The black stuff
Not guinness or marmite (or molasses come to think of it).

Vinyl- in the form of records.

I have in the past ( www.b3ta.com/questions/nerds/post127015 ) alluded to the fact that I have a bit of a thing for analogue but if I am honest with myself, I have an issue with the purchase, maintenance and use of records. I have never forgone food in the pursuit of drugs and booze, I've never sat glued to a computer monitor watching the seconds tick down on ebay auctions for anything else and I have never performed acts of financial irregularity for any other purpose. I have done all of the above for records.

Ironically the path to this started when I was trying to reduce my post university mid week drinking. I'd put the money aside and buy a record a week if I stayed on the OJ. This was successful in reducing my drinking but the time I'd spend looking for the reward record started to grow. I habitually hold back expenses claims for as long as possible to go without the cash and then receive a lump sum to get out there and buy. There are times when I simply have to have something that turns up in the auctions- this isn't tied to price- sometimes the item in question comes in under a tenner, other times, lets just say that it doesn't.

Now, I stress that I am not a collector. I don't go looking for low serial number white albums, I don't lock stuff away and absolutely everything I buy gets played. It is hard to rationalise why I'll pay a great deal more for a new album on vinyl when it was generally mastered the same way and often shares all the recording defects of the CD but I will. I love the big art, the interaction with it and the ceremony that goes with vinyl playback. Recently, Mrs Hatred bought me a Michell Gyrodec as an engagement gift. The process of selcting a new arm, phonostage and cartridge for it has been slow- vaguely reminiscent of Jedi's building their lightsabers but I've been enjoying every minute of it and have a big stack of records I've held off playing until they can be played on the new turntable.

I don't want sympathy- Mrs Hatred ensures that I no longer flirt with financial ruin and if everything really went to pot, the records themselves even in these depressed times would sell for a profit. I don't really want to know what I'd part with before the records though. I've kicked every other vice and addiction (I drink both booze and coffee but have gone without both for long enough periods to know they are things I like rather than things I need) but I can't kick this one.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to the post office to pick up my Dave Gilmour in Gdansk five disc boxset that postman Pat tried to deliver at dark o clock this morning.

Length? That's a great thing about vinyl, it keeps albums short and good.
(Leonard Hatred briefly did some work on, Fri 19 Dec 2008, 12:49, 1 reply)

Oh yes
Love vinyl.

I'm that quirky that if there is anything made before 1984 I would prefer to have it on vinyl.

Damn fine turntable too, a Michel Gyrodec. I mean, even the players themselves look awesome and look like abstract works of art rather than a Hi-Fi seperate.

Trouble is, you can't use any old shitty equipment to appreciate vinyl. You need decent quality seperates, interconnects and speakers. A crappy stack system with a crappy plastic player just won't cut it at all whatsoever.

With CD mastering, they cut the high frequencies off from beyond a certain range because they're outside of the range of human hearing, believe it or not.

As long as you take care of your vinyl, know what you are looking for, and scrutinise it carefully before buying (if second hand), then all will be well.

Also agreed witht the cover art too. Pink Floyd's "Animals" has lots of small detail lost on the CD booklet, and Iron Maiden albums look far better as a vinyl.

Personal fave album of mine is the War of the Worlds box set, numbered with poster, paperback book and extra 12". Now worth a fair bit, I am lead to believe.

I joined the Vinyl Appreciation Society group on Facebook recently too.
(Panteneman Isn't entirely sure why he bothered on, Fri 19 Dec 2008, 14:29, closed)