Tweet
Of dogs, loyalty, turning three times before you lay down & a good Cuban.
John Broskie recently had some interesting comments on vinyl. As usual, I agree with much of what he has to say and respect everything he says. (John’s words are in italics, my comments are in normal text.)
“I have been spinning a bunch of vinyl…and I don't want to stop. As I write this, I am spinning Peter, Paul and Mary's (Ten) Years Together album, which has never been a favorite, but dang if I am not being pulled into the music. Even the dreaded Puff the Magic Dragon is altogether compelling. I have to say again; it's amazing just how amazing LPs sound. Yes, I know they tick and pop sometimes rumble, but dang it, they can sound so...so dang real.”
Oh boy, here we go again. The dreaded ‘Tick & Pop’ protest. Look, I don’t know if this is rocket science that comes easy just to me alone, or nobody cares to think this through and see the simple obvious truth. The bottom line is that a record that has been mistreated will be noisy. Period. If you collect used vinyl you also know that just looking at the LP will not always tell the truth about its condition. That is because you can’t always see the damage done by a worn or improperly adjusted stylus. I have used vinyl that sounds brand new after a cleaning on my VPI 16.5 record cleaner. But honestly, most used vinyl tells the story of careless handling and/or poor equipment maintenance by the previous owner/s. My pristine LP’s, whether purchased brand new or fortunate finds during long hours searching the racks at used record shops, always sounds great. I treat my records with care. It’s not hard and doesn’t take more than few minutes time during each spin. When I play my good vinyl for people, I don’t tell them it’s a vinyl record playing. They assume it’s a SeeDee. They are always shocked and in disbelief when I prove to them they are listening to vinyl.
Funny thing, though. About grungy vinyl that is. It’s like the proverbial dog that when kicked by its master, will still return to its despicable excuse for an owner, bruises and all, and try its utmost to please. Sort of like what John was referring to when he says despite the surface imperfections of mistreated vinyl, the ‘realness’ of the music is still there.
“At the same time, to be perfectly honest, I hate the LP's meager playing time per side and the ticks and pops can be distracting; in addition, the whole ritual of getting up, replacing a disk, cleaning, static removal, cueing up the cartridge—all are a pain. (My wife complains of not having a track-skip button.) But as they say, there are no roses without thorns...although there are plenty of rose-less, thorn-covered stems.”
This is just a V personal issue. I don’t mind the break during listening to a 33rpm LP. It somehow keeps me focused on the act of listening. Now, there is that 45rpm LP format which has an even higher sound quality (sort of like Redboook vs HiRes) that really should be part of whole lifestyle modification. I mean one side is finished in like 12 minutes. For something like KOB or ‘insert your favorite album here’, it is tolerable for certain occasions. But even for a vinyl junkie like myself………well, even I have my limits.
“And the whole ritual of record care is, in a small way, exhausting and fatiguing. A friend once explained to me that within a gathering of music-lovers, spinning LPs makes sense; whereas no one gets together to spin CDs. I wasn't sure what he meant and I countered with the observation that audiophiles get together to spin CDs all the time.
His answer was that while audiophiles do gather to listen to speakers, amplifiers, and cables, they do not gather to listen to music. Ouch. Still, I thought he was exaggerating a bit too much, so he went on to explain to me that playing an LP was special, being a more personal act than pressing buttons on a CD player's remote, as the LP required its own special ceremony of preparation, which only the owner could perform. Thus, the LP's extra effort and fragility made playing an LP for friends something of a small, personal gift. Maybe he's onto something; besides, the Eric Hoffer observation that I love to repeat is that thought requires exaggeration and an unwillingness to exaggerate often betrays an unwillingness to think”.
So, come on over and I’ll make you dinner, too. No seriously. The ritual of preparing & serving food for guests is one that has origins going back through the millennia. Another example is the Japanese tea ritual. The significance is in the act itself. A respect for and honoring of the act between humans that creates a bond within the species. A bond that helps ensure the continuation of the species.
Ok, this has gone too far now. We are quoting philosophers and analyzing human origins and even the human condition itself. Maybe we just do it cuz it’s what we like to do. It just makes us feel good. I apologize, but I must invoke the words of an oft recognized psychoanalyst. As Freud supposedly said, “Sometimes a cigar is only a cigar”.
John Broskie recently had some interesting comments on vinyl. As usual, I agree with much of what he has to say and respect everything he says. (John’s words are in italics, my comments are in normal text.)
“I have been spinning a bunch of vinyl…and I don't want to stop. As I write this, I am spinning Peter, Paul and Mary's (Ten) Years Together album, which has never been a favorite, but dang if I am not being pulled into the music. Even the dreaded Puff the Magic Dragon is altogether compelling. I have to say again; it's amazing just how amazing LPs sound. Yes, I know they tick and pop sometimes rumble, but dang it, they can sound so...so dang real.”
Oh boy, here we go again. The dreaded ‘Tick & Pop’ protest. Look, I don’t know if this is rocket science that comes easy just to me alone, or nobody cares to think this through and see the simple obvious truth. The bottom line is that a record that has been mistreated will be noisy. Period. If you collect used vinyl you also know that just looking at the LP will not always tell the truth about its condition. That is because you can’t always see the damage done by a worn or improperly adjusted stylus. I have used vinyl that sounds brand new after a cleaning on my VPI 16.5 record cleaner. But honestly, most used vinyl tells the story of careless handling and/or poor equipment maintenance by the previous owner/s. My pristine LP’s, whether purchased brand new or fortunate finds during long hours searching the racks at used record shops, always sounds great. I treat my records with care. It’s not hard and doesn’t take more than few minutes time during each spin. When I play my good vinyl for people, I don’t tell them it’s a vinyl record playing. They assume it’s a SeeDee. They are always shocked and in disbelief when I prove to them they are listening to vinyl.
Funny thing, though. About grungy vinyl that is. It’s like the proverbial dog that when kicked by its master, will still return to its despicable excuse for an owner, bruises and all, and try its utmost to please. Sort of like what John was referring to when he says despite the surface imperfections of mistreated vinyl, the ‘realness’ of the music is still there.
“At the same time, to be perfectly honest, I hate the LP's meager playing time per side and the ticks and pops can be distracting; in addition, the whole ritual of getting up, replacing a disk, cleaning, static removal, cueing up the cartridge—all are a pain. (My wife complains of not having a track-skip button.) But as they say, there are no roses without thorns...although there are plenty of rose-less, thorn-covered stems.”
This is just a V personal issue. I don’t mind the break during listening to a 33rpm LP. It somehow keeps me focused on the act of listening. Now, there is that 45rpm LP format which has an even higher sound quality (sort of like Redboook vs HiRes) that really should be part of whole lifestyle modification. I mean one side is finished in like 12 minutes. For something like KOB or ‘insert your favorite album here’, it is tolerable for certain occasions. But even for a vinyl junkie like myself………well, even I have my limits.
“And the whole ritual of record care is, in a small way, exhausting and fatiguing. A friend once explained to me that within a gathering of music-lovers, spinning LPs makes sense; whereas no one gets together to spin CDs. I wasn't sure what he meant and I countered with the observation that audiophiles get together to spin CDs all the time.
His answer was that while audiophiles do gather to listen to speakers, amplifiers, and cables, they do not gather to listen to music. Ouch. Still, I thought he was exaggerating a bit too much, so he went on to explain to me that playing an LP was special, being a more personal act than pressing buttons on a CD player's remote, as the LP required its own special ceremony of preparation, which only the owner could perform. Thus, the LP's extra effort and fragility made playing an LP for friends something of a small, personal gift. Maybe he's onto something; besides, the Eric Hoffer observation that I love to repeat is that thought requires exaggeration and an unwillingness to exaggerate often betrays an unwillingness to think”.
So, come on over and I’ll make you dinner, too. No seriously. The ritual of preparing & serving food for guests is one that has origins going back through the millennia. Another example is the Japanese tea ritual. The significance is in the act itself. A respect for and honoring of the act between humans that creates a bond within the species. A bond that helps ensure the continuation of the species.
Ok, this has gone too far now. We are quoting philosophers and analyzing human origins and even the human condition itself. Maybe we just do it cuz it’s what we like to do. It just makes us feel good. I apologize, but I must invoke the words of an oft recognized psychoanalyst. As Freud supposedly said, “Sometimes a cigar is only a cigar”.
That'll make it easier for me to demonstrate what hi-res digital can sound like! 
unk:
Comment