Interesting. It's still minutiae compared to digital, but it is interesting. I think it's a result of a lot of Hipsters. 😎

I think really you have two markets, the hard core audiophile who never gave up on vinyl, and the new young kids who are into something just because it's different. And retro. It's cheaper to get a LP rig than a decent tube amp! Not necessarily a decent LP rig, but an LP rig.

I think kids who do this notice two things. One is of course that LP sounds "different." Better or not is an individual judgment, but different. The other is that LP enforces a different kind of listening, a serially recorded album that doesn't support random access well, forces you to more or less sit and listen to at least 20 min of music at a go without getting ADD and skipping all over the place. Both I think are novel experiences for a lot of folks who weren't around in the glory days of HiFi.

Jeff wrote:

 The other is that LP enforces a different kind of listening, a serially recorded album that doesn't support random access well, forces you to more or less sit and listen to at least 20 min of music at a go without getting ADD and skipping all over the place. 

Listening to my 180g vinyl albums keeps me busy - no need for visiting the fitness center anymore 😎

MM

Jeff wrote:

I think kids who do this notice two things. One is of course that LP sounds "different." Better or not is an individual judgment, but different. The other is that LP enforces a different kind of listening, a serially recorded album that doesn't support random access well, forces you to more or less sit and listen to at least 20 min of music at a go without getting ADD and skipping all over the place.

...That, and also the fact that the people who were born in the nineties went directly into the digital and ipod era, where everything was accessible in an instant. I think that these people are now realizing how nice it is to possess a materialization of their passion, something they can touch, look at and take care of...

The contact with the music is also more physical in LP's: turning it at the end of one side is a pleasure in itself..

The same goes for books. I'm sure that we are far from the end of libraries...

Imagine if B&o would go back to that market with the reedition of the 4000 series or, why not, a totally new concept..

Guillaume

On another thread somone mentioned that B&O recently copyrighted B&O Classic, so how feasable would it be to "technically update" say a 4000 or similiar and reproduce it ?

Just because vinyl sales are going up a bit, it's still a tiny niche market, and I seriously doubt most of the new vinyl fans are up for paying the price something like a new Beogram would cost. Most are probably using used or 100-200 buck turntables, or cheaper. B&O should, IMO, stick to things with a larger and more profitable market. Their table would be too expensive for most, and the kind of people willing to drop large coin on a table are mostly audiophile nerds who would view any table from B&O as crappy just because it isn't a Linn or VPI.

Jeff wrote:

B&O should, IMO, stick to things with a larger and more profitable market.

B&O is a niche market company rather than a mass market producer.

B&O is not a niche market company, at least not compared with truly niche market "high end" firms. In a way that makes B&O in a worse position, they can't get by on making just a few, hand tweaked items of dubious merit as that only takes a handful of lunatic audiophiles to keep a company like that in business. They have very few employees or infrastructure. And B&O is not a mega-corp like Sony or Samsung, who has such a large business model and make items in such a large variety of different areas (computers to fridges to TVs to stereos) that they can afford to have a presence in a market they will lose money on as their cash cows keep them afloat. They can afford to play that game for the publicity or street cred such halo products bring.

B&O is too big to play the small niche market game, and too small to play the large corp game. The penalty for guessing wrong on a product or such is much higher, they have to try and make every product successful, they can't handle large failures as that sucks up large amounts of limited R&D and product production budgets that they can't spare. They are already serving a small market, how many of their core type customers really give a fig about analog or vinyl?

Visitors are impressed when I play my vinyl, all clean or new, and the talk goes on about where to buy new vinyl and turntables, and everybody wants one.

I then explain that to get a similar sound, they will need a good turntable with a good cartridge, a quality amp, maybe a good preamp and of course, speakers to fit. I then explain the costs of before mentioned items, starting with the min. USD 200.00 cartridge. And thats where people stop talking about TTs and change the subject.😁

Mexicans are used to loud bad sounding "music", distortion all over, but a booming bass, if possible. Mostly they run a cheap amp with a pair of 10 W speakers at full volume, or if sophisticated, a cheap surround setup, with a sub woofer overloaded to give the STOMP.

They dont care of how it sounds, just that it sounds. An example is my garage door, double sliding type, a German made opener make for a totally silent operation, cost about USD 550.00. They prefer a USD 350.00 one that rattles and make boom and bang when opening and closing, and needing service and adjustment every 6 months.

I agree with Jeff, a new B&O TT will be only for a few enthusiast and the audiophiles will as always discard it as high price bad sound.

The vinyl sales rising is a fashion that pass and will go back to where is was 10 years ago.