I just bought a new turntable

[tunetown]

I also can't believe the weight of new vinyl. I've been buying a lot of 180 gram stuff and it sounds fantastic. If the record industry used high quality vinyl for new releases and gave free downloads for digital it would benefit everyone. Of course if you didn't want the vinyl you could still buy the CD or download.

Er, actually many do. Of the albums I've bought recently somewhere around a quarter (or ~1/2 of the decent sized label ones).

And my own store preference is Insound in NYC, decent prices (and then there's usually a 10% or 15% off coupon code to be found), although the drop against the US$ has hurt a lot. At the moment I'm spending > $500/mo on mostly vinyl.

Even got a new (used) turntable last week, then had to buy the $480 Grado stylus (bloody thing arrived with a bent cantilever) to get it going, but it's just lovely, even if I now have to retire the Auratone's from that system.[/url]

Cool. Where have I been?? Thanks for the Insound link. Checking it out now.

[Adam Dempsey]

vinyl factory will cut a master from a 24bit/48k file.. not sure if they dither/downsample at abbey road, but it makes me feel a bit warmer inside or something..

Definitely, absolutely, there's zero real need to cut a master from anything but a high res source, although many - many - major releases have been cut from regular 16/44.1k release CDs, unbeknown to fans. And, all other things being equal, of course it pays to have the best D-A stage possible.

The real appeal of the Vinyl Sound of yesteryear comes from the dynamic range, retained headroom through the signal chain, absence of over-processing, the expertise (and QC) involved in each stage of the process, and often the combination of an all-analogue path (transformers/tubes/tape), not the playback medium (vinyl) itself.

[JulienG]

...although many - many - major releases have been cut from regular 16/44.1k release CDs, unbeknown to fans. And, all other things being equal, of course it pays to have the best D-A stage possible.

But the LP just sounds *so* much better ;-P

[tunetown]

Just recieved Viva La Vida this morning and it comes with a CD inside the sleeve. I didn't know that when I ordered it. Perfect, I get to hear the vinyl in my great listening space and play the CD everywhere else. How long has this been going on??

Cheers