the grooves are widely spaced, and deeper, and as a result bass is deeper.
I have Ed Solo's Age of Dub on 12" single and have to concur.
Wub-wub-wub
The bass is still compressed though. I understand a lot of the appeal of vinyl as I have a bedroom full and collected all through when it wasn't trendy and was much cheaper.
However, I eventually invested in the digital side of my system and there is no way I'd be buying vinyl nowadays. I'd actually like to sell a lot of it off, as then that clears a load of space from my house (and it's really bloody heavy stuff as well). But each to their own, I'm glad other people are enjoying it.
But each to their own, I’m glad other people are enjoying it.
As mentioned above with my Taylor Swift comment, my daughters are starting to see the benefits of having a decent size cover, with artwork, lyrics, credits and that. I'm not going to discourage them from buying it if it encourages them to listen to more music. Although, I'm not going to buy a turntable just for bloody Taylor Swift! 😀
I still love vinyl, but at 48 still have Technics 1210 Mk2's that i have owned since 90's and Pioneer mixer!
For me it is that the sound can be physically manipulated, that it does sound different to CD/ streaming, I do believe that analogue music (and original dance music etc was analogue) sounds better on vinyl (to me) whereas modern digital music, often was designed for streaming, so that is how it plays best.
3/4 of my vinyl is 12" singles, so there are so many mixes and remixes on there that you'd never find on CD or streaming, except ripped to youtube really.
To answer the OP though, Rega Planar 1 Plus, into Denon DM41 DAB and Q Acoustics 3030 speakers is my office set up, so can play vinyl, DAB radio, CD and bluetooth in a great small, cheapish set up that actually sounds really good.
But each to their own, I’m glad other people are enjoying it
I think this is the key factor here. I was never into vinyl; copied cassette tapes were about all I could get when I was a kid, but I did like the 'experience' of handling a record cover, with the artwork and lyrics etc. Some were works of art in their own right; whilst CDs simply shrunk many iconic covers down, the works of people like Storm Thorgerson, Peter Saville and Derek Riggs could never be enjoyed in quite the same way again. The visual aesthetic became synonymous with the music, and part of popular culture in its own right. I remember people having such classic covers like Warhol's banana, Paul Cannell's design for Screamadelica, and Kraftwerk's Calvert and Kinnear inspired Autobahn as framed artworks on their walls. The 12" record sleeve was a big part of our lives, whether we actually listened to the music or not. So that whole sensory experience, the artworks, the lyrics, the occasional inner sleeve easter eggs, even the smell of new vinyl, that made enjoying music that bit more magical. So I really do get the whole vinyl revival thing, in the same way that it's lovely to see younger people embracing film photography again.
As for the actual audio quality though, well, only a fool would try to claim that vinyl is better than digital audio for actual fidelity. As has been mentioned already, if audio fidelity is your thing, then modern digital recording is unquestionably superior. But you might prefer the 'warm' sound of vinyl; the compression of dynamic range creates this, and people grew up with it, so it might well colour their subjective experience, and be a 'reference' for enjoyment. That's also fine. And in the early days of CDs, many were simply mastered from non-original sources, so sub-optimal for digital reproduction. Digital 'remastering' (creating whole new master sources from original analogue studio tapes) became a thing, and many classic albums were greatly improved. But many genres of music didn't get the full digital remastering treatment, and many older original sources were lost, meaning there's an awful lot of music out there which now only exists on vinyl. Take early Ska, Reggae and Rocksteady for example; a lot of recordings were made using pretty cheap, often home made equipment, so were never the best to begin with. And most tracks were distributed on 7" singles, so suffered greater compression and lower sound quality from the beginning. There is no digital master for such works, and never will be. Which is very sad. So for now, we have to embrace vinyl to continue enjoying such music. <br /><br /><br />
Somewhat tempted by this vinyl lark now.
I had a linear tracking Technics deck + ortofon MM cartridge in the 80s/90s. Then a fancier turntable in the early 90s.
I sold off all the vinyl I could and gave the rest to charity shops in the late 90s. Same with my CDs.
Now considering a turntable again.
Hearing my SO play some very old records on one of the children’s Denon turntables o thought it sounded good.
I’m expecting to have more time on my hands over the next few years so faffing about with sleeves and queuing up styli should fit right in.
What turntable for optimum VFM?
Edit. Amp and speakers will be Yamaha RX-V379 + KEF reference model 2 or Denon AVC-X3700H + monitor audio gold 60s
