There's an article in December's Hi-Fi News and Record Review called "Vinyl: On Borrowed Time?" A few choice quotes from vinyl cutting engineer Tim Young:
"[Lathe maker] Neumann no longer makes any cutting equipment, or any spare parts. They don't do repairs. the cutter head is cooled with helium, but if you blow one by overloading the coils you have to find one of the one-man-band operations that will do you a repair job by hand and pay at least £5000 for the work."
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"Ortofon still makes player cartridges, of course, but nothing for cutting. In fact all the original companies making cutting equipment have ceased."
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"Really it's idiocy that with all the new interest in vinyl, the people now cutting don't get together as a consortium to encourage the manufacture of a new lathe. But it would need co-operation and this is a cut-throat business. You could describe it as the most brutal manifestation of capitalism. So co-operation hasn't happened."
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Almost all LPs are now cut from digital files, rather than original analogue masters. Tim Young puts the digital figure at 95% or more.
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"What really annoys me is the rubbish being written about vinyl in the online forums, especially in the US. One of the worst examples is when some Joe Schmo hooks up a turntable to a computer, looks at waveforms and says what sounds good or bad. As they say, a little learning is a dangerous thing."
