Do you ever get the feeling when you start to question whether playing records is really worth it all? You know with everything involved with great record playback. The setup, the cleaning regime, the $1000 plus cartridges that start their finite lifespan as soon as stylus first touches vinyl and spirals into less and less value with every play. All the tweaks involved, cables, mats, isolation etc. Then the media itself with it's inevitable disapointments.
Don't you just like to push a couple buttons on your phone app and be listening to great sound with a worldwide catalogue at your fingertips.
Or is it that when all of it lines up and the sounds are just sublime, then yes you sit back with a wry smile and say...
"Like fine carpentry, there is craft to making music and so too there is craft to the vinyl experience. By investing in the best tools you can afford and slowing down and focusing on the process as well as the result, we get closer to the music and the musician. The reward to the spirit is then more than just musical, it is a beautiful use of time."
Forgive me for saying, but this reads like a passage from a self-help book.
Every zen-like word rings true but unfortunately for many of us their application often lies tantalisingly just beyond our grasp.
Perhaps now is a good time to try again. If it works it can only do us good. And I'd like to think this technique is not just for vinyl either.
Currently I'm focusing on this live performance by Johnny Marr doing 'There is a Light that Never Goes Out.'
Same here. Of course, I got into LP in the pre-digital era, and probably wouldn’t get into it were that not the case. Digital has come a long, long way.
Like fine carpentry, there is craft to making music and so too there is craft to the vinyl experience. By investing in the best tools you can afford and slowing down and focusing on the process as well as the result, we get closer to the music and the musician. The reward to the spirit is then more than just musical, it is a beautiful use of time.
Hello, it’s like owning an antique Ferrari. It will get you to and from work just fine, but costs you five times as much as your Honda does to do it. The Ferrari comes out when you want to drive instead of needing to drive. Later at night I stream or when I want to just hear music. But sometimes the Mofi record of Dark Side of the moon gets on the platter and spins. Pure, bliss. No drugs were involved, don’t spin when your high. You will mess up your record just like driving. JK. I’m just saying pull the record/ Ferrari from under its cover when you need to hear the sound of the Record/ Ferrari.
Worth it! I enjoy the whole regiment of cleaning, listening, flipping sides, cleaning, listening, and on and on.....to me, when it all comes together with a certain records, I take a deep breath and sit back in utter joy (big grin) and just feel at peace that all my hard work paid off. I guess its not for everyone, but when you do reach the point where it does come together, it's hard to describe. Yes, I like my CDs as well, less work than LPs, and don't always have the time or patience for vinyl , so to me me the CD is my go to option. Steaming is ok, I generally use it to find new music that I may like to actually purchase a LP or CD of. I never buy anything virtually, downloading etc. To me, that is not really owning anything. I like the tangeable aspect that LPs and CDs provide. Oh and cassettes are my third option, I love the retro aspect of popping in a cassette, brings me back to my teen years in the eighties. I'm still running the same Aiwa f770 I bought in high school in 1983!
doubtless it has been said, or soon will be, there is a mystical attachment to the orig standard of LP playback.
Its pure old school. Ritualistic. For some even comforting and nostalgifc.
For others its the ‘only pure way to audio nirvana’, despite the myriad of tributaries so rigidly afixed to excellent big disc spinning.
IMO, its merely another source. No better or worse than some others given the current SOTA in digital.
That said, the argument for big black disc rotation, as the ‘go to’ devotion, is getting less and less attractive and especially if AND OR WHEN one considers the overall costs for a plug and play premium digital source, streamer and its associated setup.
if one travels the ones and zeros highway, there are no stylus to wear out. no beckoning cartridges to rush out and audition, no $5K CD washers to be added on. no multi thousand dollar arms to add on. no mechanical geometric orientation of the cartridge, no need for a seprate pre amp makes etc. which in all a very inviting argument for lavishing funds into the digital camp to begin or steadfastly remain.
Of late I’ve heard some mighty lofty costing analog setups that hold no edge on similarly or even lesser priced digital outfits what so ever!
With careful matching and setup and of course depending on the pockets and ears of the bit rate enthusiast, some exceptional performing converters are about for well within the means of many.
The caveat in digital as with analog, is ’what price performance’? The stellar digital front ends whose performance have turned my head as hair raising are damn expensive. Ch Precision, EMM labs and Lampy’s top tier offerings to name but a few, DA are just remarkable but run north of $25K retail routinely.
Let’s not stop there, for those whose devotion and pockets run deep, dCS and MSB have other ideas which will drain bank accounts of close to the $100K market for a complete arrangement of their devices running in concert!
But to think digital is the path of least resistance is quite naive. its roots are nearly as deep as those of the 10 inch platters past time. Recordings or pressing quality in both arenas is anyone’s guess prior to its sampling or playback.
Least one voting for pure bit renderings gets away scott free thinking they have found the spiritrual path to audacious audio, there remains the eventual fallout or acquisition of ‘digitalis nervosa’ ordinarily known as ‘click-itis’, an ADD like syndrome one soon attains as playback no longer is festooned with that long walk to and from the album rack to the phono. No more cleaning the vyinyl and squaring up the needle drop, only to repeat the process a few minutes later.
In the digital, cloud HDD storage or streaming service 978 skidillion tracks are begging and shouting for your attention and its soon a clickity click affair and songs become truncated by whim and lust for more content and the thirst soon turns into a ravenous rapacious morass of ceasless taps swipes, or clicks, as one seeks more variety or merely better quality cuts from what ever catalog or storage inventory is on tap.
FMM, its all digital, al the time.
regardless the regimin, One simply gets in where one wishes, shiny disc or dark, and hopefully strives towards contentment, when ever or where ever that location lays.
With my setup I really like to listen to the relatively few albums I have. But, in terms of sheer time listening, digital definitely wins the day. I’ve got some huge, very eclectic playlists and it is nice to just put one on, hit random, and go. As mentioned, with albums you get the hits plus all the fill. Some fill is better than others. These days, I’m only buying albums that I know I will like, and will want to fully listen to. Otherwise, a one hit wonder album is just not worth it.
my reel to reel player/tapes are my best source. tape has never gone silent for so long as during my TT upgrade project. Finished. Until something breaks I'm done, listening to LP's more than ever.
New to me: Large Plinth Dual Arm JVC-Victor TT81; 9" acos lustre 801 arm in rear for Grado ME+ mono cartridge; 12.5" russian blackbird arm at side for Shure V15/Jico SAS tip; audio technica auto safety lift; ortofon phono cable; many miscellaneous tools and small parts to move my setup skills up a notch; manual record cleaning/drying rack.
Cost recap today: $4,270 complete.
Into tube tuner/preamp McIntosh mx110z and tube integrated amp, Cayin A88T, bought last year (sold SS preamp and amp).
Now, re-discover around 2,500 lp's, washing in batches of 10, may take a while, I'm retired. I said I was done buying lp's at around 2,000 and put them in alphabetical order for the first time (categories before). Alas, kept buying, people give you lps, so around 500 wanting to get squished in alphabetical order, don't fit so weeding must occur.
I've also been cleaning lps to sell on eBay after a farewell listen, not gonna be much free money for people to buy for quite a while now. I'll start em low, see if I can make some room which is my main need.
CD's, got over 5K, alphabetically in special oversized binders (left lots of blank spaces, add new pages if needed (jewel cases tossed) they are aging silently now. R2R, I had about 500 pre-recorded tapes, sold over 100 on eBay, gotta play some, keep the two active machine's parts loose, sell some more R2R tapes, need room for more lp's!
YES IT"S WORTH IT!!Just bought a 2nd arm for my rig and now have MM and MC on my main system, also have a 2nd system and yes a 3rd system all have TT thousands of records and I just ordered 3 more yet to be released albums, i have had a TT for 50+ years and will spin vinyl until I take my last breath, vinyl will always be with us, THANK GOD!
Hickamore. Pretty easy really unless you buy all new. Aurender n100 at $1300 used. mhdt orchid DAC at $1160 new. Grannyring double barrel usb cable at $250
I enjoy playing LPs with a modest good quality turntable and cartridge. Nothing fancy or expensive. But I do enjoy playing vinyl, not all the time but enough of the time.
just picked up a pair of KT150's cheap on ebay,,pluged them into my Jadis Defy7, running 4 KT988's/+ the 2 KT150's in one channel vs the 6 KT88's other channel,,,Yeah its all worth it, HUGE sonic gain. with the pair of 150's in the right channel vs the wimpy left/Kt88's. The 150 is musical nirvana vs the lack luster 88's. got another 10 arriving this week. Monsta size gain in dynamic fidelity. hope that answers your Q.
To me definitely not worth it. Even with extensive cleaning the clicks and plops always came back. Give me the convenience of CDs and streaming anytime even at the cost of some SQ.
all mine were hand washed in the sink, and vacuumed.
the sound fine, some pops, crackles, whatever, its fine, back in the 80's we didn't have all this stuff to clean our records.
i record all the ones i dont have to CD, and theres some rotation pops, crackles, here and there, i actually LOVE that sound, as the relaxed tone/sound is on the cd when i playback.
it is worth it.
dont worry, just play your records, and clean the best you can, NOT rocket science, let the millionaires, use ultrasonic cleaning with that special 200$ fluid, etc etc.
I play mostly vinyl. But after a few (or more) adult beverages, I will switch to a digital source. Of course finding new music through streaming services is an amazing advantage
I retired my Thornes turntable with SME tonarm 4 years ago. Bought a LUMIN D1 5 years ago. Once Tidal added MQA the sound quality was amazing. Just upgraded to the LUMIN T2 - sound is even better. My access to music is amazing - finding new artists all the time. Just my 2 cents
Ditch the phone and buy a good streamer/server. You won't regret it! I have an Antipodes and have FLAC ripped all of my CDs into the onboard HDD. With an iPad as a remote, I use Roon to listen to them (server) and access Tidal via Roon for streaming via the Antipodes and a Denafrips Pontus DAC. Sublime imho.
$10k spent on a digital front end will yield better sound than $10k spent on an analog bundle that includes a phono preamp, turntable, arm & cartridge.
You'll also have more time to listen to more music ....than spending time to find the lp, remove it from its jacket, make sure there's no dust or static...then play the l.p. that you only like one or two cuts on. Remove the lp, put it back in its jacket and put the l.p. back in its proper place.
With excellent digital available, analog is more trouble than it's worth.
I still own two turntables and a few thousand lp's...and nope, I'll never get rid of my analog setup.
As the world is going through a crazy difficult time, with so much sadness, hardship and loss, listening to records and all the process that comes with that, gets me moving.
I could easily slip into a major depressive episode, and staying active - mentally and physically - is really important right now.
Are records important in the big picture right now?
No, but simple pleasures can be of some help.
Any little thing that can bring people joy, is important at times like this.
And hopefully, anyone who has some joy, shares that happiness with others so it can spread :)
Funny about a year ago my partner built a reference level phono stage. He brought it over to my house to have a listen. The funny part is that neither of us owned a turntable to test the thing out. I then borrow a TT from a friend of mine who buys old vintage equipment at estate sales. He gave me a basic TT and off we went. We had on e record to play and it was fantastic. Out of curiosity my partner looked at the TT to see who manufactured it. Turns out it says JC Penny on it. I called my friend and he told me that CEC make them for various companies back in the day. But it sounded fantastic. We took the phono stage to VPI a few months back and they loved the sound also. I still only own two or three records to play but the sound is fantastic.
I used to think because I had to be more alert and concentrated to play records it meant I was paying more attention to the music. Not sure as that's the case. In fact sometimes it can have opposite effect when I know a side is getting near the end and I have to move my ass to lift the needle. Yeah I know get a Little Fwend! Of course if on the SL-10 or QL-A7 that's not a worry.
But wait, WTH am I doing with all these TT? And ten plus cartridges?? I have one streamer, one DAC.
Uber, I go back and forth. I can't tell you how many times I pick up a record and am really disappointed by the quality of the pressing. Many times I've gone to the streamed version of the same recording and it sounds 1000 times better and there's none of the rigmarole, ticks, pops, etc. I can skip songs easily, change quickly to something else if the mood hits, etc. Times like that I want to get rid of the turntables completely.
I just took my JVC
QL-Y66F
in to have it serviced. After I got it back, I checked to make sure the cartridge was still aligned properly and saw that it was a little off. After a bit of fussing around and putting on a record, no sound out of the left channel! I've checked everything I can, no idea what happened. The service shop where I take it is closed for now, so it's a paperweight for now. Luckily I have a spare table, LOL.
But yeah, when it's a nice pressing and everything is working right, and the "magic" happens, it does make it all worth it.
Owning both along with high speed half track makes for critical listening/ comparisons/ understanding the relative merits and deficient elements of each... and let’s face it for much much music it is only available on digital:-)
Do not get me wrong, when its good , my record replay is REALLY good.
But I am finding, especially later at night, that I am just as happy to push play on the Aurender Conductor app and be done with it.
Is my streaming top knotch?
No not yet, but that is also part of my thinking. All in maybe 3k in streamer and DAC and it sounds fantastic. 3k does not take you very far in record replay land..... lol.
I don't know, maybe its just enforced home stay, got me on edge.
Uber, I was a very early adopter of computer audio and only stream my music now. I enjoy Roon greatly. You described why I "stream" my audio. With my gear, music sounds very acceptable to me. I figure analogue people enjoy all the fuss and rituals involved with audio playback. No criticism, we're all different. However, if digital audio was limited to MP3 sound I'd probably soldier along with vinyl.
I own a lot of records and a pretty decent vinyl rig. These days I rarely listen to them. This weekend I did spin a few, but it doesn't have the same allure for me that it used to. As my digital front end gets better the desire to play records gets pushed farther and farther back. I probably won't turn my back on vinyl completely, but it's about 20% of my listening when it used to be the 80%.
The setup, the cleaning regime, the $1000 plus cartridges that start their finite lifespan as soon as stylus first touches vinyl and spirals into less and less value with every play.
Everyone must make that decision for themselves. If you don’t enjoy records and all that comes with them, by all means don’t go there. For me, the obsession continues. Music can be enjoyed in so many different ways.
Always worth the extra effort. Some of it is just the challenge to optimize your vinyl, but it pays off with something special... Love my digital, which is very capable, but it doesn’t have the same magic. Uber you know we are correct...
Agreed. It's far more convenient (not to mention practical and cheaper) for me to play stuff off my phone via my Bluetooth speaker/headphones.
With over a 1000 favourite songs or pieces to immediate hand my main system is relegated to one of two duties - firstly as an escape zone where I can wallow in the best sound quality I can attain, and secondly as a means of beefing up the sound from my TV whenever I want to immerse myself in a classic film. The Searchers is the next one on my list.
Yes, those obsessive days of endless contact cleaning, swapping cables and vainly looking for the next miraculous tweak that would bring that all too elusive sonic magic a little closer have truly gone. Looking back my LP12 ownership days still give me the shudders.
Now more wasting precious time on mere 'plateau upgrades' unless they are truly hugely significant ones.
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