Page 105 - Hi-Fi World (January 2020)

OPINION

"In Southend there are small

independent record shops with

vinyl"

Martin Pipe

ast column, I outlined the Album-art, specifically a JPEG will almost certainly wonder what
equipment and techniques containing a lightweight digital scan all the fuss is about. Funnily enough,
I’ve been using to digitise of the LP jacket either downloaded these ...things turn up regularly in
vinyl records – so I get from the Internet or obtained with Cash Converters!
more opportunities to an A3 scanner, can also be displayed Even audiophiles need to
L enjoy the precious music on the screens of most digital be asking themselves questions,
encapsulated within, via hassle-free players. Sure, it’s not a patch on though. A significant proportion of
audiophile-grade media players having a gatefold-sleeve to lovingly- the LPs at HMV are classic albums
and personal streaming. Nowadays, caress and examine while the – Dark Side of the Moon, Sgt.
even a smartphone with decent music plays – and indeed I miss the Pepper, Rumours and so on – safe
Bluetooth 2.0 headphones is capa- sheer tactility of the vinyl-playing retail propositions that will always
ble of passable results. Diehards experience – but for so many shift. However, they are digital
may tutter, but if their ‘golden days’ of us trapped by the increasing remasters. Basically, the master
coincided with those of the ana- demands of a workaday world (and tapes are turned into digital form,
logue disc then it’s probably safe to associated travel) it’s either that, or manipulated using some kind of
assume they’re now happily retired miss out on the music altogether. computerised DSP magic and then
and aren’t short of the spare time It’s reassuring to drop by the converted back into the analogue
that the ‘vinyl ritual’ demands. local HMV and witness how much form necessary to drive the record
Yes, I miss it. The careful floor-space is now devoted to vinyl lathe’s cutting head. Common sense
selection of LPs for an upcoming records. One feels like going back in says you’re better off skipping
listening session, the equipment time 30 years! The retailer evidently the last stage and enjoying the
checks, the cleaning of stylus and understands that in the streaming remastered output in digital form
records, the careful placement of age, it has to capitalise on the – especially if 24-bit is an option.
my first choice onto the mat, the sorts of experience that cannot be Call me a heretic, but listening to
lowering of said stylus onto the delivered in virtual form. I also note such LPs only makes sense if you
entry groove of Side 1 and the 40 here in Southend the re-emergence have the original analogue non-
minutes or so of relatively click-free of small independent record shops remastered release.
musical enjoyment – interrupted specialising in vinyl. Sure, some Everything’s going digital. We’ve
only by the need to flip over the DJs still insist in working with the seen what that means for the High
album halfway through (did anyone medium, but I can’t help wondering Street. HMV continues to struggle,
make a genuinely audiophile-class how many vinyl LPs (which HMV and as I cycle along Oxford Street
turntable able to do this automat- sells for £20 or more a throw) are I pass its now-closed flagship store.
ically?) and repetition of the latter bought as mere artifacts to hang This eggs-in-one-basket situation is
steps until musical fulfilment or on the wall while music pumps out making us dangerously-dependent
bedtime (whichever came first)... from a Sonos or Bluetooth speaker. on digitally-driven services – both
But now it’s possible to get all Audiophiles prepared to private and public-sector.
that music, without the associated invest significant sums of money And what happens to your
hassle, at the touch of a button in a decent analogue front-end music (and other important files)
or several – and with no further are comparatively rare, certainly if the ‘cloud solutions provider’ of
record wear. The thumbing through compared to how things were three your choice unexpectedly goes out
stacks of records is now replaced decades ago. To the mass market, of business? You need to be ‘backed
by its effortless virtual equivalent HMV pitches cheap ‘retro-styled’ up’, so why use cloud storage in the
– navigating through folders until I record-players with ‘GPO’ branding first place?
find what I’m in the mood for. I can (the publicly-owned General Post A smaller-scale failure put all
even create playlists of complete Office, which was dissolved in of this into personal perspective.
albums, sides or individual tracks 1969), presumably to capitalise My home router crashed, meaning I
– mimicking what I did prior on Brexit-fuelled ‘Rule Britannia!’ could no longer remotely-access my
to those vinyl sessions of the nostalgia. NAS music library while recovering
past – and even save them for Ironically, they are imported. after an operation. That's where
future employment (modified, if Anyone stressing the grooves of analogue steps in, with its simple
necessary). their £20-plus LP on one of them reliability.

www.hi-fiworld.co.uk JANUARY 2020 HI-FI WORLD 105