Independence Audio/Video is an old school stereo store. So in between writing about stereos and home theater I wrote about albums. Remember them? They were around in the days of ancient Rome.
How many grooves does a record have?*
Depending on how old you are you may have made the audio journey from LPs to cassettes to CDs to MP3s and now you can tuck your entire music collection in your pocket. You haven’t seen a liner note in decades and likely can’t name the album titles you own. The days are gone when you’d lock yourself in your room until you learned every lyric on Born To Run or maybe even The Joshua Tree. Vinyl seems so long ago and so uncool.
Skip ahead to 2012 and vinyl LPs are undergoing a bit of a resurgence. Sales in the US topped 3.9 million in 2011, a 39.3 percent gain over 2010. And those sales are most helpful to the independent mom-and-pop retailers as overall album sales at indie stores was up 8% in ’10. And it’s not just the golden oldsters reliving their youths, the biggest buyers of albums are young and they’re buying Radiohead, Arcade Fire and even electronica.
So what’s happening here? LPs are big, inconvenient to store and the chances of a turntable in your car are pretty slim. And yet people are investing again in high quality stereo systems and turntable technology has improved considerably. Ebay is also being scouted for vintage equipment so we can all put the penny on the tone arm to keep our records from skipping.
Audiophiles cite the sound quality of modern pressings. New recordings are on 180-200 gram discs, which are heavier than their predecessors. It allows for deeper grooves and more dynamic mastering. MP3s are compressed and some contend that discs sound better than digitized music, deeper and more resonant. But they also point out the charm of the LP, the affection for vinyl.
There is a relationship when an album is removed from the sleeve, spun around between the hands and placed on the record player. There is an anticipation between laying on the needle and that first sound and when the Side A has ended you must interact again and flip it over. Listeners participate by reading lyrics and liner notes and exploring the album cover. An entire genre of art was lost when CDs reduced covers to the size of cocktail napkins and liner notes virtually disappeared into six-point type visible only with a microscope. Can you find Edgar Allen Poe on the jacket of Sgt. Pepper’s? LPs can make music the event instead of the accompaniment. And as our days fill up with more and more distractions it’s nice to relax and put on a record.
Independence Audio/Video was founded in 1971 by Gary Huffman when his passion for great audio evolved into selling great audio. We now offer exceptional audio and video but we still sell record players, really amazing record players. So if you’re thinking of returning to vinyl or just getting started come in today and we can help you select the very best equipment to highlight your music collection, no matter the format.
April 21 is National Record Store Day so look up your independent record dealer and pay them a visit. They love music as much as we do and we always encourage supporting local businesses. And you know, it’s never a bad idea to buy the White Album. Again.
*One
