2. analog
  3. 127163-5938

Starting over with vinyl

Having just acquired new MMGs after a decade without music (yes, what a long strange trip it has been), I will begin to rebuild my music collection.

The question is "vinyl or cd"?  I have a collection of 100 or so CDs and no vinyl at all.

My system is Adcom GTP-500, GFA-555 and MMGs.  An Onix XCD-88 and Denon DCM-280 take care of the CD side.

Musical preferences are folk, bluegrass, jazz, classical and rock and roll (60s and 70s) and female vocals.

My last turntable was a Revox B970 and before that there was a Technics belt drive with a Shure V15 cartridge.

Buying used, what would be a reasonable starting place with a budget of $500 for equipment?  And is there anything I should know about the phono stage of the GTP-500 (checked out and functioning as designed) that would steer me away from vinyl?

Thanks in advance for your responses
kythyn

Showing 6 responses by kythyn

kythyn OP
58 posts
 
The Rega RP-1 seems good. Which of the Pro-jects would you consider?
kythyn OP
58 posts
 
johnnyb53 - thanks for sharing an actual personal experience. There is a Debut Carbon on sale here for $299 and it is in Florida north of where I am. Seems like a no-brainer?  There are two Pro-ject RM 1.3s with Sumiko Pearls available at $425 from the same store.  Are these worth the additional cost in your opinion?

raymonda - It really is a question of where to spend the future dollars - cd or vinyl? I wonder if the more limited selection of vinyl will keep me from going broke as quickly?

On another note, I could put the turntable budget towards either the bass panel for the Maggies, or a different sub or a set of .7s. The upgrade bug has already bitten me and I haven’t had the MMGs a week yet!
kythyn OP
58 posts
 
My primary source to date has been CD.  How can I tell if vinyl is true analog?
kythyn OP
58 posts
 
Again, thanks to all of you for the continued education.

raymonda - what are reliable sources for low cost cds (I assume used)

mesch - the Onix XCD-88 has a Burr-Brown 1732 24-bit/96kHz DAC, which I thought was decent. Which external DACs would you recommend for ripped CDs, downloads or streams?

sjtm - thanks for sharing your experience. What are reliable sources for low-cost high-quality CDs? Which online sources do you suggest for lossless or high res files? I appreciate what you said about unlistenable CDs as I have many in my small collection. As I type this I am listening to Santana’s Greatest Hits and the music is firmly wedged in the speakers

After digesting all that has been written here, I am inclined to remove my preamp and put in a passive to resolve gain problems, upgrade the MMGs to .7s or get Mye stands for the MMGs, remove the Denon and rely on the Onix as one primary source, with computer-based digital being the other.
kythyn OP
58 posts
 
mb1audio -

No, I didn't get the whole system as I had the same Adcom gear and 3.6s back then.
kythyn OP
58 posts
 
DAC, wireless connection, music server (as I begin to understand the pieces it takes) $500 - 700, which seems slim for the DAC alone
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