The Vinyl Thread

[Insane_Homer]

After many years, I've gone full circle and bought a turntable (ordered Pro-ject T1 BT (black) today) An expensive rabbit hole for sure, so starting with good all-round entry level with usability first.
I'm hoping my 20+ year old TEAC amp is still in a box in the garage somewhere, haven't been able to find it yet.

Nearby Woking has a great second hand store & a new HMV so looking forward to re-creating my music collection from there and flesh it out with 3x £55 HMV buys.

Both my kids are into it now, so there's some common ground and it would be nice to pass on my records later on too.

Having thought about it, vinyl has really come full circle. there must be some albums I've paid for 6 times over with all the different formats over the years (Vinyl, tape, CD, midi disk, Apple Music, Spotify and now google Music)

Show us your shit.

So lets collect your must haves, Fav Albums, pitfalls, Dos, Don'ts, pro tips, questions and how do you keep it affordable within reason?

[weegie01]

I had a Linn LP12 in the garage for years. My wife decided that she'd get it refurbed as a Christmas present. A friend of ours runs the kind of hifi emporium where it is easy to spend £250k on a system, he did the work for the price of the parts.

I still had my old amp, speakers etc. He literally laughed at them. I looked at potential amps but my wife came up with an ex demo JBLSA550 supplied at cost from the same source. He is still unhappy about me using 5 year old Monitor Bronze speakers but there is no way I was spending more until I know it is worth it and I can hear the difference.

And even with my failing hearing, I can. Albums I have on CD and vinyl just sound more detailed, more clear. Sorry I can't explain that better, but there seems to be depth of texture on the vinyl just not there with CDs. It may well have helped that I still had my old Linn speaker and turntable stands, stupidly expensive cables etc, and the set up was done by an expert.

My biggest issue now is my wife, who started all this, moaning at me about the space being taken up. Ironic since I spend half my life telling her to stop buying more furniture, lamps, soft furnishing etc that we don't need.

[vball]

When I was 18, just finished school and worked for the summer in woolen mill, I went to Russ Andrews in Edinburgh. Was going for a Dual CS505, NAD 3020 and AR 18s (funny how this sort of thing sticks in your mind). My Dad took me and my mate up for the day. Listened to some stuff (Led Zep, etc) and the sales guy said, just listen to this. It was Roxy Music Flesh and Blood which I had heard. He put on 8 Miles High and boomed it out. Then swapped it over for a Rega Planner 2. And wow .. what a difference. But it was too dear. My Dad came in and that point (he had a Hacker Hi Fi with a Garrard SP 12 that I was allowed to use) and said, here is some cash son, get the better deck !!
After living in many places, and then having kids, the stuff stored in the attic, garage, etc and then 3 years ago my wife bought me a set of speakers as the mice had eaten the cones on the AS18s and since the NAD was giving off steam (probably dust but it really did seem like a fire risk), she got me a Deon amp. It worked - sort off. The Rega started playing up and even with a new belt was just not up to it. but no. Went to James Morrow in Edinburgh and said I was after a new deck. Asked what I had, so got a new Rega Planner 2 out for me. Put on some music. It was brilliant and the music, I knew but could not put a name to it. He left, I turned it up and bit was was blown away from the digital output I had listened to for years. Had a sneak look at the album cover - War on Drugs A deeper understanding (of course it was). Bought the deck there and then. I only have a small office and was not going to go for anything too OTT.
Got home. Spent ages playing the same songs on vinyl, CD and Spotify. Yeah the vinyl was so warm and so much more pleasing.
So 3 years on (not 10 years after) and still love it. Friday noon, meetings done for the week and the vinyl goes on and turned up as I do end of week emails and reports. A great end to the week.
Not really been tempted to go for the heavy duty vinyls or collectors items, just my old vinyls (nearly 150) and some new stuff on new vinyl.
Life is good when the deck starts to spin !!!

[vball]

oh ... and I knew my girlfriend was going to be my wife. She was the first lass I let put an album on and take it off. Now that is trust !!!

[Tichtheid]

I had a Linn LP12 in the garage for years. My wife decided that she'd get it refurbed as a Christmas present. A friend of ours runs the kind of hifi emporium where it is easy to spend £250k on a system, he did the work for the price of the parts.

What parts did you need? I have an LP12 under my bed which I plan on renovating when we move house

I was considering a keel sub-chassis until I saw it was over 3K, so I’m looking for cheaper alternatives

[Dinsdale Piranha]

Back in the day (late 80s/early 90s) a couple of friends and me would cruise the local dumps looking for abandoned hifi equipment. There were a lot of people ditching high quality components that had either nothing wrong with them, or almost nothing wrong. We picked up several NAD 3020s, at least 3 Thorens turntables, several Quad amps and many sets of speakers. My mate restores Quad amps and made very decent money off those.

You can't just pick up used electronics at the dump anymore - elf n Safety etc.

I recently sold my Thorens TD-150 as I wasn't using it much. The last thing I did with it was rip all my vinyl to digital. That was actually quite fun as I learnt a lot about Audacity and various de-noising tools. Of course none of that would have been necessary with CDs or any other digital format.

CDs FTW.

[weegie01]

I had a Linn LP12 in the garage for years. My wife decided that she'd get it refurbed as a Christmas present. A friend of ours runs the kind of hifi emporium where it is easy to spend £250k on a system, he did the work for the price of the parts.

What parts did you need? I have an LP12 under my bed which I plan on renovating when we move house

I was considering a keel sub-chassis until I saw it was over 3K, so I’m looking for cheaper alternatives

I got back a bag of stuff they had replaced, and it was not that much. Everything rubber had been replaced along with a variety of other bits and pieces like gaskets. The assertion was that it was not so much a case of upgrading parts as of taking the whole thing apart, replacing anything worn, and then optimising the re-assembly. I know a few parts were not Linn standard but I'd have ask what they were, but in any case there was no big change, just lots of little things either brought back to factory standard or done in a way that was claimed to be a bit better than standard.

Sorry, not much help.

[Tichtheid]

I had a Linn LP12 in the garage for years. My wife decided that she'd get it refurbed as a Christmas present. A friend of ours runs the kind of hifi emporium where it is easy to spend £250k on a system, he did the work for the price of the parts.

What parts did you need? I have an LP12 under my bed which I plan on renovating when we move house

I was considering a keel sub-chassis until I saw it was over 3K, so I’m looking for cheaper alternatives

I got back a bag of stuff they had replaced, and it was not that much. Everything rubber had been replaced along with a variety of other bits and pieces like gaskets. The assertion was that it was not so much a case of upgrading parts as of taking the whole thing apart, replacing anything worn, and then optimising the re-assembly. I know a few parts were not Linn standard but I'd have ask what they were, but in any case there was no big change, just lots of little things either brought back to factory standard or done in a way that was claimed to be a bit better than standard.

Sorry, not much help.

From looking at the Linn site it's a case of "how long is a piece of string?" as to how far you can go in upgrades and renewal - or more accurately "how big is your budget?". I paid less than a hundred for the deck almost 20 years ago so I guess I've almost got a free hit

[tabascoboy]

Have a Rega Planar 2 with some A&R cartridge but haven't used it in over 20 years, and some vinyl LPs and singles that I kept for nostalgia reasons. Digital media storage and playback just wins out now for convenience...

Always worth considering if you have the right cartridge for what you listen to on your deck since the "standard" one the deck comes with might not be the best

[epwc]

Converted all my CDs to MP3 as soon as network MP3 players were available, dumped all my vinyl (1000+ albums) and CDs (2500+ albums), never looked back.

I grew up listening to John Peel on a transistor radio, yeah I appreciate quality, but accessibility is more important to me. I met someone at a funeral recently who used to be Linn's East of England rep, he told me that spending crazy money on speaker wire or interconnects was stupid.

[Sinkers]

You all just talking about the kit rather than the vinyl?

I’ve still got probably 80% of my original vinyl - a couple of boxes are still back in the UK and hopefully not lost.
Nothing of any massive value I’d expect but irreplaceable all the same. Apart from some 1980s Japanese reissues of original bluenote, prestige, verve etc nothing I choose to listen to would have been mastered in great quality in the first place.
So I don’t see the need for high end kit - an ancient project P1, Denon something, something amp and mission something something speakers. Plus a Denon turntable that has USB for the ever ongoing digitization project.

All very ancient and I imagine low tech bit gets regular use.

[inactionman]

When I lived down south I had an ancient project deck with a NAD 3020 amp and some monitor audio golds in my study, I used to just chuck on a classical record when working and it helped me keep to 30-40 mins of work. It's all analogue so I added a small DAC so I could stream from my computer, but volume control, source switching etc is all mechanical.

Since moving, I've had to rejig to keep it away from the kids so it's not well-;located, and streaming is now more significant so it's digital first. The project deck and NAD have been boxed up, and instead I bought a little Denon CEOL and a Rega Planar 1+ (basically a Planar with the Rega pre-amp built in) The streaming is excellent on the Denon and the sound quality was better than I thought it would be. It's also a got a CD player built in - I kept all my old CDs so it's been fun going through those again

I'd love to dig out all the analogue gear but it's just not worth it unless I can set the room up properly. When the kids are a bit older I might shift it into the front room. the project deck is pretty knackered (they're not really the best build quality?) so I'd just use the Rega under a standard line-in.

[inactionman]

You all just talking about the kit rather than the vinyl?

I’ve still got probably 80% of my original vinyl - a couple of boxes are still back in the UK and hopefully not lost.
Nothing of any massive value I’d expect but irreplaceable all the same. Apart from some 1980s Japanese reissues of original bluenote, prestige, verve etc nothing I choose to listen to would have been mastered in great quality in the first place.
So I don’t see the need for high end kit - an ancient project P1, Denon something, something amp and mission something something speakers. Plus a Denon turntable that has USB for the ever ongoing digitization project.

All very ancient and I imagine low tech bit gets regular use.

I never had a great deal of vinyl, even in my teen years CDs were taking over the world.

I bought most of my vinyl used as it was so cheap, and some hand-me-downs, but it's all getting more and more expensive

[tabascoboy]

Opened up a box to see what LPs I had, very much "of an era"

Various Yes, XTC, Who, Todd Rundgren, Thin Lizzy, Tangerine Dream (and more obscure German Synth artists too), Rush...

Guess they could be worth something to collectors (although condition my be iffy) if I could be bothered to try and sell them.

[Sinkers]

There seems to be a big resurgence in vinyl buying - even down here at the end of the world in SG.
But there’s a lot of really average pop crap in the stores here at S$50 an LP.
So I’m not buying more - any additions are digital.

A few great young all vinyl DJs around though.

[Tichtheid]

There seems to be a big resurgence in vinyl buying - even down here at the end of the world in SG.
But there’s a lot of really average pop crap in the stores here at S$50 an LP.
So I’m not buying more - any additions are digital.

Yeah, that's about where I am too, I'll buy from charity shops if and when I see things that I like, but otherwise I have an Apple Music account and I buy CDs. I have hundreds of LPs and I love the ceremony of putting a vinyl record on the turntable and actively listening to it, I feel with the convenience of digital a bit of that is lost, it easily becomes background sound, whilst we get on with other things.

[Sinkers]

Yup - I still do some weird things around needing to “own” the track even in this modern age.
No Spotify playlists for me - if I discover anything there or on Mixcloud I still find the need to find it somewhere else so I can actually download it so it’s with everything else.
Very old fashioned I’m sure.

[inactionman]

Yup - I still do some weird things around needing to “own” the track even in this modern age.
No Spotify playlists for me - if I discover anything there or on Mixcloud I still find the need to find it somewhere else so I can actually download it so it’s with everything else.
Very old fashioned I’m sure.

I think it's perfectly sensible.

Streaming is ultimately just leasing, there is something about the act of collecting and curating that's very satisfying that streaming doesn't quite match.

[sockwithaticket]

Converted all my CDs to MP3 as soon as network MP3 players were available, dumped all my vinyl (1000+ albums) and CDs (2500+ albums), never looked back.

I grew up listening to John Peel on a transistor radio, yeah I appreciate quality, but accessibility is more important to me. I met someone at a funeral recently who used to be Linn's East of England rep, he told me that spending crazy money on speaker wire or interconnects was stupid.

I kept buying CDs until high quality files were available from digital retailers, so that I could rip in the highest possible quality. I occasionally get a CD now from bands I really love, but when you can buy 16 or even 24 bit FLAC having something physical taking up space seems unnecessary. We're a long way from even 320 kbps MP3s.

On a different tack, I'm the only person in my social circle who still uses a dedicated digital media player rather than my phone.

[epwc]

I'm mostly FLAC now, played through Squeezeboxes. I use Spotify for newer stuff

[Lobby]

I've still got all of my original LPs, probably around 2000. Mostly classical, but also a fair bit of rock and jazz.

I had my Garrard 401 completely refurbished a few years ago and had a new plinth and SME 3009 arm installed at the same time at a cost of £1500. A classic combination which sounds wonderful now. Its odd to think that it cost me just £30 when I bought it second hand in the early 80s (it was already 20 years old at that point).

Although I use it to listen to my old LPs, most of my listening is from CD or SACD. I have no desire to buy new records, especially not at the ridiculous prices being charged for vinyl now.

[sockwithaticket]

Yup - I still do some weird things around needing to “own” the track even in this modern age.
No Spotify playlists for me - if I discover anything there or on Mixcloud I still find the need to find it somewhere else so I can actually download it so it’s with everything else.
Very old fashioned I’m sure.

I think it's perfectly sensible.

Streaming is ultimately just leasing, there is something about the act of collecting and curating that's very satisfying that streaming doesn't quite match.

Stuff disappears of streaming services all the time without warning due to rights issues and such. Some stuff from when bands were smaller and self-releasing or on tiny labels never makes it on in the first place. I've lost track of the number of times I'll find some hardcore band that only has half their discography on Spotify, the rest of it is hidden away on bandcamp somewhere under the page of a label that may or may not still be a going concern.

I try to treat my Spotify as a glorified try before you buy experience, but with infinite music at your finger tips the 'to buy' list only gets longer. Maybe if I won the lottery I could clear it.

[tabascoboy]

Stuff I'm listening to now has a starting price on vinyl of £35-40, and while many of those are double LPs (and with import costs included or extra) I'd much rather have it on CD at lower cost - and failing that legal downloads and failing that not strictly legal downloads. Have never used a streaming service and much prefer keeping my own library as an archive.

Kind of annoying though that legal downloads tend to be almost all compressed format. At least with making your own digital version from vinyl or CD you can create lossless copies.

[epwc]

Stuff disappears of streaming services all the time without warning due to rights issues and such. Some stuff from when bands were smaller and self-releasing or on tiny labels never makes it on in the first place.

Yep, plenty of stuff I like not on any streaming service

[epwc]

Kind of annoying though that legal downloads tend to be almost all compressed format. At least with making your own digital version from vinyl or CD you can create lossless copies.

You can get lossless of most stuff nowadays

[inactionman]

Yup - I still do some weird things around needing to “own” the track even in this modern age.
No Spotify playlists for me - if I discover anything there or on Mixcloud I still find the need to find it somewhere else so I can actually download it so it’s with everything else.
Very old fashioned I’m sure.

I think it's perfectly sensible.

Streaming is ultimately just leasing, there is something about the act of collecting and curating that's very satisfying that streaming doesn't quite match.

Stuff disappears of streaming services all the time without warning due to rights issues and such. Some stuff from when bands were smaller and self-releasing or on tiny labels never makes it on in the first place. I've lost track of the number of times I'll find some hardcore band that only has half their discography on Spotify, the rest of it is hidden away on bandcamp somewhere under the page of a label that may or may not still be a going concern.

I try to treat my Spotify as a glorified try before you buy experience, but with infinite music at your finger tips the 'to buy' list only gets longer. Maybe if I won the lottery I could clear it.

I spent 20-odd quid on a new double-vinyl imprint of De La Soul's 3 feet high and rising as I'd scratched the CD it wasn't on any streaming services. Two days after I bought it it's on tidal.

One of my early favourites, when Hip Hop was fun.

[sockwithaticket]

Stuff I'm listening to now has a starting price on vinyl of £35-40, and while many of those are double LPs (and with import costs included or extra) I'd much rather have it on CD at lower cost - and failing that legal downloads and failing that not strictly legal downloads. Have never used a streaming service and much prefer keeping my own library as an archive.

Kind of annoying though that legal downloads tend to be almost all compressed format. At least with making your own digital version from vinyl or CD you can create lossless copies.

Only if you stick to the likes of Amazon and iTunes. 7Digital, Bandcamp and Qobuz are my go to sources for digital music.

[tabascoboy]

Kind of annoying though that legal downloads tend to be almost all compressed format. At least with making your own digital version from vinyl or CD you can create lossless copies.

You can get lossless of most stuff nowadays

Not what I buy unfortunately, it's scarcely available at all. Possibly on Spotify or Apple (?) but have no wish to subscribe for just occasional purchases and from what I gather Spotify requires you use its own app? Don't think that would work for me...

The other thing about the heyday of vinyl was, if you are like me you buy an LP listen to it once and like maybe 3 songs which you then record on with other on your own mixtape and lose the whole value of the original sound quality. Listening to entire LPs was pretty rare for me...

[tabascoboy]

Stuff I'm listening to now has a starting price on vinyl of £35-40, and while many of those are double LPs (and with import costs included or extra) I'd much rather have it on CD at lower cost - and failing that legal downloads and failing that not strictly legal downloads. Have never used a streaming service and much prefer keeping my own library as an archive.

Kind of annoying though that legal downloads tend to be almost all compressed format. At least with making your own digital version from vinyl or CD you can create lossless copies.

Only if you stick to the likes of Amazon and iTunes. 7Digital, Bandcamp and Qobuz are my go to sources for digital music.

Thanks but had a quick check and don't have the stuff I want ( my fault for liking low popularity obscure stuff I guess).

Have to admit wasn't at all aware of those sources though so will keep an eye on them in case.

Ah, Qobuz has this at least https://www.qobuz.com/gb-en/album/cowbo ... hlqh942cyc
Looks like that has more of what I'm looking for

[inactionman]

On a related subject, Wu-Tang Clan's album Once Upon a Time in Shaolin is going on display in a gallery in Australia.

This is possibly, just maybe taking the whole collecting music thing a bit too far.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cl443d48x3yo


That is the the same gallery that over-egged the women-only thing.

[inactionman]

Stuff I'm listening to now has a starting price on vinyl of £35-40, and while many of those are double LPs (and with import costs included or extra) I'd much rather have it on CD at lower cost - and failing that legal downloads and failing that not strictly legal downloads. Have never used a streaming service and much prefer keeping my own library as an archive.

Kind of annoying though that legal downloads tend to be almost all compressed format. At least with making your own digital version from vinyl or CD you can create lossless copies.

I use tidal, which uses FLAC but seems to have a few grades of quality that I seem to find randomly applied to whatever I'm listening to.

[Sinkers]

I've still got all of my original LPs, probably around 2000. Mostly classical, but also a fair bit of rock and jazz.

I had my Garrard 401 completely refurbished a few years ago and had a new plinth and SME 3009 arm installed at the same time at a cost of £1500. A classic combination which sounds wonderful now. Its odd to think that it cost me just £30 when I bought it second hand in the early 80s (it was already 20 years old at that point).

Although I use it to listen to my old LPs, most of my listening is from CD or SACD. I have no desire to buy new records, especially not at the ridiculous prices being charged for vinyl now.

How did the 2000 albums comment go so unnoticed? Well done that man!!

[Slick]

There seems to be a big resurgence in vinyl buying - even down here at the end of the world in SG.
But there’s a lot of really average pop crap in the stores here at S$50 an LP.
So I’m not buying more - any additions are digital.

Yeah, that's about where I am too, I'll buy from charity shops if and when I see things that I like, but otherwise I have an Apple Music account and I buy CDs. I have hundreds of LPs and I love the ceremony of putting a vinyl record on the turntable and actively listening to it, I feel with the convenience of digital a bit of that is lost, it easily becomes background sound, whilst we get on with other things.

Much the same, although it's very difficult to get anything decent in a charity shop around here - I don't know if they have agreements with independent record shops that they get first dibs, but there never seems to be much about. I do like collecting old opera records though, you can pick them up for nothing and it's very satisfying sitting down and listening with crackles and all.

[tabascoboy]

There seems to be a big resurgence in vinyl buying - even down here at the end of the world in SG.
But there’s a lot of really average pop crap in the stores here at S$50 an LP.
So I’m not buying more - any additions are digital.

Yeah, that's about where I am too, I'll buy from charity shops if and when I see things that I like, but otherwise I have an Apple Music account and I buy CDs. I have hundreds of LPs and I love the ceremony of putting a vinyl record on the turntable and actively listening to it, I feel with the convenience of digital a bit of that is lost, it easily becomes background sound, whilst we get on with other things.

Much the same, although it's very difficult to get anything decent in a charity shop around here - I don't know if they have agreements with independent record shops that they get first dibs, but there never seems to be much about. I do like collecting old opera records though, you can pick them up for nothing and it's very satisfying sitting down and listening with crackles and all.

The snap, crackle and pop of vinyl was something I hated - no matter now you look after the records and the needle they always seemed to be there to ruin a really quiet musical moment. It was always for me about recording onto tape while new - and even then some pressings weren't good quality. Mind you, worked well for punk though...

[Jethro]

Have a lot on digital, Son built us a component for the stereo that apparently holds a zillion albums, but am gradually rebuilding the vinyl collection (Black Sabbath's first five albums for example recently added). Wife has a complete set of Flight Facilities albums on vinyl, so some decent modern music hitting the format as well.

[mat the expat]

I picked up a nice Sony Bluetooth player - at present it runs through my Soundbar or headphones until I decide on speakers - new house so haven't bothered yet.

TBH, it's great fun just to go to old charity shops and pick up classics

I always get a "joke" one for giggles as well

[yermum]

2 technics SL2010s and a pioneer mixer.

[Insane_Homer]

Anyone use Juno in the UK for vinyl?

I found them via Discogs and they've got 2 KOL albums that I've been struggling to find elsewhere.

[Sinkers]

Anyone use Juno in the UK for vinyl?

I found them via Discogs and they've got 2 KOL albums that I've been struggling to find elsewhere.

That’s a gem of a find

[Torquemada 1420]

Show us your shit.

So lets collect your must haves, Fav Albums, pitfalls, Dos, Don'ts, pro tips, questions and how do you keep it affordable within reason?

The answer to that is the same as having a beautiful, Italian bride. You don't. You accept it's a money pit and the price you pay for love.