[Vintage-Audio] Vinyl making a comeback?

Wed Jul 18 22:41:21 EDT 2007

Hmmm. Nary a mention of the vintage vinyl I faithfully remastered to CD and 
sent to you ... If none of that warmed your heart, then that 'black box' you 
were playing them through must have been really bad! (chuckle)

Duane Fischer, W8DBF/WPE8CXO
dfischer at usol.com
HHI: Halligan's Hallicrafters International
http://www.w9wze.net
HHRP: Historic Halligan Radio Project
hhrp.w9wze.net

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Salmons, Michael" <SalmonsM at missouri.edu>
To: "Vintage home and professional audio equipment from 1975 back" 
<vintage-audio at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Tuesday, July 17, 2007 10:48 AM
Subject: RE: [Vintage-Audio] Vinyl making a comeback?

> That's nice to hear. I think what the article says about mp3s is true:
> you download a whole hard drive of music and it feels like you have
> nothing. I've been there, doing that for about a year and am now
> questioning its value myself.
>
> I remember loving my record collection and stereo when I was younger, in
> the seventies mostly. I built a large collection, painstakingly, one to
> two titles at a time, over many years. I'm sure you can remember what it
> was like to have to save up a while for an album, that's how my whole
> collection was formed. I would realphabetize it on a regular basis, then
> dedide I wanted to arrange by genre, then back to strictly alphabetical.
> Then CDs took over and I have never been statisfied with the technology,
> either the form of the media or the sound, but wasn't really sure why-
> after all, the sound was technically perfect, and the format is more
> practical: smaller, less prone to warpage. Occasionally I'll encounter
> some digital music that was obviously recorded with care on analog
> equipment, and it sounds fine to me. But nothing like the old days. I
> thought I was just being nostalgic, although I have to say independent
> of any nostalgia, albums used to be prepared in a careful manner.
> Artwork was carefully considered and how the artwork would be presented
> on the sleeve was obviously of great importance. Look at some of the
> great album sleeves from the seventies, like Jethro Tull- Living in the
> Past, Pink Floyd- Dark Side of the Moon, The Who- Quadrophenia just to
> name a couple. Elaborate inserts and booklets were sometimes included.
> CDs? Half the time I can't even read the liner notes.
>
> I've been suffering with a hodgepodge of older stuff- I can't enjoy life
> without an old Kenwood tuner in the house- while at the same time trying
> to accommodate new media forms, most notably a DVD setup for the family.
> Well, I'd decided I'd had enough.  In the past several months I've been
> building two vintage systems (in the unused basement room, naturally)
> with the goal of reproducing records with a high degree of sonic
> satisfaction for not a whole lot of dough, as I don't have a whole lot
> of dough. I do have some records that were itching to be played again
> after many years of laying unused, though, and that was reason enough. I
> built the systems with two foci in mind: one, a sort of era of great
> solid state silverface equipment, with speakers that were most likely
> used around then as well; the second system is more of a post-silverface
> era set, but still when vinyl was king, right before CDs took off. It's
> taken me about six months to find the pieces I want (or something very
> close) and, remarkably, most of the the things I've wanted have come up
> for sale on ebay. So, I've been buying when it's reasonable to do so.
>
> The results have been supremely satisfying. Both systems sound great, in
> different ways. It seems like it's been ages since I've heard music the
> way I expect it to sound, and both systems faithfully reproduce it. I
> find that FM radio is much more satisfying now, too. I found myself
> listening to the news the other day because I thought I had pegged the
> microphone the NPR guys were using; I'm quite certain it's SM-7s since
> I'm very familiar with the sound. Having this older stuff that is so
> faithful to quality reproduction, it seemed like a cinch to pick it out.
> There are a few weak points but I'm ironing them out over time: the
> amplifier for one setup is just right, the amplifier for the other one
> was more of a hunch and it's turning out to be okay, maybe not quite
> what I want, but good enough, light years beyond the nondescript black
> boxes in the living room.
>
> I went to a local used record dealer yesterday and found more new
> releases (mostly reissues, but some actual new stuff too) than I have
> seen in a long time! I talked to the owner and he said yeah, business is
> better than it ever has been and his sources have all kinds of titles to
> choose from nowadays. It warms the cockles of my heart to hear that, and
> to read this article you sent around, Bob. Thanks.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: vintage-audio-bounces at mailman.qth.net
> [mailto:vintage-audio-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Robert
> Nickels
> Sent: Sunday, July 15, 2007 8:40 PM
> To: Vintage home and professional audio equipment from 1975 back
> Subject: [Vintage-Audio] Vinyl making a comeback?
>
> The following story is copyright The Guardian News and Media 2007, but I
> thought it was worth sharing here.
>
> 73, Bob W9RAN
>
> *Back in the groove: young music fans ditch downloads and spark vinyl
> revival*
>
> *** Sales of 7in singles rise by 13% in first half of year
> *** New bands and collectors turning to old format
>
> *Katie Allen, media business correspondent* *Monday July 16, 2007*
>
> *Guardian*
>
> The format was supposed to have been badly wounded by the introduction
> of CDs and killed off completely by the ipod-generation that bought
> music online.
>
> But in a rare case of cheerful news for the record labels, the latest
> phenomenon in a notoriously fickle industry is one nobody dared predict:
>
> a vinyl revival. Latest figures show a big jump in vinyl sales in the
> first half of this year, confirming the anecdotal evidence from
> specialist shops throughout the UK.
>
> It comes as sales of CD singles continue to slide - and it is not being
> driven by technophobic middle-aged consumers. Teenagers and students are
> developing a taste for records and are turning away from the clinical
> method of downloading music on to an MP3 player.
>
> The data, released by the UK's industry group BPI, shows that 7in vinyl
> sales were up 13% in the first half, with the White Stripes' Icky Thump
> the best seller.
>
> Two-thirds of all singles in the UK now come out on in the 7in format,
> with sales topping 1m. Though still a far cry from vinyl's heyday in
> 1979, when Art Garfunkel's Bright Eyes alone sold that number and the
> total vinyl singles market was 89m, the latest sales are still up more
> than fivefold in five years.
>
> For record stores, the resurgence has meant a move from racks of vintage
> Rolling Stones and Beatles releases to brand new singles and younger
> buyers. "The student population seem to be loving the 7in," says Stuart
> Smith, who runs Seismic Records in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire. He
> sells 300-600 records a week and is preparing to launch an online store.
>
> "I'm still not sure about the MP3 generation. You can have a full hard
> drive and nothing to show for it. Record collections are very personal.
> You can view into a person's soul really," he says.
>
> The customers rummaging through racks at his store, a small room above a
> skate shop, are students and DJs.
>
> When Mr Smith opened the vinyl shop in early 2005, digital download
> sales were rocketing and, amid rampant piracy, global music revenues
> were several years into their current downward spiral.
>
> A shop selling LPs and 7in singles didn't sound like the most promising
> business plan. But when his employers at the local outlet of music chain
> Fopp - now closed down - decided to stop selling vinyl it was something
> he couldn't resist.
>
> "I just couldn't understand why they decided to turn their backs on it.
> I saw an opportunity to do something I love doing. I've been a collector
> myself for years," says the 31-year-old. "It's just one of things. It
> just felt right."
>
> Two years on, the White Stripes' Icky Thump has just notched up the
> highest weekly sales for a 7in single for more than 20 years. Retailers
> and record labels put the rising vinyl sales down to bands rediscovering
> the format and to music fans' enduring desire to collect. It's not
> unusual for fans to buy a 7in but have nothing to play it on, says Paul
> Williams at industry magazine Music Week. "It's about the kind of acts
> that have very loyal fan bases that want everything to do with that
> act," he says. "They maybe will buy the download to listen to, but they
> get the vinyl to own. It's looked at like artwork."
>
> HMV agrees that vinyl is back from the brink, and the chain has been
> rapidly expanding its record racks to meet rising demand. The group's
>Gennaro Castaldo cites the huge popularity of "indie" bands, such as
> Franz Ferdinand and Arctic Monkeys, which enjoy loyal followings among
> teenagers and students, especially during the summer festival season.
>
> "Labels have realised that it's cool for bands to release their music on
> vinyl, especially in limited edition form, which makes it highly
> collectible," he says.
>
> London company Art Vinyl has built a whole business out of the format's
> visual and tactile appeal by selling easy-to-open frames to display
> records and their sleeves.
>
> For fans, buying and owning a record can provide a welcome change from
> the anonymity of online downloads, says Art Vinyl's founder Andrew
> Heeps. "If you go into a record shop to buy something, you feel part of
> something," he says. "The fact that last year we sold over 9,000 frames
> to people says an awful lot about where the market is going."
>
> Cara Henn, a DJ and regular Seismic Records customer says going to the
> store puts her in touch with her peers and has hammered home the vinyl
> trend. "I've really been getting back into my vinyl. I love it," she
> says. "I like to hear crackling, as if it's actually real. Especially
> with drum'n'bass, DJs are really encouraging fans to buy vinyl."
>
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