The Vinyl Anachronist: Anecdotal evidence

“Prove it” versus complacency

By Marc Phillips

October 2005

Michell Orbe SE It’s been seven-and-a-half years since I started writing about the great analog vs digital debate, and things have certainly changed during that time. Back then, in 1998, I still felt like the future of LPs and turntables was ethereal at best, that at any moment it could all end, and with more of a whimper than a bang. Now, in 2005, most audiophiles, both digiphiles and vinyl lovers, recognize that the analog market has been pretty stable for years, and it’s not going to change any time soon. Thanks to the iPod, and music downloading in general, the LP will probably outlast the redbook CD. It’s an amazing statement, I know, almost unthinkable seven-and-a-half years ago. But the more you ponder the possibility of it, the more it makes sense.

This, however, introduces one of the main obstacles to declaring total analog victory. It’s so difficult to gather accurate statistics for total LP sales, for instance, or total cartridge sales. There’s no real governing body for tallying high-end audio hardware sales, and as for LP sales, we’ve long been hearing about how “official” sales figures don’t include specialty stores or internet orders (which by now must be the majority of the total). Every year I hear about sales in the seven-figure range, but that’s always presented in contrast to the eleven- or twelve-figure for redbook CDs. And we’re not even bringing up eBay, where the real action is when it comes to the art of record collecting.

That brings up the whole concept of anecdotal evidence, the curse of the audio subjectivist. I’ve been asked, on countless occasions, to prove my claims about vinyl growing and growing every year. And I usually can’t produce any hard numbers, just my experiences and perceptions. And whenever I do that, my objectivist opponent will chant “anecdotal evidence” and rudely dismiss my opinions. It is truly frustrating, especially considering the fact that I get daily e-mail about all things analog, and it is overwhelmingly positive, frenetically so. Since 1998, I’ve received only two negative e-mails, and on one of those, the guy apologized to me the next day and said that he was drunk when he wrote it, and that he actually agreed with me.

When it comes to actually attempting to compose some sort of the State of Vinyl address, the word that comes to mind, in 2005, is complacency. Things are good in the world of LPs and turntables. Just look around. Every one who stuck with vinyl through the Dark Ages (I dunno, 1991 or so), is doing very well now. Just look at Chad Kassem of Acoustic Sounds, or Bob Irwin of Sundazed Records, or Roy Gandy of Rega, or Roy Hall of Music Hall, or the Sugano brothers of Koetsus. They’re giants of the business world, captains of industry.

Anecdotal evidence!

Or, every time I read an audio magazine, or glance through a high-end mail-order catalog, or surf some internet audio forum, I see companies introducing new turntable models. I also see totally new companies popping up all over, choosing a turntable or a cartridge or a tonearm or a phono stage as their premiere venture. There’s Pluto, Redpoint, Shelter, Whest, Cartridge Man, Brinkmann, Continuum, all names I hadn’t heard of until recently. Or, we can mention the names of companies we hadn’t heard from in a while, like Hadcock, or the Garrott Brothers. How can vinyl be dying when there are new ‘tables and new cartridges and new phono preamps and new analog companies showing up nearly every week?

Anecdotal evidence!

“It’s a fact LPs is the true sound. Obviously here we get the music directly from the groove vibration and that is all we need. It is the closest to the source. One will enjoy listening and feeling the music for a long time without sound fatigue. The longer you listen the more you want it. You hear and fell the singer(s), players, and other elements quite distinctly and separately. In ‘groove’ it is the pure unadulterated sound reproduction we hear and that is why we also feel it.”

I get e-mails like this all the time, from people all over the world, young and old, novices and people who have better systems than I do. The best e-mails I get are from young people, sometimes even teenagers, kids who have dug out their father’s old Thorens turntable from out of the attic and just started spinning LPs and were immediately hooked. That’s the biggest guarantee that vinyl will continue to live on at least one more generation. I told a friend of mine who is still in his mid-twenties about this, and he replied, “That’s because kids nowadays think that everything sucks. You know, the X Generation was all about expressing yourself as an individual, but the Y Generation is all about being a product of troubled times, and rejecting pop culture as a sort of protest. That’s why you see so many teens and preteens wearing Dark Side of the Moon t-shirts.”

Blatant anecdotal evidence!

Okay, okay… how about this. Roy Hall sold 1100 turntables during Music Hall’s first year.

Prove it!

Well, I can’t, because it’s still anecdotal evidence, just something I read. I suppose that it is possible that this could all come crashing down tomorrow, that the scientists could break their long losing streak and come up with a new technology that surpasses the sound quality of the best analog. There might be something just around the corner that we haven’t heard about yet, like laser sonic holography or cranial implants. I’m not holding my breath, however, because I do believe, despite the cries of “anecdotal evidence,” that the analog world is healthy and whole and will continue indefinitely. But will it grow? That’s the big question, because anecdotal evidence isn’t the biggest problem we vinyl lovers have. It’s the aforementioned complacency.

Again we go back to 1998, after I’d written my first couple of installments of The Vinyl Anachronist. I was chatting with my boss, and I started telling him about my columns, and what they were about. He stared incredulously at me for merely suggesting that there were people in the world who preferred the sound of LPs to the sound of CDs, but he kept his mouth shut for the most part while I lectured about vinyl superiority. We stepped outside for a minute, though, and he started searching the parking lot outside in an exaggerated manner. “What are you looking for?” I asked. “I wanted to see where you parked your ox-cart,” he replied.

Flash forward to just a few months ago, and I’m explaining the necessity of owning a high-quality analog rig to my new next-door neighbor. He stares in awe, or at least I assume it’s awe, at my Michell Orbe SE, with the SME V arm and Koetsu Rosewood cartridge. Then he looks at me and says, “I didn’t even know they made turntables anymore!”

That’s where our complacency as vinyl lovers will ultimately harm us. If you spend your free time hanging out on audio forums on the Internet, you’ll feel pretty confident that vinyl is doing well, since it’s being discussed both copiously and enthusiastically. But venture out into the real world among your neighbors and friends, and it’s a cold, hard digital planet. If you want a serious wake-up call, just tell the guy sitting next to you on the bus that you think LPs are the best-sounding musical format. I’ll bet serious money that he’ll change his seat. Accost a couple more people with your pro-analog rubbish, and the driver might have to make that dreaded call ahead to the police.

If we want vinyl to grow, to push beyond stagnancy and complacency, we, the vinyl-lovers of the world, have to make it mainstream. We have to tell as many people as possible. We have to prove it to them by letting them listen to our analog set-ups. We have to perform that old audio parlor trick, making them think they’re listening to a CD when they’re actually listening to a pristine, meticulously cared-for LP. People need to know. And then maybe we can back up all this anecdotal evidence with some hard numbers.

Put your money where your mouth is

Recently, I’ve seriously considered opening a small store that would help accomplish this goal. This store would be more than a used record store. It would attempt to bridge the gap between your typical high-end audio salon and the big chain music stores by offering everything someone needs to enjoy vinyl: used records, new records, record cleaning accessories, record cleaning machines. I wouldn’t want to sell actual equipment, but I would want an in-store system, fairly modest, that could surprise people with its musicality. I’d pick a Rega turntable, because I like Rega, and I’d put a vintage American amp in, maybe a Scott 299B or a Fisher 500-C, just to dispel people’s prejudices about vintage equipment. Then, maybe I’d hook up a pair of LS3/5as just to prove that bigger isn’t better.

Rega P3 Maybe I’d rotate equipment that I’d find off eBay, a Dual 1229 turntable here, an Advent 300 receiver there. I’d let people listen and compare and play records all day. I’d schedule parties where people could come and hear the differences between a Technics SL-1200 and a Rega Planar 3. (The most heated analog argument I’ve been in lately wasn’t about LPs vs CDs, but direct drive vs belt drive!) I’d try, to the best of my ability, to be a resource about all things vinyl. I could help diminish all this vinyl ennui.

Then I ran the numbers with an accountant, and he told me I’d have to sell about 80 items a day in order to make as much money as I do right now. As long as I have school-age kids, I’ll have to postpone that dream. But I certainly won’t object to anyone stealing my idea!

Marc Phillips has been writing about hi-fi and music under the Vinyl Anachronist banner since 1998. His earlier columns can be found on the Perfect Sound Forever website. You can discuss vinyl with Marc at Vinylanach@aol.com

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