Vinyl vs digital sources: Do records make you listen to music differently?

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Originally Posted by GreatGig

I have both CD's and some vinyl, but no turntable at present and may never buy another - but haven't decided fully on that score :scratch:

I have recently gone to 100% file based audio but I have never changed the way I listen to music, I would say 99% of the time I play the whole album from start to finish, unless there is a particular track is dislike. I don't like shuffle play at all and don't use playlists either. The only time I would select individual tracks, is if I have a friend round and I'm playing stuff they haven't heard.

I don't often download music either, as I still prefer to have a physical thing, so I buy CD's, rip them to FLAC and then play them as a whole.

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Exactly Tim, using FLAC the choice is with the listener, not imposed upon them.

I normally listen to things as a whole, but often use playlists etc. when I have guests or am cooking etc., sometimes one gets a nice surprise, perhaps something you've not listened to for a while, or often hearing a track in a different context can shed a new light on it.

Plus the ability to synchronise multiple players throughout the house is another bonus ;)

I do still have about 1k vinyl, and a reasonable TT (Linn Axis/DL110), but it rarely gets a run out these days...too much surface noise, and fannying about for me, and given that most back catalogue stuff is available on CD for about £5 (often remastered), I've been buying a lot of my vinyl collection on CD of late.

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Originally Posted by GreatGig

I don't like shuffle play at all

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Especially useful for classical - NOT! :eyebrows:

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QUOTE: WAD Ah I see, so the problem is not with the medium, it's with the listener...

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The question was about how the listener behaves.
I think that to try & answer the original question: Vinyl vs digital sources: Do records make you listen to music differently? I'd suggest that playing vinyl maybe does make me listen differently as the 'ritual' make the whole event more of an occasion. I'm far more likely to know more about the music on records I own than on CD's simply because I'll spend more time with the sleeve notes, lyrics etc. Before I started buying CD's I knew the names of almost every track on every record I owned, the running order, the names of the musicians etc etc. I certainly can't say that now. Now that in itself, shouldn't necessarily change how I listen, but it does because I'm more involved in it.

I have an idea to throw in, that the fact you can SEE the tracks on the vinyl enforces the sequential nature of the tracks to make up the album.

When I think of a CD, the track sequence is pretty much in my head and, more often than not, I visualise the tracks I like as being more promenant and so the ones I don't like kind of get left out of that sequence.

Alternatively, the sequence of tracks you have in your head for a qiven CD may be the ones you normally skip between, re-enforcing that sequence again and again.

With a record, you may have that track sequence in your head but you are reminded, as soon as you put it on, of the physical presence of ALL the tracks..

Only thing I find with vinyl is that I find it harder to get into them because you can't pause or replay the track until your mind is quieter - I feel rushed to sit down in the listening position and probably not quite comfortable until several tracks in.. then it's time to turn it over!

The Technics SL-J2 (crap deck) is remote controllable. No issues there... :lol:

Turntables keep you slender. Now, that doesn't explain why I still can't manage to shed the 25lbs I need to lose. Maybe, it's that I sit down longer, as a whole, because of the vinyl format. Maybe, I need to stick to playing 45 rpm's so that there's more of a balance between sit time and get up and flip time? I'm going to have to sit down and formulate the ratios. Or, perhaps I should do that while standing. DABNABBIT, NOBODY TOLD ME HIFI WAS GOING TO BE THIS COMPLEX. :steam:

I put some new kit in my system yesterday. I started listening to music, from CD, and I was mesmerized. Instead of a "senior" moment I had an "epiphany" moment.

I think that it's the total implementation of a digital source, or an analogue source, in one's system that encapsulates what are responses are. I've lonng belived that Digital (read CD, but why not file based) sources are much more sensitive to noise ingress to the system (mechanical, electrical) than Analogue sources. Analogue sources are more tolerant of imperfections, I have found.

So I can more easily listen to LPs on a less optimised system than CD. When CD is optimised I don't notice any difference and I can quite happlily plunge into the 1h more or less of continuous music from a CD.

In anycase, with an LP you only had 25 minutes more or less per side and you could not "hither" and "thither" with the tracks, or at least not easily.

I like both CD and vinyl, and listen to both formats 'end to end'. What does encourage restless listening for me is Spotify and the like.