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Thinking about getting into vinyl - Where to start
- Thread starter socialleper
- Start date
Used original LPs from the 80s will have more dynamic range... i think 90s was when the volume wars kicked in?
I like DJ-style turntables as that's what i had - a really cheap version, anyway - as a teenager. They're just built solid and feel like a real instrument/tool, while hi fi ones just feel fragile to me by comparison. I know that sound-wise there is more to it than that.
Of course that's not useful to most people
that said, if you can find a used Technics 1210 for an ok price, jump on it.
What else? My favourite place to buy "new" records is at gigs. Earlier this year I bought a couple of Neurosis LPs off Scott Kelly himself, which was nice.
I like DJ-style turntables as that's what i had - a really cheap version, anyway - as a teenager. They're just built solid and feel like a real instrument/tool, while hi fi ones just feel fragile to me by comparison. I know that sound-wise there is more to it than that.
Of course that's not useful to most people
that said, if you can find a used Technics 1210 for an ok price, jump on it. What else? My favourite place to buy "new" records is at gigs. Earlier this year I bought a couple of Neurosis LPs off Scott Kelly himself, which was nice.
I grew up with vinyl. Claims that it's "better than CDs" are pure glue-sniffing, like monster cables (which audiophools can't distinguish from old coathangers in blind tests.) Except even non-golden ears can hear the lack of crud in a CD (it evidently takes "golden" ears to hear the magical mystery supposedly conferred by the analog audio on top of the crud, which was recorded digitally on anything made in the past 30 years unless it was made special for golden ears from the get-go...)
Enjoy your glue.
I still have a very nice TT (2, perhaps 3 even, though I'm not sure one of the inherited ones is actually all that nice) and a crap-ton of vinyl. Once I get it all digitized or find it on CD I see no point whatever in keeping the vinyl.
Enjoy your glue.
I still have a very nice TT (2, perhaps 3 even, though I'm not sure one of the inherited ones is actually all that nice) and a crap-ton of vinyl. Once I get it all digitized or find it on CD I see no point whatever in keeping the vinyl.
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as i mentioned i don't think it is the medium that makes vinyl better for me. i think that when music is mixed and mastered for vinyl it sounds better than the digital mix/master.
That is part of the attraction for me. I get the mechanics\physics as to why records avoid some of the loudness problems common to CDs and digital files. But as you pointed out, the media type can't save a bad mix.
I'm a little concerned about a lot of the vinyl "remasters" out there. They might be worse than the originals. Unfortunately, because records aren't durable, if you buy a used, older release there is no guarantee that it wasn't abused by an owner with a plow for a needle.
I'm still on the fence about this. I went and looked for hi-rez digital files (24\96 or 24\192) as an alternative to vinyl, but the selection is pretty minimal. I can't seem to find the solution that fits my tastes and needs.
buying used on Discogs is pretty safe. most sellers are very good at following the rating system. over the years i have only received one record that i would say was incorrectly rated by the seller. stick to mint (M) or near-mint (NM) ratings and you'll be fine buying used. VG+ is usually ok to but i don't go below that.
It's been proven that no-one human can tell the difference between those and 16/44 (hence their unpopularity outside of the cork sniffer community). Those formats are only used in the mixdown process to retain a truly full 16/44 result.
Personally I've converted my entire library to variable bitrate MP3 (Q2) as it's also been proven that very, very few can tell the difference between that and WAV/FLAC. While I have better that average ears for a 62 y/o, last I checked I can't hear a damned thing above 16KHz in one ear and 15KHz in the other anyways :/ .
I've proved to skeptics numerous times that I can easily tell the difference in blind tests. The key is to use a hi fidelity music player and reference quality headphones. But I've been doing music recording, mixing and mastering since 1986 so I have lots of experience. And my ears are still unusually sharp at age 49.
I do have the so called "golden ears" but I'm the last thing from being a snob about music quality. I'm aware that 98% of the population is perfectly happy with the distortion inherent in MP3s because they are just casual listeners and the difference isn't noticeable when you're playing music out of your laptop sound card and through $8 earbuds.
If you're happy with your choices, fine. I'm happy with my music.
When I bought some decent headphones and IEM then popped on my FLACs it was p0rn for my ears.
Sometimes the sound of something is more valuable to me than the music.
I've got a vinyl "toxic waste dump" (my wife's term for it, not mine) consisting of a couple thousand albums. I have about half as many cds. My vinyl listening is confined to lazy weekends which are too few and far between. I can tell the difference when playing them on my vintage Dual turntable through what was a high quality Sony receiver from the early eighties and an equally vintage Bose Acoustimass speaker system. The sound is "warmer" and more alive, at least to my ears. But frankly, I'm just as happy listening to my favorites through the highest quality Spotify streams in my car. Music has never been so accessible. And that is a good thing.
Would it be fair in any way to say that if I can't hear the difference between a standard 16\44.1 CD and a 24\96 or 192 AIFF\WAV then I won't be able to hear the difference between a CD and a record?
I don't know, but I can contribute one data point to the discussion. I hardly ever play vinyl any more, but every so often -- maybe every year or so -- I test this by pulling out my old record and my not-quite-as-old CD of The Dark Side of the Moon. Neither is a special edition, or remastered, or anything like that. I've got a pretty good home stereo system, and I sit down and listen to parts of the CD and then the same parts of the record. I start with the CD, and usually come away thinking that it sounds so good I can't imagine how the vinyl could possibly be better. Then I put on the vinyl and it totally blows my doors off. It's like the music somehow comes alive -- like it's jumping out of the speakers and smacks me across the face. The difference is not subtle; it's like night and day. By the time I'm done I wonder how I can stand listening to CDs.
Of course, the reason I can is because I don't usually have time to sit on my couch and listen to music fully focused in this way -- it's usually in my car or on my computer (through decent but not great external speakers), or something else is competing for my attention in my living room -- and CDs are just so much more convenient. But doing this exercise occasionally reminds me that I've made a conscious decision to trade some degree of fidelity for convenience.
Beyond price and space, I'm wondering avout this too. I want to think that I will take that time to listen to something, but my wife already thinks I spend too much time in the den.
To get around this I've been looking for albums we both like. Not as easy as I thought.