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One Thing's For Sure: Vinyl's Final

Vinyl is still a main media format in the music industry. Although the technology behind the record has been around for more than a century, people are still buying them. Is it the quality of the sound? Or is there a nostalgic significance as to why its sales are so strong?

Most commonly used today is the compact disc and it is constantly being compared to vinyl. Despite other formats that have been invented, the fact that vinyl's existence unceasingly continues to thrive makes you consider the advantages that vinyl has over CDs.

Most important in choosing media formats is the sound quality of the recording. Humans are able to hear within the frequency ranges of around 15Hz to 22kHz. Musical instruments, however, are capable of exceeding these limits. Consequently, music recordings should include all that can be produced because even though we cannot really hear all these sounds, we can hear the harmonics of these hidden sounds. CDs have a fixed frequency of 20Hz to 22kHz, leaving us listeners at a slight disadvantage. On the other hand, vinyl is a format that has about the full frequency range.

Vinyl is still preferred over CDs, especially by DJs. Turntablism is incredulously popular. Nothing can compare to the option of mid-song start-ups, as the timer of the CD player can be tedious to work with. Records are also a lot easier and quicker to load than CDs. Above all, scratching and most other DJ techniques are not possible with a compact disc.

In a nostalgic sense, many will say that there's nothing like the sound of a dust crackle as you place the needle down onto the spiral groove. For better sound quality, it is important to keep your records and turntable as clean as possible because dust interference will take away from the recording. Although records take up more space with their large size, they definitely take the cake, artistically. Picture discs are truly a fascinating sight and record sleeves have always had great displays of art.

Still, fans of present-day music buy some of their favourites on vinyl, whether there's something bonus or hard to find on that record, or they just want to be the ultimate fan. Also, it's important to consider the easy-to-use design of the turntable. Some people just prefer it to the CD player because there are fewer technicalities.

Conversely, a great advantage that the CD player has over the turntable is its portability. Elliot Madore, a teenaged Torontonian and avid music listener, prefers CDs to vinyl because of that specific point, but he does hold a high regard for vinyl. ?Records make music more meaningful for me,? he says. ?Instead of all the latest technology, records take me back to the times before my time when music was more special and had more worth.? Changes of environment also influence his choice of medium. ?During family functions, it only feels right to have a record spinning, but when I'm alone, I like to jam it out on my portable CD player.?

Vinyl can be found just about everywhere, and the used ones are most sought out after. More specifically, some good places for vinyl in Toronto are She Said Boom (372 College Street) and Rotate This (620 Queen Street West). Regardless of where you live, vinyl is there, as it has been for a long while (and hopefully always will be).