Vinyl records make a comeback in a big way

By Carrie White
Correspondent

In Neil Friedman's beautiful Norfolk home is a room that makes his wife, Abby, roll her eyes.

Two large speakers, a turntable and several other pieces of pricey electronic equipment are the focal points. Vinyl record albums - some 30 years old, some brand new - are stacked up against the wall and lie all over the floor. In the center of the controlled chaos is an easy chair, just begging for someone to sit in it.

In that room, after setting the stylus down on a favorite album - be it Meatloaf; Crosby, Stills, and Nash; Pink Floyd; or Fleetwood Mac - Friedman obliges the chair and wiles away an evening, the bass resonating so deeply that the carpet vibrates. Closing his eyes, he lets the music wash over him and envisions the musicians onstage.

A few years ago, Friedman, 65 and co-founder of Friedman Associates Insurance Planning, rediscovered vinyl records, and he experiences them in his "music room."

Vinyl is making a comeback. Nationwide, vinyl record sales in 2009 were 2.5 million, the highest sales level since Nielsen SoundScan started keeping track in 1991. That figure also is up 33 percent from 2008.

Barry Friedman (no relation to Neil), owner of Birdland Records, Tapes and Discs in Virginia Beach, has enjoyed the upturn.

"People first started buying vinyls again for collectibility," he said. "They would pull the album out and frame it and the cover. But there has been a big jump in the last two to three years. When the economy started going south, I noticed people were pulling out their turntables. They could buy used vinyl for $2 in places. You bring in a 20 dollar bill and walk out of here with ten albums."

Doug Crane, owner of American Oldies Records in Newport News, said: "This is really the second resurgence. The first one was 15 years ago with rap and hip-hop - scratching and sampling records. The vinyl scene exploded then."

American Oldies Records has always sold a lot of vinyl, he said, and even its sales have increased 10 percent from two years ago. "People are coming back in droves."

CDs and other forms of digitalized music offer clarity and convenience, said Barry Friedman, who has owned Birdland for 32 years and has been in the music business for 40. CDs and MP 3 players don't have pops or skips. They don't warp, scratch or wear out as easily as vinyl. They are portable and can be played almost anywhere, and they can play music almost endlessly - no need to flip them over for the B-side.

However, vinyl lovers such as Neil Friedman say records have a warmth and tonality lacking in CDs. "It fills up all the senses," Friedman said. "My best thoughts come when I'm listening to music (on vinyl) because everything else is blocked out."

J.R. Salomonsky, a 13 -year-old student at Great Bridge Middle School, agrees. "Vinyls have a better tone. With CDs, the instruments sound distant. On the turntable, the instruments sound like they are in the living room. I used to think I knew the music, but when I listened to something on vinyl, I heard so much more. For instance, in the Beatles' 'White Album,' in 'The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill,' there is a Spanish guitar in the beginning, but I'd never heard it. On a CD, it just got lost when they remastered it."

Neil Friedman explained that with a vinyl record, using analog recording technology, the smooth arc of the original sound waves can be reproduced. However, digitalized music is chopped up. I t re-creates the original sound wave in tiny increments - like stair steps.

"Digitalized music is harsh," he said. "If you play it loudly, after listening to it for more than an hour, you'll get a headache. But it's not really a headache, but an earache. You don't get that with vinyl."

Vinyl listeners also talk about the "Zen" of listening to vinyl.

Barry Friedman said: "It's slowing life down. It's sitting down with the record, taking it out of its sleeve, using cleaner on it, putting it on the turntable and watching it spin around. It's kind of a neat thing to do."

J.R. said: "It's more comforting. You don't see a CD spinning when you play it. Looking at the turntable is relaxing."

Neil Friedman said the occasional pops and the white noise between cuts on vinyl are part of the experience. They are strangely evocative, making listening to vinyls a visceral experience.

Caring for vinyls also is part of the hobby. He recently lugged several boxes of vinyls from his attic. He is looking forward to organizing them and remembering the exact details of their purchase and his history with them. Some of the newly discovered albums are slightly warped, and he has found a recipe online for "baking" out the warps in the oven, with the vinyl pressed between two pieces of heavy glass.

Two basic types of listeners are responsible for the vinyl renaissance, Barry Friedman said: audiophiles, such as Neil Friedman, and teens and 20 -somethings into classic rock, such as J.R.

Audiophiles tend to be older listeners who finally have the income needed to pursue what can be an expensive passion.

"I've been working since I was 13 and never had the time or money when I was young for listening to music seriously," said Neil Friedman, who described himself as "an old rocker" with a taste for classic rock.

"I'd been wanting to do this for years, but with two kids in college, I couldn't. Now I can." Friedman called his own system "on the very low end of high end." He spoke of one of his audiophile friends whose sound system costs $180,000.

The resurgence among teens is a little different, Crane said. "Vinyl is hip and cool. The packaging is fun. A lot of young people are into it now. It's a collectible that you can play."

In terms of total music sales, vinyl is still a drop, Barry Friedman said. Vinyls, new and used, comprise about 5 percent of his total sales, "which is up from 0 percent two or three years ago! It's a big jump, but it won't supersede anything."

J.R. said few of his friends appreciate vinyl. "Friends who don't understand vinyl only know that rappers scratch it," he said. "They ask me, 'Dude, can I scratch your records?' "

His answer is a resounding "No!"

Neil Friedman agreed: "No one really understands this. There are only a few people who enjoy music the way I do."

He doesn't despair that he won't convert his friends, though. He plans to add a second chair in his music room.

Carrie White, caramine2@aol.com