There are literally billions of used records available and they aren't $30 a pop. Many of these used albums are in excellent condition. I'd say that about 70% of my purchases are used and average price for them is around $3 to $4 apiece. I could buy between 1500 and 2000 used records for the price of the PS Audio combo.
Vinyl vs Cd; or why I need to spend more!
- Thread starter Gordon
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There are literally billions of used records available and they aren't $30 a pop. Many of these used albums are in excellent condition. I'd say that about 70% of my purchases are used and average price for them is around $3 to $4 apiece. I could buy between 1500 and 2000 used records for the price of the PS Audio combo.
I'd like to be as efficient as possible, but would like to stay under $7500. Again, I'm a bang-for-the-buck kind of guy, so if I can get 85-90 percent of the way for 3-4K that is fine with me...
Thanks!
Victor
Well-known member
Hi Len,
This may be of some interest. Not sure what the price is in $$US though...
http://www.avreview.co.uk/review/re...od/Knosti-Disco-Antistat/rcn/50/rgn/6/sp//v/1
Kind regards..............................Victor
Back on topic, I have about $1,000 invested in my turntable setup and more than twice that in the CD player.
Given a good audiophile record the turntable sounds much better than the CD player.
Given a poor recording and poorly cared for used record the CD player sounds much better than the turntable.
I had to invest much more time in the turntable to make it sound as good as the CD player, that is the greatest variable in deciding which is better for you.
Given a good audiophile record the turntable sounds much better than the CD player.
Given a poor recording and poorly cared for used record the CD player sounds much better than the turntable.
I had to invest much more time in the turntable to make it sound as good as the CD player, that is the greatest variable in deciding which is better for you.
Is it really that much better than a quality audiophile pressing of the same recording on CD? I find the MoFi gold CD's and their SACD's in particular sound stunning.
tonepub
Senior Member
Yes, there are still billions of used records around, but the $3 and $4 records aren't the awesome sounding ones. Not bad, but if you want the killer sound (and I wish I had many more of these), you're looking for the early stamper stuff in country of origin and those records are big bucks.
Most of that stuff is in the $100 -$1000 each category. I always pooh poohed these records until I had the chance to hear quite a few. I've got two amazing collectors on our staff with the unobtanium pressings and it's a world of diff. between that and what you'll find used in the record stores these days...
tonepub
Senior Member
If you can spend around 7500 bucks and don't mind doing a little bit of used shopping, the world is your oyster. Is that for cartridge and table, or cartridge table and phono preamp?
Still, you should be able to get a very satisfying analog front end for that kind of money.
Gordon
Well-known member
Jeff or anybody, could you explain this early stamper thing?
Gordon
Gordon
Gordon
Well-known member
Afraid not Gordon. These are my wife's and we've been carrying them around for 28 years. She is not parting with these. Along with the other 25 boxes of "stuff" I have no idea of what the contents are!!
Gordon
I must admit to not having purchased fancy CD's and do not have or have I even listened to a SACD player.
I do have a couple of CD's from local high end HiFi shops. They are excellent recordings full of wonderful music seemingly designed to sell stereo equipment.
Sonic merit award goes to ; Blue Tofu
RichTeer
Well-known member
I'll try:
When a record is mastered (i.e., cut by a cutting lathe), the object produced is an acetate master. The master is electroplated creating a father. The father has ridges so it could theoretically be used for pressing records, but a new acetate master would have to be cut once it had worn out). To get around this, impressions of the father are takien, creating one or more mothers. These mothers have grooves (like records), so they can't be used directly to press records. So multiple copies of the mother taken, and each of these is called a stamper (because it's used to press--or stamp--the records).
Low number stampers are desirable because the mother from which they're made will have worn less. So ideally, you want a record pressed from the first stamper of the first mother. All other qaulity control issues aside, there should be very little (if any) variation between records from the same stamper/mother pairing.
tonepub
Senior Member
Yep, that's pretty much it...
Because it's a mechanical process, the earlier in the pressing process you are
the better the record will sound.
Also, some records were pressed with different master tapes throughout the records history, so again, big diff between some pressings, not so much with others.
Talk about analysis paralysis! But the early pressings are usually pretty amazing! Many are better than the "audiophile remasters"....
Because it's a mechanical process, the earlier in the pressing process you are
the better the record will sound.
Also, some records were pressed with different master tapes throughout the records history, so again, big diff between some pressings, not so much with others.
Talk about analysis paralysis! But the early pressings are usually pretty amazing! Many are better than the "audiophile remasters"....
User211
Well-known member
Indeed tis true.
Peter_Klim
Well-known member
Oh boy...
...I didn't have to read this after spending literally hundreds of hours research what TT system to purchase...and then finally buying it when I only own about 70 LPs :duh:
I already returned by Clearaudio TT aftrer having buyers remorse by having read sudden large number of replies, on various forums, to get the VPI instead...on the day the Clearaudio was shipped. After that buyers remorse I felt like Ihad it again after reading this thread...but only for a few minutes...
Why only a few minutes? Although I only have about 70 LPs, 9 of those were purchased just a few days ago, in VG condition at only $2 a pop! I find it much easier to purchase albums I would never had considered if they cost more (which CDs, even used normally go for more). At this rate, my collection can increase to 300 for only $460.
Another reason is that it could get me into digging types of music I would never have thought of getting - blues, country, punk...
I miss looking at the artwork. Some folks purchase painting for thousands of dollars just to look at! I pay $2.
I don't know, but when I was in my mid teens I saw a movie or tv show or I don't remember what it was I saw, but I saw a guy place a needle down on a record, then some romatic saxophone begins to play, he then dim the lights, walks over to his lady and sits down on the sofa and pour her a glass of red wine - the whole scene looked so sexy to me and then i looked over at my Linear tracking TT (which had the tonearm built into the dustcover so it only played with cover down) and said to myself "boring". There's just something sexy and cool about placing a needle on the record...ok, so maybe i am a bit weird and should have brought up this point?
Hell, anyone who still spends all this money to play vinyl seems weird by those who dont! LOL!! I also think the TT looks like a sexy work of art!Some folks spend $100K to purchase and old mustang or other muscle car when a new BMW M3 will way out perform it for 10s of thousands less! Maybe even a used car for under $10K? But a classic mustang is cool
I see TTs the same way... classic antique technology that was around for what? over a hundred years?Some believe TTs sound better than CDs, especially in you $4-5K range. Maybe it does, maybe it doesn't. But I think we can all agree it does sound different, and for each format I think most can say each has it pros and cons in sound quality. TT systems can give you another way of listening to music, a "different" kind of sound than can be just as pleasing, one more pleasing effect.
I also find great pleasure in "hunting" for LPs - it's a cool little hobbie
And it's exciting seeing old stuff that you hadn't seen in over 20 years! Are any of your LPs only available on vinyl?I though my boss and my friend were going to say I was crazy for purchasing a new TT. My boss told me she loves the sound of crackling records (now I think she is crazy! LOL!) My friend told me she use to play her dad's old Elvis records late into the night with her ex and they were fun times (I guess not enough to save their marriage! LOL!)
I also like that it forces you to listen to the LP because you spent all that time setting up and cleaning the LP, and making sure your there to pick up the tone arm before the needle rides the label, plus cleaning the needle and records, just to listen to it - you better damn well not be surfing or reading when your playing your record after all that effort! Plus for me it's fun to "tinker".
Now if all you care about is sound quality, you could sell your CD, take the money you get and add it to the TT budget of $5k and get a better CD player that may sound better(?)
Now please, Please, PLEASE!!!...please no replies that will bring me buyers remorse again. jk
Bernard
Well-known member
You could have spent the money on concerts instead. There is nothing like live ! :devil:Now please, Please, PLEASE!!!...please no replies that will bring me buyers remorse again. jk
tonepub
Senior Member
So what did you actually BUY? I've listened to about 70 LP's in the time you've been vacillating about this....
Buy something, start SOMEWHERE and see if you like it. If you like it, take it further. No big deal.
Some of you guys spend way too much time panicking about what to buy instead of listening to music. If you like shopping for records and like the $2-$5 records, almost anything you buy in the $500 -$1500 range is going to be fine.
I hope you figure it out and actually get to start listening...
Best of luck.
Peter_Klim
Well-known member
LOL! so true!
Peter_Klim
Well-known member
I did buy something.
I appreciate all your help in the past, but I don't really appreciate your tone in this post.
A few thousand dollars IS "a big deal" to me. I'm not fortunate enough to have tons of stereo stuff thrown at me for evaluation like some people do...So instead I ask a TON of questions - buyer beware. And I don't want to purchase in a low quality range, just to have to upgrade later and loose $$ by selling the old stuff at a loss. I want to buy something good and then just be done with - something I can have for the rest of my life. What the heck is wrong with asking so many questions?? And in the meantime, I DO listen to music - i have FM and CD, is that ok with you? Yeah i could have bought used, but what i wanted at that lower price was not available and then how can i "buy something" already? And why the heck should price on vinyl make a difference? As soon as you buy that 200gm $30 LP, its already used and the price drops. Does that make your LP sound like crud??
I don't post often; it's usually when I'm wanting to purchase something or have issues (selfish, huh? or maybe I'm just don't know enough to help like some people)... I usually don't post much (compare our Join Dates and Number of Posts) because I'm usually listening to music or doing my other hobbies, but in my above post I thought i could repay a bit by contributing some of my thoughts...back to listening to vinyl...See you guys (no offense Tom and you other great folks!) in a few years...
Oh, and sorry for "panicking"
RichTeer
Well-known member
Don't fret about the number of records you own. I only owned about that many years ago when I purchased my first "real" turntable: a piano lacquer Roksan Xerxes with Rega RB300 arm and an Audio Technica MC cartridge. Total price for that lot was just under a thousand pounds, and that was nearly 20 years ago!
Enjoy your new turntable! :music:
