A perspective on the mindset of listening to vinyl

RCHeliGuy said:

It is still far from ideal and requires your head be in about a 2' box to get the most out of it.

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That's Summit and down Logans for you. They have the sweet spot of a gnat's whisker. The curvelinear panel means only a small part of the panel actually drives your ear drums directly. The rest just bounces round the room. Makes for interesting listening.

Sitting with your head in a vice is part of the deal, I am afraid. Live with it - they have some great attributes but sweet spot size is not one.

User211 said:

That's Summit and down Logans for you. They have the sweet spot of a gnat's whisker. The curvelinear panel means only a small part of the panel actually drives your ear drums directly. The rest just bounces round the room. Makes for interesting listening.

Sitting with your head in a vice is part of the deal, I am afraid. Live with it - they have some great attributes but sweet spot size is not one.

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I actually have no idea how they compare to other speakers.

I was hooked on Martin Logan speakers while in college and this is just my way of fulfilling what seems like a childhood desire. They sounded so much better than anything I had heard at that point in my life, which in hindsight isn't really isn't saying much. However I fixated on them and I felt I had to have a pair some day. I've not been to a stereo show room since then so I purchased them sight unseen based on an impression I had about 25 years ago. This is the first time I've owned speakers capable of this type of imaging and sound quality.

It may not be surprising that I made educated guesses on every piece of equipment I purchased without ever visiting a showroom or hearing one bit of it in person. I had been completely out of audio for over 2 decades and a lot had changed. I had no interest in shopping around and listening to a pile of equipment. I had an idea what I wanted. My biggest surprise was the OPPO 105D. It took me a couple days to find that little gem. I left a lot of money on the table that I didn't see the need to spend and I am stunned by sound quality I got.

My entire lack of journey is the extreme opposite of what many audiophiles live for. I think I spent less than one week thinking about what I might order and then I just ordered it all. Instant gratification and instantaneously available music.

That is probably a very good system for a first stab TBH. Well done? If you are happy then certainly.

amey01 said:

Not really. We're audiophiles, aren't we? If we want "consumer friendly" "cheap" and "variety" then there's always Spotify.

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Yeah this is a hi-fi, not adequate-fi, forum

amey01 said:

Not really. We're audiophiles, aren't we? If we want "consumer friendly" "cheap" and "variety" then there's always Spotify.

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I'm a music lover first, then an audiophile. If music I like is only available on cassette, I'll listen to it on cassette rather than forego listening to it. This actually did happen to me until I found the LP.

My last stereo was my college stereo.
75 Watt Onkyo Integrated Amp, Dual Turntable, Nakamichi tape deck, Boston Acoustics speakers. It collected dust for years and I finally gave it all away 2 years ago.
I decided to purchase any of the music I still liked that I had on LP or had copied to tape in college either digitally or on CD.

I find the decision to select CD or Vinyl requires for me to evaluate and balance, according to personal circumstance, the following variables market value, ease of use, ease of acquiring, durability, and sound quality.

Ease in acquiring:
First, in our remote part of the world records are not available at audio outlets.

Market price:
Second, in most nations, generally speaking, records are more expensive than CD’s.

Durability:
Third, every time a record is played results in wear and tear. The medium is not durable like CD.

Ease in using:
In addition, I have been listening to music on records since the day I was born. However, my generation, a major percentage, is ignorant, including me about the ins and outs of turntables and vinyl. All I know is how to start and stop a record player.

A impractical feature of both cassette and vinyl when compared to laser discs is the inability of the former two, to program tracks or instantly jump from one track to another using a remote control.

Sound quality at lower price range:
Lastly, the Oppo 105D and some other marques, if I am not mistaken from what I have read deliver superior audio compared to record players in the same price category.

Conclusion:
However, listening to vinyl and taking care of records and turntables is a complex art. Those who master it derive much satisfaction from practicing this complex art. Greater satisfaction than listening to CD or perhaps even listening to SACD’s.

I don't use CD's anymore either, because... I keep them all organized in the basement and I don't like having a pile of disks and cases laying around.

Currently I consider CD's a hard copy storage system only and once I rip them and add the music to my collection, they sit and collect dust.

I still prefer buying the complete albums on CD so I can rip them at whatever bitrate I want, but I have decided that the HDTracks are not worth it to me. I can't hear the difference between them and a CD ripped at a high bitrate.

RCHeliGuy said:

I don't use CD's anymore either, because... I keep them all organized in the basement and I don't like having a pile of disks and cases laying around.

Currently I consider CD's a hard copy storage system only and once I rip them and add the music to my collection, they sit and collect dust.

I still prefer buying the complete albums on CD so I can rip them at whatever bitrate I want, but I have decided that the HDTracks are not worth it to me. I can't hear the difference between them and a CD ripped at a high bitrate.

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I purchase CD albums and rip them to Kingston 32GB USB, using a computer, at a bitrate (1411 Kbps)and file type (wav) that can be run on my CD player. Most of my CD’s also gradually collect dust though in the cupboard. All the audio I enjoy listening to is in USB. I find by using USB I do not have to change CD’s and audio keeps on playing for some time.

I think this is going way off the original train of thought. We all have our media of choice to use to listen to music, and my point wasn't to debate the media choice.

My point was only that when something takes care and is time consuming, more thought tends to go into the whole process.

I believe that many people enjoy the whole process involved with vinyl and that the labor involved has trickle down to the whole listening experience..

I was also contrasting that long process with my initial excitement with my system and my initial tendency to bounce around between songs and artists without even waiting for a track to finish. Since then I have found I've settled down a bit. The other day I sat down and listened to most of a 2 disk live album and really enjoyed it, but sometimes I still bounce around a bit, and I think that is more just my nature and I accept that. I like having all of my music easily and instantly accessible using my JRiver server works for me. However while that works for me, I respect that different people like to do this very differently than I do.

RCHeliGuy said:

I think this is going way off the original train of thought. We all have our media of choice to use to listen to music, and my point wasn't to debate the media choice.

My point was only that when something takes care and is time consuming, more thought tends to go into the whole process.

I believe that many people enjoy the whole process involved with vinyl and that the labor involved has trickle down to the whole listening experience..

I was also contrasting that long process with my initial excitement with my system and my initial tendency to bounce around between songs and artists without even waiting for a track to finish. Since then I have found I've settled down a bit. The other day I sat down and listened to most of a 2 disk live album and really enjoyed it, but sometimes I still bounce around a bit, and I think that is more just my nature and I accept that. I like having all of my music easily and instantly accessible using my JRiver server works for me. However while that works for me, I respect that different people like to do this very differently than I do.

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Prior to the digital revolution in photography, photographic productivity ( output / time spent ) was low. The low output meant less corrective visual feedback and less experience. In this situation more time was required to achieve true expertise. This required time may be higher than the magic number of hours required for expertise.

In addition, in the early 70s programming was extraordinarily tedious. And was undeniably an exercise in frustration that taught patience and proofreading not programming.

Therefore just because a task ( programming in the 70s or photography before digital revolution ) requires taking care and is more time consuming with more thoughts going into the process does not necessarily mean better ways of doing the same task do not exist. Advancing technology may streamline or obviate legacy processes and replace with products of higher efficiency and quality.

New technology results from imaginative research. Human ingenuity and innovation is required to build products utilizing the latest technology's.

CD’s and CD player's made through research and development were an effort to improve upon older music playback technology by using new technology. More than three decades of industry effort has been applied to this process. But this technology required binary digits to be converted to wave form. A process that is yet to be 100% perfect. So after three decades of effort and with the availability of new technology in manufacturing techniques industry will experiment with the inherently more accurate analogue playback technology in the hope of improving it beyond its previous physical manufacturing limitations. These past manufacturing limitations for record players also had a impact on the sound generated by record players.

Brainpower ( creative goal oriented research or time consuming, painstaking and cerebral research ) is required to improve records and record players beyond what high end SACD players have to offer. The older music playback paradigm is more sound. Hence the ongoing correction in progress by industry and the revival of vinyl.

Conclusion:
The Collective does have a conscience.