Death and Renewal

In the past year, many of the large stores like Best Buy, Barnes & Noble and Borders have drastically scaled back their CD inventory. I have also seen in recent years a resurgence in the popularity of the good 'ole LP. Vinyl is back, which makes me extremely happy. The ultimate sign: I was in Best Buy the other day and while they continue to scale back their CD offerings and throw the entire section to the back of the store, I saw a freakin' vinyl section. At Best Buy. And good vinyl too. I saw Bob Dylan's Blonde on Blonde, Johnny Cash's Live at Folsom Prison, some Police, Coldplay, Springsteen (both classic and new), Band of Horses, Hendrix and much more.

I’ve wanted to write this post ever since I started GNABB, so I guess I should go ahead and get it out there. It appears that the unlikely tag team of vinyl and MP3 are delivering the CD its death blows. I, along with most other audiophile music fanatics, have long sung the praises of vinyl. Let me give you the science and expert opinion first, and then I will give you my more personal feelings on the subject.

Record store geeks have long claimed that vinyl sounds superior to CD (or digital in general). So, what is the truth? The answer is that it can sound better. Sound is analog by nature. How a record works is that the analog sound waves of the music are “captured” or recreated in the grooves of the record. The record is then played through a music amplification system (your stereo with a turntable) and you have music. The sound started as analog and always remained analog throughout the entire process.


ABOVE: These are record grooves. There's music in there!

CDs are digital. So the analog sound must be converted to digital. How that is done is that thousands of digital snapshots, like a rapid-fire camera, are taken and measured of the analog sound to make it digital. For CDs, it is a little over 44,000 snapshots / second. That sounds like a lot, and it is. To casual listeners, that is enough to accurately reproduce the original sounds. But it really isn’t. 44,000 / second covers most of it, but there is still sound that falls out of the snapshots, between the snapshots, that is not captured. As one record manufacturer recently put it, “digital will never get there,” precisely because however much you increase the rate, they will still be snapshots of sound vs. the whole analog signal. It has been compared to a digital photo of the Mona Lisa vs. viewing the actual Mona Lisa. You can still see everything, but it is still different.



What does this mean in practical listening terms? Obviously it depends on the equipment that you have. You need an excellent turntable and system to hear the benefits that vinyl offers over CDs. Many audiophiles claim that the vinyl sound is “warmer,” richer, fuller and more nuanced. They complain that the digital version allows too much separation of the instruments and voices and can sound tinny. In a strange way, with digital you can pick out more detail of each instrument or voice, but with good vinyl you can pick out more nuance in the whole sound. Which is why some people describe the vinyl sound as more “organic.”

Also, the controversial “loudness wars” in CD manufacturing in recent years has made CDs sound even worse. Have you noticed when you compare a CD you bought ten years ago to a disc that you just purchased last week, the recent one’s volume is much louder? To get that, they compress the music, and then raise the volume all together, without regard to how each instrument was originally mixed by the artist. It is louder and coarser, but the detail and nuance is lost. Metallica’s latest Death Magnetic was panned in music circles for being the worst offender in the loudness wars. The music was good, but the production was criminal.

Some limitations of vinyl are that the needle and cartridge can produce more hiss and interference. Surface dust on the record and so forth can also interfere with the sound. The laser for a CD is a cleaner transfer vs. the needle and cartridge. But, the other benefits as far as the straight analog vs. analog to digital outweigh the above needle vs. laser issue, as long as you have the right equipment.

An issue where digital is superior is copying. When you make copies of analog, each copy is a new copy and degrades from the original. People of my generation can relate to this. Just remember back in high school when you made a cassette tape copy off your vinyl, or a cassette copy off another cassette. The copy did not sound as good as the source. With digital, the 100th copy sounds as good as the 1st. Some record players being sold now have the capability of making MP3 files from the vinyl.

Record makers are playing the game smart these days. Record sales are continually on the rise, for new releases and for older ones. Many of these releases contain a free code to download an MP3 version of the same release. So you’ve got your vinyl, and an MP3 version for your iPod. That is how vinyl and MP3’s are cutting off and suffocating the CD market. They have figured out how to circumvent the entire portability issue with vinyl.


ABOVE: John Cusack's Rob from the film High Fidelity is one of the patron saints of vinyl collectors

My personal take and feelings? At present, I do not have a record player that is of sufficient quality to enjoy the benefits of vinyl over CD. I’ve got a player, but it is very old. I plan on getting a good one in the future. I still have all of my old vinyl (except for a box that was stolen during a move many years ago). I also buy new vinyl. The new generation of vinyl is even better than the old ones.

This is the subject of parody, I know, but true music lovers have a special relationship with vinyl that cannot be replicated in the digital realm. It starts with a premise that I have always maintained, there is something about holding an object in your hand vs. having it just exist in the digital ether. Before even listening to it, there is more of a connection between you and the music. A big part of music in the old days that has largely disappeared in the CD and especially MP3 era is album art. I’m talking about the artwork or liner notes on the sleeve, the gatefold artwork. With an LP, it was big enough to make a striking impression, and therefore artists took it very seriously. I can recall the excitement of picking up an album in the record store, being excited and anticipating the music (an impression had already been made) just by what the artist chose to show on the front and back covers. Then racing home, unwrapping it with that new album smell and giving it a spin on the turntable. That same sense of discovery is not there when you click on your iTunes icon and download a group of songs that happen to be bunched together and are called an album. With records, the artists would often view the work as some sort of cohesive whole. It doesn’t have to be a concept record a la Tommy or Dark Side of the Moon, but more thought was usually put into how these tunes worked together.


ABOVE: One of my most prized possessions is a first pressing of the Andy Warhol designed LP of The Rolling Stones's Sticky Fingers, with the working zipper on the cover!

Then there is the work involved by the listener. Another subject ripe for parody is how particular record lovers are about how their records are handled and filed in their collection. You take care of your records, like you do a vintage car you love. You are more engaged with the music when you listen to a record. Why? Because there is more work involved. You have to retrieve your record, take it out of the sleeve, put it on the turntable, flip it halfway through. There was a time when Side A and Side B of an album had their own distinct characteristics and moods, and you chose which one to listen to. By being more engaged, the music itself took on a more central role in whatever you were doing. With digital, it is more often turned on in the background and almost forgotten.

I know that many artists feel the same way. Neil Young has long been a digital basher, loudly proclaiming analog’s superior sound. As Matador Records exec Patrick Amory said, "For many of us, and certainly for many of our artists, the vinyl is the true version of the release. The size and presence of the artwork, the division into sides, the better sound quality, above all the involvement and work the listener has to put in, all make it the format of choice for people who really care about music."


ABOVE: Neil Young hates CDs

So there you go. Vinyl is back and I couldn’t be happier.

Coming soon to GNABB…a remembrance in honor of Paul Newman (not the actor, but Kinkaid alums and many people in the debate community knew him) and a review of George W. Bush’s book, Decision Points.