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stroll down "vinyl memory lane". Kudos to B&N for inviting you. It would be lovely if they would start selling the Orbit or the RPM-1 or something.

As always, thanks Michael!

and very nice to chat with you. Fight for our AAA Abbey Road! :)

Thanks for sharing. Very entertaining and interesting. The talking points seemed really great for the venue. You know, I love being able to still go to a book store and buy books AND records. What could be better than those two things? :)

Although I do buy a lot of reissues online now, so I will probably have fewer "where and when" stories about my purchases. But I buy stuff at B&N, too, and I'll probably remember which those are. They carry a lot of Rhino, and seem to have a cheaper 180g version of the Hendrix stuff from Analogue Productions not in gatefold sleeves. Some of the MoFi as well. This is in the greater Chicago area.

Although I was at AXPONA, hearing the MQA demo was not high on the list. Like many, I await Mr. Fremer's considered thoughts once he's had more exposure to the technology. I can accept that it's better, but a game changer? With the hi-res stuff (PCM, DSD), there is still something fundamentally digital about the sound. I enjoy digital at home, particularly given that most new classical is on the silver disc, but putting on a record is like mainlining the music. It is also simpler to buy records than to try to keep up with the evolving digital landscape.

Sells more Turntables to young people then old and more Turntables then CD players which is a format that is virtually Extinct.

some great stories there Michael.

I must say that Digital As CDs played on a good system(not the extreme/stupid priced bull......)
is actually Very pleasing to listen to.
I play mine on an old Audiomeca Mephisto 2 player with Benchmark DAC2 and BOY it can equal my Acoustic signature triple x with Dynavector XX2 cartridge.
I feel that at the moment, Both formats are as good as long as your playback system is good AND of course your recordings are up to it.
Voila, And enjoy La musique.
The problem is not the system you play it on, it is all about the recording, be it CD or LP.

I'm a computer audiophile and I have a vinyl setup to. Searching for the best source is key whether is in digital or analog one format doesn't necessarily trump the other. Its all in the "implementation" I get great sound out of a discrete digital system completely decoupled from wall warts. I second the Benchmark DAC2 HGC pure balanced out to Mjolnir 2 tube rolling Siemens CCa's on my HD800's amazing experience on headphones.

my digital side isn't quite up to snuff, but the only WOW! moments, iirc, have been with vinyl, and the only goosebumps moments (even rarer) have been with aaa vinyl.

I love to hear stories about people in the business of making records and the records themselves. Wishful thinking but it would be great if every now and then you could grab an LP or two from your collection that has a storied history and do a short video.

Great presentation and Q&A Michael. Thanks for doing this. It brings back so many memories.

I got into vinyl when I was a teenager in the 70's. Then around 1988 my dad bought me an (expensive) CD player for Christmas. I said to myself, what I am I ever going to do with this? I have all this vinyl and high end tape for my car. I don't need another format. PS. I got stung by Beta a few years earlier. Well, kids came along, camping came into play, cars started installing CD players. I didn't have the time to play vinyl during those hectic days; but I never put my love of music aside. More importantly, I never got rid of my table and records.

After my kids left the house, I resurrected the table, bought a new cartridge, a new phono amp, and some mono block amps. Vinyl is a retreat for me. It's my solitude. In addition to the sound, I find there is more of a sense of connection to the music when you take it out, clean it, prep the needle and drop the arm. You treat things that are "expensive" with more care. They have value in your life. Don't get me wrong. There is always a place for streaming and digital, but not when you want / need to indulge in music.

Now I'm looking at upgrading my table, cartridge and phono pre-amp again. My wife questions it, but you can't explain things to people that don't get it. Once you experience it, you'll understand.

I really appreciate sites like this and want to thank all those who believed in vinyl all those years. My oldest child (28) now has her own turntable. Her first record -Leadbelly - Huddie Ledbetter's Best - His Guitar - His Voice - His Piano; originally recorded in the 40's. Heck, my dad was only a teenager then. Who would have ever thought it.

Sorry I mist you 8-13-16 but got there yesterday 8-20-16. Bought some new and used records. In particular I was impressed with used Mercury living presence LPS 9000 Welling's Victory, WOW . also Telarc 5038 Frederick Fennell. The latter of course is Digitally recorded, but these early Lps disc sound great.

I am so old that the only reading materials we sold in the record shop I worked in as a kid were "The Fabulous Fury Freak Brothers" and "Fat Freddy's Cat."

Books and LP's make for a synergistic vibe, for me!

Now I am up to 2000 LPs! In 2001 I had about 1100. And my wife loves listening also. I am real lucky about that. Just bought a 2nd tonearm for my VPI Classic 3 with new tubes arriving for my preamp today! May it never end.

Michael, you're a treasure to us middle-aged, introverted, loser, Luddite vinyl spinners that the newspapers love to put down. Thanks for entertaining me with this clip; it's the highlight of my day (so far).

Michael,

I enjoy the blog and all of your stories. I am from just outside of Boston and grew up listening to WBCN. My favorite DJ was Jamaica Plain Jane. Much later, I lived in Jamaica Plain and taught at BU. Before that, however, I met a girl from Ithaca NY who went to Cornell. Later, after grad school in NYC, we married and moved back to Ithaca and taught at Ithaca College for a while. We're back in Mass. now, but my wife heard me listening to this video and wondered which record store you worked at in Ithaca (and what you were doing there). She remembers three stores: two up in College Town and one downtown at State and Cayuga, but she can't remember the names.

It was in Ithaca, in 1990, that I gave 3/4 of my vinyl collection to the Ithaca Library book sale and began to buy hundreds of CDs. I've since replaced it all and more, but I still weep to think of it.

I'm a college professor in Boston and I can tell you that the majority of my students have TTs. If you can get places like B&N and Newbury Comics to sell better entry-level turntables (I'm thinking the U-Turn would be perfect for N/C . . . it's made right here!) I think it would be a great service to humanity, and young people in particular.

Keep telling stories. We old, sad, recluses just love to listen to you reinforce our pathetic self-righteousness before we take our teenagers out to buy more of their favorite music on vinyl. (My favorite local store is the Record Exchange in Salem, MA, which, if you haven't been there, you really should visit on your next trip north. Great little shop that's been there since the hey-days.)