[Closed] Where do you buy your vinyl?

B&Q

Juno.co.uk, reasonably priced. Failing that, as I seem to be buying new releases these days, i tend to buy from whoever has the limited edition available (if it's worth the extra)

Currently waiting for the new Wilco album to appear on green vinyl

Metamark usually. Www.metamark.co.uk

Discogs & Record fairs for 2nd hand stuff. Also drop in to various 2nd hand record shops wherever I am.

New stuff tends to be the usual music outlets, although mostly the local independent ones.

Woolworths

Mostly I reckon the artist's bandcamp site, or direct from the labels.
Some from juno too.

I can't remember the last time I bought any vinyl, despite having lots of it sat waiting patiently for the day the kids grow up and I can properly listen to it.

In the meantime there are no local record shops convenient to me, so I have one or two in my "Save for Later" basket on Amazon who have a [url= https://www.amazon.co.uk/Vinyl-Albums-Music/b/ref=sv_m_h__2?ie=UTF8&node=520022 ]dedicated vinyl section[/url]

Is there any point having new stuff on vinyl? Is anybody recording and mixing music using analogue equipment these days? Kudos if "yes" but I'm sceptical.

Collectors? People like vinyl? Turntable geeks? Coloured vinyl? Vinyl only releases? I'm sure there are other reasons too.

Is anybody recording and mixing music using analogue equipment these days?

I'm planning on listening to it!

People like vinyl?

Yes, but naive old me, I thought that this was generally due to the fundamental benefit of analogue playback? It seems a bit of an expensive sledgehammer to crack a nut if it's "the big black (or coloured) discs look pretty" - you might as well not bother with the turntable at all and listen to the MP3, keep the vinyl for show.

Is anybody recording and mixing music using analogue equipment these days?

I don't know the answer, but I would assume that engineers who master the analogue vinyl do a better job for each vinyl release than a DAC would do, bearing in mind the DAC has to do the analogue conversion in the same style for all digital inputs, whereas the engineer can do the analogue conversion to suit the desired "feel" of the specific recording.

Could be talking cobblers, but makes sense to me.

Is anybody recording and mixing music using analogue equipment these days?

I'm planning on listening to it!

And if you're listening to digitally recorded / mixed music on vinyl you're not getting any of the benefits of an analogue, you're just listening to digital recordings through unnecessarily fragile / sensitive technology.

[i]People like vinyl?
[/i]

There's more to it than a big black disc.
I don't buy much vinyl, but there are various reasons for doing so if I do. None of them are to do with the sound quality.
Other people buy it for different reasons.

And other people have even more strange hobbies that I don't try to understand.

I don't know the answer, but I would assume that engineers who master the analogue vinyl do a better job for each vinyl release than a DAC would do, bearing in mind the DAC has to do the analogue conversion in the same style for all digital inputs, whereas the engineer can do the analogue conversion to suit the desired "feel" of the specific recording.

Could be talking cobblers, but makes sense to me.

Someone reassure me that I'm not mad, but this and a few other posts, imho, spectacularly miss the point of analgue / vinyl recordings. The analogue is a continuously, infinitely variable record of the sound captured, which, if it's not gone digital somewhere along the line, has a physical connection from the output in the studio to the input in your ear. If it gets digitised anywhere along the line then it's gone, and the best sound engineer in the world can't bring that back. One is a true recording (an "analogue") one is more of a transcription into data. Ignore fidelity, bit rates etc for a minute on this.

Compare a simple glissando (gliding change in pitch, like a guitarist running their finger up the frets while a note sounds). Record that digitally and represent it graphically, so it's a diagonal line (pitch on the vertical, time on the horizontal). No matter how impressive the technology, how "lossless" the format, keep zooming in on that and at some point the line pixellates and looks more like a staircase.

Now record the same thing analogue. No matter how crappy the technology, keep zooming in and that line remains a line, it's a faithful record, where the digital one is a translation. (Admittedly on a crappy recording there will be more "noise" around the line, but that's not the point.)

An engineer altering the dynamics (of a digital file) just manipulates it further, it doesn't bring you any nearer to the sound that was recorded.

I'd always just taken this as read, but it seems not as widely shared a perspective as I'd assumed - genuinely could anyone tell me that either I'm not alone with this, or alternatively why I'm talking rubbish?

Discogs. Beware, a lot of self discipline is required on this site.

And if you're listening to digitally recorded / mixed music on vinyl you're not getting any of the benefits of an analogue, you're just listening to digital recordings through unnecessarily fragile / sensitive technology.

None of that is relevant to me.

My current listening centres around Spotify - I hear a song I like, I add it to my playlist, and my playlist plays at random.

I rarely listen to an album anymore, and many of my favourite tracks of yesteryear where the slightly odd-ball ones that are now far to easy to skip past.

And Spotify is on my phone and laptop - both of which have apps and websites that prove a distraction. I want to put an album on and read a book without the temptation to look at a screen.

I think a good local record shop, i know they don't exist in a lot of places now, but you build up a relationship with them and they will know what you like and put it aside for you.

We have a great shop here in Norwich called Soundclash, mixture of old and new vinyl and he knows the old ska i like and more modern DJ Shadow-esque stuff.

https://www.discogs.com/label/31426-Soundclash-Records

@muffin you're right, none of it is relevant to you.

No problem with people consuming their music digitally, care to guess how I consume pretty much all of mine?

My gripe is with people listening to digital music who think they're getting something different or better by introducing a vinyl disc into the mechanism.

I don't buy vinyl but whenever in London always call into sisteray on Berwick st, seems to be a cluster of vinyl shops around the area.

My gripe is with people listening to digital music who think they're getting something different or better by introducing a vinyl disc into the mechanism.

Why would you have a gripe with it? I like the ritual of dropping the needle in the groove, I like the album art, I like listening to an album properly rather than flicking between tracks. It is undoubtedly different to listening to Spotify.

I've still got all my (mostly metal) vinyl from the '90's, because I couldn't afford a CD player. Once I got one I didn't buy ANY vinyl again.
I want to listen to the music, not fap over the cover or the colour of the plastic disc. Plus you don't need to cock about turning over to the second side.
Whilst get the collecting to a point, I do think a lot of it is fashion and the manufacturers jumping on the bandwagon.
I can think of a few metal releases which have about a dozen or so different releases, mostly they're just different coloured discs. Yet there are people who have every version! That I don't get.

I don't get buying 1 metal album let alone a dozen. Each to their own eh? 😉

Why would you have a gripe with it?

A good question, seemingly a better one that I would have anticipated.

Partly, I guess it's a gripe at the industry - to those manufacturers / retailers who see a "vinyl revival" bandwagon and respond by producing turntables that output via Bluetooth.

Partly a gripe at the way what (I think is) the main benefit of analogue has been lost, completely ignored, not even mentioned - the "revival" seems to be all about having the "cool" equipment, the "must have" latest release / re-release / re-master, the hipster, beardy, ****tery of it all. The turntables that are bought because they're the right colour and shape for someone's interior design choices.

I get the nostalgia vibe I suppose, what ransos describes - the ritual of putting the needle on the record, and the different engagement required over just hitting "shuffle" but really, to me, all that's peripheral to the main deal. From previous threads, I'm doubtless not the only one on here who misses rolling a fat one on a 12" gatefold but I'm not going to start vaping something with weed fragrance in order to not-really-recapture some lost vibe.

As I said previously I'm surprised to be in a minority of one on this, but it appears to be so. So be it.

@edlong I think we're talking about different things here. I was referring to the point that the recording, made in the digital domain and stored as 1s and 0s, becomes something we can listen to. For a digital source that will be done via the DAC I have sat on my hi-fi rack/in my CD player/on my computer.

For records it all happens before it gets to the consumer as part of the process of converting those 1s and 0s to a wobbly groove on a piece of vinyl. I was pondering whether engineers have more control in manipulating that process recording-by-recording rather than via the "one size fits all" DAC in a CD player.

i think there is some nostalgia, holding something physical in your hand, proper artwork and a "certain" sound.

Aren't all men supposed to be slightly on the autistic scale, so i think the collecting aspect is part of it, superior or more original sound quality over digitally compressed stuff and also the actual hunt for the vinyl and the social aspect of walking into a shop and finding a "gem", its not a satisfying just clicking a mouse.

Fantasiawear

I love my vinyl collection, but I've collected some crap over the years. More often than not I just wanted to buy *something* and convinced myself that such-and-such a piece of music was good just so I could go home with some more vinyl. I'd like to think I waste no money on music any more.

@stilltortoise

Yeah, I think I realised that, but I was on a rant, so it all goes into the pie! As I understand it, it's pretty variable - some people care and put the effort into trying to produce a vinyl product that suits the form, probably outnumbered by the fast-buck merchants who put the same file onto wax without any artistic or creative judgement (like the CD player does) and watch the hardcore fans and wannabee hipsters buy another copy to leave prominently on their coffee table.

I still feel that, with the best engineer in the world, it's still somehow pointless - it reminds me a bit of when the Cutty Sark was damaged by fire - they asked one of the restoration people whether they would be able to fix it. Of course, came the answer, we can replace every burnt bit of wood. What we can't replace when we do that, is the touch of the hand of the 19th century craftsmen who originally did the bits we're replacing.

EDIT: Addressing the Tortoise's previous point, not the one now above this.

[i]The turntables that are bought because they're the right colour and shape for someone's interior design choices.[/i]

You gotta laugh at people who think buying shit like this is a clever idea.
But then, you know what they say about a fool and his money

http://www.audiot.co.uk/products/linn-klimax-lp12-turntable-10033.aspx

I read an interesting article that attempted to explain the resurgence in popularity of vinyl and it suggested it is down to technology divergence. Basically we've gone through several years of technology converging to the extent that a modern Smartphone can be your camera, music player, laptop, SatNav etc etc. Smartphones are incredible now and improvements are relatively small, so people are looking towards the next bit of technology to spend their hard-earned cash on. There's nowhere to go with converging technology, so people look to diverge into specialised and dedicated bits of kit instead. Even if the quality of that kit is only perceived and not actual, it matters not to those who just want to spend money on the "latest and greatest".

For the record (pun intended), I do love a bit of vinyl and yearn for the day when I have my dream turntable and a quiet room to listen to it in.

@DezB

Ludicrously priced though that Linn is, I'm more irritated by the £100 garbage you can buy in places like Urban Outfitters. They're like the BSOs of record players - people will buy them, decide that this vinyl malarkey isn't much good really, and then go back to spotify.

I have a nice TT based system and as I have a large collection of pre 1980's music I still enjoy listening to old albums on vinyl. I never really got into CD in a big way and happily was able to go straight from vinyl to mp3 and now spotify instead. I still regularly listen to vinyl and still buy it, mostly from Langley records as it's 5 minutes from my house and one of the few specialist records shops still left. also buy from ebay as you can get pretty much anything there.
I don't think vinyl sounds technically better than digital but I do find it very/more enjoyable to listen to and frankly that's what matters to me.

One stop shop for me is HTFR

https://www.htfr.com

You can create a wish list, and when it eventually comes into stock you'll get an email. 10/10

at the time of making the purchase (last march), a very good friend of mine had the probably dubious, definitely ridiculous "honour" of having bought the single most expensive record ever sold on discogs.

for those knowledgeable on old NYHC/straight edge bands, it was a copy of the Judge "Chung King..." LP, and he paid just over £4500 for it...

I buy from Juno, Norman Records and Resident in Brighton online. Also have Hot Salvation in Folkestone. Just go for who has it cheapest/limited editions.

I started listening again because I was just losing track of what I had been listening to and wanted some kind of collection of the best things that I was hearing on Spotify etc. Try to limit myself to 4 albums a month although not always easy...

Is there any point having new stuff on vinyl? Is anybody recording and mixing music using analogue equipment these days? Kudos if "yes" but I'm sceptical.

Yes, of course they are, Jack White being just one prime example, and Toe Rag Studios in London being another well-known example, although clearly not well-enough known to some music lovers.
The Kills, Madness, Tame Impala, Metronomy, Wolf Alice and The White Stripes among others have used Toe Rag.
There are a great many studios just in the UK using analogue equipment, many more globally.
I have a £2000 turntable/arm/cartridge upstairs gathering dust, it hasn't been used since the mid-eighties, when the truly shitty quality of vinyl grew too bad to tolerate, and I started buying CD.
There's nothing that could really encourage me to go back to it; the insane cost of a single disk is good enough reason, but I just can't be arsed with all the phaffing around with playing a record.
I turn my amp on by selecting the input from my Mac, find an album or artist via my pad, hit play, and lie back and indulge in listening to two or three albums by a particular artist all the way through, one after the other.
And no sodding pops and crackles.
Surface noise does not convey some sort of 'reality' to a piece of music, there's no surface noise in a live performance, nor is there during the recording process, the surface noise which is supposed to lend some sort of 'authenticity' is just a product of a very imperfect reproduction media, and to maintain that there's something inherently 'better' about vinyl is really just delusion.

Count Zero - I'll gladly relieve you of you setup if it is the way - e-mail in profile 😀

oggs.

Discogs. Beware that the definitions of quality levels do vary. 'Very good' seems to mean rather scratched and 'good' means rubbish. So buy mint or mint-, and make sure they come with the sleeve. Once you've got that sorted watch out for the addictive habit and the need for n+1 turntables, cartridges , amps and n+2 speakers.

just read the seller ratings and profile on Oggs, ive not gone far wrong and descriptions usually match.
I only Ogg what i cant Soulseek these days, all vinyl was ripped years ago, any mixing to re live me Yoot is done in Serato and controller

Local record shops, well until 1994 when they shut, not bought any new records since!
I still haven't got a CD player;-)
I knew someone who was buying records from COB records. I just had a google and
they are still going.