10 year old wants a turntable!

[tonepub]

I'm really trying to understand vinyl, and just as I think I almost get there, I'm not so sure......

I really don't understand this Dave. We can debate the reletive merits of vinyl versus digital 'till the cows come home, but surely SURELY the acceptability of vinyl ends when trawling through
* crusty
* dusty
* warped
* mouldy and
* scratched to bu99ery
used records that have had cheap Japanese stylii (sorry, needles) dragged through them? Surely that's not hi-fi by even the most ambitious definition of the word, and listening to them can't be anything remotely what I would call enjoyable.

(Flame suit on), but genuinely - I am willing (hoping) to be educated. I just hope your "flea" market suppliers - (we don't have them here - is this what we would call a "second hand market"?) - don't own Clearaudio Master Reference turntables!

Dude, I'm with you and I love vinyl....

That's where I scratch my head too. I've never bought a good sounding record from a flea market and most of the stuff I've looked at in reputable record stores is picked through these days, at least in my area.

The problem with the vinyl resurgence, is everyone is digging their crapola albums out of the attic and wants big bucks for them. I liked vinyl more when you were a weird, fringey person for liking it! (much better records for sale cheap then...)

The good news is that there is a lot of pretty decent new vinyl being pressed these days. Some good some bad. A lot of it being pressed from digital masters, so I just kind of chuckle there.

Personally, my favorite is still great analog, but I'll take great digital over average analog any day of the week. And I'm not even talking about convenience factor.

 

[amey01]

Dude, I'm with you and I love vinyl....

That's where I scratch my head too. I've never bought a good sounding record from a flea market and most of the stuff I've looked at in reputable record stores is picked through these days, at least in my area.

The problem with the vinyl resurgence, is everyone is digging their crapola albums out of the attic and wants big bucks for them. I liked vinyl more when you were a weird, fringey person for liking it! (much better records for sale cheap then...)

The good news is that there is a lot of pretty decent new vinyl being pressed these days. Some good some bad. A lot of it being pressed from digital masters, so I just kind of chuckle there.

Personally, my favorite is still great analog, but I'll take great digital over average analog any day of the week. And I'm not even talking about convenience factor.

Thanks Jeff! - I'm starting to understand again. I'm with you on "great" analogue - it does some things that digital can't do, but by the same token, didital does things that analogue can't do. The best sound I've heard came from high-speed tape, followed by high-res digital.

 

[twich54]

Trust me boys I'm not buying all my Lp's from Goodwill. But I will tell you I have scored some real gems, several of which were still factory sealed !

Check out my find last year from my local Goodwill....... Steely Dan's "Aja" factory sealed with the Korvette store(long gone, out of business) label that evokes our memories of the dayys when records were sold by an 'alpha' code system !

Oh, and BTW my cost.......99 cents !

The main point I was trying to make is that 'treasure hunting' IS a viable part to the resurgance of this format. So Jeff, no good places left in the mighty North West, head East young man, head East !!

 

[FOUNTAIN]

In a somewhat perfect world it would be beneficial to have both a good turntable and cd player that rival each other in sound quality. In my limited experience the cleaning of records and getting up to change sides, not to mention the digging through bins in stores at first was a big hassle. Afterall, I just wanted to listen to music!! Even now there are times that I have that same itch just to push play and be done with it. However as time has passed my tastes have changed. Getting into vinyl was sort of a culture shock for me and it was not very pleasant. But then something strange happened, I noticed my wife and I were spending a whole lot more time together in this hobby as we searched for new and used records. We would go home clean and play them while we talked of all the memories of where we were when we first heard this or that song. Because of this my music preferences grew by leaps and bounds, and now I appreciate more genres than ever before. This alone, to go down memory lane, is nice but is it enough for me to stay in this aspect of my hobby? What about sound quality? Does it sound as good as the digital counterpart, if it's offered in both formats?

Since I have recently invested money to upgrade both my digital front end and my turntable then I am inclined to want to listen to either since both are relatively new. But the reality is I just enjoy the way my vinyl sounds so much more. The ritual of playing a record is nice. The trip down memory lane is fun. The sound of playing a well kept clean record on a properly setup turntable for me is priceless. This of course was just my journey and experience and I'm glad both formats are out there to serve all of us. As someone once told me don't miss the jouney for the destination. And for me the journey and destination are now finally both exciting and rewarding.

 

[slowGEEZR]

I don't buy very much second hand vinyl as a lot of it is exactly how Amey says, not the best sound. When I do, I inspect it as closely as I can and I have found some really great sounding used vinyl for really cheap. Mostly, I buy the 180 gram good stuff new. I've had my VPI for about two years now and find that at least 90% of my listening is via the turntable, even though I have as many CDs as I have vinyl albums. I've bought many albums of which I already owned the CD version and have done many comparisons to the sound. In my system, to my ears, most of the time, I prefer the sound I get with the vinyl. I regularly have friends over and will ask them to listen to both and tell me which they prefer and mostly, they also pick the vinyl. But, I am cautious to always select records that I know have no or extremely few pops or ticks, as that is always annoying. I've also found out that buying new is also a mixed bag. For instance, I received the new four disk set, "Mothership", by Led Zep. The first three albums sounded as good as I could ask for, no ticks, pops or anything else. The fourth album however, has a scratchy sound for the first 30 to 40 seconds of each side that I find annoying. I've also bought some other new albums that have a scratchy sound coming out of one channel or another, but mostly the new albums I buy sound absolutely wonderful. One very nice feature that is gaining in popularity is that some records now either contain a CD of the music or have a passcode so that you can download a digital version. Nice.

 

[Bernard]

I've bought many albums of which I already owned the CD version and have done many comparisons to the sound. In my system, to my ears, most of the time, I prefer the sound I get with the vinyl. I regularly have friends over and will ask them to listen to both and tell me which they prefer and mostly, they also pick the vinyl.

Likewise. I find that the vinyl sounds more real. You can listen to the CD version in a detached fashion, but you cannot with vinyl. Just listen to songs by Jacintha.