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We may reminisce nostalgically about vinyl records - if we are over 30 or so that is - but we all know CDs have a lot more going for them.

With vinyls we had to be so careful - don't drop them, scratch them, throw them, leave then in the sun or let them get too cold.

Nothing was worse than going to put your favorite album on and finding it had got scratched, warped, split or bent. The needle always found the minutest of scratches and jumped at the best part of the song. There was that special 'phhhwwittt!..' sound as the needle skated across to the middle (and caused another scratch).

That's another thing with vinyls -having to get the stylus. The vinyls played by a needle (in the stylus) going over grooves in the vinyl plastic on the surface of the album (or single). Stylus wore out quickly, were expensive and you had to buy the right one for your model of record player.
As a teenager, I used to try and keep using styluses even though they were wearing out - with more scratches as a result.
Lending vinyl albums was always a risk, as was borrowing them. There was always the fear that if you lent them they would come back scratched or if you borrowed, you would scratch someone else's album- the constant pressure!

CDs store easily - vinyls you have to store straight on their side - they cannot be stacked and take up a lot of room vertically.
CDs will take a lot more use (and abuse). They are hard to scratch, you can store them anywhere and you can even keep them out of the box with a good chance they will still play all right.

Cds store a lot more information than a vinyl record and so you can get more tracks on each one in a far smaller area.
The sound is clearer and the quality remains the same over longer period. Many albums lose quality with each play and even a slight bit of dust of a tiny scratch results in constant 'tic' as the needle finds it with each rotation.The Jam sang' Eton (tic) fles) - well , at least they did on my vinyl!

With vinyls, there was often danger of jogging the turn table while the record was playing. The needle would jump and often scratch the vinyl record but with CDs you do not have this risk.

Learn more about this author, Sammy Stein.
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