What is so special about Vinyls? :)
Reply #21 – 2013-11-01 00:58:21
I was a teen in the 70's, and I amassed a great deal of vinyl. And in truth, I don't miss it much. I suppose you don't want to hear that. ;-) It is true that going to a store to shop for an album was exciting. New releases were in big displays, often stacked. And taking an LP home, unwrapping it, setting on my turntable, cleaning it, and sitting back to listen while absorbing the cover and liner notes while the music played was pretty sexy. Gatefold covers were the best. Some bands were masters at packaging, such as Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd. The cover to Physical Graffiti was endlessly fascinating. But lost in the nostalgia of vinyl\ are lot of painful truths: (1) Vinyl varied greatly in quality. Ticks, pops, and rumbles. A lot of releases were so flawed that I had to return it to the store for exchange. Then the store employee had to play the vinyl to decide or disagree. The quality control was atrocious. (2) Vinyl was fragile. Beyond normal wear during playback, it was easy to overheat it, warp it, or damage it. (3) Vinyl was heavy. This was probably my biggest problem. Moving was an immense pain. I swear I spent half of my 20's carrying boxes and bags of vinyl up and down stairs. (4) The covers were fragile. The friction and inevitable bumps and accidents while moving my collection forced me to buy plastic covers for all of my albums. Digital music may seem ephemeral, but the physical nature of vinyl and its packaging was an immense pain.