By Inquirer

MANILA, Philippines–Is the CD obsolete?

With digital music downloads — both legal and otherwise — fast becoming the preferred medium for obtaining music, it’s beginning to look like the days of the CD are numbered. Some prophets of techno-doom are predicting that within the next three years, CDs will all but disappear as consumers switch to MP3 players and other hard-drive media, or the higher-capacity DVDs.

When that happens, unthinkable as it might have been just 10 years ago, the vinyl LP would have outlasted its “successor.”

On the brink of extinction when CDs first emerged in 1982 with its promise of “perfect sound forever,” the 12-inch long-playing phonograph record has, against all odds, survived and, in some ways, even thrived.

In the beginning, it was kept alive by a small but stubborn clique of Luddites who refused to buy into the hype that CDs were better.

The bone of contention is the old “analog vs. digital” debate which has been going on since CDs were first introduced in the market.

In a nutshell, LPs are analog recordings: that spiral groove is actually a mirror image of the actual sound waves produced by the musicians. Hence, according to aficionados, it is a more faithful reproduction of the actual music.

In contrast, the CD samples the original sound waves at 44.1 khz and encodes this as digital data. This data is then reconverted back to analogue sound when the CD is played back.

Herein lies the crux of the debate: since a CD is only a sampling of the original music, analogue purists argue, it is obviously less faithful to the source. Their opponents insist that what is lost is inaudible to the human ear anyway, but some vinyl diehards claim that digital recording kills the very soul of the music.

In any case, even as MP3s emerged as a serious rival to the CD, a number of manufacturers began pressing vinyl LPs again. Some of them are small specialist companies catering to the audiophile market, licensing classic recordings and reissuing them as lavishly packaged, premium-priced limited editions, pressed on virgin vinyl.

At the same time, the turntable — long feared extinct save for the DJ’s ever-reliable Technics SL 1200 — made an unexpected comeback. Don’t expect your dad’s old console record changer, however. Like the records themselves, most of these are aimed at audiophiles with fat wallets, and exotic models that cost as much as SUVs are not unheard of.

Therein lies the catch: in order to get sound quality that trumps CD, you need to play your LPs on a high-quality turntable, equipped with a better-than-average cartridge and stylus (known to the average Joe as “the needle”), which will cost several times your garden-variety CD player.

And you have to keep your records scrupulously clean, because dirt translates into the annoying ticks and pops that made you switch to CDs in the first place.

But, say analog addicts, all the investment in equipment and time spent hunting down records in thrift shops will pay off with “warm,” “human” analog sound as opposed to “cold” digital. In contrast, they say, even a short session listening to digital fatigues the ear. As one vinyl fetishist put it, “listening to digital is like watching porn, listening to analog is like actually having sex.”

Maybe.

In any case, the growing number of converts to analogue have kept vinyl alive, although the titles available on LP represent only a fraction of those available in the CD format. Most of these are reissues of classic pop and jazz albums, often pressed on premium virgin vinyl. Fully Booked is the Philippine distributor of a number of these small labels, although new vinyl comes at a premium. A classic Miles Davis or Bob Dylan LP, specially pressed on heavy 180 gram vinyl, will set you back anywhere from P1,800 to P2,000 — equivalent to the cost of three or four CDs.

Less well-heeled vinyl fetishists can always buy used LPs. Not too long ago, you couldn’t give them away, but with the resurgence of vinyl and the growing number of collectors, even scratchy local pressings of sought-after titles are fetching unheard-of prices in the used market.

One of the few outlets in Manila for used LPs is Bebop Records, a tiny basement stall in the Makati Cinema Square which opened in 1994, when record collector Bobby de Leon decided to turn his hobby into a business.

“The demand for LPs is increasing, but the supply is dwindling,” he says. “I used to get a lot of records in the secondhand shops, but now I have to look for them abroad. They now cost more, but then people are willing to pay higher prices for them nowadays. My average price for a used LP in good condition is now around P500. When I started out, I was selling them for P80 to P100.”

Many are audiophiles newly-converted to vinyl, who are building record collections to play on their newly-acquired turntables. Many more are obsessive record collectors who are willing to pay premium prices for rarities such as long-deleted original Pinoy rock albums or first pressings of jazz albums on iconic labels like Impulse or Blue Note.