The Vinyl Resurgence

I really want a deck and some nice speakers and amp but not having a planned HOME for the next year really makes it a pointless exercise.
 
I think I've found a decent turntable and active speakers for a total of £230 so that could well do it!
 
I wasn't really sure where to put this, but I spent a little while having a nose at the Physical Singles chart today (for which they seem to bother with a Top 100, even though for Vinyl Albums, which obviously sell much more, they only go to 40).

What on earth would have sparked Madge's "Drowned World (Substitute For Love)" to be a re-entry with a bullet at #38 this week? Granted, that can't be MANY COPIES, but ANY copies more than about FIVE would be a surprise, so WHAT GIVES?
 
The same chart that has Oh Pretty Woman at #1 and Kylie's collaboration with Nervo at #29? Fuck knows :D excess stock going cheap?
 
Steptacular said:
The same chart that has Oh Pretty Woman at #1 and Kylie's collaboration with Nervo at #29? Fuck knows :D excess stock going cheap?
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"Oh Pretty Woman" being number 1 is BOUND to be some sort of reissue, isn't it? And didn't the Kylie collaboration only just come out on 12" a few weeks back? Both of those have explanations.

Why do they keep the chart at a Top 100? That's one question- how FEW does it take to make the chart at all? I mean, excess stock going cheap is absolutely the obvious answer- but WHERE (presuming it would have to be one store) has enough copies to make the chart in the first place?
 
NSync's I'll Never Stop was the #1 selling cassette single a few years ago with something like 29 copies :D maybe this chart is heading to such numbers.
 
Steptacular said:
NSync's I'll Never Stop was the #1 selling cassette single a few years ago with something like 29 copies :D maybe this chart is heading to such numbers.
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The thing is, there's still a fair amount of acts who release stuff through their websites etc. and that count for sales- Saint Etienne flogged 2000 copies of their last single through the website. It CAN'T be quite as low as that yet...
 
They may not register the single for the charts tho'...or register their website.

The only time the physical singles chart is interesting is around Record Store Day and even then, it's pretty predictable.
 
octophone said:
They may not register the single for the charts tho'...or register their website.
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No, they definitely did- it was number one in the physical singles chart (or maybe top 3, I forget) a few weeks ago...
 
Actually, the vinyl was delayed on that and the week the vinyl became available it "re-entered" at 13, so you'd guess around 750ish sales for that, considering the CD sold out and debuted at 1 (with presumably 2000 copies), the vinyl hadn't sold out, but it's vanished from the chart so presumably has now...
 
Hmm, OK. Could be a barcoding error or a minor warehouse find then.
 
Just looking at the vinyl chart now... has there been an ABBA re-release?
 
Ag said:
Just looking at the vinyl chart now... has there been an ABBA re-release?
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Yeah. They are flogging that horse again! It’s picture discs of the singles at the moment...
 
And Marge is #26 on the vinyl chart which I hadn’t noticed, so it’s got to be the 12”

WTF? :D
 
Sheena said:
And Marge is #26 on the vinyl chart which I hadn’t noticed, so it’s got to be the 12”

WTF? :D
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It has to be an error somewhere- it wasn’t even released on 12” in the UK!
 
Yeah, I was reading about it of superdeluxeedition - this "half speed" thing seems to be the audiophile equivalent of snake oil.
 
I was sort of hoping that half speed vinyl meant that they would actually be played at half speed so that Agnetha and Anni-Frid would sound like they were on Mogadon.
 
dmlaw said:
I was sort of hoping that half speed vinyl meant that they would actually be played at half speed so that Agnetha and Anni-Frid would sound like they were on Mogadon.
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Or sound like Rick Astley.
 
octophone said:
Yeah, I was reading about it of superdeluxeedition - this "half speed" thing seems to be the audiophile equivalent of snake oil.
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What's the THEORY of it though? The album is only 9 tracks and 40 minutes long. What's the benefit of having a running time of 10 minutes each side? And imagine what a FAFF getting up to change sides and/or discs three times during one album is. Not that many of the copies sold will ever actually be played, i imagine.
 
As someone who never resisted the chance to play an unusual 45 at 33 and vice versa, I can understand. When I was a nipper, we even had a turntable that played at 16rpm.
 
lolly said:
What's the THEORY of it though? The album is only 9 tracks and 40 minutes long. What's the benefit of having a running time of 10 minutes each side? And imagine what a FAFF getting up to change sides and/or discs three times during one album. Not that many of the copies sold will ever actually be played, i imagine.
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The theory of half-speed mastering is that you give the information more time to be cut into the groove thus giving a more accurate cut. Putting a 40 minute album over 4 sides is more a matter of how wide you can cut the groove, again improving signal to noise ratio and allowing for a better dynamic range.
 
My gran's old stereogram had 16, 33, 45 and 78 rpm. It was a beautiful old thing, even if only used for storing wool for the later stages of its life.
 
octophone said:
The theory of half-speed mastering is that you give the information more time to be cut into the groove thus giving a more accurate cut. Putting a 40 minute album over 4 sides is more a matter of how wide you can cut the groove, again improving signal to noise ratio and allowing for a better dynamic range.
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And would you hear any difference on bog standard equipment?
 
Half-speed, no. Cutting a 40 minute album onto a double at 45rpm? Oh yes, for sure.
 
It's a pile of old SHITE.

Don't get me started how Saint Etienne have just re-issued all of their albums being "faithful to the original releases", meaning crap, thin 90s vinyl, BLATANTLY so they can pop up with "180gm Reissues" later on down the line.
 
My original Foxbase Alpha has held up well but So Tough was kinda flimsy and a bit too long for a single LP.

180gm is one of the biggest cons. Apparently the optimum weight for a 12" vinyl record is 140gm but people are so easily lead that a fiction has developed based on pure heft. Literally "never mind the quality, feel the width".
 
octophone said:
My original Foxbase Alpha has held up well but So Tough was kinda flimsy and a bit too long for a single LP.

180gm is one of the biggest cons. Apparently the optimum weight for a 12" vinyl record is 140gm but people are so easily lead that a fiction has developed based on pure heft. Literally "never mind the quality, feel the width".
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Whatever the optimum weight, 180gm absolutely is better than the standard flimsy shite we had in the 80s and 90s. My 70s Diana Ross Motown albums sound GREAT and they're a lot heavier...
 
Second hand YES, first hand NO. If it’s been recorded digitally, I’d rather have the CD. You might not get the lovely big cover but at least the sound will never deteriorate or sound dodgy on the inner grooves. The vinyl of the new Gas album does look absolutely marvellous and very deluxe (and I’m still tempted by the Gas Box) but NO
 
The only vinyl album I've bought recently was Charli XCX but they only issued it on 2LP and cassette, I don't have a cassette player and I felt morally obliged to buy something because I'd copped the original mixtapes off Soulseek and felt a bit of a cunt. If they'd stuck 'em on a CD for a tenner, I'd have had that.

An awful lot of my music comes through Bandcamp these days, well over half, in fact. But I still love a nice physical format; those new Wire reissues look lovely (but they have too little useful extra content to be worth the cash), that Holger Czukay boxset was delightful, that book format as used by Manic Street Preachers and Kylie is a winner with me and so on. But I ain't paying £25 for a single vinyl LP, especially when it's a feckin' reissue.
 
My vinyl purchasing has slowed down rather since being rather poverty stricken. But I fucking love vinyl... I do wish new vinyl wasn't such a rip off.
 
lolly said:
I had to pay A WHOLE POUND for an album of Wendy Craig reading bedtime stories a few weeks back!
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Still not bought anything since. But then once you've bought Wendy Craig, you're never going to beat it.
 
Wasn't there a story a few weeks back saying how although sales of vinyl have exploded, it's the same people buying more - there's no evidence of the format attracting anyone new.
 
Sheena said:
Still buy endless second hand vinyl but still very little new, other than my big acts...
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I'd say I'm pretty much the same but sometimes if there's a new release I fancy and I think it would sound nice on vinyl (and more crucially, it comes with the mp3 download link) then I'd get it on vinyl. I did that with the most recent First Aid Kit - and I wouldn't say they're one of my big acts...
 
lolly said:
Wasn't there a story a few weeks back saying how although sales of vinyl have exploded, it's the same people buying more - there's no evidence of the format attracting anyone new.
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Supposedly, yes. But this isn't the worst thing that can happy - new audiences can be fickle whereas people who are stepping up their intake are unlikely to stop dead as long as there's interesting product. Well, unless they actually die that is...
 
There was an article I read last week about how it was the package of vinyl people were going for- they’re increasingly making exciting, interesting packages in a way they’re not doing with CDs anymore...
 
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