeling of anticipation while I am rewinding them. If those artists, let's say 30 years ago, had the technology we have today to make music sound how it does do you think they would have used it? They did the best with what they could.

" I think having nostalgia for technology is stupid. That is like saying I watch VHS tapes because I like having the case with the artwork and having a feeling of anticipation while I am rewinding them. If those artists, let's say 30 years ago, had the technology we have today to make music sound how it does do you think they would have used it? They did the best with what they could. "

" @MisterChief said:

" I think having nostalgia for technology is stupid. That is like saying I watch VHS tapes because I like having the case with the artwork and having a feeling of anticipation while I am rewinding them. If those artists, let's say 30 years ago, had the technology we have today to make music sound how it does do you think they would have used it? They did the best with what they could. "

Sound quality on Vinyl sounds better than mp3s and CD's....its not about how the music sounds its about convenience, CDs are more accessible and portable as are mp3s....and many artists still release there albums on Vinyl and Vinyl still sells well so its not about nostalgia its about people wanting a different music experience and that is what Vinyl gives you and that is why it is still significant today and why VHS isn't....you can't compare VHS to Vinyl they are in two separate industries. "

" @MisterChief said:

" I think having nostalgia for technology is stupid. That is like saying I watch VHS tapes because I like having the case with the artwork and having a feeling of anticipation while I am rewinding them. If those artists, let's say 30 years ago, had the technology we have today to make music sound how it does do you think they would have used it? They did the best with what they could. "

Sound quality on Vinyl sounds better than mp3s and CD's....its not about how the music sounds its about convenience, CDs are more accessible and portable as are mp3s....and many artists still release there albums on Vinyl and Vinyl still sells well so its not about nostalgia its about people wanting a different music experience and that is what Vinyl gives you and that is why it is still significant today and why VHS isn't....you can't compare VHS to Vinyl they are in two separate industries. "

" @Unknown_Pleasures: Also, MP3's are the shittiest audio format for computers. Even the highest bitrate can't compare to something like OGG or even FLAC "

I like vinyl because I love huge album art. Also I am a collector so the more shit to pile up on my shelves, the better.  
 
Also: Vinyl only crackles if it's old, hasn't been taken care of well or you need a new needle. Most of my vinyl is brand new and it sounds absolutely crystal clear. 

" I like vinyl because I love huge album art. Also I am a collector so the more shit to pile up on my shelves, the better.   Also: Vinyl only crackles if it's old, hasn't been taken care of well or you need a new needle. Most of my vinyl is brand new and it sounds absolutely crystal clear.  "

So we have decided that vinyl is for collectors, makes sense.  Of course I'd rather display a vinyl collection then displaying my cds or my digital collection. Alas, I'm not buying all my favourite electronic music on vinyl imported from Europe, I'd rather have money then be broke with a nice collection sitting on my shelf.

Have fun with your overpriced Placebo you silly audiophiles. As long as the MP3 is above 192 kbps there is no difference in quality.

Digital formats can be better quality than vinyl. For a start, CDs have greater dynamic range (the differences between silences and loud bits) than vinyl. Vinyl can have far superiour frequency response, since CD formats brick-wall the high frequencies above 20kHz because of the sampling rate.
 
If you have good audio equipment, it is quite easy telling the difference between 128k, 192k and 320k mp3s. Since WAV files are lossless, they potentially sound identical to CDs. 
 
Most vinyl is pressed from digital sources anyway (with DDA or DAA mastering). Here is a huge difference in the quality of pressed vinyl, so early pressings sound far better than the last LPs of the press. I say this as one who owns a very expensive record deck. 

" @Unknown_Pleasures said:

" @MisterChief said:

" I think having nostalgia for technology is stupid. That is like saying I watch VHS tapes because I like having the case with the artwork and having a feeling of anticipation while I am rewinding them. If those artists, let's say 30 years ago, had the technology we have today to make music sound how it does do you think they would have used it? They did the best with what they could. "

Sound quality on Vinyl sounds better than mp3s and CD's....its not about how the music sounds its about convenience, CDs are more accessible and portable as are mp3s....and many artists still release there albums on Vinyl and Vinyl still sells well so its not about nostalgia its about people wanting a different music experience and that is what Vinyl gives you and that is why it is still significant today and why VHS isn't....you can't compare VHS to Vinyl they are in two separate industries. "

You think it sounds better. MP3's are more crisp and clear. I don't like hearing static and crackling through out my music. I guess you do. "

I've not had a lot of experience with vinyl but what I have heard is somewhat better sounding. It's clearer.

A Perfect Circle's Thirteenth Step is a beautiful thing on vinyl.  

" A Perfect Circle's Thirteenth Step is a beautiful thing on vinyl.   "

MP3's FTW !!

If it's hip hop or drum & bass you're mixing, it's got to be vinyl. You need that wax under your hands to work the tunes to the illest degree. 1:1 analogue manipulation, superior beat juggling and scratching, no audio compression and lovely stinking bass on large speaker setups. That's not to say digital files are not without their merits, of course; you can't carry around 10,000 12 inch vinyls in your pocket now can you?
 
The Serato system is pretty great, combing real vinyl and huge digital libraries.

Vinyl is best. There is no conversation to be had here.

    "...if you are going to take the time to bust out the record I think you're more likely to pay attention to the music."

Not true at all. If you sit down to listen to music you are going to pay more attention to the music. It doesn't matter what format you listen on, it's the mental state of the moment that matters.

When was the last time you took the time to listen to you're favorite album and really took in the beat and followed the bass line, or followed the notes on the guitar solos, even followed the flow of lyrics on some good hip-hop. (sic)

Last night I went to bed, put on my Sennheisers and listened to music before I went to sleep. This morning I walked to work and I spent a half-hour, just me, the music, and my undivided attention. That is normal for a lot of music fans I know, I'm not saying everyone does, yet from my experience it's something common no one really talks about.
 

when you open it up on the left side is all the lyrics to all the songs in one place, not in a little booklet like you get in cd's.

 Yet iTunes has a habit of giving those booklets out when you buy the full album. It auto-downloads lyrics, in some cases even if the albums liner notes don't include lyrics. You sometimes get music videos and other digital goods that look massive, clear, and detailed on a TV or monitor (generally larger than the twelve inches or so of vinyl).

And just the records themselves have a good asthetic look to them. As colorful as the bottom of a cd might be as light reflects off the bottom, no matter how closely you look you can't really tell where one song stops and the other beginns. On a record however you can see all the bands representing the music, if you inspect closer the way the light makes the rings on the record have a shimmer to them, that's all the grooves imprinted on the media.

Okay, now you just sound like your high. *Puff puff* "Duuude, man. Have you ever really sat there and appreciated the shimmer of reflected light on my vinyl? *puff* It's proof of god man."  Yeah, that statement is just a fallacy, yet , "you can't really tell where one song stops and the other beginns." (sic) So what? Why would you need to? Any CD player or mp3 player that is worth while gives you track information. Skipping a song only needs the quick press of a button. Not Staring at a record for five seconds, hoping that the place you put the needle is roughly where the track starts. Plus, you do not need to flip a CD like you do a vinyl. These are two properties of digital media that significantly enhance the usability of the format. I can now just listen to an album from start to finish without having to get up and breaking concentration, or the flow of music.
 

You have a physical representation of the music, that's something you don't have on a majority of formats.

   You know what? I agree that the physical representation of an album in nice, yet vinyl takes up an incredible amount of space when compared to CD's or digital. I have collected almost two thousand Cd's in my lifetime and you know what? I'm done. I have no more room for CD's that I only enjoy a couple of tracks on. I ripped them to digital, then shoved em in the attic at my parents house.  Now I have over a terabyte of music that I can bring with me anywhere and play them on almost anything. At my friends house and want to listen to an album? Well, I will just hook it to his TV. At my parents house? Well, I will plug it into his stereo receiver. 

   Today's .mp3 and other digital formats leave music very clean, which is good for many things, but it also leaves something behind. That staticy hiss before the beginnging and all the slight imperfections really give the record a real soul like quality to them.

  From my experience, the only time vinyl sounds better is on old albums where the static and hissing is used to mask the mono tones from a too old condenser microphone.
 

Just putting on record in the turntable and dropping the needle on and watching it spin around in circles makes it feel special. 

 Two words. Operant Conditioning. At a young age you associated the idea of listening to music with a ritual of sorts. From carefully extracting the record, to placing it on a turntable where the album span for a few seconds while you align the needle just right. Eventually you find your place and drop the needle down creating a screech just audible enough to be recognizable.  All of this for the reward of music.

" Have fun with your overpriced Placebo you silly audiophiles. As long as the MP3 is above 192 kbps there is no difference in quality. "

Vinyls do not sound better than CDs, that's a common misconception. Most digital formats are much cleaner than vinyl. If you like the sound of white noise, then yes, a vinyl sounds better to you. Quality-wise, though, most digital formats are better.
 
As to your position that the attitude one has when they listen to vinyl is different, and makes the music sound better. Well, there's no arguing with that point, as it is purely opinion and perception, and not substantial or fact.

I'm not going to sit here and go all audiophile on people, because it's rather silly and comes off as elitist. Vinyl as a medium for consuming music in a mass form simply doesn't make sense technologically, and is far too indulgent for the masses anyways. It's expensive, bulky, and so forth. I don't need to go through the pros and cons, you guys know them already.
 
However, there is one thing that I think the original post really pushes, and I think it's important. Vinyl above all is a great collectible and can show a great passion for music that an MP3 collection can't.
 
I think a CD collection can carry a lot of the same passion and weight as well, but vinyl is just a great collectible because of it's grandeur and huge artwork and bonuses. I don't like to prey on the nostalgia of vinyl however, because I think that is far too retroactive of a mindset. I'd love to one day create a really great vinyl collection,but it's just too expensive right now. I've got way better ways to spend the money.

good times with vinyl. i don't really remember a lot of it because i was to young but i do remember listening to some star wars read a long book. when it was time to turn the page R2-D2 would beep. 
 
i am now a CD person. i still buy CD's from amazon and best buy when there is a new album coming out. i also download but that is when it's just an alright album.  some people are still like why do you still buy CD's? i'm just like meh because i like them. they are better than mp3 though. 
 
so how about used vinyls? sometimes you will find blunts from people smoking pot when they use to listen to their vinyls. my brother tells me when he finds them when ever i see him. pretty funny stuff. 
 

I buy CDs. Fuckever.

Violins sound shit on CDs.

Ultimately, the only true fallacy is thinking bitrates and format types actually matter in the end. Like 5.1 sound ;)

I'm a fan of vinyls, and here's why. I use Spotify everyday, all day, when I'm on my computer. I cannot run my computer without having Spotify playing in the background. This in turn makes me a mass consumer of music, and it kinda makes music into something that you put on just to have a background noise... which is kinda sad actually. When I go out and actually buy a vinyl I do it because I just love the music, and I will take time to actually listen to it. Like OP said, there's a process involved if you wanna listen to vinyl. You need to set shit up for it to work, touch the record etc, so if you gone through all that, you better be listening to it.
 
You could argue that CDs are just as good or better in audio quality, but it doesnt matter. Its not about how clear and crisp the music is. Right now, I got an oooold ass Ella Fitzgerald vinyl playing and it got scratches all over the place, and the recording is kinda bad (also, she forgets the lyrics all the time, its basically all scat singing, which is no problem at all :D) but the bad quality and scratches makes it come alive.
 
I'm into electronic music so theres a lot of records to pick up. I went to Berlin this summer and visited Space Hall (if you get a chance, go visit!) and they have rows of white labels, unlabled and just pure gems you never heard before. And you can only find them on vinyl. I found a mysterious, limited, rather unknown Aphex Twin record there. Also, it feels good finding classics like this :)
 
Also, they can be fucking amazing looking, like Brian Eno new album.
 
TL:DR: Spotify for everyday use, Vinyl for special occasions.

From my admittedly limited experience directly comparing digital and vinyl versions of a couple songs on my dad's rather nice sound system, the vinyl sounded leagues better. It was frankly shocking. I was just listening to the Star Wars sound track, and my dad noticed. He said, "Hey check this out," and pulled out the sound track on vinyl. The bass had so much more impact, it was almost like listening to a different song. Now, it's possible that the DAC that was outputting the digital music was just balls, but that's just another point in vinyl's favor. With a record, there is no DAC to screw up the sound. I don't have the money or room for a vinyl collection, but if I did that would be my medium of choice. 
 
Maybe I should also mention that my dad builds speakers and amps as a hobby. He knows a thing or two about audio equipment. My own sound system was built by him and given to me for Christmas a few years ago.

I totally thought that the title said "Vinny is better for listening".

lossless FLAC files are way better because they sound great, are portable, and uhh aren't fucking vinyl. Seriously, buying records makes no sense to me in 2010. 

" It's just plain fact that vinyl sounds better because it's analogue and not digital. But really, I listen to most music when I'm out and about, so vinyl is more of a rare listening treat for me. "

The scratches and crackling is just part of the experience. When I listen to some old jazz, I want to hear that crackling, because it's sort of a part of the music at that point.
 
I don't listen to vinyls. Neither does my dad. He has some, but he doesn't listen to them. Mostly because he has some pretty valuable ones (as in, he has old Beatles, Cream, I think Jimi, and Led Zeppelin vinyls, and they've all only been played once).

" @TrippinBungalow:   You're clearly dyslexic. "

A few months ago I decided to stop buying CDs, of which I have about 250, and decided to buy everything on vinyl instead. Especially since most records these days include a download code for the album, it just made sense considering every CD I buy gets imported to iTunes then just sits on my shelf collecting dust.
 
Latest purchase:

The amount of negativity in this thread is kind of unsettling - surely everyone can see that vinyl can evoke a certain appreciation from people, be it the aesthetics, the nostalgia or the ritual. Let those people enjoy that - don't try and convince me they are 'wrong'. 
 
Also, all this going back and forth about superior quality is so stupid. Obviously comparing a FLAC to vinyl is a completely different story to comparing a shitty MP3 - can we at least agree that it's a fucking travesty 95% of the world doesn't mind 128kbp/s or worse? And obviously brand new vinyl sounds amazing and jazz EPs from the fifties might have crackles.
 
And it's kind of funny that no one mentioned that the ORIGINAL RECORDING FORMAT MAKES ALL THE FUCKING DIFFERENCE. Sure, ProTools mixes dumped onto a vinyl were digital to begin with, so you're not going to get any enhanced fidelity. Albums recorded directly onto analogue tape however is a different story - see if you can't hear the difference between a pre-digital and post-digital version of whatever recording that was originally analogue.  And yes, lots of recording artists still record to tape solely because, IT SOUNDS FUCKING AWESOME. Unless you're listening to the CD, that is.
 
Just to be clear I'm not hating on CDs, their bitrate will sound fine on most systems, but to say that nothing is lost from going digital doesn't even make sense from a physics standpoint.
 
And comparing a nice physical piece of artwork to a JPEG from iTunes, let's not even go there.

Vinyl records are great for collectors and for idiots like me who are constantly scratching and losing cases for their CDs. There's nothing quite like finding a record in a thrift store bargain bin of some obscure artist who you like but was never put onto CD. Pairing these with a nice new USB turntable, you get the best of both worlds-you get to listen to the LPs but still rip them into the digital format when the vinyl starts to degrade.

From a technical standpoint, the audio on a Vinyl Disc is much worse than on an Uncompressed MP3( which no one has), it is nothing like what the original recording was, it is only marginally better than your standard compressed MP3, what you hear as "clarity"  is actually just imperfections in the record or in how it is being read, also you can't fit 300 Vinyl discs (Or for that matter, uncompressed audio files) in your pocket, or play angry birds on your record player.  But if your into that... thats cool, im fine with what I get off Itunes though. 

I'm not going to argue over the technical details of Format vs. Format vs. Format ect..  but I will add lately a lot of the new release vinyl's I have purchased have come with redeemable coupon codes for a free digital copy of the album as a bonus for purchasing the physical vinyl record. It is nice to have that giant artwork and lyric sheet around if you are really a fan of a certain band/group.
Have your cake and eat it too so to speak.

I always liked the concept of listening to vinyl, but as a guy with a limited amount of money, space to keep stuff, and time, high bitrate mp3s have always been the way I roll.  
 
At the end of the day its really about the songs themselves.