If you have to ask I know you've never heard the magic of a needle sliding through well made, perfectly pressed grooves. There are so many things that have to go right to get that feeling. If the recording isn't mixed for vinyl in the first place, you can forget it right then. If it is, you've got a chance.
If the person doing the mixing got it right, if they listened and obsessed and twirled here and slid a lever there and listened and obsessed a little more and got the final mix right, which a lot of people don't, and if that final mix is pressed onto a good piece of vinyl, which it sometimes isn't, and if that vinyl is clean, which can take a little effort sometimes to accomplish, and if your needle is in shape and at the right angle and the right pressure and you have a good cartridge and all your connections are good and you have speakers that match the acoustics for your room in the right spot.....it might happen.
You can chase the sound...that perfect sound that cannot be digitized...sometimes for months, through various recordings and equipment configurations before everything that has to go right for it to happen falls into place. But when it does.....you'll understand.
You should also know it will never happen again. Not in quite the same way. Because the needle just wore on the grooves a little. New vinyl is quiet. Next time there'll be a little rumble in the grooves, no matter how much you clean them, it'll never quite sound like that first time. But you'll always remember that first time. When it all came together.
Vinyl, like love, is destined to break your heart in the most delightful of ways. It fades away gradually and everyone sees it but you. Because you remember it in a way no one else can understand.
Owning an iPod is like giving up. An iPod is friends with benefits. I will reluctantly accept CD's when I have no choice, but I will always.....always.....be chasing the needle.
In life as well as music.
In life as well as music.
