Derail; as you are probably aware, when you listen to a vinyl to are listening to an analogue form of sound reproduction as opposed to digital. The sound you hear in your everyday life is analogue by definition. When you listen to vinyl it is as though the needle dropped into the groove is an an instrument playing right there in the same space as you (if that makes any sense).
Digital mediums (like CDs, SACDs and DVDs) are only 'theoretical approximations' of an analogue sound. They take 'snapshots' of the analogue sound and encode it into zeroes and ones to be stored digitally. This is called 'sampling rate'; for CDs it is 44,100 samples per second, for SACDs it is around 120 K and for DVDs it is a bit higher.
What this means is that, by definition, a digital recording is not capturing the complete sound; it is merely approximating it through a series of steps. Some sounds that have very quick transitions, such as a drum beat or a trumpet's tone, will be distorted because they change too quickly for the sample rate to register.
In your home stereo the CD or DVD player takes this digital recording and converts it to an analogue signal, which is fed to your amplifier. The amplifier then raises the voltage of the signal to a level powerful enough to drive your speaker.
A vinyl record has a groove carved into it that mirrors the original sound's waveform. This means that no information is lost. The output of a record player is analogue thus it can be fed directly to your amplifier with no conversion.
Switching to vinyls doesn't have to expensive contrary to popular belief. The vinyls themselves are more expensive than CDs because they are more difficult to produce and more fragile to ship; however, used vinyls can be purchased at music shops and garage sales for as little as $1.00 and STILL sound amazing.
You're probably listening to music on a $120 - $200 US CD player I'd imagine (if that) which really doesn't sound that great (though you may not realize it). If you bought a record player for $250 US you would have to buy a CD player worth over $800 US to come close to how good it will sound.
In reality getting awesome 'audiophile quality' sound is cheaper with vinyl, although you should probably spend at least $250 on the player. I would recommend the 'Project Debut' record player which I have used. It is absolutely stellar for it's price range (around $250 US). Here is a link:
http://www.audioenz.co.nz/2002/0601.html
You may be wondering why vinyls aren't more popular that CDs since they sound better. The prevalence of CDs these days derives from our consumerist culture; CDs are cheap to produce and ship, also requiring minimal care as opposed to vinyls. Here is a pros and cons table for analogue and digital sound storage mediums.
ANALOGUE
PROS
- True to life, 'warmer' sound than digital mediums can ever achieve.
- Vinyl looks awesome, smells awesome and feels awesome!
- A lot of music (particularily in the electronic music scene) is released only on vinyl.
- The act of flipping the record or manually putting the needle onto a latter groove to hear a different song makes you feel like more of an 'active listener' and more a part of the music (that's how I feel).
CONS
- New vinyls cost more than CDs (although used vinyls cost less than used CDs usually).
- Vinyl versions of albums are often limited editions compared to CD releases and can take more searching to find.
- Vinyls must be kept clean and stored carefully or you will start to experience 'surface noise' like pops and crackles as dust gets trapped in the grooves.
- Vinyls cannot hold as many songs as a single CD; for example all 66 minutes of Geogaddi fit on one CD where the vinyl version consists of 3 double-sided records with four or fives songs per side. Thus you will have to become more involved and flip/change records as opposed to the CD.
- Vinyls are larger and need more room to store.
- Vinyls are not very portable and listening to them in a car or while walking is highly impracticle and nigh impossible.
- Analogue audio is more difficult to rip to your computer's hard drive and turn into an mp3 than with digital storage mediums.
- Buying/collecting vinyls can become a dangerously expensive obsession.
DIGITAL
PROS
- The discs are small, easy to store and cheap to buy.
- Digital discs like CDs play constantly for up to 80 minutes uninterupted without having to be changed or flipped as with Vinyl.
- The discs are very portable and can be listened to on the fly (in a 'discman' or in a car CD player).
- Digital audio can be easily ripped onto a computer hard drive and turned into an mp3 (although 'copy protection' CDs are making this more difficult).
- The discs require minimal maintenance to keep in playable condition.
- Some pop albums are only available on CD since the 'pop music demographic' (14 year olds) are not interested in buying a more expensive , better sounding storage medium (it's worth noting that although you can only buy the newest 'Celine Dion' album on CD, hundreds of unauthorized, 'white label' vinyls full of electronic remixes of the tracks on that same 'Celine Dion' album are exclusive to vinyl).
- The discs make excellent coasters for beverages.
CONS
- CDs, SACDs and DVDs are digital approximations of an analogue sound, thus they sound 'tinnier' and lack the dynamics of a true analogue sound medium like vinyl.
- The packaging isn't as large or attractive as on vinyl releases; for example, compare the Geogaddi vinyl artwork to even the limited edition of the Geogaddi CD. The Geogaddi vinyl has much larger, lusher artwork in my opinion.
- You will have to spend considerably more on a CD player before you can approach the sound quality of a record player that costs half the price.
When I made the switch to vinyls I could never go back to CD. You really are missing out and I'd say anyone who loves music should make the switch!
