(in a few years, when everyone who's been collecting vinyl realises it sounds like rubbish [1][2] and they don't use it anymore - but still want the physical medium experience)
During lockdown I "got into" vinyl and then this year back into CDs and.. I'm really enjoying the experience and think you might be right. I managed to get used audiophile gear for pennies on the dollar and through the same gear, CDs sound streets ahead of Spotify on the same tracks (vinyl less so, it's more about the "ceremony").
The thing about CDs is so many were poorly mastered, and while you can pick up CDs super cheap, finding ones that genuinely sound amazing is quite tricky. Rare ones can still go for a lot of money. I have started to collect things that simply aren't on streaming services (common with older original albums of less mainstream artists) and it's harder but more rewarding than I expected (for example, try to get https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kazemachi_Roman for less than $30..)
>The thing about CDs is so many were poorly mastered, and while you can pick up CDs super cheap, finding ones that genuinely sound amazing is quite tricky.
That's the thing. The mastering (and this can definitely affect more recent vinyl releases too) and the compression and loudness wars really ruined a lot of CDs.
I for one, wish SACD had taken off. I never really got that into it (too young to afford stuff but old enough to lust after it at Tower Records and the Virgin Megastore), but the few SACD discs I have are just awesome. The competitor, DVD-A was supposed to be good too, but it didn't really take (I have a few DVD-A discs and I think one way to play them at this point).
That said, while I have bee predicting a CD comeback for several years (b/c nostalgia), I think that CDs lack the thing that makes vinyl (and to a much lesser degree, the cassette resurgence (which is often a pure retro/nostalgia play, which as an aging hipster I respect, but as a wannabe-audiophile, I cringe at)) and vinyl collecting special.
A record takes work to get to play right. You need to care for the vinyl. You need to store it correctly. Configuring and setting up your turntable is a process -- especially if you want to do it well. And then there is the rarity factor. Because only so many plants exist, there are are both artificial and genuine limits on how many copies of an album exist. And then you get the custom colorways (the number of albums I've purchased multiple times on vinyl for the various colorways is too long to mention), the fact that liner notes and album colors are huge. It's just special.
Obviously, they could do this with CDs -- and in the late 90s, we did see some record labels/bands play around with different colors and designs for CD labels, but it still isn't quite the same.
There's also something to be said about the statement piece you have by having a really beautiful record player in your house, that you don't get with a CD player.
I was a really big MiniDisc person (mostly used it as a pre-iPod MP3 player) and I wish that would have a comeback. That format was so dope and so underrated. And the collectibility factor there would be off the charts, similar to cassette tapes, but with good sound quality and a durable product.
Having said all this, I fully expect to see Gen Z carrying around DiscMan players within 18 months.
Can you notice the difference with SACDs for classical tracks on good speakers? I've never had the good fortune of seeing a SACD player.
> It's just special.
Agreed, the process and the album art definitely can't be replicated.
> Obviously, they could do this with CDs -- and in the late 90s, we did see some record labels/bands play around with different colors and designs for CD labels, but it still isn't quite the same.
I'm starting to see this with recent CDs - some have a lot of thought into the digipak (cardboard fold out) packaging and liner notes. There seems to be a recent trend from jewel cases to liner notes but I'm not sure if this is real or not!
> There's also something to be said about the statement piece you have by having a really beautiful record player in your house, that you don't get with a CD player.
This I've got to disagree with :D Vintage CD players from the 80s/90s in all black are stunning [1], especially when paired with a similarly designed amplifier and preamp.
I love the idea of a MiniDic comeback - another vintage tech I've never had the chance to see!
Well, the recent resurgence of vinyl has had a lot people buying substandard all-in-one-decks from online stores. For vinyl to sound good you need to invest a significant amount of money in equipment.
Yes for some, but also brands like Rega, Pro-ject et al are selling loads of tables. Hell, Panasonic has revived an entire Technics product line! It's definitely not just Crossley shit.
Vinyl does not sound like rubbish - when the pressing was down correctly. There are some absolutely horrendous pressings being sold and it sucks, but a lot of the time it also has to do with terrible mixing and mastering and that carries over to the CD version as well.
Everything is "optimized" for "decent" sound out of medium quality streaming services on terrible speakers where dynamic range is nearly non-existent and everything is compressed to matchbox quality.
The music streaming industry has ruined the experience of listening to and discovery new music. Nothing like going to the record store and getting something out of the vintage bin for a few bucks and bringing that home, sitting there and actually taking the time to listen to the music. Instant streaming optimizes for popcorn listening and not listening to the intricacies of the soundscapes of some music.
I wonder if old CD will be looked after. CD are subject to rot (especially the ones before the nineties), so it will be a big risk for people buying them (people often talk about it in the video games community).
I'm not sure how it'll be in decades to come, but so far I've had a lot of luck even with "soiled" CDs from the 90s and error correction seems to make up for a lot. They are far more robust than DVDs, at least, which can generally go in the garbage beyond a certain state.
I bought a SACD player for classical - the dynamic range on Vinyl is just not enough to really do justice to a good orchestral recording, and I say this as a Vinyl DJ. It's great!
I got a Sony SACD player for about €140 off ebay. New classic SACD's are about £13 off Presto, secondhand cds can be dirt cheap - £2 or £3 for good labels (Philips, Decca, DG etc). Wonderful way to build a small library.
Vinyl still great for anything modern though. The compression is a feature. That video you linked is wrong about how RIAA equalization works...
Don't think a single on of these are sold as vinyl. They all come as cassette (so much for what I wrote lol), and a bunch on CDs. Narrow electronic music with an 'internet' vibe I guess you could call it.
As someone who had a collecting habit at one point and has hundreds of records and cds, I can’t see this happening at all. Vinyl records last indefinitely with proper care, whereas my carefully kept cds develop glitches after a while that makes the cd unplayable.
(in a few years, when everyone who's been collecting vinyl realises it sounds like rubbish [1][2] and they don't use it anymore - but still want the physical medium experience)
[1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0bMI2JB-vY [2]: https://www.discogs.com/forum/thread/761231