Thinking about getting into vinyl - Where to start

socialleper

socialleper

Bringer of doom and top shelf beer
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May 31, 2009
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#1
I haven't purchased an actual record since the early 80s. Generally, I find them expensive, bulky, fragile, and the gear to play them hard to maintain. I listened to cassettes through the 80s and then jumped on CDs. I'm not an MP3 guy and only use streaming as a stepping stone to a purchase. I love the convenience of FLAC files, and rip everything to that and then put it on a 64gb micro-sd card in my phone so I can listen on my headphones or at work.
I'm not much for fads or retro stuff, but I am a sound enthusiast. I'm thinking about giving vinyl a whirl since it doesn't look like it will disappear tomorrow. The question is, where do I start?
I haven't owned a stand alone stereo for 15 years. Currently I play everything on my computer that has some Genelec monitors connected to it, through my fancy in ear monitors, or my Sennheiser HD280 Pro headphones. I think I could probably route an analog signal from a record player to little my Xenyx 802 mixer that I have my recording equipment attached to. It has RCA and 1\4" inputs. Would that work?
What is a decent quality record player out there? I don't want to break the bank on something I am just tinkering with, but since it is analog, if the interface to the music is junk, the music will sound bad. I have nightmares of my father constantly fighting with belts and needles.
Thoughts?

As to the music, I don't like a lot of music from the 60s or 70s, so a lot of what I would be buying is from the 80s onward, and would have been digitally recorded\mixed\mastered anyway. Does vinyl really matter when most of the recording process is digital anyway?
 
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#2
I think you will need a phono preamp because of the RIAA equalization of vinyls. In my opinion best thing is to buy an integrated stereo amp with phono input and a pair of floorstanding speakers. If you are listening to music frequently you will enjoy it more with a proper stereo. Also keep in mind that a bad recording will still sound bad even through vinyl. Look for good recordings and heavy vinyls.

Edit: Even a remastered album could still sound bad.
 
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#3
tzohn said:
I think you will need a phono preamp because of the RIAA equalization of vinyls. In my opinion best thing is to buy an integrated stereo amp with phono input and a pair of floorstanding speakers. If you are listening to music frequently you will enjoy it more with a proper stereo. Also keep in mind that a bad recording will still sound bad even through vinyl. Look for good recordings and heavy vinyls.
Click to expand...
Agreed. The whole point of going to vinyl is the difference in fidelity: All other things equal, analog sounds richer and warmer than digital. But unless you're going to play the records through a high-quality sound system you're not going to appreciate the difference. I think you need to be prepared to go all-in and spend some serious dough or it just isn't going to be worth it.
 
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#5
IMHO, This site is the absolute best place for all your home stereo/audio questions.Audiokarma Home Audio Stereo Discussion Forums
Audio Karma is the site to do the research on. They can answer questions about "what's good", "what should I expect to pay", "where can I find it", etc.

You are correct, vinyl is more definitely going to be around for a while, hell, it never went away in my book!
You will need a turntable, receiver and a couple speakers...really, that's all you need.
Try to find something good/excellent condition from the late '70's into the early '80's. Believe me, there is a ton of great "vintage" home stereo available if you know where to look.
The only issue with older stereo equipment is that the receivers generally don't have a "CD" connection but a good receiver will have an "aux" connect that is perfect for a CD player. Funny note: many stereo components from this time actually had inputs to connect TWO turntables!
Here's my system. I have a mid-level Sony CD player under the receiver and the small component to the right of the receiever that's not id'ed is an Advent Model 201A cassette player.
One more note:I wouldn't put a lot of faith is finding any thing decent in the Goodwill, Salvation Army, thrift shop route. Those places never put the "good stuff" on the floor anymore, they post all the desirable equipment on line for bidding. :(
Good luck and have fun on your search.
12186584_1027505507271672_8647154849843138976_o.jpg
 
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#7
Every once in a while the Goodwill store here has something pretty darn good for sale. A couple months ago they had a pair of Vandersteen Model 1 speakers in excellent condition for $200 (pair). Those were and still are incredibly good speakers.

Vintage unrestored turntables in good condition can be very hard to find. Rotten belts, flat spot on rubber idler drive wheel, corroded or broken cartridge leads. Vintage receivers can have bad pots & switches. Speaker cone rubber suspension rots out. Choose wisely.
 
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#8
top priority is speakers. then cartridge, then the phono then the turntable.

speakers are very subjective. old b&w or tannoy, kef, jbl etc. depends on how you like the presentation.

cartridge/stylus i really like Grado and Nagaoka although grado can be noisy on some tables.

an entry level pro-ject or rega phono and turntable would be a good start if you want to go with something modern.

i have been working on my system for 10 years.

i have a VPI Traveler with a nagaoka mp300 cart. a pro ject phono se II into a prima luna prologue 2. by the end of the week i'll have my end game speakers, a pair of Tannoy Ardens.

the only thing i'm not thrilled with is the amp. i'm going to see how it sounds with the ardens. i may move it if it is not a good match.
 
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#9
I have a strong dislike for turntables that don't have a way to precisely adjust the speed dead-on accurate with a strobe. My past experience with belt-drive models in particular is they're rarely dead-on, and sometimes they're WAY audibly too slow or fast. That makes me crazy.

Free strobe disc downloads: Free Speed Check

All you need is a flourescent light source.
 
#11
OldDog52 said:
Every once in a while the Goodwill store here has something pretty darn good for sale. A couple months ago they had a pair of Vandersteen Model 1 speakers in excellent condition for $200 (pair). Those were and still are incredibly good speakers.

Vintage unrestored turntables in good condition can be very hard to find. Rotten belts, flat spot on rubber idler drive wheel, corroded or broken cartridge leads. Vintage receivers can have bad pots & switches. Speaker cone rubber suspension rots out. Choose wisely.
Click to expand...
I'm not too keen on the idea of going with something used just for the reasons you mentioned. Since we are talking about analog here, I know every little component makes a difference. People tend to get wrapped up in nostalgia for things made decades ago, thinking that they were built better then. That is a fallacy with no facts behind it. Just look at the inconsistencies in "good" or "bad" instruments from before we had computer aided CAD and laser precision quality control.
I would probably go with something new or new-ish.
 
#13
bassboysam said:
top priority is speakers. then cartridge, then the phono then the turntable.

speakers are very subjective. old b&w or tannoy, kef, jbl etc. depends on how you like the presentation.

cartridge/stylus i really like Grado and Nagaoka although grado can be noisy on some tables.

an entry level pro-ject or rega phono and turntable would be a good start if you want to go with something modern.

i have been working on my system for 10 years.

i have a VPI Traveler with a nagaoka mp300 cart. a pro ject phono se II into a prima luna prologue 2. by the end of the week i'll have my end game speakers, a pair of Tannoy Ardens.

the only thing i'm not thrilled with is the amp. i'm going to see how it sounds with the ardens. i may move it if it is not a good match.
Click to expand...
Since you and I have many of the same tastes, and I trust you, let me ask you this: am I chasing snipes here? I'm sure that something like Jaco's solo CD would have a certain something extra on vinyl. But let's say I'm throwing on Electric Wizard, Opeth, Sleep, or Cathedral, will what I hear on Vinyl make a difference?
I am very much into nuance in music, but I'm also not into feeding a sense of something being better simply because of "vibe." Many in the doom\stoner world are married to vinyl (and cassettes for some damn fool reason) simply because it is retro. Much of the style is centered around the 1970s\Sabbath vibe. They play old looking guitars on old sounding amps so they can sound like bands that peaked before they were born. That's not me.
I bought my Brainwavz Pro-Alpha IEMs and Sennheiser headphones so I can hear a flat response, and so I can experience the whole soundscape of a high quality (but digital) recording. In your opinion, will a record of Blackwater Park, In the Garden of Earthly Delights, or Paranoid sound better than a CD, Dynamic Range Compression aside?
 
#14
I just bet there's a similar site to TB for this.
Please don't go there.
It'll start small ... one turntable, a simple amp, a couple of ok speakers, some old LP's from a charity shop.

But you know how it's gonna end.
You'll never be happy, even with a sound system to rival Abbey Road, having sold your cars, boats, basses, wives, kids and dogs to finance it all.:D

My advice? Get yourself one of these.
Numark PT-01 Touring

Only 77euro ... I'm sure you can find something similar in your part of the world.

If you need volume, it'll run into your bass rig, and I can't believe that won't give an awesome sound.
 
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#16
The recently-remixed & remastered Sgt. Peppers sounds fantastic (to me) on vinyl. According to Giles Martin, he used no extra dynamic range compression on the LP, as opposed to the CD which did get some mild compression. I've listened to it over Sennheiser headphones, Technics SL1200 TT, Ortofon Bronze MMT cartridge, older Proton receiver with a Cambridge Audio phono preamp. Very very good. Nothing really esoteric in that playback chain.

But it has audible vinyl "whoosh" and a couple pops. I can tune that stuff out mentally and focus on the music. And it's excellent.

Analog playback of a digital master source can actually "tame" some digital harshness present in the master recordings, especially if they're really bad. But that's the antithesis of accurate faithful playback.

The pursuit of "audiophile performance" is a path to madness. I gave up on that game 27 years ago. But the gear I have now can do a very credible job with analog playback.

Does any of this help you? Probably not. Sorry.

Try to find an Outlaw Audio RR2160 receiver: RR2160 Stereo Receiver It has a RIAA phono preamp for vinyl, along with real tone controls. And incredibly it also supports digital HD Radio.
 
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#17
Oddly said:
I just bet there's a similar site to TB for this.
Please don't go there.
It'll start small ... one turntable, a simple amp, a couple of ok speakers, some old LP's from a charity shop.

But you know how it's gonna end.
You'll never be happy, even with a sound system to rival Abbey Road, having sold your cars, boats, basses, wives, kids and dogs to finance it all.:D

My advice? Get yourself one of these.
Numark PT-01 Touring

Only 77euro ... I'm sure you can find something similar in your part of the world.

If you need volume, it'll run into your bass rig, and I can't believe that won't give an awesome sound.
Click to expand...
Part of what I was thinking was running what ever turn table to a 2 channel mixing board I have right now that connect my PC, PreSonus Firebox, and a pair of Genelec 8020A power monitors. The board will take RCA or 1\4" and has volume for each channel as well as a volume out adjustment. You don't think that would be sufficient just to play?
Which turn table seems tricky. Numark is a well respected company and that is a good price. On Amazon, the go-to turn table is the Audio Techina AT-LP60, which is comparable to the Numark in price. Aside form connections, I have no idea what specs to look for.

When comparing something analytically, like an MP3 to an FLAC, I hear it "best" through my Brainwavz IEMs or Sennheiser headphones. Those can connect to the mixing board as well.
 
#18
If you can find NON-remastered CD's they should sound the same as vinyl minus the surface noise and possible distortion on the bass notes (which may or may not be an improvement). If you can find a bootleg copy of "Metallica - Death Magnetic" that was on the early GH3 game accidentally unmastered it'll blow your mind how much modern mastering ruins music :wideyed:. The only "magic" of early vinyl is that the mastering is way less murderous and the bass is rolled off (or compressed and/or clipped) to keep the grooves from being too wide. Modern vinyl somewhat overcomes the latter by computerized cutting lathes with look ahead that can vary the groove spacing to keep the low end.
 
#20
repoman said:
IMHO, This site is the absolute best place for all your home stereo/audio questions.Audiokarma Home Audio Stereo Discussion Forums
Audio Karma is the site to do the research on. They can answer questions about "what's good", "what should I expect to pay", "where can I find it", etc.

You are correct, vinyl is more definitely going to be around for a while, hell, it never went away in my book!
You will need a turntable, receiver and a couple speakers...really, that's all you need.
Try to find something good/excellent condition from the late '70's into the early '80's. Believe me, there is a ton of great "vintage" home stereo available if you know where to look.
The only issue with older stereo equipment is that the receivers generally don't have a "CD" connection but a good receiver will have an "aux" connect that is perfect for a CD player. Funny note: many stereo components from this time actually had inputs to connect TWO turntables!
Here's my system. I have a mid-level Sony CD player under the receiver and the small component to the right of the receiever that's not id'ed is an Advent Model 201A cassette player.
One more note:I wouldn't put a lot of faith is finding any thing decent in the Goodwill, Salvation Army, thrift shop route. Those places never put the "good stuff" on the floor anymore, they post all the desirable equipment on line for bidding. :(
Good luck and have fun on your search.
View attachment 2749346
Click to expand...
I like your Thorens table.
 
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