Sainsbury selling vinyl!

axisus

Went into a big store today for stuff. I went to the CDs to look for something, and lo and behold, a bunch of shelves with vinyl on! Needless to say, mostly Pink Floyd, typical vinyl fan music I guess. I was strangely attracted to them, picked up a couple, mulled over the sleeves. It was a little bit of a buzz strangely enough. Vinyl was sooooo much better than CDs as a thing. 

lustycourtier

They've been selling them for a few years. Our local one has a big vinyl section 

EricTheWeary

lustycourtier said:

They've been selling them for a few years. Our local one has a big vinyl section 

This, well for ours I'm not sure I'd say big but definitely had a vinyl section for at least a couple of years. 

DesVegas

Wow!

strumjoughlamps

Yep been a couple of years now, Tesco were the first to start selling vinyl.

2 years running now vinyl has outsold cd

richardhomer

Last time I was in B&Q, they had a big selection - infact they supplied the vinyl for my kitchen floor....

fields5069

Tiger sell vinyl at the moment too, probably whatever Sains chucks away.

Is it good stuff though? Some of it is claimed to be of the 180 gram "audiophile" variety.

mr-mac

Just don't play them on a Crossley, ion etc.... They will all recut the groove and feck the record royally in a few plays. You'd be better going on gumtree and buying something 70's even all in one from a good brand and buy a new phono cartridge

boogieman

The price of retro record players is going bonkers though, no wonder people are buying Crossleys. Saw a couple of examples the other day in a trendy shop: 70s Sony music centre £180, 50s Dansette record player £400. 

57Deluxe

They also selling Xtra Large frozen Turkeys for just £1.80 ea in their Harrogate store,,,

randella

boogieman said:

The price of retro record players is going bonkers though, no wonder people are buying Crossleys. Saw a couple of examples the other day in a trendy shop: 70s Sony music centre £180, 50s Dansette record player £400. 

That was always going to happen, to be fair. I really wanted a Technics SL1200; I should have bought one ten years ago when you couldn't give the things away, now they're going for £600 a pop. £600!  For a turntable that's been dragged round every student party in town!

Anyway, I bought the Audio Technica knockoff instead, it really is very good. How Technics haven't sued is beyond me, it's pretty much identical. 

http://www.analogplanet.com/content/audio-technica-lp120-usb-turntable-shames-plastic-competition#hMRDRZzHb3YIfqrS.97

randella

fields5069 said:

Tiger sell vinyl at the moment too, probably whatever Sains chucks away.

Is it good stuff though? Some of it is claimed to be of the 180 gram "audiophile" variety.

I may be wrong here, but I thought the grooves were of the same quality and depth whether or not the record's 180 gram?  

The heavier stuff's certainly nicer to handle, I'll give it that. 

RocknRollDave

Ah yes, if you want a nice cheap, durable format get yourself down to Sainsbury.....

robgilmo

180 gram means nothing for sound quality, I have lots of it here that sounds pretty pants, Most of by best sounding records are light flimsy things.

mudslide73

Very hard to resist the Zep 1 reissue the other day in Sainsbury's. Damn you Xmas overdraft! !

robgilmo

Did you get the double album? DeLux edition?

english_bob

I don't get it. As much as I appreciate the novelty nostalgia value and the appeal of having a thing, which you don't get with downloads, I don't really understand exactly why vinyl is suddenly so popular. Or is it just that CD sales have dropped that low? 

Personally, I won't bother with vinyl while I can get the same albums on CD for a third of the cost and get a more durable, more portable, more playable format that is much easier to convert to digital formats that are far more useful to me.

Many new release vinyl records now come with a download voucher that allows you to get the album in mp3 or FLAC format as well- that seems to me like the way to go, but they don't seem to be doing that with the classic stuff that the supermarkets are selling. 

boogieman

Maybe it's because you have the sense of ownership with a vinyl album. You only have to get a problem with a dodgy hard drive or get your iPod stolen and you've lost your downloads; they feel far more ephemeral. There's also the tactile and visual element of the vinyl sleeve and the whole reverential process of putting an album on to play. Someone mentioned in another thread that putting an album on means you tend to actually listen to the music, rather than it being a background noise. 

randella

boogieman said:

Maybe it's because you have the sense of ownership with a vinyl album. You only have to get a problem with a dodgy hard drive or get your iPod stolen and you've lost your downloads; they feel far more ephemeral. There's also the tactile and visual element of the vinyl sleeve and the whole reverential process of putting an album on to play. Someone mentioned in another thread that putting an album on means you tend to actually listen to the music, rather than it being a background noise. 

All of those reasons. Plus it's nice watching the record play, there's something nice and mechanical about it. Also it's a slight nostalgia thing from when I was a kid learning Clapton's licks from me dad's vinyl copy of Disraeli Gears. 

But really it's that last point in @boogieman 's post. I listen to my Google Play subscription all day at work, but putting on a disc means you actually sit back and listen to it. No skipping tracks or winding back to hear a riff again, you listen to the whole album as the artist intended, and the concept of track order and 'sides' starts to mean something again as a result. 

I have to say I've started to enjoy music a lot more again as a result. 

RocknRollDave

I hate vinyl. Hate it. 

Gassage

What?

Vinyl flooring?