Sticker shock on vinyl albums

[joldnol]

We were in Paddock Sq Mall today and I went into FYE out of curiosity as to how they stay open in this age of streaming music and digital downloads. Most of the store is now geared toward merchandise dealing with video games. I resurrected my turntable when we moved here and we have been enjoying my albums from 25 to 40 years ago. I saw a rack of new vinyl LP's and walked over to check them out with the serious intent on picking up a couple of LP's. Jimi Hendrix "are you experienced" was at eye level and I thought "score". Then I saw the price.......25.99. When I looked at others, they were as high if not higher. Even with inflation factored in this seemed pretty steep. Needless to say I kept on truckin'

[joldnol]

I just checked Amazon and I guess that's where I'll replenish my stock

[JerryLBell]

Allegedly, more care is going into these rather limited-edition modern pressings (better quality vinyl, better mastering, etc.), so they should sound better than the discs of yore. So perhaps that explains the cost difference beyond inflation. Certainly $25 is a jump from the $3 to $4 price I paid back in the 60s.

That said, you couldn't pay me to listen to vinyl (and I owned hundreds of albums on vinyl back in the day which I played on a high-end turntable with a straight-line tracking tonearm and a moving coil cartridge). I've become accustomed to a flat frequency response, higher dynamic range, noise-free media and vastly superior channel separation of digital media. While early CDs suffered from using the same masters as vinyl (which included the RIAA curve to try to overcome some of vinyl's limitations), modern CDs sound much better. And higher resolution sources, whether they are DVD-Audios, Super Audio CDs (SACDs) or 24-bit FLAC files with sampling rates from 48 kHz to 192 kHz (with 96 kHz, probably being the most popular) sound far better yet. Plus you don't have to flip the album over half-way through!

I know the hipsters love their vinyl (and some profess loving cassettes!), but I hear and enjoy so much more out of modern digital. What really kills me are those who prefer to take an album recorded and mastered digitally, cut into vinyl (with the inherent distortion that adds), then played back through a turntable and cartridge that add their own distortion and claim is sounds better. It's not better, it's just distorted in a way they find pleasing. Of course, that's just my opinion. That and five bucks will buy you an overpriced cup of coffee.

[joldnol]

I agree with you but it's been fun playing my old LP's when tooling around the house. I was just surprised at how expensive they were compared to other formats.

[UpNorth]

Some people will claim to hear a difference between digital and analog. Those who claim they can will insist that analog sounds better. It is all subjective. Lately, I've heard surface noise and subtle clicks and pops actually ADDED to highly produced digital electronic music to make it sound like a vinyl record.
No kidding.

[John_W]

I just checked Amazon and I guess that's where I'll replenish my stock

In the spring of 2011 when I was preparing to move to TV, I had about 5,000 albums. I was able to sell about a 1,000 of the cream of the crop to a local FYE and in yard sales. I had to throw away about 4,000 others. It wasn't easy, but I had become so tired of hauling records everytime I moved.

One way I was able to move on from records was I became more interested in video. About 2003 when I bought my first DVD player I started buying concert DVD's. I usually look for my favorite acts and then try and find a DVD of a recent tour. It's neat to see how much they aged or hadn't aged.

I was at about 300 concert DVD's when I bought my Vizio 60" Smart TV in 2012. After I was able to establish contact with my router, I watch videos from Youtube that are absolutely free and in many cases, are shows that aren't even available. When you find a video you like, select it for your favorites. I currently have about 600 favorites, some are just one song and some might be an entire concert. I have a tremendous surround-sound setup, so it's actually better than being at the concert. When the show is in mono, my Sony 5.1 amp can simulate stereo.

Some bands unfortunately have splintered apart or retired, or passed on. An example is Grand Funk, one of my favorites from the '69 to '72 era. The current touring band is without their lead singer/guitarist Mark Farner. He is a live and well but tours separately. I caught them the last time Mark, Don & Mel toured as a complete band, that was in 1998. However, they have an L.A. Forum concert from 1974 that was only released on Japanese laser. On Youtube, it's there for free for you to watch.

[Ron_Ski]

We were in Paddock Sq Mall today and I went into FYE out of curiosity as to how they stay open in this age of streaming music and digital downloads. Most of the store is now geared toward merchandise dealing with video games. I resurrected my turntable when we moved here and we have been enjoying my albums from 25 to 40 years ago. I saw a rack of new vinyl LP's and walked over to check them out with the serious intent on picking up a couple of LP's. Jimi Hendrix "are you experienced" was at eye level and I thought "score". Then I saw the price.......25.99. When I looked at others, they were as high if not higher. Even with inflation factored in this seemed pretty steep. Needless to say I kept on truckin'


According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics inflation calculator, a 25.99 album today would have cost $3.66 in 1967 which was about what albums cost back then.
It's not that things have become more expensive, it's that the value of your dollar as gone down, another way of looking at inflation.

Inflation Calculator: Bureau of Labor Statistics (http://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm)

Ski