vinyl redux

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JR.
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vinyl redux

Post by JR. »

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After 3 decades Sony is going to press vinyl again (In Japan).

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/ ... ear-hiatus

Digital music sales are so cheap this could be more profitable.

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Gold
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Re: vinyl redux

Post by Gold »

I know a VMS80/SP79 console just sold to a Japanese customer for 250k. That's about what a VMS80 sold for new in 1985. It would make sense if it was sold to Sony. I didn't ask who the customer was.

The VMS80 that was at Sony NY (which was Bob Ludwig's) was sold to Sterling as a second system.
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mediatechnology
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Re: vinyl redux

Post by mediatechnology »

Earlier this year I went to Barnes and Noble to buy vinyl.
Going through the bins reminded me of an earlier time 40 years ago at the mall doing exactly the same thing.

I'm glad to see Sony getting back into this.
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JR.
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Re: vinyl redux

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Business interest in vinyl is returning because you can make a profit selling tangible physical "stuff' and not so much selling ethereal digital data files.

SoundCloud a streaming music service just laid off 40% of their employees. :oops:

I don't know if these dots are connected but I promised myself long ago to not sell products that can be copied with a digital file.

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mediatechnology
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Re: vinyl redux

Post by mediatechnology »

Business interest in vinyl is returning because you can make a profit selling tangible physical "stuff' and not so much selling ethereal digital data files.
Thats' exactly right.
And as a consumer I can hold it in my hand.
I can frame the album cover without having to go to Kinkos and print it.

And in the case of ZZ Top's Tres Hombres I may want to eat the album cover.

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An Austin Chef Recreated ZZ Top’s “Tres Hombres” Album http://www.texasmonthly.com/the-daily-post/381129/
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JR.
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Re: vinyl redux

Post by JR. »

Sony re-entering the vinyl business may be the beginning of the end.... I saw an article today about vinyl sales rate of growth flattening (slowing). The article cited complaints about sound quality of the new vinyl recordings vs the old classics.

The article's solution for modern sound quality being poor, was to build a new studio that used tape recorders. :roll: :roll: :roll: Yup that will fix it. :lol:

I suspect many of the new vinyl makers, do not recall (or never knew) the old work-flow... where mastering engineers and "sweetening" engineers would fix in the mix, mistakes make by drug addled recording engineers, and the sweetening would compensate for vinyl losses (ideally).

Of course even this is an over simplification... but i remember all the complaints about CDs when they first came out and record companies tried to process them like vinyl. 8-)

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Re: vinyl redux

Post by Gold »

I thought the beginning of the end was 1985. The death of vinyl has been a done deal for 30 years now. New manufacture presses are being made by three companies and they are flying off the shelves. The price of lathes is almost four times what it was five years ago. You could argue this is a bubble, which it may very well be, but I don't see an end in sight. The vinyl customers are young folks who will keep being it.

Quality is in the eye of the consumer. Only old folks tell the kids to get off their lawn.

If I was 20 years younger I'd be perched at the dumpster behind large corporate CD pressing plants waiting to cart away those boat anchors of CD manufacturing lines. In 10 -15 years everyone will want CD's again because they will be dirt cheap.
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JR.
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Re: vinyl redux

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The article was in a business newspaper which is why I excuse their reporting with a straight face that the answer for record quality was to use tape. They cited a slowing rate of growth... so still growing, just growing more slowly.

That said the record companies make more money selling vinyl than digital files... So that will drive them for a while until they stop making money doing it...

I really wish there was some there there,,, I'm sure I have yet one more exotic phono preamp design up my sleeve, but nah...

Just like I have a better way to sum analog buses, except that digital is better than that too... :roll:

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Re: vinyl redux

Post by Gold »

Growing more slowly then when? How do they define sales? Only retail? There was a lot of vinyl in the 90'sbeing produced and paid for but distributed for free as promos. Unless they really know the business they are talking out their ass.

The people buying vinyl now don't care about an exotic preamp that has academic advantages. The audiophile mindset isn't driving sales.
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Re: vinyl redux

Post by mediatechnology »

Gold wrote: Wed Jul 26, 2017 2:11 pm The people buying vinyl now don't care about an exotic preamp that has academic advantages. The audiophile mindset isn't driving sales.
True. It's people looking for a simpler life, who aren't buying cars or houses and for the most part abandoning (at least they think) material goods.

My daughter collects vinyl but has yet to buy a turntable. She has however been a homeowner since she was 25.
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