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How I Got Interested in Vinyl
Post By: Alan
OK, for those of you who are new here, and don’t know much about me, I am not from the era of vinyl records. I was born in 1980, and sure, at that time, vinyl was the preferred playback medium, but I never really had much interest in listening to music until I was about 7 or 8. Of course, due to the fragility and temperamental nature of vinyl, my parents bought cassette players for me. On top of that, while my parents did have a turntable and plenty of records, they never really encouraged me to use it. So, I started with cassettes, then moved to CDs. Of course, once MP3s started showing up, I got interested in those as well.
Anyway, somewhere in the late 1990’s, my mom decided that she wanted to be able to listen to some of the music she had on records in her car. She tasked me with ripping her LPs into digital, then burning them on CDs. So, I unhooked her turntable from the stereo, brought it into my room, and hooked it up to my computer. I did some research on the internets, and found out what I had to do to get a good, clean sound from the turntable, and record it at the highest quality possible. So, after all of this was done, I grabbed a record, plopped it down on the turntable, and started it up.
This is the moment that I got interested in vinyl.
Up to this point, I had read all sorts of stuff that said CDs were the best sounding medium available. However, I had also read stuff that said vinyl has a richer, warmer tone than CDs. I had spent a lot of time upgrading my computer sound system, plus my car stereo system, and I had spent hundreds of hours listening to both, so I think I had a good idea of what digital music sounds like. I also figured that with my gear, I would be able to pick up on some of the subtle differences. I didn’t really know what to expect when the needle came down upon the record, but I did know that the sound would be different.
And hey! What a surprise, the vinyl did sound different, although I admit I didn’t have a CD version of the record to truly compare it. I knew it immediately when I heard it, this music sounded more live, and less harsh. After that, I was completely convinced that vinyl does sound better than anything digital. Of course, times have changed, and there are better digital formats, but there still has yet to be a better digital format that is as accessible and ubiquitous as CDs.
Anyway, fast forward a few years, and I finally got my first turntable. Some dude I used to work with gave me his old turntable. My first mission was to go out any buy some records, so I headed over to San Jose/Santa Cruz area record shop Streetlight Records. I picked up some Miles Davis, and Creedence. At this point, I don’t think I had heard any vinyl since the LP ripping experience before. Once I put the records on, immediately I recognized that sweet, lush sound all over again. Too bad I messed up the stylus on that turntable, then noticed that it made loud thumping noises, and I had to get rid of it.
Fortunately, things picked up for me a bit financially, so I bought my first turntable. I haven’t looked back, and I have enthusiastically built my vinyl collection–even buying records that I have on CD or have purchased through iTunes. Of course, this enthusiasm for the format also led to the creation of this website.
So, there you have it. How I got interested in vinyl. How did your love for vinyl come about?
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Topics: Sound Quality, Vinyl Info, Vinyl Praise | 4 Comments »
November 21st, 2009 at 5:50 pm
I grew up with Vinyl. I used to have Hundreds of vinyl Lp’s But finally had to give a lot of them up. I still have about a hundred of my best albums and will not give them away. I’ve kept my vinyl in tip top condition. I used to go bonkers if anybody dragged the needle across my vinyl. I even bought a new turntable.
November 21st, 2009 at 5:54 pm
Nice, enjoy the new turntable, and thanks for stopping by!
December 14th, 2009 at 8:47 pm
My mother also got me hooked on vinyl records as well. One day, many years ago, I was digging through some old boxes and came across a couple classic rock albums (Pink Floyd, Zep, Who, etc). At this point I slightly knew about vinyl but I never had my hands on one.
Shortly after I bought a turntable at a thrift store and plopped myself down for a couple hours listening to all of her old vinyl.
Eventually she gave me her collection which really jump started me in collecting as well as DJing now. My collection is coming along very respectfully at the moment, I love it so much.
<3 vinyl
Thanks for sharing!
December 14th, 2009 at 10:20 pm
Thanks for posting. I am not into the DJ world at all, but I am curious about DJs that are digital, and ones that still spin vinyl.