Anyone else listen to vinyl?

[Mike70]

I've been rediscovering records big time. I bought a retro stereo (it has a feckin' cassette player!) dusted off some of my mom's old records that I have, ordered a few new ones, and I'm a happy vinyl listener. There is something about putting a record on that can't be replicated. I find that I'm much more likely to listen to an album all the way through if it's vinyl. I also feel more "engaged" with the music somehow. And then there's the artwork on the gatefolds! Digital music just can't do that. For my first go round I bought "Moving Pictures" - Rush, "Caravanserai" - Santana, "Houses of the Holy", "Presence", "In Through the Out Door", and 'III" - Led Zeppelin, "The Number of the Beast" and "Piece of Mind" - Iron Maiden. Just getting started...

[JDP]

I have many records from back in the day (original pressings, not modern re-issues, including the first two Iron Maiden studio albums + the live in Japan EP, the ones with Paul Di'Anno), but haven't played them in quite a while. It's been ages since I had a record player. We used to love an activity we called "scare the neighborhood", which consisted in blasting such songs as Twisted Sister's "Under the Blade" or Saxon's "Denim and Leather" from our massive stereo speakers, which were conveniently located in a balcony overlooking the neighborhood, so as to make it easier for our brand of acoustic terrorism to reach as many ears as possible (yes, we utterly enjoyed annoying the hell out of the "wimps" back then.) One time, after the song was over, instead of the usual "silence", we heard some anonymous voice in the distance yell: "fucking awesome!" It seems like some people weren't as scared, offended and/or disturbed as we thought by the music coming out of our blasting speakers.

[Neil]

Here in the UK, doesn't vinyl out sell CDs now?

[Mike70]

Here in the UK, doesn't vinyl out sell CDs now? And in the US too. Last year vinyl accounted for 62% of all physical music sales. Here's the RIAA breakdown for 2020: Physical sales: $376 million Digital sales: $351 million AD revenue: $421million. Not surprising in this day and age that advertising is the number 1 money maker.

[beat_truck]

Record addict here. I have tons of albums, 45s, and even 78s. Plus multiple turntables, amps, cartridges, speakers, etc. Most of it is done on a low budget, though. I am satisfied with digital, and refuse to pay inflated prices for music just because it is on a record when I can find probably 90% of what I want to hear for free on Youtube or Spotify.

[shootemindehead]

My entire vinyl collection was destroyed in a flood in 2011...so no.

[Mike70]

My entire vinyl collection was destroyed in a flood in 2011...so no. Didn't you post some pics of that way back then? I seem to remember some pics of a swamped street and cars trapped, water halfway up the windows.

[Tricky]

I don't think I've ever bought a vinyl in my life! When I started getting into music it was cassette tapes but CD's were already taking over, and it must be 10 years since I last bought a CD as well. My dad who died five years ago had a vast collection of vinyls from his youth that the family still need to get together and sort through at some point.

[shootemindehead]

Didn't you post some pics of that way back then? I seem to remember some pics of a swamped street and cars trapped, water halfway up the windows. Aye. I think so. Whole bottom half of the house got wrecked. I had some good stuff in that collection too. Rare 1st pressings of Motorhead albums and a limited edition LA Woman. Shame.

[MinionZombie]

I don't think I've ever bought a vinyl in my life! When I started getting into music it was cassette tapes but CD's were already taking over, and it must be 10 years since I last bought a CD as well. My dad who died five years ago had a vast collection of vinyls from his youth that the family still need to get together and sort through at some point. Vinyls were before my time. I didn't really start getting into music until I was entering double digits - at which point it was cassette tapes initially, then one Xmas I got a ghetto blaster with double tape deck and a CD player. It was still a while before I developed my own musical tastes. I used to make mix tapes, but it always bothered me that you could never quite get it right - the tape side would run out too soon or too late. I'm all about CDs. I still make mix cds for the car stereo, and I still buy CDs. In fact, in these last couple of weeks I've bought four or five of them. I've got the new Foo Fighters album coming on CD tomorrow. I do love a CD. I don't love those shitty digipak cardboard cases, especially the really cheap shitty ones that are just the simplest form of cardboard sleeve, which the CD can easily fall out of that some bands insist on (I'm looking at you, Chromatics and Johnny Jewel). My Mum's got a bunch of vinyls, though. Mind you, there's a fair bit in there that's of no interest to me - but she does have various classical albums, and a bunch of ABBA albums from the 70s and 80s.

[JDP]

Did anyone try to play their records backwards to see if there really were "hidden messages" in them? LOL! I actually did, several times. Mötley Crüe's "Shout at the Devil" was largely responsible for piquing my curiosity about this, since they even purposefully put a "Caution: This record may contain backward messages" warning on it, and also all the allegations regarding Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, Queen ("It's fun to smoke marijuana", LOL!), etc., supposedly putting such "subliminal messages" in their records. But in order not to risk damaging the albums, what I would do was copy them to a blank tape first, open the tape casing, then flip the reel over, close the tape casing, and then play the tape.

[beat_truck]

17b4a0979abbe304a49c868aed0e6765cbaabd8aff645ee5ad11b40b3f3ef23c.jpg Just a pet peeve. "Vinyls" is like nails on a chalk board to people who are seriously into playing and collecting records.

[MinionZombie]

17b4a0979abbe304a49c868aed0e6765cbaabd8aff645ee5ad11b40b3f3ef23c.jpg Just a pet peeve. "Vinyls" is like nails on a chalk board to people who are seriously into playing and collecting records. Beggin' your forgiveness, Sir.

[beat_truck]

Beggin' your forgiveness, Sir. Well, since you asked nicely....

[JDP]