cliveb;400504 Wrote: 
> I'd say there are only three reasons why you should ever consider
> digitizing an LP:
> 
> 1. It's not available on CD.
> 2. It's available on CD, but costs silly money.
> 3. It's available on CD, but has been remixed/remastered/otherwise
> edited in a manner that degrades the performance. (For example, the CD
> release might be hypercompressed so much that the LP actually sounds
> better).
> 
> That's it. Just now I can't think of any other reason to do it (unless
> like me you enjoy the process).

Hi Clive.  I would add one more to your list

4.  The total cost of replacing all your hundreds of vinyl LPs with CDs
is astronomical and storage is a problem.

If I only owned 50 - 100 LPs then I would probably go with the CD
replacement solution.  I am actually doing that for my wife, who has
"lost" her collection of 50 or so LPs in one of our house moves.

However, I have about 500 LPs and the total cost of replacing them with
CDs, even assuming I could get most at a discount, would be around
£5,000 - £7,000. That is not money that I have at the moment, even if I
were to replace them over a period of time.

And then what do I do with all the ripped CDs?  The logical thing to do
would be to sell them (and/or the LPs) once I had ripped them, which
would be at a loss but would defray the total expenditure and reduce
the storage space needed. I have the LPs already, so I can listen to
the music when I want - it seems a bit daft to buy the CDs as well.

As I already have a decent turntable and amp, the extra cost of ripping
the LPs is the specialist soundcard I have bought and the software, a
total of about £100.  The only advantage that ripping gives me is the
ability to listen to the music in other rooms (via the SqueezeBox), on
an iPod or in the car.  Personally, I would not think that is worth the
extra expenditure to buy the CDs to do that (I don't drive much or own
an iPod), but YMMV.

I don't particularly enjoy the ripping process, I treat it as a short
inconvenient add-on to listening to the LP. It is quite satisfying once
it is done though.  Using my particular work-flow it takes about 15-20
minutes for a typical album.

[off topic]
With services like Napster and Spotify available, it won't be long
before the only reason to own music (MP3s, CDs or LPs) at all is
because you want to load it onto a portable player or you want better
fidelity than the steaming services offer.

No doubt there will be technical solutions to these issues too, in
time.

It will be odd (and slightly sad) for those of us who have grown up
acquiring vast record and CD collections that it is very likely that
the next generation will be able to get all the music they want,
whenever they want, wherever they want, with high fidelity at the touch
of a button - and they won't need to "own" the music at all.  It will 
all be available for a small monthly subscription.

A hobby and process that has taken up a big chunk of my life, browsing
in record shops, the excitement of unwrapping the new disk and
listening to it for the first time, then lovingly caring for and
storing my LPs/CDs etc will simply not exist in future.  Strange.
[/off topic]


-- 
TheLastMan

Matt

SB Duet, Synology Diskstation 107+ with FW 2.0-0600
SqueezeCenter 7.3.1 on Synology Package Manager
Naim 42/110 amp, B&W CM2 speakers.
LPs ripped using Linn LP12, Naim 72/Hi-cap, M-Audio 2496.
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