Physical media thrad

[Ⓐaron]

Interesting piece about the vinyl market. I certainly have a pretty strong distaste for speculators.

One thing the piece doesn't mention is that a lot of the labels that press vinyl records can't afford to do non-limited pressings; there simply isn't enough of a demand for them. Granted, it would be nice for labels to reprint the records for which there's enough demand. Fortunately, some of the better ones do.

There's also this piece addressing the sound benefits of clear LPs and single-sided LPs.

 

[Jarlix]

Regarding game storage I like cartridges, and for them to be as small as possible. When the PS5 comes out after PS4 I'm hoping they can eschew disks in favour of Vita sized cards that get the job done. I don't think it's bad to have everything sold on small things like that that're painless and hassle free.

Vinyl is honestly just a style choice. But damn if it isn't classy. It also has a nice crackly noise to it.

 

[Ⓐaron]

Honestly, there's a lot more to it than just the crackly noise (which certainly is charming, though), though some of it is due to conscious decisions by record labels to make CDs and MP3/FLAC releases as shitty as possible. A lot of vinyl records get separate masters from the digital versions, which are generally immune to loudness war shenanigans that introduce digital distortion and other undesirable artefacts into the music and often cause listener fatigue. It is primarily for this reason that vinyl has a reputation as an audiophile format, although it also adds a warm layer of distortion to the sound that a lot of people, myself included, find pleasing.

As far as gaming goes, I don't honestly mind discs, although I can't tell you the last time I played a game that wasn't on my computer. I haven't even played my Wii in several months.

 

[Jarlix]

Makes me want to get hold of a class Vinyl disk player to accent my room.

 

[Ⓐaron]

If you like music enough it's definitely a worthwhile investment. There are so many albums which sound substantially better on a good turntable.