Spotted in the Tech & Entertainment Sale. Starts Wed 21st August.
Special Buys Satisfaction Guarantee - We will refund or replace any non-grocery specials within 60 days. Please provide your original receipt (or other proof of purchase), ideally with packaging, when you return the item to us.
Looks like a hipster negged you.
But did they do it before it was cool?
Hipsters? Ok Gramps, might be time to move on, you're about a decade late at this point.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hipster_(contemporary_subculture)
"Globally, hipster culture had become a "global phenomenon" during the early-mid 2010s, before declining from the mainstream by 2016–2017."
How do you know it won't be cool again? Right now it might be most hipster to be hipster.
Ageing hipsters ha.
PS. Agree that these look like cheap bad quality copies, not the official albums so wouldn't waste your money. Instead invest in Tidal, or even the proper CDs.
my reaction exactly. vinyls at ALDI. ffs!
Why does this make you mad?
doesn't. just interesting how the tables have turned! no pun intended lol
next up I wanna see them selling vinyls in bulk at Costco
half a kilo Nirvana and Dire straits please. in the same bag is fine
I'm a big enthusiast and love seeing vinyl getting more accessible and widely available. Irks me to no end seeing gatekeepers in niche hobbies/interests - film photography is another one full of them.
These are garbage. Will most likely be live recordings. Got the GNR one previously. Just terrible. Must be a licensing thing where live performances are in a different category to the original music.
Live recordings are bad? some of those older live recordings are some of the most iconic versions of the songs.
Yeah, these look like bootlegs.
The last lot were bootleg live recordings, most of which were available (legally) online from other sources, so unless you have a particular need to own bootlegs on vinyl this is very niche. Decent price for a record, though.
Oddly enough the same price I remember paying in the 80s.. ALDI is truly doing the lords work for inflation.
They were @ $13-15 ea, unless they were imported or double albums.
Cds $25+
I've found it's about 50/50, got a couple of decent ones (Bob Marley maybe?) and a few terrible ones (GNR, agreed).
these are most likely vinyl pressings from quasi legal online digital sources.
very possible that source material is a 120kbps mp3 file originating from a live mic level recording on a standard cassette from the 70's or 80's.
hard pass.
But you put that low-bitrate MP3 onto vinyl, and it's suddenly "warm and rich with a mellifluous sound".
In reality, there's a possible advantage to vinyl pressings that have come straight from the analog master tapes with no digital conversion stage (i.e. avoiding possible compression/quantization). However, I'd bet the majority of vinyl releases these days have gone through a digital conversion at some stage, which kind of defeats the point. If the digital source is artifact-free, just listen to that.
This comment ignores that vinyl is relatively often also mastered differently even from the same source with, most significantly, the 'loudness wars' mastering seen on many CD/digital releases not always applied to records. E.g. there was a run of Bob Dylan albums from the late 90s onwards where the vinyl was vastly better in terms of dynamic range compared to the CD equivalents.
@caitsith01: Correct the mastering makes a bigger difference than media type, vinyl isn't automatically better, warmer and fuzzier.
There is also too many anecdotal evidence as people would be very rarely do a blind test comparing samples at the same volume.
Dynamic range is exactly right, this website is cool to check various recordings/releases/media:
https://dr.loudness-war.info/
@G-rig: I think you can make an argument that the typical defects that vinyl introduces into the sound are subjectively pleasant for most people. There's no doubt that vinyl will often sound 'smoother' and 'warmer' while digital will sound more clinical and harsh depending on the recording. But that's often because vinyl is actually losing information and especially with bass has lower effective resolution and so 'smooths' out the waveform in a pleasing way.
I enjoy both vinyl and CDs (and indeed minidiscs and high res digital), but you can't beat the ritual of physically putting on and listening to a record, either.
@caitsith01: Cds are the best media, but I know people enjoy the nostalgia of vinyl. All the adjectives for the sound get a bit exaggerated though.
@G-rig: I've noticed The Kids TM now regard CDs as 'vintage'. I see posts in music groups I'm in where people are like "guys look what I scored!!!" and it's some Radiohead or Smashing Pumpkins album on CD which in my head is worth $5 in the bargain bin that CDs all ended up in in about 2005.
@caitsith01: I wouldn't really call it vintage but suppose it was 20y ago now.
At least they were digital, hold up a lot better and take up less room. I ripped all mine to FLAC but still have in boxes somewhere. Would be lucky to get $5 each and they cost a lot more at the time.
Audiophiles still enjoy the routine of physical media if they've spent enough on their equipment to encourage it lol. I still like streaming using Tidal (including hi-res) FLAC collection via Voluimo - Rpi4 - DAC - Active monitors.
@caitsith01: CD upsampling can have a similar effect (e.g. using libsamplerate's sinc upsampling).
The result is not necessarily more faithful to the original recording, and it can introduce artifacts of its own. But it sounds more pleasant to my ear and the harsh parts are smoothed out.
I have a vinyl collection (partly collected, partly inherited), but I rarely use it - other than to admire the artwork.
I've found the best, and simplest music pipeline in most cases is FLAC (from CDs rips) -> mpd -> libsamplerate -> parametric eq (LSP) -> DAC/amp/speakers/headphones. I can tune it to be as warm and smooth as I like, but it's far more convenient than vinyl.
The ritual of vinyl is still attractive from time to time, but the sound quality is almost always better from a well-mastered CD.
@axyh: I found my enjoyment of records went through the roof when I got some genuinely good hifi gear - there's a massive step up from relatively entry level turntables/carts/amps/speakers to mid-range stuff. Particularly vintage gear - I'm running a good 1970s Sony integrated amp, good 70s Acoustic Research speakers and a modern turntable and it sounds really nice compared to my old setup (which was a modern amp and Dali speakers). Also sounds really nice for CDs, mind you…
@axyh: PS that's interesting about upsampling, I have a lot of FLAC stuff so I'll have to give it a go. I mostly listen to digital through a little FiiO headphone DAC/amp and it does a pretty good job.
@caitsith01: The desktop-class FiiO DAC/amps are basically transparent. You can't go wrong with them.
Even cheap gear like the K5/K7 is at a level of measurable performance that could only be reached by ultra-expensive audiophile gear 20 years ago.
The only reason to opt for something more expensive would be if you're driving exotic, power-hungry headphones, or if you want to use a tube amp to colour the sound and add additional harmonics.
The only downside to this transparency is that it can be too revealing of the source material. Even a perfect hi-res master may reveal defects that were overlooked during the production process, and these are often extremely distracting. That's where DSP on the source side (upsampling, EQ, etc.) comes into play.
@axyh: Yeah, it's nuts how good some of the stuff coming out of China is now. I have a FiiO that cost maybe $500 and some Hifiman open planar headphones that were maybe $300 and the overall experience is ridiculously good for that money.
Agreed about source material, good speaker or good headphones make poor recordings really obvious, but the trade off is worth it in terms of how good most things sound.
I personally don't see transparency as the holy grail, I'm happy to have my music coloured slightly by vintage gear to get that sweet, warm 70s sound. And there's just something about speakers with massive 12 inch drivers that you can't quite replicate with smaller gear. I think people often think older speakers are bass heavy when in fact they're just not used to speakers that are actually pretty flat right down to the low range.
I also love the bang for buck of buying and fixing up old gear, I taught myself how to recap, replace transistors and stuff like that. Neil Young through a restored 70s setup is sublime.
@BewareOfThe Dog: I don't think he records them himself?
You mean someone else sing? He's more a poet than a singer, still fairly iconic though.
GNR were shithouse live in Sydney, Axel cant sing without studio enhancement, so would never buy a live recording
That's like saying you once ate a stale sandwich you found left in your kid's schoolbag from 3 weeks ago and didn't like it, so will never eat a sandwich again.
Maybe just don't eat stale sandwiches, otherwise adjust your expectations - there are great sandwiches out there if you look for them.
We must have been at the same concert.
Ha, I remember getting the dodgy live versions of these bands on CD and tape at the servo. They would be in a carousel rack near the door or register. I think they were had white stripe on them that said live and unofficial? I assume they are terrible recordings of the bands made by some random who attended the show.
Aldi don’t miss
InB4 member @rosebank posted it.
You'll get better quality and a genuine recording from a $1 CD at an op shop…
If you don't recognise the cover it's a bootleg
If you don't recognise the cover it's a bootleg
ALDI sells bootlegs and the music industry doesn't give a crap? Not that I don't believe you, but I'm genuinely surprised.
Oh wow. Hope they sell the players too.
Yes, I hear that a record player shoved into a suitcase with a speaker from an alarm clock really gives that live recording experience
Excellenttttt.
yep - a genuine sorny or panaphonics deck will go well with these beauties!
You need the carnivalè
Now now. I know a genuine Magnetbox when I see one.
Nirvana Smells Like Live Spirit
😬😬😬
I've had a few of these in varying quality (physical and sound). Most are pretty flimsy and most have been warped to some degree. SQ ranges from unlistenable to decent.
Ah, so not only has vinyl comeback into fashion, so have terrible bootlegs pressings…
When I got whacked on the weekend, I dreamt I was eating a licorice pizza. Can't find my Michael Jackson vinyl now.
This brings back memories of those bootleg CD's that were everywhere in the 90s! Crappy then, probably even worse now. Before they were sourced from tape, now someone has just downloaded mp3s and emailed them to the cheapest place that'll press vinyl
Crazy Clarks and Red Dot always had a bunch!
Aaahhh, I remember back in the 90s there was a huge flood of these bootleg live recordings on CD of vastly varying quality. I still have the Dire Straits one which is actually really good quailty - a soundboard recording from the Free Nelson Mandela concert in 1988 with Eric Clapton on 2nd guitar. The fact it was one of those big globally broadcast concerts meant there was a good quality recording. I had a few others that I listened to once and never bothered with again because they sounded like they were recorded by somebody's Walkman in the audience. Which they probably were..
I have quite a few from various companies. Some were very good, some pretty bad.
can you return something on the grounds of it sucks ass? i'm tempted to roll the dice on the dire straits one
returning my vinyl sans packaging
The Dire Straits one on this Aldi vinyl offer doesn't appear to be the same one I've got on CD (it says "best of…" rather than a particular show). So yeah, you're definitely rolling the dice in terms of what you may get.
Kinda like the moden day un-authorized bootleg cds they used to sell. I got a shit ton of them. Used to flog em at school from the local market. Who remembers Metallica live VOL3 or Guns N' Roses LIVE with some casette tape version of a recorded concert.
This is the exact same lot that went on sale last year and ended up on clearance at most of my locals for $8.99, even at that price my reccomendation is to STAY AWAY, they are poorly done bootlegs that include recordings from various live shows rather than full live performances, if you dont trust a random comment on ozbargain, check out any of these on discogs and see the horrid reviews.
also should highlight some even have fake repetitive crowd noise piped in over recordings to make them seem stereo
Vinyl at Aldi now. Hipsters not gonna be happy.