Vinyl Thoughts

Expense. A good turntable, cartridge, phono stage and record cleaning machine will add up even if you shop used.
New albums themselves are fairly expensive as well.
Turntables are a little fiddly (get everything leveled and set up correctly) and albums are varying thicknesses so vta needs to be adjusted before playing to get the proper results.
The sound quality is worth it to me, you'll have to decide for yourself.

Laundrew · « **Reply #28 on:** 7 Jun 2010, 11:41 pm »

Be well...

1ZIP · « **Reply #29 on:** 7 Jun 2010, 11:48 pm »

Quote from: Ryanz on 7 Jun 2010, 10:44 pm

What is the biggest drawback to vinyl?

I don't know if it's the biggest drawback but noise - pops, clicks, bangs, rumble, etc. Then there is the number of things that can influence sound quality to varying degrees - needle, needle alignment, cartridge, cartridge alignment, tone arm, tone arm leads, platter pad, platter material, base resonances, plus related expenses and on and on. But when properly set up the sound is very nice. It is as someone said "a hobby within a hobby". If you like to tinker with things that influence sound quality then vinyl may be your thing, just depends upon how fanatical you get. But, it's not as big a pain as it sounds. I bought a Rega P3 + a decent cartridge, had the audio shop set it up for me and I was good to go. I have about 40 LPs that I've had since rocks were new plus some new ones, I keep them clean and enjoy them a lot. Like many have said go out and do some listening.

vegasdave · « **Reply #30 on:** 8 Jun 2010, 01:14 am »

A good turntable, arm, and cartridge will reduce the noise to a minimum. It's not that bad to set up, and if it's too overwhelming, have the dealer do it, as you said.

vegasdave · « **Reply #31 on:** 8 Jun 2010, 01:16 am »

Quote from: SteveFord on 7 Jun 2010, 11:13 pm

Expense. A good turntable, cartridge, phono stage and record cleaning machine will add up even if you shop used.
New albums themselves are fairly expensive as well.
Turntables are a little fiddly (get everything leveled and set up correctly) and albums are varying thicknesses so vta needs to be adjusted before playing to get the proper results.
The sound quality is worth it to me, you'll have to decide for yourself.

Not necessarily. But, as you said, the sound quality is definitely worth it.

Ryanz · « **Reply #32 on:** 8 Jun 2010, 02:47 am »

Quote from: Napalm on 7 Jun 2010, 11:06 pm

You may end up spending your time with stuff like this:

http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=81472.0

instead of listening to music.

Nap.

Wow. Ummm..........

Ryanz · « **Reply #33 on:** 8 Jun 2010, 02:55 am »

I think I'm spoiled. Having grown up in the CD age, all these gadgets and gizmos seem so extreme to me. Soooo many things to purchase to get vinyl going. It's going to have to sound pretty amazing for me to purchase one, but I'm still going to demo. Ill give it a fair trial though.

1ZIP · « **Reply #34 on:** 8 Jun 2010, 03:05 am »

Ryanz:

You might try going to www.acousticsounds.com. They have a selection of equipment and a wide selection of LPs as well. Don't be intimidated, all you really need is a cartridge, a TT + arm, a phono stage and your in business.

Ryanz · « **Reply #35 on:** 8 Jun 2010, 03:10 am »

Quote from: 1ZIP on 8 Jun 2010, 03:05 am

Ryanz:

You might try going to www.acousticsounds.com. They have a selection of equipment and a wide selection of LPs as well. Don't be intimidated, all you really need is a cartridge, a TT + arm, a phono stage and your in business.

Nice site. Thank you!

OMG! I knew there was different size vinyls, but the thickness too? What's up with that?

1ZIP · « **Reply #36 on:** 8 Jun 2010, 03:48 am »

That's one I'd take over to the Vinyl Circle (180 vs 200 gram pressings). You might also ask someone over there about 45 rpm vs 33 1/3. That should provoke some lively yet informative discussion.

Ryanz · « **Reply #37 on:** 8 Jun 2010, 04:00 am »

Quote from: 1ZIP on 8 Jun 2010, 03:48 am

That's one I'd take over to the Vinyl Circle (180 vs 200 gram pressings). You might also ask someone over there about 45 rpm vs 33 1/3. That should provoke some lively yet informative discussion.

I could only imagine.

I'll mention that when I go visit my dealer, and stare blankly at him when he goes into great detail about things that I know nothing about.

skunark · « **Reply #38 on:** 8 Jun 2010, 05:32 am »

Quote from: Ryanz on 8 Jun 2010, 04:00 am

I could only imagine. I'll mention that when I go visit my dealer, and stare blankly at him when he goes into great detail about things that I know nothing about.

I'm also from the CD generation, and I did that about two years ago, and walked out with a turntable and glad I did. Now I know the differences between vinyl, cd and hi-res tunes in my setup. I've only purchased a few dozen vinyl and would say about a third of what I've bought new has either been scratched or warped so you could argue that my experience hasn't been that successful.

I've done a few unscientific blind A/B CD vs vinyl comparisons and only guessed correctly 80% of the time while friend guess correctly 40% of the time. So at least I know a album has the potential to sound as good as a CD for the gear I have, just I'm not entirely convinced it's worth the extra effort. Initially I was disappointed in my purchase, dealer wasn't that helpful and I felt that records were not that punchy with the bass as compared to CDs.

I'm sure I will buy more records but mostly will be the ones that come with a CD or an album that I really love and don't mind having more than one copy around.

Moon Doggy · « **Reply #39 on:** 8 Jun 2010, 07:16 am »

The biggest problem is finding good pressings of vinyl. You want the Original Pressing or the 2nd pressing. Which means finding pristine old vinyl if you want great sound. No easy task.

Try finding a mint OP of Led Zepp 1 or 2. The re-pressings of this material today is horrible. The new album pressings aren't much better.They have lost the art of making vinyl, the record plant equipment is too old or they master it from digital and mess things up. Whatever the reason they don't sound like the OPs. I'm old enough to remember.

I've bought the "audiophile" 180g remakes of some of the old classics and they are all flat and lifeless. Ex. Zep's Mothership gets 'raved' about but is not even close to the OP. A waste of $60. Got $20 for it.

Good luck finding OPs that are worth a listen. I only have about 25.

My Clearaudio TT worth $3000 sure looks good tho!

Anyway with the new Bryston BCD-1 we finally have digital that can sound better than vinyl ( the good pressings). Only took 30 years of CDs to do it.