I really hate the sound quality of old records.

Like I really like the songs on EXILE ON MAINSTREET, by the Rolling Stones, but I hate the sound quality so much that it makes it hard to listen.

I'm fine with 4-track demos from 80's+, but something about all those cloppety instruments together recorded with really shitty mics just makes me annoyed.

I know this makes me uncool.

Who's to say what's cool and what isn't?

lofi can sound very awesome, especially in a world dominated by overproduced shite.

see, i don't get how it sounds awesome.

i think over-produced sounds just as bad as 1960s albums...

but lo-fi... i love 4-track demos by pj harvey, but all the intruments are really clear. and the vocals are loud. even steve albini "live" records where the vocals are so low you can barely hear them have a lot of clarity. it's like there's no clarity in the albums. it's like being in a live room with cotton in your ears... actually, it's sort of worse than that. everything just feels so muddy. it's like i'm listening to a song while sinking into a tarpit.

i know it's taboo to say that you don't loooooooove old songs from the 60's -- because that was the golden age of song-writing. and i admit that bands did have more talent back them. but geeze, it's fucking hard for me to get past the sound.

i dunno. am i missing something?

i've got a copy of meatloafs first album on vinyl and my dad has a copy too. he also has it on cd. i've tried listening to each vinyl and the cd in sequence and my vinyl (to my ears) beats the crap out of the other two. my dads vinyl is very worn and sounds awful - no clarity on it at all. the cd is just missing something - it's as if i can hear that it is digital, it's stop start. my vinyl just sounds like one continuous sound but with each part/instrument having a definite clarity to it.

my dad has a kick arse turntable, though. and a fabulous setup. i love listening to my hole vinyls, blondie vinyls or some david bowie on it. for me it just kicks the pants off any other media type. in technical terms vinyl is better, no arguing it. however, digital is almost at the point where the human ear is unable to distinguish it from analogue. apparently we've already been there for a while but we're still using 128 or 196 birate cds on crappy 'prototype' cd stereo systems. people who work in studios will tell you on their systems using their gold discs that they prefer it to vinyl.