We all know there’s something ritualistic about playing vinyl. Browsing your collection, flicking through each record until one catches your eye. Admiring the artwork and poring over those liner notes and lyrics. Slipping the disc from its sleeve, tenderly blowing away the dust before carefully placing it on the turntable. That slight crackle as you lower the stylus and the needle drops. It’s nothing short of heavenly. So let’s add one more to this to-do list: putting a pair of headphones around your ears. Switch off those speakers. There just is no better way to listen to your music of choice than through some quality cans…
It sounds obvious, but when you wear headphones you’re physically connected to your vinyl. Like an umbilical cord, plugging you directly into your favourite album, it amplifies concentration. With those cans on, its lead jacked into your stereo system, there’s simply no wandering off into the kitchen to do the washing up as the music fades into background noise. You are there to listen, to concentrate and to absorb. With this in mind, music can become a powerful, potent experience.
Forget CDs or streaming, vinyl is the most authentic way to hear a record. To get technical for a second, the dynamic range, frequency range and compression levels all contribute to how a track sounds. And vinyl extracts more information from its grooves than any other medium can. Wearing headphones is only going to enforce that warmer, richer analogue sound that envelops you in a way digital mediums can’t, allowing you to absorb every nuance of an artist’s record. And yes, you’ll hear the bad with the good. Vinyl can be prone to static electricity pops and clicks as the needle picks up flaws in the surface of the record. But isn’t that half the fun of playing vinyl? Authenticity has never felt so good.
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