I Didn't Get the Vinyl Hype Either

I grew up with cassette tapes and CDs. Vinyl records were genuinely never on my radar. To me, they were just something older people had, or something you'd find sitting in a milk crate at a garage sale next to a broken lamp. It didn't seem like something that had anything to do with me.

Fast forward to today. What eventually changed my mind wasn't a sudden appreciation for retro aesthetics. It was subscription fatigue.

I sat down one month and actually added up what I was paying for streaming music, streaming video, cloud storage, the other streaming service, the other OTHER streaming service. The total was jarring, but what really struck me was the realization that I owned absolutely nothing. Not one song. Not one movie. And at any moment, a title could be pulled, or an exclusivity deal could mean I needed to sign up for yet another platform just to watch a show or movie I liked.

We spent a decade complaining about cable companies bundling channels nobody wanted. Streaming quietly became the exact same deal, except now we have six cables instead of one. And even when you cancel one, three more seemingly pop up overnight.

I firmly believe your money acts as a vote. So, I started pulling back. I canceled subscriptions and started looking for physical media.

While on the hunt, I stumbled across a broken 1984 Sony Walkman. Intrigued by the mechanical challenge and the tangible nature of something that was such a big part of my childhood, I bought it. I fixed it up (which became my first YouTube video) and started a small cassette tape collection. I loved the physical reality of it. That led me to 4K Blu-rays—actual discs, on actual shelves, that no one could digitally alter or delete.

Around the same time, I kept reading about vinyl sales having a massive, multi-year breakout. It didn't look like a nostalgia blip, but something more significant. It looked like a movement. People were making an active, considered choice to own physical media instead of renting access to everything at once.

I understood the impulse completely. But vinyl specifically? I wasn't sure I got it, and I was honest enough with myself to admit that.

I decided to start researching. Try to "get it." When I finally looked into it, it wasn't the sound that pulled me in, that came later. It was the object itself. Album art printed large enough to actually read. Lyric sheets folded inside. Heavy pressings in bright orange, translucent blue, or even multi-colored variants.

Then I learned about the pressing process. Because master lacquers degrade with each use, no two pressings sound exactly alike. There are codes etched into the dead wax, which is the silent groove near the label, that identify which plant pressed it, which series it belongs to, and sometimes even which engineer mastered it. It functions like a physical provenance system. Once you know it's there, you can't stop looking for it.

I was convinced at this point and decided to dive in. I bought a Fluance RT-85 turntable and a pair of ELAC Debut 3.0 speakers. My thinking was to buy at the exact top of the bell curve, the point just before the price-to-performance ratio stops working in your favor, while still being skeptical enough that I hadn't fully committed.

Then I put the first record on the platter, and I was genuinely blown away.

The part I didn't anticipate was which records sound best. It's live performances and orchestral recordings where the format really shows what it can do, at least in my opinion. An orchestral recording of the World of Warcraft soundtrack was my first purchase. The dynamic range and the sense of space in the room translated in a way I wasn't prepared for.

I'm at 16 records now. If you are as skeptical as I was going in, I can honestly say it's worth giving it a real shot.

I just picked up the Toy Story soundtrack on vinyl. It's a Zoetrope pressing, meaning there's an animation printed directly on the record itself. If you watch the label while it spins, the frames move and you can actually see the scenes playing out. My daughter thought it was the coolest thing she'd ever seen, and honestly, I was right there with her. It's my first Zoetrope record, and I highly doubt it will be my last.

On the gaming side, I just finished fixing a Sega Dreamcast (that's the second YouTube video), and I've been playing Crazy Taxi and Virtua Tennis on it. Virtua Tennis in particular holds up way better than it has any right to for a 25 year old game.

My Dad handed me my childhood Sega Genesis and about a dozen games after I visited Dallas a few weeks ago. I have no idea if it still works. I need to go through the cartridges, test the console, and figure out what's actually there. If it doesn't work, we'll fix it together on camera.

The next video is the "vinyl skeptic-to-believer" story. It feels like the right one to tackle while the experience is still fresh. The Sega Genesis haul from my Dad will likely turn into a project as well, but we'll see once I dive in and start testing the board.

Discogs.com - An incredibly detailed database of records, CDs, and cassettes. It also hosts a private marketplace where collectors sell from their own collections under standardized grading guidelines. I just placed my first order and I'm waiting for it to arrive. If you're getting into physical media and want to understand what you're actually looking at, what edition, what pressing, what condition, this is the absolute best place to start.

One quick thought before I wrap this up.

I've had the idea for Analog 86 for a long time, but I kept getting in my own way. I know my first two videos aren't perfect. Honestly, I don't even think they're "good." But the entire point of this project is to force myself to finally create and put something out there.

My default setting is to hold onto things until they meet some impossible standard of perfection. I'll expect myself to produce a world-class YouTube video when the reality is that I'm still figuring out how to edit, how to use my camera, how to tell a story, and how to even talk to a camera. All of this is brand new to me.

So, let's be real... I'm building this and learning in public.

If you're reading this, thank you for being here early. I can't fully articulate what I want Analog 86 to turn into just yet, but I can feel it, and I know I'm not the only one who feels it. This is the most exciting project I've worked on in a long time, even if I'm still figuring out exactly where it leads.

Issue #001. More soon...

— Matt