Todd Dodds
Super Member
All I know is I wish I knew the vinyl boom was over before I tried to tackle my first ever tonearm rewire today. Thorens TP-11... )*&HJLK^x
Well... maybe. When you talk about it as an industry now compared to what it used to be, then yes. It's "ruined." Just ask any music executive. It's a good thing we as consumers could give two shits if the industry is ruined though right? The hobby will be alive and well 100 years from now.
Yeah, but nobody EVER lost their record collection because their record player busted.
All I know is I wish I knew the vinyl boom was over before I tried to tackle my first ever tonearm rewire today. Thorens TP-11... )*&HJLK^x
There are only so many times one can purchase the re-issues from the great artist and bands. For new bands and music, downloads and CD's are the way to go.
And nobody lost their CD collection if their player died. There are literally billions of CD players on this planet in their various forms, many times the small number of surviving or new TTs.
Compact disc is archival, with distributed storage across multiple volumes, each of which has essentially nothing to fail. Both Vinyl and CD are great archival media, it's just that vinyl is way more sensitive to damage than CD.
As for flash/HDD/SSD- it's a temporary storage medium and a complete waste of time in the long term, unless you have/own the original CD or Vinyl IMO. I love my NAS, but I know the internal HDD will fail one day and all will be lost. My Sysology RAID array with 5 HDDs will also die. It's just a convenient media server for now.
I would be willing to bet that in 70 years, I could find a functional CD player and a functional turntable/stylus, whereas I highly doubt any of today's HDD or SSDs will still be functional in that time. In other words, people will be continually moving their digital files from one storage device to another as they become obsolete. I'd rather be listening to my CDs or Vinyl, knowing I have the perfect combination of longevity and performance and value for money.
*OK, edit. I just realised it won't be me looking for a functional CD player in 70 years- it would be my son...
I'm not convinced the new vinyl market will expand with the current generation. The hipsters that got the ball rolling are getting married and buying houses now. If I had to bet it will take the Geritol generation to keep it alive.
Does that make me part of the hipster generation?
Do you have a beard? If so, then yes. If you have a beard and a tattoo, then absolutely yes. If you have a beard, tattoo and feel like everything is owed to you because once you broke out into a sweat yelling about something unfair, then you are a solid Gen Y hipster.
Big problem is, will there be players for CD in 70 years which work. Lasers often die or get too weak, and discontinued and unavailable. The best CD transports have been long discontinued. No lasers.
I'm still willing to bet there will be plenty of functional CD players around in 7 decades, likely plenty of NIB units that will simply need a few loading belts, lubrication and a bunch of caps- the pool of machines is just so large, literally billions. I have a dozen or so unopened 27+ year old machines in storage myself and they rarely need anything other than belts and lube when I open up a 'new' one to play with.
Finding someone to grind and polish diamonds for cartridges could be a problem however, but I'm still willing to bet there will be plenty of usable cartridges in 7 decades. We have some 50 year old cartridges right now that have no visible wear under a high powered microscope, their suspension elastomer/rubber is still good and they sound great. I've had plenty of newer ones also collapse or lose their diamond tip too, so it will be the luck of the draw.
I figure, having a 100 or so cartridges and spare styli, 50+ or so turntables (a mix of belt and DD) should mean that down the track, my Dad's immense classical vinyl collection will be able to be enjoyed by me in my old age, and maybe someone else after I am gone.
I still reckon the 3D laser etched glass media that was mooted decades ago, would have been awesome.
In 7 decades from now all us AK members will be dead.
Most new pressings suck. That goes for a lot of the reissues and remasters from the 90s to present.