Learning to Listen, in a Los Angeles Cafe Built for Vinyl | Hacker News Reader

Learning to Listen, in a Los Angeles Cafe Built for Vinyl

nytimes.com

42 pointsmykowebhn21 comments

Vinyl is kind of silly compared to supporting actual live music especially I'm a city like LA with such a tremendously rich variety of live music acts. Not to knock vinyl but it's like why build a cafe for vinyl in la where there are so many tremendous live talents lacking space to perform?

Are vinyl cafes crowding out live music venues? If not then they're two different things, like asking why open a noodle bar when there's so many good cakes around.

You can ignore a record spinning on a turntable while you're having a drink, it's a bit harder to ignore a live band playing in the same room

Right, it’s a completely different vibe - the live experience is like no other, but the audio quality is often too loud and harsh and crap, whereas listening in the vinyl cafe would be at the other end of the spectrum

One reason is because it invites an entirely different relationship with ASCAP that many cafe and bar owners aren't ready to deal with. You'll be required to pay licensing for playing pre-recorded music as well, but the rules and the amount of money are easier.

A second reason for many shops is that they don't have the space or layout to accommodate live performers, or their lease forbids it.

A third reason for bars (probably not cafes, unless they also sell wine/beer) is that in most states live music requires a different liquor license, and switching licenses can mean going through the whole approval process from scratch, or it may be a license you can't qualify for at all.

Lastly, somebody will have to act as booking agent, because those performers won't hire and schedule themselves. This also costs time and money.

I recently went to Bar Shiru in Oakland (mentioned in the article) and it was quite the experience:

https://www.yelp.com/biz/bar-shiru-oakland

I was a little confused by the layout and amount of exposed concrete. Not that it sounded bad, but I prefer a bit more damped sound and maybe they intentionally went for a more live sound with the room itself being a major presence. They do have a fun collection of records along the wall.

I went too. I kinda liked it, but it seemed to me to be a bit overhyped.

Young people who have never heard music played on high quality equipment are in for a treat.

i'm 30, and i have no idea what vinyl sounds like. my grandparents played it a couple times but i dont remember

As a collector and founder of a startup about vinyl records, I find these places extremely interesting. Looking forward to seeing more of them, also in Italy.

Vinyl is quietly making a comeback. I never knew just how hot vinyl records these days until I stumbled across the guys running vnyl.org. They are making a killing.

Calling “a Garrard, an audiophile turntable” is the most laughable thing I’ve ever read in the Times. Yes, it’s a belt drive table (although there may have been some with idler wheels) but, audiophile, no. A starter table like a Thorens, or a Rega, might count, but a Linn or any of the true audiophile tables might start to qualify. The difference between an analog record on a great system and a. Digital mp3 on anything would make most people who love music cry at what’s missing in the digital version.

Except that all modern vinyl pressings are from the same digital masters as any other available medium or format. AFAIK nobody records, mixes, and masters in an entirely analog domain any more. Even so, vinyl isn’t a very good audio storage mechanism, now if you made that argument for reel-to-reel tape, you may have a point. Possibly. But even then, high quality digital audio is still probably better. Especially given the practical implementation of any analog system.

Edit: and, lol, they’re using tube amps and horizontally-placed horn speakers that aren’t designed to be horizontal on a shelf in a resonant cavity. Yeah, this is not an audiophile setup at all. An LA hipsters idea of an audiophile setup at best. I’ll bet it’s fun though!

>nobody records, mixes, and masters in an entirely analog domain any more.

There are still AAA new releases.

This is actually news to me! Thanks for prompting a web search for recent AAA releases. Very cool. I would like to read about the recording setups, equipment, and techniques used. I’d think it must be getting difficult to find all-analog studio gear for the entire chain.

audiophile n. A person having an ardent interest in stereo or high-fidelity sound reproduction.

please quit your gatekeeping

Fair enough, no gatekeeping intended. That’s why I ended with a comment that it’s probably fun to listen to! And that’s fine and great! More power to em. Maybe a more accurate wording would be “it’s not an electro-acoustic sound reproduction system built on sound (pun intended) engineering principles in light of the state of the art in electrical engineering”? But that doesn’t have the same ring to it, lol.

If someone orients their speakers in an aesthetically-pleasing-but-sub-optimal-for-hearing manner, then it's difficult to argue that they have an "ardent interest" in high-fidelity sound replication.

And putting them deep in a shelf like that ... I mean, anyone who cared about sound reproduction could hear that hollow resonance sound ...

The Garrard 301 shown is a direct drive turntable, not belt.

I have one.

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