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Considering a Move to Vinyl

'Selling your collection' : You might get better prices now than in 10 years...

Yeah, I'm musing on that. Vinyl is going through a fad phase so now may be the time to unload it. I'm seriously considering employing someone to do it for me. There is no market for 78s at all and when this little fashion dies it may well go the same way.

Then I think well.. what would I do with the money? I don't want anything, I dislike travel; I'd probably just drink it.
 
Yeah, I'm musing on that. Vinyl is going through a fad phase so now may be the time to unload it. I'm seriously considering employing someone to do it for me. There is no market for 78s at all and when this little fashion dies it may well go the same way.

Then I think well.. what would I do with the money? I don't want anything, I dislike travel; I'd probably just drink it.

That is my issue too, I have a lot of vinyl I paid a quid or two for that is worth £100s and increasing, and a savings account that isn’t even keeping pace with inflation. Why would I want to convert the former into the latter? I’ve already weeded out the vast majority of less interesting or valuable stuff from my collection. Music values are hard to predict, e.g. Elvis seems to be tanking, but jazz of the same period is increasing, so more is at play here than the age of people who bought it. I have a feeling I’m quite lucky as my taste is exactly the kind of left-field stuff that doesn’t do a lot at the time but is valued by future generations once its influence trickles through, e.g. I bought my Can, Amon Düül, Kraftwerk etc albums when they could be found for a few quid and have a lot of very collectible ‘80s indie etc. I also seem to have been very lucky with jazz and classical as I have a lot of original US Impulse, Japanese Blue Notes, UK originals, valuable audiophile cuts etc, and next to no low value reissues. I was having a look through last night and I’ve so much stuff you just never see in shops or at fairs these days. The classical is the same with some real collectables, both pressings and obscure 20th century experimental stuff (Stockhausen etc). A fair bit of which I’ll likely hang onto until I am not capable of working my turntable to be honest, but the value should remain on this sort of stuff. I like to think the audio kit I buy is in the same catagory, i.e. very good examples of the most sought-after stuff.

The point of stating this here is, much as I’d encourage anyone to enjoy vinyl, I don’t see how you could put together a genuinely good collection these says without crippling expense. Even bog-standard issues that are as mentioned upthread at best a high-res digital file cut to vinyl tend to cost three times the CD. You may well get a lot less nasty compression added though, and in many cases that justifies the price of admission. Add to that the amount of utter shit out there, the countless EU loophole pirates of jazz and other >50 year old music etc. It really annoys me seeing this worthless junk in high st stores as to my mind it is a con trick. These are not proper records, they are at best the CD cut to vinyl, at worst a needledrop, cassette or even YouTube video cut to vinyl. Just crap, yet on sale all over the place to unsuspecting newbies.

To put it another way I’d consider entering the vinyl market now for new and current band’s output, good quality second hand and proper high-end audiophile cuts, but beyond that it can be a minefield that may lead to disapointment.
 
I often find that new vinyl of new new albums even though digitally recorded still sound better than the digital counterparts. The main reason being that if you look on the dynamic range website http://dr.loudness-war.info the digital releases are often in the red and yet the vinyl releases of the same album are green.

Take a look at the Ed Sheeran album, 'X' of the cd vs vinyl
 
... I have owned the same LP12 for over 30 years, and even with a few upgrades over the years (Linn would call it something a bit above their Akurate spec) it's not really been a very expensive piece of kit, particularly if you factor in how long I've used it (and it will probably do another 30 years yet). How many digital sources will last 30 years let alone double that?
That's a good question. My LP12 took up residence before my first CDP, and I'm now on my sixth CDP. I have also spent a shed-load more money on CDPs than I ever did on the LP12, even after adding up all the upgrades (ARO, Geddon, TP Khan and Elevator, Greenstreet sub etc.) and carts I've used.

I'm still less convinced by CD-replay than I am about vinyl. For some odd reason, I feel my latest Densen B-440XS isn't quite as analogue sounding as the B-400XS before it. The latter lasted 12 years before it expired.

In contrast, my LP12 turned 30 this year, and it has never sounded better.
 
I often find that new vinyl of new new albums even though odigitally recorded still sound better than the digital counterparts. The main reason being that if you look on the dynamic range website http://dr.loudness-war.info the digital releases are often in the red and yet the vinyl releases of the same album are green.

Take a look at the Ed Sheeran album, 'X' of the cd vs vinyl

Which is why vinyl so often sounds better than a digital release. This isn't a problem with classical, fortunately.
 
Then I think well.. what would I do with the money? I don't want anything, I dislike travel; I'd probably just drink it.

I empathise with that and add eating out/theatres/cinemas/anything out. Even limited to wish-list hifi. Why this situation has to coincide with dotage is very unfair !
 
I often find that new vinyl of new new albums even though odigitally recorded still sound better than the digital counterparts. The main reason being that if you look on the dynamic range website http://dr.loudness-war.info the digital releases are often in the red and yet the vinyl releases of the same album are green.

There are lots of reasons why the dynamic range measurements are not really representative for vinyl.
 
I put a toe back in the water a month ago buying a Rega Planar 3 having abandoned vinyl about 25 years ago in the rush to CD. My existing silver disc collection (all classical) is a mix of CD, SACD, pure audio Blu-ray (24bit/192kHz) & more recently opera on blu-ray (24bit/48kHz). Obviously the opera on blu-ray is a different category to the others due to the video element.

All the problems with vinyl I remember from 25 years ago are still there but being retired I have plenty of time & you certainly need it when buying used records as the sound quality varies enormously. About half I have bought so far are excellent after a clean-up with single figures pops over the 2 sides & the sound has more depth than most silver discs. Around a quarter of my purchases are in the "return to sender" category despite having been rated as "Near Mint" as numerous play & clean cycles have improved them but not enough with too much low level surface noise remaining. I do not mind the odd pop or crackle but on these problem ones the noise goes on too long & detracts from the listening experience. In one case the amount of noise was not excessive compared with some others which I felt were ok but the problem was that it all occurred during a very soft passage of music & spoilt the whole record.

Hopefully with more experience I will learn which sellers' ratings are accurate & which are wishful thinking. The time spent cleaning so far has been excessive & I would not want it to continue at that level. It has been a bit demoralising at times so I have put on a silver disc to listen to some "clean" music & it has sounded superb - but despite this I think the best of vinyl is better than the best of silver disc.
 
So that would be a modern one then......probably got one of them new-fangled Cirkusses bearing an' all.......:)
Nah, everyone knows the pre-Cirkus (black oil, white liner) bearing sounds best - especially with an ARO.
 
I was recently lucky enough to be invited to a demo of Naim's Statement amps at Infidelity in Kingston. I had a great evening (it's a great shop) but what I found interesting was that Naim demoed it with an NDS and 555 but then Tangerine showed off their top of the range LP12 and I thought it sounded miles better.

They get you along to these things for a reason and it worked! :) I have been happily using a streamer for the last few years but it got me wondering should I move to "the other side" and invest in a deck.

My question is really about investment. Having an NDS and 555 I worry that buying an entry level deck will just be a waste of time as it won't sound anywhere near as good as my NDS but I'm not sure I want to throw a lot of money at a deck yet if I don't like it. I'm keen to know what other people's experiences have been in moving in this direction and thoughts on what would be a good way to start out with the system I have.

I'm using a Naim system - 282, 250, Supercap, NDS, 555. Wilson Benesch Actors.

Yes do it; a great hobby that you will thoroughly enjoy. Ultimately, if done properly, it won't cost you anything. There are lots of classic turntables, tonearms, cartridges and LPs whose value has continued to increase over the years far greater than having money in the bank and which are like international currency in that they can readily be sold anywhere in the world should you decide they are not for you.
A good record cleaning machine, stylus cleaner and anti-static gun are essential to maximise your listening experience and enjoyment.
 
I know when I compare a modern lp to the same cd, in most cases the record has much less compression.

That might be a different issue - the mastering for vinyl might have less compression applied simply because of the physical limitations of vinyl don't allow the extreme compression a CD can cope with. Thus the LP might be pressed from an older and less compressed master.
 
I get the impression with much modern pop/rock music the digital is compressed to hell and back as the assumption is it will be played through shit computer speakers, soundbars, earbuds on the tube, in a noisy car etc, whereas the vinyl will be played at home via a much better system or in a club via a full-range PA. It annoys me hugely as someone who likes CD and has very good audio systems; a capable medium so often crippled by marketing decisions. Luckily the jazz and classical I spend most of my time listening to these days isn’t butchered in this way.
 
A good record cleaning machine, stylus cleaner and anti-static gun are essential to maximise your listening experience and enjoyment.

You don't need an anti-static gun; the act of wet-vac cleaning and new inners banishes static. Not just my findings, either. Sold my Pixall gun when I cleaned my collection.
 
OP, if we haven't scared you off, and you're in London, Billy Vee have an ex-dem RP6 and Exact for £650. I'm sure there are offers like that all over as dealers make room for the new P6, but it seems especially good value to me. If that doesn't give you something a little different from digital, in a good way, it will be a strong indication that you'll need to spend a lot to get what you want from vinyl.

The '90s were a difficult time for those of us who never got around to buying a CD player, but still there were lots of records around, and of course everything is getting a re-issue (e.g. Bark Psychosis are getting the 2X45 audiophile treatment:eek:). That the music will have gone through a digital stage doesn't mean that the record won't sound significantly different from the CD.
 
You don't need an anti-static gun; the act of wet-vac cleaning and new inners banishes static. Not just my findings, either. Sold my Pixall gun when I cleaned my collection.

I have cleaned in excess of 10k LPs on a Keith Monks machine and can assure you that although static may be reduced and maybe sometimes totally eliminated by the wet process that it is not always the case. Therefore I now finish by zapping each record with a Zerostat.
 


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