Hacker News Reader

Comment by rwmj | Hacker News Reader

Here I am listening to Daniel Barenboim's Beethoven Piano Sonatas spread over 24 sides of vinyl, purchased for under a tenner in a charity shop. A CD would be more practical, but the set of records is a real experience, even the getting up to skip the occasional scratch and turn over the records.

Edit: downvotes over 20 minutes. Do you doubt that I'm really listening to it (I am, before I read this news)? Or that vinyl is a real experience? Or that I'm some kind of "hipster" (I have thousands of records, and an equal number of CDs, collected over 30 years). Please reply, I'm interested what you have to say.

For the doubters, here's a photo: http://oirase.annexia.org/tmp/20190908_183833.jpg

View on HN

These are good years for listeners of classical music picking up the occasional vinyl in charity shops and flea markets. In my experience, classic big name rock records get cherry-picked from everywhere by the proprietors of upmarket vintage stores, but classical music is left alone.

Demographically speaking, lovingly collected vinyl collections are steadily entering the market due to the generation that bought them dying of old age. Lots of great recordings available for bargain prices.

Yes exactly! I've also been collecting prog rock on vinyl for many years, but that is usually so expensive that getting CDs or youtube rips is far more practical. However classical/operatic box sets are the sweet spot of well preserved (incredible sound quality) and cheaply available. For example I have a second hand box set of Verdi's Aida which has probably bought me more joy than virtually anything else I own, and I'm not even really a huge fan of opera.

> A CD would be more practical

Actually most practical would be a streaming service where you can enjoy the entire work of art without interruptions.

Tongue in cheek so don't get riled up.

Sure :-) I guess by "CD" I should have said "digital format" or "digital stream". Having said that is there even a streaming service which would play an entire set of piano concertos? This thing must be 8 or more hours long. I've been listening to it in fits and starts over several weekends.

Also for the doubters, here's a photo: http://oirase.annexia.org/tmp/20190908_183833.jpg

As you can see I have CDs and a Squeezebox so I'm hardly opposed to digital :-)

Any decent streaming service will let you build a custom playlist and play it in order, if it doesn’t already have the entire work as one “album.”

Thank you. There's an experience of owning, holding and playing a vinyl record which is quite different from clicking on a stream. It ties you to a place, forces you to pay attention at least when changing sides, has quirks, crackles and pops, and beautiful artwork you can hold in your hand while listening.

The digital stream is certainly more convenient and quite obviously available in more places. I don't say this as someone who is in any way "opposed" to digital music - I own and play a lot of it myself. In units of "minutes listened" probably much more than vinyl.

I just looked and Daniel Barenboim's Beethoven Piano Sonatas is on Google Play Music and Spotify, so yeah unless something is pretty new/indie/remixy one of the two is going to likely have it

> Having said that is there even a streaming service which would play an entire set of piano concertos?

Classical Archives or Idiago are probably your best options for streaming classical music.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com