In our new issue, Q313 out now, we investigate the resurrection of the vinyl format, How CDs and downloads were supposed to make it obsolete, yet in 2012 it represents the soul of all good music. However in the course of putting that issue together, Caroline Bursell - who was in the office on work experience - confessed she'd never listened to a record in her life. Determined to see if vinyl truly is the superior format - or if its revival is just a bunch of old music fans getting hooked on nostalgic - we sent her off to record shop Sister Ray for her first encounter with the black plastic. Here's what happened - and get Q313 now for our full vinyl feature.
I have a confession, I'm 20 years-old and I've never listened a record on vinyl before. Resist the urge to serve me a virtual slap across the face and let me tell you why. I've just never been around a record player, nor have I really had the urge to get one. However with Record Store Day now a fixture on the calendar and vinyl sales up 50 per-cent from last year, I suddenly started wondering what I was missing out on.
Hitting record shop Sister Ray in London's Soho, my first experience of LPs is to dive nose-first into the art gallery of album covers, or records racks if you prefer, around the store. From this visual feast, The Cribs' In The Belly Of The Brazen Bull and Caribou's Swim are selected from the "New Releases", while to really put vinyl to the test, a £150 copy of Led Zeppelin's 1969 album II is also on the playlist.
Now all I need is my first record player, and Sister Ray owner Phil Barton not only obliges, but he seems distressed when I explain my predicament to him. "Seriously, come downstairs," he orders, leading me through a maze of stacked vinyl to the shop's best record player. The Zeppelin record is retrieved from its sleeve, cued-up and I finally get my first taste of needle-meets-vinyl crackle, it's endearingly enticing isn't it?
However the static is soon forgotten as Whole Lotta Love rumbles out of the speakers and fills the room. Clear and all encompassing, it's as if the audio spectrum has opened up to me and now I'm swimming in the sound, rather than just watching the waves from the beach. Not that I'm trying to sound like I found God or anything, but this has to be the musical version of that revelation. "In MP3s it's all wedged up into one space, everything is compromised," explains my sonic Sherpa, Phil. "Whereas on a record like this on a decent system, you can isolate everything. Just listen to the voice, and now to the drums. Normally, you miss things, like bass players!" The music is like a big, warm melodic bear hug.
Then it's my turn as I shakily lift the needle onto Side A of Caribou's Swim to play my very first record. "As a physical piece of product, it's so much more rewarding than the click of a mouse or the flick of a finger on a screen," suggests Phil as I finally get the record going without scratching it. "You're supposed to turn it over when you get to the end, you engage with it. They're beautiful things as well. Artists in the studio aren't listening to their music on MP3 players stuffed into their ears. This wonderful work that they've created gets mashed down to the size of nothing - a sandwich as opposed to a great big feast." I can almost taste the gravy as the smooth sounds pour out of the speakers and Daniel Snaith's rhythms take on a new fluidity before my ears.
Leaving the shop, I decided to put the experience to a true taste test and retrieve my standard Apple earphones, Caribou is duly selected but by comparison it now sounds like a grainy audio mess, while the delicate flowers on the album's artwork are reduced to a pathetic muddle of pixels.
It's amazing to me how I've accepted this version before, and all of a sudden I desperately want (need) to invest in vinyl. It's as though despite having listened to one of my favourite albums countless times, I now feel like I haven't really heard it yet.
Caroline Bursell Thanks to Phil and all at Sister Ray, head to Sisterray.co.uk for more information.
11:01 AM | 06/07/2012
More Photos Of:
Latest News
-
Q&a Omar Rodriguez-Lopez - "Everything's an open book. I only open new doors, I don't close them"
Mars Volta's acrimonious split? The future of At The Drive-In? As he launches new band Bosnian Rainbows the hardcore hero speaks
-
Have you got a question for Biffy Clyro? Cash For Questions
Get your questions in by 4pm on Monday (27 May)
-
Five songs to hear this week - Mount Kimbie, Nick Cave, !!!, Wu-Tang & more
Jamie Skey rounds-up this week's releases and the best new songs that have appeared online in the last seven days... (20 May)
-
Noel Gallagher wins Ivor Novello award, Thom Yorke scores tax documentary, Franz Ferdinand return with new album... Music News Daily
A round-up of all the news, views, interviews and cool music things online today (17 May)
-
Playlist - Parquet Courts "People we want to play gigs with this year"
With their Great Escape show this week (18 May) and further UK dates, the New York punk are in a gig booking mood...
-
Gig Ticket Alert - Paramore, Suede, The Cult & more
Here's what's going on sale this week...
Advertisement
User Comments
Post A Comment
Amen - brought goosebumps to my arms reading, welcome to the world of vinyl and also, welcome to the world of better mastering. It's not all vinyl's credit, CD could sound 1,000 times better than most of today's discs do thanks to over-zealous dynamic range compression that just doesn't show up on vinyl for the most part. But yeah, vinyl's pretty special.
Posted by Steve at 10:05 PM | 06/07/2012 | Report Abuse
I've never really tried vinyl either and wld love to, but surely if u invested in a pair of high-end ear/headphones, you'd get a similarly wide soundscape, no? x
Posted by laydeejol at 5:34 PM | 07/07/2012 | Report Abuse
If you're going to compare vinyl against MP3, then that's not a fair comparison.
Comparing a CD without the stupid audio compression (google: "loudness wars") Vs vinyl, then the CD would be the better one: better stereo separation, no hiss or rumble and a greater dynamic range.
Also, CD is more durable to accidental abuse: try polishing out a scratch on a vinyl record!
Posted by Jeff at 3:05 AM | 08/07/2012 | Report Abuse
I enjoyed your article but I found that it had a few major flaws where you were either biased or unfair towards digital music. First off you compared listening to Vinyl on an music enthusiast's best sound system to listening to an MP3 using Apple headphones. If you were to invest in just a decent pair of headphones, probably some around ear studio headphones you would already hear a DRASTIC change in quality to the sound. To add to that, not only were you using some of the worst possible headphones to listen to music you were also listening to an MP3, which by design is meant to be compressed to a small file size, now if you were to get the lossless version of the song you would again hear a DRASTIC change in quality. The major issue with this article is that you seem under qualified and lack the experience to be writing on this subject. I am willing to say that if you were to listen to a lossless version of Stairway to Heaven on a high end stereo system, that you personally would not be able to tell the difference between that and a vinyl copy of the song. Otherwise I really enjoyed this article and your masterful use of a thesaurus.
Ps. Your taste in music suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuucks
PPs. You shouldn't even be comparing vinyl with digital in the first place, one of them is a giant disc the size of car rims with a glory hole in the middle, while on my IPod I can carry thousands of those glory holes in my pocket.
Posted by Taco at 10:42 AM | 09/07/2012 | Report Abuse
For me, its more about the tactile physical experience than the sound. That, and its hard to beat flipping through huge piles of old records in the dusty basement of a record store, and finding a gem.
Posted by Rob at 5:51 PM | 10/07/2012 | Report Abuse
I am totally stoked that you had a good experience. The thing about vinyl is that it is all about the experience - it's tactile, it's substantial, it's gratifying. That cannot be said for MP3 or CD. The sound quality comes with investment in a system and clean records. You wouldn't buy scratched CD's would you? If you can't be bothered or don't want to make that investment, there's a simple solution - don't.
Anyone talking about MP3 or CD being 'better' is entirely missing the point. When it comes to sound quality vinyl certainly has 'something', and even die-hard audiophiles will admit that the 'something' is hard to put a finger on. It certainly doesn't lack dynamic/frequency range, and I don't suffer from rumble, hiss or WOW - refinement comes from investment into it. There is warmth, there is clarity - and frankly, if you have crackles and pops you need to stop buying records from charity shops and playing them with a £20 styli.
Jeff, you're wrong when you talk about the 'Loudness Wars'. That compression takes place at the mastering stage in an effort to make tracks louder and therefore give them more presence, usually in the lower end of the frequency range. There is further compression after that, but we're talking fractal, not volume.
Taco, just the fact that you're so into MP3's and ready to discount a medium that was invented before you were born and so far has carried on strong is kind of sad. It is possible to enjoy sound on all media without resorting to bullshit. I have a lot of records and hi-fi equipment... and quite a few CD's and mp3's and lossless WAV's from SACD's too. Variety is the spice of life. Sounds like you're jealous or just happy being ignorant to me! Also taste in music is subjective and your comments scream of someone who thinks they have good taste. Well, you're trying too hard.
Posted by petroleumbasedplastic at 4:28 PM | 13/07/2012 | Report Abuse
dear taco, you have COMPLETELY missed the point of this article. All you've done is state the reason why vinyl records are better than mp3's and somewhere in the process become all high and mighty because you know that MP3's are compressed and Apple headphones are shit. OH MY GOD IF I USE BETTER HEADPHONES ITL SOUND BETTER?! WHAT A REVELATION!!!
p.p.s your p.p.s doesn't even make sense.
Posted by newb at 4:06 PM | 14/07/2012 | Report Abuse
What a shitty comparison between vinyl and digital.
Shitty Apple earbuds with what's probably shitty compressed files from the iTunes store. Well no wonder it sounds like shit. Get a lossless version of the same track through some good monitors and report back. Don't get me wrong, I love my records, but the idea there's some huge sonic advantage to the format you can't get from digital music is absurd.
Posted by latenightinternet at 2:29 AM | 11/03/2013 | Report Abuse
A greatly written article, I learnt a lot of about record players, and enjoyed it just as much. I will to write like this one day...
Posted by Luke Slisz at 11:55 PM | 01/05/2013 | Report Abuse
A greatly written article, I learnt a lot of about record players, and enjoyed it just as much. I will to write like this one day...
Posted by Luke Slisz at 11:58 PM | 01/05/2013 | Report Abuse
Post A Comment