Why We Got Into Vinyl Records?
This has been on our wish list for a number of years. But in the past it was difficult to justify given several things: For one, getting into vinyl does not stop at getting the player (which is not super cheap), but you would also want to get a decent pair of speakers even if they counted as a starter set and not an audiophile-grade one, the price of records is also not cheap especially in a world where streaming platforms exist. This is not mentioning if you’d want a fitting piece of furniture to accompany the set. So TL;DR — it’s a whole commitment.
So why are people (by people that includes and primarily referring to us in this post) going back to vinyl? Let’s maybe try to set the baseline technical context a bit. Doesn’t matter the final delivery medium, music needs a recording to be made in the first place. Producers capture sound signals using microphones or instruments and such recordings is then mixed and mastered. In creating a vinyl record, a finished recording is sent electronically to a rotating machine tool (i.e., a lathe) that into a piece of lacquer. The created music waveform then dictates the shape and grooves that the lathe carves which then presses it into vinyl stock — creating the records. For digital audio, captured signals are sent through an analog-to-digital converter so that the computer recording program processes it into a binary series. During playback, data stored in the compact discs (CDs) are read digitally in reverse process through a digital-to-analog converter.
If you Googled it, there’s probably a lot of forums debating which is of higher quality. We happen to think that format alone won’t really answer this debate as there are many variables (e.g., recording/sampling rate, the player, the speakers, the environment, quality of the pressing/recording, etc.) and lets face it — 80% of us probably are not technical experts on the matter. So to come back to the initial question of why — it goes back to the experience. Read on.
The digital world of today is an amazing technical feat. It compresses and creates efficiency in storing and transferring information like never before, and allows the practicality of having whole libraries of media often in one single little device that is also our telephone, our social media device, and our camera. What used to be several ecosystems of equipment are now converging into our mobile phones — for better of for worse. Don’t get us wrong; we are all in for technological innovation and advancements. We sit in awe in the spectacle of what clever people are able to invent every year. Micro advancements but often a sneak peek to what is to come. But at the end of the day it’s always a dilemma. The downside of efficiency is the loss of romanticism of a certain effort to enjoy something — and with the practical culture coming into the surface we often start to forget the memories of how we used to do things in the past.
Who remembers how they booked a plane ticket before the age of online travel apps? Who remembers how to navigate a new city without electronic maps? Who remembers how they enjoyed concerts without having that need to record absolutely everything to supply information to random strangers? Who remembers how they used to let time go by before the age of mindless scrolling of social media?
We think the main reason we got into vinyl is that its a reminder against all that. It is a deliberate walk against the mainstreaming trends of how the world enjoys music. Starting with how we acquire the record — it’s not a simple click of a button searching for songs and artists. It is a constant visit to record stores seeing what’s available, the journey of discovering that artist you used to like but forgot until you found their record in between thousand others, exploring new cities and stumbling upon the record stores and the collection they have there. Every record is a deliberate choice, and you had to work for it (to find and to pay). And once you have it, its a tangible thing that you hold and add to the collection instead of a non-physical digital item. The process of getting that record is a validation whether you like that album or artist enough. That feeling is truly intoxicating and addictive. After all, isn’t it nice to have a conversation with a fellow enthusiast asking “oh what record do you have?” — in a world of Spotify; that question and the subsequent process of learning about that other person through their record collection becomes obsolete.
It then continues to when you get home and open the record for the first time, you’ll carefully turn on the player and the speaker and position the needle every so slightly on the record and after slight muffling noise your musical journey starts. There is something incredibly complex but yet simple with the whole process — and every little change (e.g., different speakers, specialised cables, different needles, etc.) elevates your experience. The process is slow but is deliberate and there is something astonishingly fresh and liberating from that process. The medium itself is not perfect and probably not as durable as its digital peers — but there is something clinically cold about ultra efficiency which works in some aspects of life but we prefer embracing the warmth of imperfection.
