Quote Originally Posted by RGA
I live in a town of about 90,000 people on Vancoucver Island. For the Canadian browsers most noticably in Western Canada you will know of the chain A&B Sound - I assume like a Tweeter in the states that sells a bit higher end recievers and CD/DVDs etc.

Well they have a small section of new sealed LP's. But here is the thing there are three more LP selling outlets on the same street in downtown Nanaimo - so I was thinking if LP's are growing here they must be growing elsewhere. And interestingly it is a lot of sub 25 year old buyers getting into these strange big black discs that are not portable and have surface noise. So I asked the ~20 yeal old goirl why she was paying $17.00Cdn for the Sarah McLachlan Re-mixed LP when she could buy the CD for $10.99?

Well D'uhh they sound like way better it's more there better highs. And of course being ~20 and female she probably knows more about highs than your's truly. Of course I was buying the same LP (alrready have the CD) and like D'uhh she was you know totally right.

The other two places of course sell used and so I picked up a 12 inch single of Roxette' The Look. Don't laugh this was one of my favorite songs and purchased more out of rekindling my memories than anything else. SO I rumaged and found my CD of Look Sharp. Seriously, the 12 inch single is just phenomenal and the cd is tinny thin and just out to lunch. Ahh these kids today - some are getting smart -- err just have better hearing.

Whoda thought DJ's of the world might have saved the LP format - and better yet brought it back to the realm where people areonce again considering it as a real iable format. With Dianna Krall, Shania Twain, Madonna, Sarah McLachlan all producig their latest albums on Vinyl --- maybe the female of our pitiful little species are the ones who will save the better format from extinction - because they can hear better than most males.

I wonder how Vinyl Sales are doing against SACD?
I think you're presuming a lot just because you see more vinyl where you live. In my old neighborhood in S.F., stores there never stopped stocking vinyl. Tower and Virgin kept their vinyl sections around, if for no other reason than to stock hip hop, electronica, and other music that typically comes out on vinyl way before it does on CD. Stores that cater to the DJ trade, also of course kept stocking vinyl.

As others have pointed out, vinyl has always retained its niche in specific genres and never really went away. With indie alternative and punk music, vinyl has been a preferred format for a very large segment of that fanbase. As far back as 10 years ago, alternative acts like Soundgarden and Pearl Jam were putting added features into their vinyl releases that you could not find in the CD releases. The support for vinyl varies significantly from label to label. Sony Music ironically has been one of the best labels for issuing vinyl titles.

What's happening right now is that there is a vinyl uptick driven by the popularity of 180/200 gram vinyl releases in audiophile circles. One thing that I'm sure you've picked up on is that these LPs now cost more than CDs. Also, keep in mind that a lot of the newer LP releases that you see are limited editions (i.e one press run and that's it), so there's also the element of collectibility to consider. When I was buying most of my LPs, I did so largely because at that time, they cost only about half of what CDs cost.

The thing to keep in mind with that 12" single that you picked up is that those are often mixed and mastered very differently than the CD releases, so of course they'll sound different. Has nothing to do with format, but rather with the intended audience. A lot of 12" singles that I've collected over the years tend to sound dry compared to how the original version sounds on the album. This is because they cater to the DJ trade and playback in a club environment, which will tend to have more live acoustics than a typical home. If the CD transfer was done directly off the remix and not repurposed for digital format, then of course it will sound thin and tinny.

As far as SACD sales go, the Pink Floyd DSOTM hybrid disc ALONE outsold all vinyl LPs combined last year.