My turn with Vinyl....

[aliveatfive]

Joey -

Don't get me wrong. I've owned a VPI HW19 IV (still have it in a secondary system) for years and I've been totally satisified with it. It's been upgraded from an HW 19 II which I bought when I was slightly older than you are now! From what I've read, the newer VPIs sound somewhat less colored than the older ones do. I'd love to hear a TNT HRX or SSM in my system,but in all honesty I've made so many changes recently that I have no inclination to do that in the near future. BTW, the cartidges that I've been using are the Lyra Helicon and the Shelter 90x. I like them both. Good luck in your quest!

 

[tonepub]

I second the motion on the SME10 and SMEV (or iv.Vi for that matter) combination. Our classical editor has the SME20 and even he admits that the 10 comes darn close for a lot less money.

I've been thrilled with mine!

So far my favorite cartridge on this combo has been the MoFi 3.5C, but my buddy has a Koetsu Rosewood Signature Platinum and that is fantastic!

Have also had great luck with the Grado Statement (a little more lush and romantic) and the Lyra Skala (very musical and dynamic) on those arms...

The new Shelter 9000 is no slouch and I used to love my 90x. Should have never sold that one!!

Personally, if you can't step up to one of the big boys, I'd just get the new Rega P3-24 with a decent cartridge and buy a lot of records till you can. Every now and then used Avid's or SME's come available on the used market....

Get something musical and build your collection....

Then you can use your P3 as a second table! Trust me, you will never get the sound you want with just one table/arm/cartridge combination. Records are mastered all over the board. If you become a real vinyl nut, you will end up with two or three!

 

[lugano]

Joey, is this another "me, too" ? Do you have at least 1 LP ?

I think that you should listen to more music, and in a better room. You are trying to squeeze the wrong juice out of all this. The only right thing is the music...and until you get a decent room you will never touch it.

Vinyl... hah. In this situation, just a new toy.

 

[DTB300]

Good point Lugano...

 

[lugano]

Dreams must happen, must be lived. If you import or buy them, they loose their very essence. For the majority of us, the LP's we got are a part of our history and past. We grew up with them, we stood in line to buy them or we went away from a concert with them. This is something, this is a whole feeling that just cannot be acquired with money. Sporting 10 meters of LP's bought at a wholesale does not turn you into a vinyl guy. You are just buying somebody else's memories and being trendy. It's better to live your own present than living somebody else's past... you are loosing time, the most precious resource, when you flag out places on the map instead of "being" them, there.

 

[risabet]

Dreams must happen, must be lived. If you import or buy them, they loose their very essence. For the majority of us, the LP's we got are a part of our history and past. We grew up with them, we stood in line to buy them or we went away from a concert with them. This is something, this is a whole feeling that just cannot be acquired with money. Sporting 10 meters of LP's bought at a wholesale does not turn you into a vinyl guy. You are just buying somebody else's memories and being trendy. It's better to live your own present than living somebody else's past... you are loosing time, the most precious resource, when you flag out places on the map instead of "being" them, there.

True, the majority of my collection was built walking into stores or digging through dusty bins at thrifts and yard sales. Yes, I've bought some from MD or ED and many on E-Bay but I still have that first album I bought @ 13 or 14 y.o. and that is special. A lot of sweat and time was spent acquiring these albums and there are memories with many of them, the Van Morrison I bought with an ex, the albums I got when I bought my first hi-end TT. Special things all. Their value is is not monetary but emotional!

 

[slowGEEZR]

True, the majority of my collection was built walking into stores or digging through dusty bins at thrifts and yard sales. Yes, I've bought some from MD or ED and many on E-Bay but I still have that first album I bought @ 13 or 14 y.o. and that is special. A lot of sweat and time was spent acquiring these albums and there are memories with many of them, the Van Morrison I bought with an ex, the albums I got when I bought my first hi-end TT. Special things all. Their value is is not monetary but emotional!

You are so right. I've only got between 600 and 700 albums, but more than half of them are more than 30 years old and some are more than 40 years old! When I play my mono Rubber Soul album, it takes me back to a time when my sister (now gone) and my brother (also gone) and I would play it and memorize and sing along with it. I wouldn't sell that old album for $1000.

 

[Joey_V]

Dreams must happen, must be lived. If you import or buy them, they loose their very essence. For the majority of us, the LP's we got are a part of our history and past. We grew up with them, we stood in line to buy them or we went away from a concert with them. This is something, this is a whole feeling that just cannot be acquired with money. Sporting 10 meters of LP's bought at a wholesale does not turn you into a vinyl guy. You are just buying somebody else's memories and being trendy. It's better to live your own present than living somebody else's past... you are loosing time, the most precious resource, when you flag out places on the map instead of "being" them, there.

Are you saying I shouldn't get into vinyl then?

 

[Joey_V]

I second the motion on the SME10 and SMEV (or iv.Vi for that matter) combination. Our classical editor has the SME20 and even he admits that the 10 comes darn close for a lot less money.

I've been thrilled with mine!

So far my favorite cartridge on this combo has been the MoFi 3.5C, but my buddy has a Koetsu Rosewood Signature Platinum and that is fantastic!

Have also had great luck with the Grado Statement (a little more lush and romantic) and the Lyra Skala (very musical and dynamic) on those arms...

The new Shelter 9000 is no slouch and I used to love my 90x. Should have never sold that one!!

Personally, if you can't step up to one of the big boys, I'd just get the new Rega P3-24 with a decent cartridge and buy a lot of records till you can. Every now and then used Avid's or SME's come available on the used market....

Get something musical and build your collection....

Then you can use your P3 as a second table! Trust me, you will never get the sound you want with just one table/arm/cartridge combination. Records are mastered all over the board. If you become a real vinyl nut, you will end up with two or three!

Jeff,

I dont know about you, but those are definitely the BIG BOYS! I can't swing it and won't be able to for some time.

Joey

 

[MiTT]

Are you saying I shouldn't get into vinyl then?

Joey, you know what, I love Radu, one of the true gentlemen of this earth, but I have to disagree with him here.

While I respect what he is saying, and I fully agree with what Slowgeezer is saying also - I've got so many memories tied up in my LP collection as well - that doesn't mean that you shouldn't start building a valuable collection of music and memories yourself. My thoughts on this are that if anything, building up a collection of vinyl actually makes you more engaged with the music. First, there is a tactile quality associated with vinyl (and open reel tape for that matter), that you simply don't get from any other media. Certainly you handle CD's as you load them, but not in the same loving manner as vinyl. There is the whole ritual of caring for vinyl that extends this tactile association even more, and the fact that YOU lower the stylus into the grooves, and can visually watch the record spinning as the arm traces the grooves extends it further still. Holding an album sleeve in your hands as you listen to the music, with pictures you can see and print you can actually read is wonderfull too (or maybe I'm just getting old and my eyesite is failing). You can never have this sort of engagement from a Squeezebox - sorry.

I say continue to go forward. Browse those record bins and find your own treasures. Start building your own memories and enjoy the wonderfull music that will be the fabric of your own life. It all lies ahead of you!

 

[risabet]

Are you saying I shouldn't get into vinyl then?

I don't think that is what he is saying at all, rather to make sure that you are getting into vinyl for the MUSIC and the love of the medium as opposed to doing so to say you have a VPI TT and 50 audiophile approved albums to play on it. To be sure, vinyl isn't for everyone and it requires a commitment in time and energy and inconvenience to get the most from it.

This is a vinyl renaissance IMO and is a great time to go black but do it for the music and the medium, not for audiophile credibility. My $.02.

 

[slowGEEZR]

I don't think that is what he is saying at all, rather to make sure that you are getting into vinyl for the MUSIC and the love of the medium as opposed to doing so to say you have a VPI TT and 50 audiophile approved albums to play on it. To be sure, vinyl isn't for everyone and it requires a commitment in time and energy and inconvenience to get the most from it.

This is a vinyl renaissance IMO and is a great time to go black but do it for the music and the medium, not for audiophile credibility. My $.02.

Absolutely! Well said. There are fabulous records coming out now. It's a great time to get into vinyl, as Tim said as well!

 

[Joey_V]

Absolutely! Well said. There are fabulous records coming out now. It's a great time to get into vinyl, as Tim said as well!

Exactly... and what better way to go into vinyl than now?

Tim, Dave, Ray.... I've talked with these guys and the bottomline is that I'm building a music collection now and I could either go CD or Vinyl. After hearing what a decent vinyl playback does for a system, I've decided to build a vinyl collection.

This is definitely not an audiophile arms-race. If it was, I know there are better ways to spend my scarce and hard earned money.

I'm getting there... and I hope vinyl pushes me over the top to an even more glorious nirvana.

I have a few titles I want to get and a few places around Chicago that I want to scrounge for titles..... in addition, with the exceedingly large vinyl selection - I know that I have the opportunity to acquire many more as the years go by. No format war, no worries about whether Blueray Audio will trump CD... pure music, better than I felt digital could recreate... this is why I'm doing it.

This is definitely a work in progress, but a work that's been overdue for quite some time.

Joey

PS
Thanks for the post, Tim.

 

[Bernard]

..........
This is definitely not an audiophile arms-race. .........

No pun intended, of course, I assume

 

[risabet]

This is definitely not an audiophile arms-race. If it was, I know there are better ways to spend my scarce and hard earned money.

I'm getting there... and I hope vinyl pushes me over the top to an even more glorious nirvana.

I have a few titles I want to get and a few places around Chicago that I want to scrounge for titles..... in addition, with the exceedingly large vinyl selection - I know that I have the opportunity to acquire many more as the years go by. . . . pure music, better than I felt digital could recreate... this is why I'm doing it.

This is definitely a work in progress, but a work that's been overdue for quite some time.

Joey

PS
Thanks for the post, Tim.

I'm glad to hear that! Don't limit yourself to audiophile labels, so many of the albums from the 50s through the late 70s and some in to the 80's and onward are so good that you'll be amazed. Of course some of the audiophile labels are extremely good too, for classical I like Reference Recordings, Decca SXL, Lyrita, Mercury Living Presence, RCA Living Stereo (not Dynagroove, also known as Dynagruesome).

There is much to be had at the Vinyl Asylum re: setup, isolation and generally maximizing your vinyl experience. There is plenty of info regarding pressings and such also.

Enjoy your vinyl adventure.

http://www.audioasylum.com/audio/vinyl/bbs.html

 

[twich54]

I'm glad to hear that! Don't limit yourself to audiophile labels, so many of the albums from the 50s through the late 70s and some in to the 80's and onward are so good that you'll be amazed.

A point well made that I too agree with. Joey, one of my favorite albums to 'demo' to the non-vinyl believers is my thirty year old copy of Chuck Mangiones' "Children of Sanchez" on A&M records. Yes there's a pop and a click or two, hell thirty years ago I was not as knowledgeable as I am know about record care, but it easily outperforms the later digital release. This is not a rant on the digital vs. analog debate, rather just further validation to risabet's comment above.

 

[lugano]

Are you saying I shouldn't get into vinyl then?

No, no, no !!!

I'm just saying that you risk to go into it using the trend road, not the passion road. That you should first shop for a couple dozen LPs, caress them, wonder and immagine at night how they might sound, smell them... then and only then wonder about differences between XYZ and Grado, between SME and Dynavector...

 

[DTB300]

The perfect "WAF" friendly TT for 'ya

Saw this and had to post it for all of you with the "WAF" after you. A perfect "WAF" friendly TT addition.... What woman does not like purple...

 

[Joey_V]

^^^^^^^

Dan,

Perfect! I think we've all found our next TT...

Joey

 

[MiTT]

Saw this and had to post it for all of you with the "WAF" after you. A perfect "WAF" friendly TT addition.... What woman does not like purple...

I think that's more of a "Lavender" Dan.