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Keep hearing reports that vinyl is making a comeback. Here's the latest: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2127345,00.html
Wouldn't that be something if record albums became popular again, not just a niche?
Twice in the last few weeks I have seen analog setups on TV. The other morning I was watching bits and pieces of the Today show and caught an ad by Bank of America that showed, in a montage of images, a nice minimalist turntable spinning a record. I didn't catch any of the audio so I have no idea of the point of the images. And, the other evening I saw bits and pieces of a movie with Tom Selleck. In one of the scenes, he put a record of Brahms on a Thorens TT then sat back with a bottle of scotch and listened to it. I suspect that where there is a market, there will be someone there to take advantage of it. Those $20,000 plus turntables are going somewhere. Also, many of those same mfrs are build TT at more worldly prices, and also must be selling enought to keep making them. Not to mention that the $35 Grado cartridges are being made for someone. I agree, it would be something if vinyl made a comeback. The ability to make an outstanding record, from a technical point of veiw, should be easier with todays technology. Bill
My one caveat about a vinyl comeback would be that, if it becomes mass market, then the manufacturers or the records will start doing the same with them as they do with CD's, which is to compress and mix them to sound best on something like a $100 Radio Shack turntable (including $20 cartridge) being played through a boom-box disguised as a stereo rack system. We will once again be stuck with listening to dull, lifeless and harsh sounding music because a well made recording would sound bad on most cheap consumer equipment. The big labels care about 99.5 percent of customers who own inexpensive mass market stuff and don't have a clue what music should really sound like. As long as LP records are exclusive, they are made to sound good for their market of discerning listeners. Once they become mass market, they could sound just like their CD counterparts. This is a nightmare of mine I hope never comes true. Dave