. I own 3,000 plus lp's that I just don't play anymore. I told my 14 year-old son that he can have them when he starts college. He said no thanks, he said that he can carry around that much music in his back pocket in his iPod. I tried to explain to him that if he played LP's in college, he'd easily be one of the coolest students on campus. He told me to "get real" and thanks, but no thanks. I think I just may have to go through the task of grading each LP and selling them off. I've tried to convince myself that I will one day play them. I was just fooling myself. For the last fifteen years, I play one or two LP's a year just for the hell of it. I do like looking at them in their Ikea racks and marvel how I assembled my collection over nearly 40 years. I do like it when visitors comment on them and look through them. Cd's killed my vinyl and now my Squeezebox is finally going to bury it.
How many of you still have a sizeable vinyl collection that you don't play, but refuse to let go of?
If you think its not for you then ditch it and hope for no regret, I dont play vinyl much anymore and my 1000 or so albums really only spin when audio club folks are around. What I like about vinyl is what I grow to hate, the process, cleaning, care are whats great for many of us but its grown old for me. My disability surely adds to frustration, 20 minute sides are hard on us with physical issues. Still I cant pull the trigger and sell, not yet but completely agree with those who have got to that point, do what works for you. I keep thinking someday things will change and my vinyl enjoyment will return but if your sure how you feel, sell it off.
I listen to mostly LP's (3000+). I do have a good collection of CD's (800+) that I listen to when reading or just to lazy to go thru the process (cleaning cartidge, wiping dust off) or if I do not have the LP. I enjoy both LP's and CD's, but prefer LP's. Looking at getting a HI-REZ player with a DAC then ripping my CD's, but that is in the future. I still have a few LP's that are still sealed that I need to listen to. Never sold any of my LP's. Joe Nies
Playing analog just seems too time consuming. When I factor in the time spent on analog I wonder what better things I could be doing with my time. Spending more time with loved ones or doing things with a greater payoff.
At a point in life it became about what payoff am I getting for various things that I spend resources (time, money...) on. Many things became low value propositions. The average person will never listen to 5,000 records, it's a low value proposition for the man hours spent, storage space and finances invested etc... I agree with the rest keep a select few records and pass the rest on. I'm in the process on moving my modest vinyl setup to a common space in the house to get more use from it, I could care less about better sonics, what does that matter if you have limited chances to listen. IMO, whole house audio, music servers and portable music are the only hope for many of us to actually hear and enjoy our massive audio collections. Isolated sweet spot two channel audio is a dead end low value proposition IMO. Spend that same time with family and friends and it becomes real clear.
Casually enjoying a jazz record while sharing a glass of wine and chatting with my wife is a hell of a whole lot more enjoyable than unearthing extra air, tone etc... from the record while sitting alone in my man cave. When that record is over the two different situations will likely yet entirely different outcomes. I know which one I'm choosing ten times out of ten. Playing music is not the event, music just happens to be playing during the event.
To me if you don't play them and prefer the convenience of cd's then do what you will with them. But to me it is all about the sonics and cd's / sacd's just aren't at the same level as vinyl. I went all cd back when cd's first came out but kept all my old vinyl. Now I am back to vinyl and hardly ever listen to cd's unless it is passive listening.
If you already have the vinyl recordings on CD or other media and they sound the same to you then just unload all that vinyl. Keep your most treasured records and get rid of the rest. No point in having the duplicates if their is no difference in sound IMO. Just make sure everything is backed up. I'm sure there will be many people out there that would buy your collection or parts of it. If I lived close to you I'd probably want to stop by and look at the vinyl you would want to part with. From some vinyl enthusiasts I spoke too they only wanted out of print records or music that is not available on CD or download. Sometimes they would want earlier non remastered pressings as well.
I figure there must have been a good reason for me to have assembled a large vinyl collection. This is what I tell myself when I think of selling it off. In the past 5 years, I rarely play vinyl. The task of grading and selling these one at a time is something I'd never ever be motivated to do. Again, I am the one who bought these records to begin with. Too bad on me, I'm stuck with them until the day I decide to give the collection away. Which will probably never happen.
I ask myself the same question once in a while. I actually played a few last night "just cause". I hope when I retire I will have the time to stop what I am doing and flip the darn thing over. It seems Americans are always so busy we dont take the time out to enjoy the things in life we really enjoy. Opps, no time gotta go.... -John
I have a lot of albums. They are remnants of a bygone era, I like them and would not sell them (too much work to value properly and again I still like them). I still listen to them on occasion when in the mood or when I want to hear something I do not have otherwise. Most sound very good and are a more enjoyable listen than ever when played on my current system which is miles beyond what I had when I bought most of them. Also, used vinyl from the Goodwill store and other inexpensive sources is still teh best sound value out there when you want to listen to something new and different on the cheap.
. Basically, this whole thing comes down to convenience. A lot of the LP's that I own, I only want to hear one or two tracks sometime. Sorry, but I'm just not going to go through that ritual for one track. Over the years, I've gotten cd copies of everything in my LP collection that was issued on cd. Of course a good number of those items were never issued on cd. About 90% of the vinyl that I don't have a cd copy of can be heard on Rhapsody.
To satisfy my need for convenience and to keep my vinyl, periodically I try to talk myself into getting a reel-to-reel and move my favorites to tape. But the cost of a good machine and the cost of enough new tape make me hesitant.
Rhapsody, Pandora, a good cd player, Squeezebox and a hard-drive are making it almost impossible to justify playing LP's. The sound quality of all of it sounds good to me and I'm done splitting hairs about what sounds absolutely the best. The thing for me these days is instant access.
I have a retired cousin in Florida that has just as many LP's as I do. I went into the room where he kept them and it seems like there was an inch of dust on the shelves. It was clear that he hasn't played his LP's in years either. But of course he's adamant about keeping his LP collection.
What is this obsession with holding on to these things?
Just keep the gems and give the rest away. It's not worth taking the time to grade everything and then try to sell it to some guy who wants it for $1 (if that much) and then will complain to you because there's a pop on the third cut of side 2. Not worth it.
As digital playback improved I listened carefully back and forth from good vinyl to good CD and decided that since I do not enjoy the vinyl rituals and the each sound had pros and cons, to sell my collection. I recorded some of my absolute favorites and not available on CD onto computer. Got good prices for them here. Boy, it saved a lot of space and I have no regrets.
I still have most of my vinyl because I have not found a way to transfer it to someone else in a fair and efficient manner. Some years back, I sold all my opera sets to someone newly arrived in NYC and wanting to get a headstart. We agreed on a mutually acceptable price per disc and she took them all as that was part of the conditions.
Now, I need to find someone like her with a wider interest in classical music. Short of that, I have no idea what I will, eventually, do with them.
Why Do I Still Have CD's if I only play vinyl now ?
CD's for me are for the car or for live music recordings that I have done or obtained from others. CD playback when compared to vinyl counterparts on my system is inferior.
Mitch, with such a stellar rig, why don't you love your vinyl?
It's not the playback system, which is great, so it's process. If you don't love the process, you should get rid of it. Since you have had them so long, I would take the time to grade them and sell them off to someone who values them more.
Since you were going to give them to your son, and he didn't want them, you could use some of the proceeds to give him a great small college rig (Wyred4SoundDAC2, Paradigm Active 20's, AppleTV, Definitive Tech SuperCube III) that can play all of his digital files.
Anyway, hope you put some for sale that I can buy!
My collection also goes back many years. I have reduced my collection of close to 10,000 down to about 5,000. I think I hold on to many of mine because of the nostalgia. I still get up some days and decide to play only vinyl. I also plan to take photos of many of them before parting with more.
I personally found that it is the time that you finally make the committment to get rid of something that is taking up space after years of mulling that you come to a realization later, what was I thinking?
There is still music on those LP's. Unless you have transferred to digital why get rid of them all? Maybe some, the ones you don't like but the whole collection?
I have a decent size collection myself many of which I don't listen to much but there are always those moments. You've gone this far maybe you need to revisit and carefully evaluate before making a final decision on a wholesale dump. "In reviewing the situation...."
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