advertisement


Returning to Vinyl

mercalia said:
same question. do people with large paper libraries ( I mean large ones ) tell their insurance company? I think I would be concerned if a neighbour stored "tons" of combustables inside his/her house. I bet they dont. "having a few books" is differnt to having rooms of the things
Click to expand...

We have 5 sets of bookshelves each with 4 or 5 shelves of books. This might be seem strange to those in their 20s or maybe 30s. What about carpets? In these days of laminate floors do I need to declare carpets too, oh what about curtains and Christmas trees?

Speaking with German colleagues they find our houses with wooden floors and joists a huge fire risk.
 
I got back into vinyl this year.
Well not exactly. My wife is Greek and her TT and both sets of LPs have been at her family home in NW Greece for 15 years. Not a lot, a couple of hundred.
So we now have a Planer 3 (new) at home. The Devialet has a built in phono stage.
Have bought 50 or so LPs to get going, and others will be 'repatriated' in the new year.
£15-20 for an LP is not expensive and I've had only two bad pressings. Considering an LP in 1976 was £4.....
Sound wise - bigger soundstage and more dynamic range in the mastering make listening to music more immersive. Led Zeppelin in particular where the CDs and remasters are horribly compressed.
 
What terrifying lives you all lead surrounded by hazards like books and records. Don't think flame retardant slippers will help you if the floor and joists go up!
 
Njb

Unless you like to fiddle endlessly with things, something simple to set up like a Rega Planar 3 would be perfect. A sensible MM cartridge like a Nagaoka MP110 or 150, Ortofon 2M Blue or Bronze or possibly a cheap MC like a Denon 103 R or Hana SL would do the trick. Sensible phono stage would include the Stageline (but you have to choose MM or MC plus loading when you buy) or perhaps something like a Graham Slee, used Michell Dino etc.

That way, you would have a set up for say 1500 Euro, which would be easy to set up and simple to use. If you don't like it, you could sell it for only a small loss.

Charlie

PS if you love your return to vinyl, then the next thing to get would be a wet vacuum record cleaning machine - maybe the Project, if that's easy to buy in Switzerland
 
Lucky you, I would love to go back to vinyl but my Kids are still too young to trust.
My gear is still in storage lol.
 
I would say if you can afford it then do it, it is a great hobby yes it takes up a lot of room, yes intially it can be expensive and yes new vinyl can be hit and miss but when you get it right it can be a fantastic experience. You already have quality amplification so you have a great start my only advice (having owned both ProJect and Rega decks) would be to buy a Rega with standard Rega cart and Rega Fono MM 2 Phonostage all and all about 500 pounds.
Be careful though before long you'll be craving an LP12!
 
It doesn't matter what I own, I just think in most pre-keel incarnations it is unacceptably coloured and and in the current spec twice the price of a really good turntable.
 
Whaleblue said:
Lots of great points already made. I'd add that the thing I hadn't really realised when I got back into vinyl was how much space everything would take up in our average sized house. That's the TT, associated boxes, RCM (essential for s/h vinyl buyers), plus all the records themselves, of course.

I ended up selling up in order to bring some domestic balance. I loved my TT, and am pleased it found a good home through pfm, but space is a major consideration. I already had around 300 albums from my early collection (70s, 80s), and quickly acquired lots of new and s/h vinyl as the opportunity arose over around four years. I ended up with around 1000 I think. That's a surprising amount of space in storage terms.
Click to expand...

I'm currently in the process of getting out of vinyl for that very reason - TT and records take up enormous amounts of space. Plus I don't hear vinyl as superior and I really couldn't be bothered with all the mucking about. So, the records (hundreds of them) are being digitised and being disposed of, and the TT will follow at the end of the process - quite a way to go, mind you!
 
tones said:
I'm currently in the process of getting out of vinyl for that very reason - TT and records take up enormous amounts of space. Plus I don't hear vinyl as superior and I really couldn't be bothered with all the mucking about. So, the records (hundreds of them) are being digitised and being disposed of, and the TT will follow at the end of the process - quite a way to go, mind you!
Click to expand...

That is because it isn't superior if you mean true to the master. I'm vinyl only so will remain on account of having about 1500 records. IMHO the turntable thing is just a glorified graphic equaliser with extra noise. I'd love some techie to publish a set of GE settings for the main TTs such as WT, LP12, Orb, Rega, Technics at al.
 
I'm happy to have both CD and vinyl as sources in my system. I have a TT because I have always had one and came to CD very late - around the late 1990's. This mainly due to young kids in the house and packing all things Hifi away in the loft. This left some serious gaps in my music collection but a similar position to yourself starting off. It is remarkably easy to buy vinyl on-line so trawling round shops is only an option if you want to make it so. I now buy more vinyl than CD. The quality of pressings and overall SQ can be a bit of a lottery even for pristine 180g vinyl. Quite a few of these "premium" products are just poor. Also, just as when CD came out, the silver disk was twice the vinyl price, now the opposite is true. Go figure. So do not let starting again with zero LPs put you off.

I don't know what your digital source is. I found that a simple Rega P5 to be equal if not superior to my then Naim CDX2 (with XPS2 PSU). I do not think you have to go too far up the TT ladder to really enjoy the sound and the difference in presentation. I found the Naim Stagelines no better than average so I would suggest you look for a Rega phono stage if you go the Rega route. As I have no local TT specialists to help with set up, I chose Rega TT's as an expedient and effective source. Easy to set up out of teh box and no need for an annual service. Good luck.

Dave
 
I left vinyl briefly in the eighties, but returned in 1989 with the acquisition of an 'all in' LP12 for 600 £. I kept buying new LPs, even when they became practically impossible to find. Recently I started adding my collection on discogs. Just because I needed a list. I tended to buy the same album more then once, having forgotten I already bought it some years before. I did not get very far though. The odd thing is that alot of these albums seem to fetch very high prices. I never noticed while buying them, but some albums are limited editions, first pressings etc... and seem to go crazy money. Not that I intend on selling anything. Alot of those albums have memories attached to them. I used to keep concert tickets in the sleeve; which helps to add to the nostaligia.
I started recently to add a few of my classical LPs (I maintain seperate collections of jazz, classical and pop/rock) on discogs, but that posed a bit of a problem, as there are still big gaps in their database and I don't have the time nor patience to fill these in myself.
I don't know how many CD's I own (nor lps). They are all ripped and stored away in plastic sleeves to save space. I hardly bought any CD's lately, as I use Qobuz for streaming and almost everything is right there. CD's have no meaning nor value to me.
So I just keep on buying vinyl. In small amounts. Mainly reissues or specialist pressings as recent (pop)music often sounds awful on lp.
If I had to start again now, I'd probably wouldn't go for vinyl anymore and spend more on speakers and DAC rather then on an expensive deck and overpriced lps. But I do have a collection now. And I will keep investing in the gear to listen properly to it and buying more.
 
I've been considering the same as the OP so this is a timely subject. I've been thinking about getting the Audio Technica AT-LP5 to dip my toe back into vinyl.

Anyone with experience of this deck?
 
Forget streaming, 2017 will be the year when western capitalism finally goes tits up, and the internet will disappear. Then we the ones who kept our 'hard copies' - of vinyl , books, videos, will be the victors, ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.
 
No, 2017 will be the year when the Internet gains consciousness and replaces us all :)
 
I got back into vinyl a little over two years ago. A lot of good insights here. I went to vinyl after hearing a demo of both a high-end Pro-Ject and one of the Mac tables. I loved how liquid and natural the music sounded out of those systems.

I enjoy vinyl a lot. I put all my CDs on a Bluesound Vault, which is easy to use. However, at home I almost always listen to vinyl. It just feels more involving. I will say that for all albums I have both in redbook digital and vinyl, I prefer the vinyl, as does everyone who has heard the comparison in my system.
 
On the topic of phono stages I have recently demo'd three in my system and I have experience of the stage line and a Rega fono MM. My system comprises a Pink Triangle PT1, 202/200 and Maggies. Firstly my phono stage is the very good value Rega- it is easily bettered by others I have tried but is only marginally outdone by the Stageline. My dad owns a Stageline and also202/200 amps- the Stageline can be bettered for the money. I recently tried a Sedley Sonneteer- very good phono with a detailed but unforced sound. Then I had a Primare R32 for two weeks which sounded big, detailed but ultimately a bit fatiguing and too much in the bass dept on some recordings with my Maggies. The Puresound P10 I have now seems to sit well in my system- it has the added texture, detail and a taut bass but also has the unforced sound I enjoy and allows me to listen In Comfort for longer. Overall I am probably going to plumb for the Puresound and also invest in a T10. I was surprised that the Puresound worked so well with the Naim amps.
As for the digital/ record debate- I have heard superb sounding digital systems and ditto analogue. They all costed a small fortune. I suppose I listen to more records than digital through habit.
Chris
 
You must log in or register to reply here.


advertisement


Back
Top