Why I Went Back to Vinyl: A Journey Through Music and Family

Rediscovering My Love for Vinyl

As a young kid in the 80’s (born in 1972), I was an avid vinyl listener. Maybe not that obvious today, but that’s what we had besides cassettes tapes (yes, I had the yellow Sony Walkman). Some favourite records I played until they were completely worn out. My taste in music wasn’t that of my peers; while they listened to artists like Marillion or Prince, I was listening to The Beatles, Kenny Rodgers and Elvis. I guess I was an old soul in a young body. 😉

The Transition to CDs

At some point, CDs came into play. They promised to be much better than the old records—never skipping, digitally remastered. As a young adult, I felt I had to join this movement and bought just about every title I had on vinyl. I must admit, I was very enthusiastic about them. They offered a lot of user-friendliness.

A Shift in Focus

My records were kept in boxes for years. There was no reason for me to take them out anymore since I didn’t have a record player; it was all CDs for me. When I moved to a new place, the old records were just taking up space in the attic, so I decided to try and sell them. But this was during a time when everybody had moved from vinyl to CDs. Nobody was interested. Even when I offered them for free, there was no one there to pick them up.

So, finally, they ended up in a dump. At that point, I didn’t have much regret about getting rid of them…

The Age of Streaming

Fast forward: since then, we’ve moved beyond the era of CDs and landed in the age of streaming music. Just about any record or CD I ever owned is now available online. Streaming services now offer more than 80 million songs for me to listen to whenever and wherever I want. I carry my entire collection on my smartphone.

Observing Changes in Music Consumption

But as I got older, I started to notice something in my kids. Due to the volatile nature of streaming music, the music itself began to change. To retain listeners’ attention, songs got shorter—no long intros anymore, just straight to the hook. The influence of social media meant that especially young kids were used to listening to music for no longer than approximately 30 seconds (average length of a video for platforms like TikTok or Instagram) before skipping to a new song.

This drove me crazy! But there was no use in trying to explain to my kids the benefits of listening to a whole song. To be honest, I didn’t have the patience anymore, either. So I decided to change the world by starting with myself.

A Spark of Inspiration

The first spark that gave me the idea to listen to vinyl again was a stay at a hotel with my wife. This was a themed hotel with rooms designed in a 70s/80s style, including a record player and records. Among these records were some titles I knew from way back when, especially “Brothers in Arms” by Dire Straits.

We both just sat down, and I started the whole routine of playing a record: taking out the sleeve, removing the record while continuing not to touch the surface, placing it on the turntable, picking up the tonearm (this one was not fully automatic), and gently placing the stylus on the record. Then we just sat and listened with a glass of wine in our hands, enjoying the music until side A ended. When was the last time we did just that? Listening to a whole record, not just a single song?

The Ritual of Listening to Vinyl

I discovered that the whole ritual is a key part of consciously listening to music. It puts you in the zone. A bonus was the fact that all the manual actions came completely naturally to me. Like riding a bike, I guess. That experience inspired me to start listening to vinyl again. But since I had thrown away all my records and had no gear to connect or play analog music anymore, I had to decide between starting new or secondhand.

Choosing Secondhand for Sustainability

My choice for secondhand was motivated primarily by sustainability. I didn’t want to contribute to the heaps of discarded electronics wasting away in dumps. The old gear was still around, mostly because it was built to last. Sure, money also played a role; buying new gear of the same quality as the old stuff would mean I would need deep pockets.

After doing some research online, I bought a Technics SL-D3 record player, a Philips FA 930 amplifier, and a set of Beovox S45-2 speakers. But no music without vinyl, right? So I went looking for secondhand stores. Given the resurgence of vinyl’s popularity, that wasn’t hard to find.

Rediscovering Old Favorites

Rummaging through the record bins, I quickly rediscovered all the old titles I used to listen to! I also remembered the way you look for records as you did when you were young: picking it up, twisting it, and placing it back with one point of the sleeve pointing upwards so you can find it later. I had forgotten about that!

The real bonus was when I came home with all this stuff and started setting it up. My kids were kind of interested, especially my older daughter (17 years old). What convinced her first was the overall sound quality; this was not what she was used to listening to on her smartphone. After a while, I invited her to come with me to look for some secondhand records. This is where she discovered that some of her favorite artists (like Lauryn Hill or Sade) had their music on vinyl too. So we bought a couple of records for her, and this is how she caught the bug. She started to listen to whole records too, not just the first 30 seconds.

A Shared Experience

Eventually, she became so enthusiastic that we bought her a record player, amplifier, and speakers as well (secondhand, of course). She now has a great little collection of albums, including music she would have never discovered had she not visited the record stores.

Now, I take a moment for myself now and then. I sit down, go through all the rituals of setting up a record, then relax and really listen to an album completely. Afterward, I go on my way, feeling just a little more relaxed.