Where did all of this come from? The hi-fi industry, I mean? Well, it came from a want of music the way it was supposed to be heard, of course. But all of that stems from the music being there in the first instance. And there is a consumable, repeatable and purchasable way. We’ve come a long way since the only way you could hear some music was to have it played within your direct vicinity. It’s the rise of vinyl that made this possible. It’s the rise of vinyl that has made music what it is today possible… but where did it all come from?
The Phonautograph
Everything has to begin somewhere, and the story of the vinyl record begins with the earliest visual representation of an analogue sound wave (… the only kind of soundwave initially in existence, funnily enough). That medieval cement mixer you see above is actually a phonautograph which literally translates into ‘sound write’. In 1857 this curious device was brought to life by Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville, a French printer. He used a vibrating diaphragm and a stylus on paper to record the pattern of soundwaves, and unbeknownst to him managed to create the first sound recording device without ever intending to use it for playback. He merely wished to study the patterns. Then Thomas Edison took over with the Phonograph in 1877, which was designed specifically to both record and replicate sound.
The earliest examples used tinfoil wrapped around a grooved metal cylinder. A sound-vibrated stylus indented the tinfoil while the cylinder was rotated by hand. The recording could be played back immediately – but was typically only used as a sideshow attraction due to the crudeness of the recording. Yes, playback was possible, but it wasn’t quite up to the standard that it needed to be. It wasn’t until the implication of a wax cylinder in place of the tin foil one that the sound became refined enough to make the phonograph a commercially viable product. This established the ‘recorded music’ industry from 1880. The example pictured above was one of Edison’s commercial wax cylinder phonographs, available in 1889. Wax cylinders were produced with the analogue sound waves enscribed upon them. Although Edison experimented with disc and tape formats, it wasn’t until Emile Berliner took over in the early 20th century that vinyl as we know it now began to take shape. Up until then, the market was dominated by wax.
The Gramophone
Berliner developed laser cut discs intending to replace the wax cylinders. Although the sound quality was poorer, the discs were capable of much longer playback – up to four minutes of recording. By 1901 a number of separate companies (including Berliner’s) had merged to form the Victor Talking Machine Company, who were producing 10 inch vinyl discs, began to produce 12 inch ones by 1903. These superseded Edison’s wax cylinders in every way, prompting the release of a celluloid cylinder, which were still in production – despite being much less popular – until 1929. By 1919 the basic patents for the manufacture of lateral-cut disc records had expired, opening the field for countless companies to produce them. By this point the format war had been won – and laser discs reigned supreme.
From then on, there were several variations in the method of recording production, the speed of the discs and their materials. By the 1920’s electrical recording was favoured over acoustic. Shellac – a form of hard rubber – was used for the earliest discs and 78RPM was the standard speed until the 1930s. Vinyl was only implemented when manufacturers began experimenting with different speeds as it was much more robust and lightweight than shellac, and therefore much more versatile. By the late 1930’s it was the standard material. Vinyl records were born.
It was around this time that the term “high-fidelity” gained prominence. It was first coined in the 1920s by some manufacturers of radio receivers and phonographs to differentiate their better-sounding products claimed as providing “perfect” sound reproduction. The term began to be used by some audio engineers and consumers through the 1930s and 1940s. After 1949 a variety of improvements in recording and playback technologies, especially stereo recordings, which became widely available in 1958, gave a boost to the “hi-fi” classification of products, leading to sales of individual components for the home such as amplifiers, loudspeakers, phonographs and tape players. So, now you know.
The gramophone eventually gave way to the separates system, with turntables, amplifiers and speakers being the preferred system. And this format continued to dominate the music industry pretty much entirely until the invention of the compact disc (…CD) in 1983. Up until that point vinyl only improved. Longer play times, better quality and a cult following that it enjoyed for decades.
The Fall of Vinyl
Despite reigning almost unchallenged for the best part of a century, the 1980s saw a format revolution which nearly proved to be vinyl’s demise. The CD worked by having an analogue sound wave replicated into data on the CD surface which was then read by a laser, which went on to produce a digital sound wave and processed by a digital sound processor, decoded back into analogue and driven for playback.
The CD – and its corresponding player – was cheaper, more practical and more accessible than vinyl. And due to the CD containing data as opposed to a physical representation of an anaogue soundwave – more could be fitted onto the CD. A lot more. The release of the Sony CD101 and its competitors marked the begining of the end for the vinyl format, which went on to fade into obscurity into the 21st Century.
Well, it would have been obscurity, if it weren’t for the lovers of high fidelity. Many audiophiles were skeptical of the new format, maintaining that any distance between the original analogue wave was a bad thing, which meant that an analogue reproduction was the only ‘true’ way of hearing music as it was meant to be heard. This belief was small, but strong enough to keep the vinyl industry ticking over until today.
The Re-Rise of Vinyl (… more commonly referred to as ‘The Vinyl Revival’)
The CD format enjoyed a much shorter dominance than vinyl By the late 2000’s digital downloads become the favoured format – which unexpectedly meant a sudden re-interest in vinyl. The prevalence of the digital download inspired a sudden nostalgia for both the sound quality of vinyl records and their physicality. It was noted that the sense of the ownership of music suffered as a result of it being in a file format, rather than something you can physically hold. But this didn’t mean a sudden return to the CD – not quite. Those seeking the physical went deeper still – and rediscovered vinyl.
The sharp yet steady year-on-year rise was first noted in 2008, and has been clamouring more and more attention ever since. Now, in 2015, vinyl is no longer seen as the secular hobby of the audiophile – now it’s fashionable, desirable and cool. We have been operating as a hi-fi retailer since 2004 – and have witnessed it for ourselves as vinyl grows and grows popularity. A trend that has been mirrored globally.
Will it keep on climbing? Who knows? But it is clear that the power of physical ownership (and nostalgia) is still prevalent – and probably always will be! We know that digital music is very much here to stay – and we embrace that. But we can’t help but love that our vinyl – the original audiophile format – is going from strength to strength.
Long may it continue.
Interested in joining the Vinyl Revival? Then give us a shout. We can give you everything you need to get started. Nobody knows – and loves – their vinyl quite as much as we do and we want to keep the family growing!