15 ms·

It's exactly the same for me. Yes, vinyl is more inconvenient, expensive and may even sound "worse" unless you have an expensive audio setup. That said, the de

It's exactly the same for me. Yes, vinyl is more inconvenient, expensive and may even sound "worse" unless you have an expensive audio setup. That said, the deliberate experience of sitting in your couch, doing/thinking nothing else but the music you're listening, is for me an invaluable ritual. It's like meditation.

nend 3y ago
>It's like meditation What you're describing is mindfulness meditation.
giantrobot 3y ago
> That said, the deliberate experience of sitting in your couch, doing/thinking nothing else but the music you're listening, is for me an invaluable ritual. It's like meditation. Just imagine if you could do that with a CD or even an album of MP3s! But that's just not possible, it can only be done with vinyl records.
- kdksrnrb 3y ago
  [flagged]
- endorphine 3y ago
  You're right, it's not vinyl that makes it possible, so I believe there's more to this than my original comment implies. I think it's the physical aspect of the vinyl compared to streaming services. Some people do that with CDs, but I like vinyls more since they feel more "analog" to me. Also I like the warmth of their sound. Also GP has a point about the turntable engaging you more. > Forcing yourself to flip the record and drop the needle keeps you more engaged I feel.
  - jackstraw14 3y ago
    It's a physical process/ritual that a number of people still do and reinforce among each other. It's fine to call it what it is, and it's fine that it makes you feel more connected to the music. But it ain't the music.
- pacifika 3y ago
  A nice vinyl album with artwork shows a lot of care has gone into making it, where as an album in Spotify has been stripped of all uniqueness and identity in all but the sound itself. A vinyl without sleeve and artwork and a carefully curated Spotify playlist sit somewhere inbetween.
  - hutzlibu 3y ago
    "Spotify has been stripped of all uniqueness and identity in all but the sound itself." There is at least the cover picture left, but yes, I would not recommend Spotify for mindful listening. It is designed for "engagement", I still have not found out, how to tell it to stop, after that one song I want to hear. It insists on playing something else. Very rarely something interesting shows up, but usually I just get annoyed for it playing radio, when I wanted ONE song, nothing more. So I love my own digital music collection and player that remains under my control. I have a shuffle there as well, but conscious listening remains possible, even though surely the experience would be more powerful, combined with the ritual of going through the physical records, holding the artwork in my hands and putting the one record in. But for convinience, I stick to my digital collection. (I don't think all my music is on vinyl and I would need extra rooms then)
    - tekla 3y ago
      How to get Spotify to stop playing music: Take headphones off. Its fucking wild to imply that Spotify prevents mindful listening to music, what the hell does it mean that its designed for engagement? I dont think I've ever listened to a song I didn't want to listen to on Spotify.
      - hutzlibu 3y ago
        "How to get Spotify to stop playing music: Take headphones off." And when the sound comes from the boxes? Then yes, I have to hurry back to the laptop to stop the not fitting next song (e.g. something fast, after I choose something chill). This is ridiculous. The feature "stop after song" is avaiable in every serious music player I used (and also the one I programmed myself). But it is not in Spotify, even though it is trivial.. This is what I call "designed for engagement". I have to click more and find new things etc. "I dont think I've ever listened to a song I didn't want to listen to on Spotify. " So how do you achieve that? Do you only use custom playlists, or do just mostly don't care so much? Because if I have one song in my head, then sometimes I just want this exact song and if I tell spotify to play this song - then afterwards it plays something totally different, even though it tries to fit the same genre, but this works badly. And even if it would be the same genre, some songs are just deep. And you want silence afterwards to process them - if you are consciously listenting in the first place. For some background noise spotify works great, no doubt about that.
eru 3y ago
> Yes, vinyl is more inconvenient, expensive and may even sound "worse" unless you have an expensive audio setup. Well, the objective sounds quality is always _worse_ than eg CDs. (In the same sense that lower mp3 bitrate is always worse in some objective sense.) But often the sound engineering and mixing is done more carefully for vinyl; and aesthetically you can prefer whatever you like.
- lloeki 3y ago
  A '63 Alfa Romeo Giulia Sprint GT is objectively worse than the latest VW Golf GTI by every measurable metric. The driving experience, though, is completely different. There's some "grin factor" raw-ness, some analog-ness to the former that makes the latter comparatively feel like a muted couch-on-wheels.
  - ummonk 3y ago
    Not really analogous. No matter how much you tune the GTI's ECU, throttle curve, ESC, etc., you won't be able to precisely replicate the handling of the classic car, though you might get close. By contrast, one can digitally capture the output of a turntable + phono preamp and then store it, share it, and replay it with all the crackle and warmth of the original in perfect fidelity without ever having to touch the record again.
    - voldacar 3y ago
      Vinyl isn't about crackle or warmth. Good vinyl rigs are usually not warm. It's about the fact that vinyl physically cannot support a super compressed mix.
      - strangetortoise 3y ago
        Forgive my ignorance: I thought it was the other way around, and you needed some relatively high amount of compression on a vinyl master, since otherwise the grooves would swing too wildly, and the needle would have a higher chance of "skipping". Is this an incorrect understanding of mine?
papito 3y ago
Well, it's not LIKE meditation :) It is meditation. The process of the ritual focuses the mind on the task at hand.
matwood 3y ago
> That said, the deliberate experience of sitting in your couch, doing/thinking nothing else but the music you're listening, is for me an invaluable ritual. It's like meditation. This is what we did with cassettes and then CDs. I had dates where we sat on the floor and just thumbed through our CD catalogs and played music for hours. Even today, I still prefer to listen to whole albums.
- conductr 3y ago
  Me too to all. Listening to full albums and not using infinite playlist is why, for me, Spotify is not really any different than the older tech and I don’t feel the need to jump on the vinyl train. I’m not a collector/hoarder of physical objects, I know I’d actually listen less if I had to search the shelf and drop a needle. Maybe because I developed these habits earlier in life, well before streaming or even Napster. It is interesting to see how the younger digital natives are interested in analog music now. “Supporting the artist” is a commonly cited reason. In the part, we bought posters, shirts and concert tickets to to accomplish this.
bayindirh 3y ago
This is exactly why I have a turntable, too. Just buying the records of my most loved albums, setting aside some time to listen them intently and enjoy the process. It’s not like meditation. It is meditation. As a meditation teacher, I can definitely say that.

nend 3y ago

>It's like meditation What you're describing is mindfulness meditation.

giantrobot 3y ago

> That said, the deliberate experience of sitting in your couch, doing/thinking nothing else but the music you're listening, is for me an invaluable ritual. It's like meditation. Just imagine if you could do that with a CD or even an album of MP3s! But that's just not possible, it can only be done with vinyl records.

kdksrnrb 3y ago
[flagged]
endorphine 3y ago
You're right, it's not vinyl that makes it possible, so I believe there's more to this than my original comment implies. I think it's the physical aspect of the vinyl compared to streaming services. Some people do that with CDs, but I like vinyls more since they feel more "analog" to me. Also I like the warmth of their sound. Also GP has a point about the turntable engaging you more. > Forcing yourself to flip the record and drop the needle keeps you more engaged I feel.
- jackstraw14 3y ago
  It's a physical process/ritual that a number of people still do and reinforce among each other. It's fine to call it what it is, and it's fine that it makes you feel more connected to the music. But it ain't the music.
pacifika 3y ago
A nice vinyl album with artwork shows a lot of care has gone into making it, where as an album in Spotify has been stripped of all uniqueness and identity in all but the sound itself. A vinyl without sleeve and artwork and a carefully curated Spotify playlist sit somewhere inbetween.
- hutzlibu 3y ago
  "Spotify has been stripped of all uniqueness and identity in all but the sound itself." There is at least the cover picture left, but yes, I would not recommend Spotify for mindful listening. It is designed for "engagement", I still have not found out, how to tell it to stop, after that one song I want to hear. It insists on playing something else. Very rarely something interesting shows up, but usually I just get annoyed for it playing radio, when I wanted ONE song, nothing more. So I love my own digital music collection and player that remains under my control. I have a shuffle there as well, but conscious listening remains possible, even though surely the experience would be more powerful, combined with the ritual of going through the physical records, holding the artwork in my hands and putting the one record in. But for convinience, I stick to my digital collection. (I don't think all my music is on vinyl and I would need extra rooms then)
  - tekla 3y ago
    How to get Spotify to stop playing music: Take headphones off. Its fucking wild to imply that Spotify prevents mindful listening to music, what the hell does it mean that its designed for engagement? I dont think I've ever listened to a song I didn't want to listen to on Spotify.
    - hutzlibu 3y ago
      "How to get Spotify to stop playing music: Take headphones off." And when the sound comes from the boxes? Then yes, I have to hurry back to the laptop to stop the not fitting next song (e.g. something fast, after I choose something chill). This is ridiculous. The feature "stop after song" is avaiable in every serious music player I used (and also the one I programmed myself). But it is not in Spotify, even though it is trivial.. This is what I call "designed for engagement". I have to click more and find new things etc. "I dont think I've ever listened to a song I didn't want to listen to on Spotify. " So how do you achieve that? Do you only use custom playlists, or do just mostly don't care so much? Because if I have one song in my head, then sometimes I just want this exact song and if I tell spotify to play this song - then afterwards it plays something totally different, even though it tries to fit the same genre, but this works badly. And even if it would be the same genre, some songs are just deep. And you want silence afterwards to process them - if you are consciously listenting in the first place. For some background noise spotify works great, no doubt about that.

eru 3y ago

> Yes, vinyl is more inconvenient, expensive and may even sound "worse" unless you have an expensive audio setup. Well, the objective sounds quality is always _worse_ than eg CDs. (In the same sense that lower mp3 bitrate is always worse in some objective sense.) But often the sound engineering and mixing is done more carefully for vinyl; and aesthetically you can prefer whatever you like.

lloeki 3y ago
A '63 Alfa Romeo Giulia Sprint GT is objectively worse than the latest VW Golf GTI by every measurable metric. The driving experience, though, is completely different. There's some "grin factor" raw-ness, some analog-ness to the former that makes the latter comparatively feel like a muted couch-on-wheels.
- ummonk 3y ago
  Not really analogous. No matter how much you tune the GTI's ECU, throttle curve, ESC, etc., you won't be able to precisely replicate the handling of the classic car, though you might get close. By contrast, one can digitally capture the output of a turntable + phono preamp and then store it, share it, and replay it with all the crackle and warmth of the original in perfect fidelity without ever having to touch the record again.
  - voldacar 3y ago
    Vinyl isn't about crackle or warmth. Good vinyl rigs are usually not warm. It's about the fact that vinyl physically cannot support a super compressed mix.
    - strangetortoise 3y ago
      Forgive my ignorance: I thought it was the other way around, and you needed some relatively high amount of compression on a vinyl master, since otherwise the grooves would swing too wildly, and the needle would have a higher chance of "skipping". Is this an incorrect understanding of mine?

papito 3y ago

Well, it's not LIKE meditation :) It is meditation. The process of the ritual focuses the mind on the task at hand.

matwood 3y ago

> That said, the deliberate experience of sitting in your couch, doing/thinking nothing else but the music you're listening, is for me an invaluable ritual. It's like meditation. This is what we did with cassettes and then CDs. I had dates where we sat on the floor and just thumbed through our CD catalogs and played music for hours. Even today, I still prefer to listen to whole albums.

conductr 3y ago
Me too to all. Listening to full albums and not using infinite playlist is why, for me, Spotify is not really any different than the older tech and I don’t feel the need to jump on the vinyl train. I’m not a collector/hoarder of physical objects, I know I’d actually listen less if I had to search the shelf and drop a needle. Maybe because I developed these habits earlier in life, well before streaming or even Napster. It is interesting to see how the younger digital natives are interested in analog music now. “Supporting the artist” is a commonly cited reason. In the part, we bought posters, shirts and concert tickets to to accomplish this.

bayindirh 3y ago

This is exactly why I have a turntable, too. Just buying the records of my most loved albums, setting aside some time to listen them intently and enjoy the process. It’s not like meditation. It is meditation. As a meditation teacher, I can definitely say that.