Daily Blog – Jason Victor Serinus – March 1, 2008: RESOLUTION AND REALITY. VINYL LP'S REPLACING CD'S.

The press release that arrived this past Monday pulled no punches. “SOURCE: Vinyl Resurgence Tuning Out the CD for Good,” trumpeted the subject line. As if proclaiming the death of the CD and the ultimate triumph of vinyl weren’t enough, the hyperbole continued with the email’s opening line, proclaimed in bold: 21st Century Vinyl Resurgence – LP Records are HOT. And just in case anyone was too obtuse to get the point, a combination of bold and larger print was used to draw attention to a declaration from Josh Bizar, Director of Sales at online audiophile retailer Music Direct [http://www.musicdirect.com], that Music Direct’s vinyl sales are up over 300% since 2005.

So that you too can reap the full benefits of the press release’s emphatic language, I quote: “Vinyl is not going away,” says Bizar. “Today we’re seeing music lovers of every age who insist on owning a ‘hard copy’ of an album. Younger customers are even burning their vinyl collection to their iPods. 2008 will see more music released on LP since vinyl was pronounced dead in 1983!”

Well, yes. Part of this is due to the popularity of DJs who spin vinyl, including those who create all kinds of extra-musical effects by slowing the LP with their hands, dragging needles across the vinyl, etc. That will surely sell a few extra records. But it’s also because the word is out that the best vinyl sounds not only sounds better than CD, but also leaves the sound of tinny, one-dimensional mp3s in the dust.

Time Magazine even published a recent article on the trend. Among the juicy quotes in their piece of January 10, “Vinyl Gets Its Groove Back” http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1702369,00.html, are the following delicious figures:

• 990,000 vinyl albums were sold in 2007, up 15.4% from the 858,000 units sold in 2006
• WEA Corp., the U.S. distribution company of Warner Music Group, posted a 30% increase in LP sales last year.
• Amazon.com introduced a vinyl-only store in October, and increased its selection to 150,000 titles across 20 genres. Biggest sellers are alternative rock, followed by classic rock.

The Rich get richer and the poor…

None of this will come as any surprise to folks who have been watching the industry. Ever since the emergence of the CD, audiophiles have complained about its sonic limitations. A small minority of sound-conscious audiophiles hence stuck with vinyl, and helped motivate the emergence of companies such as Acoustic Sounds, Classic Records, and Mobile Fidelity, all of which either have or continued to focus on audiophile quality LP issues and reissues.

The advent of digital downloads has only widened the gap between the sonically rich and the sonically poor. Those in the know have re-equipped their old turntables or bought new ones. Others have explored the two digital high-resolution mediums, SACD and DVD-A, as well as higher resolution HDCD issues from Reference Recordings and other labels. At the other end of the spectrum, those who focused on amassing the most the fastest, regardless of quality, have overloaded hard drives with pirated, low quality burns that cut the heart out of music, communicating its outline rather than its tonal essence.

As the sound of digital steadily improved through the ‘80s and into the 90s, so did the sound of vinyl. Today’s best LP reissues, pressed at 45 rpm on 180 gm vinyl, take advantage of better cartridges and turntables will far better tracking compliance to deliver a far wider dynamic range than the original pressings from the ‘50s and ‘60s. A case in point is Acoustic Sounds’ Blue Note jazz reissues, now available for the first time in the original stereo.

Of course, there are good, digital sounding alternatives to mp3 downloads. Besides the aforementioned high-resolution digital mediums, SACD and DVD-Audio, these include CD-quality downloads from Music Giants, Magnatune, Linn, and other sources, and the promise of multi-channel Blu-ray audio releases from Naxos and other companies later this year. If other companies follow Naxos’ lead, and begin to release 24/96 and 24/192 two- and multi-channel recordings on Blu-ray, we may finally end up with a new, high-resolution digital format that has a decent chance for mass acceptance.

The absolute sound to absolutely avoid

The ultimate goal of dedicated audiophiles has always been to assemble a sound system that can accurately reproduce the sound of live acoustic music. The big question, however, has been: the sound of live acoustic music as played where?

Some halls have acoustics so hideous that recordings can sound far better than the real thing. A case in point is the Meyer Sanctuary in San Francisco’s Temple Emanu-El. An extremely high-ceilinged space that was recently refurbished, the sanctuary’s plaster walls render loud sounds oppressively tinny. At a recent recital by Lucas Meachem, a 29 year-old North Carolina native who has recently performed at Lyric Opera of Chicago and the Met, Meyer Sanctuary’s extremely reverberant acoustic rendered anything above a mezzo forte metallic and irritating. [http://www.sfcv.org/2008/02/26/ridin-high/] I’d choose a recording of Meachem, set down in a good acoustic and reproduced on a hi-end soundsystem, over the sound of Meyer Sanctuary any day.