I have another perspective on this. I read here how transcendent the sound of vinyl can be — who doesn’t want to experience that? But I had low expectations for my old vinyl, still recalling all the crackles and pops. I thus didn’t want to invest much money until I knew if I’d even like it. So, I paid $280 for a Denon DP-300f, which came with an inexpensive Denon cartridge but also included the Ortofon 2M Red cart as a free upgrade. I bought a low tech but effective Spin Clean manual record washer and made my own cleaning solution from recipes on-line.
The worst part was cleaning each record by hand, and then listening to them. But it was “shelter-at-home” time with this COVID-19 business, so what else was I going to do? I ended up cleaning most of the 328 records at least twice, and some a third time. So I easily did 700 cleanings by hand over the past 2 months. I found that my results were better if I did more vigorous cleaning than the Spin Clean called for. But I am done.
Am I glad I went into vinyl as an option (still looking to enjoy music on CD’s and streaming)? Yes, I am. There is a hands-on satisfaction for me with vinyl, even the cleaning. And so far I haven’t spent a dime on new records — I inherited my family’s collections and was otherwise given albums for free. Out of all those records, only 6 were unusable. If I had to start from scratch on the records (no pun intended), I might not bother. Going cheap has worked for me, but I don’t play music at loud volume, as I like to relax while listening. Maybe if I was trying to replicate the sound levels of a rock concert, I might feel differently.
(My latest venture has been to convert my records to digital files, to eventually put onto my Bluesound Vault 2i. A nice fellow here helped direct me to the Focusrite Scarlett 4i4, which can convert the music on records to 24/96 digital, or even higher. I will be able to access my vinyl recordings as easily as I do CD’s, but with even greater resolution. That is the plan anyway. And it gives me something to amuse myself with).
The worst part was cleaning each record by hand, and then listening to them. But it was “shelter-at-home” time with this COVID-19 business, so what else was I going to do? I ended up cleaning most of the 328 records at least twice, and some a third time. So I easily did 700 cleanings by hand over the past 2 months. I found that my results were better if I did more vigorous cleaning than the Spin Clean called for. But I am done.
Am I glad I went into vinyl as an option (still looking to enjoy music on CD’s and streaming)? Yes, I am. There is a hands-on satisfaction for me with vinyl, even the cleaning. And so far I haven’t spent a dime on new records — I inherited my family’s collections and was otherwise given albums for free. Out of all those records, only 6 were unusable. If I had to start from scratch on the records (no pun intended), I might not bother. Going cheap has worked for me, but I don’t play music at loud volume, as I like to relax while listening. Maybe if I was trying to replicate the sound levels of a rock concert, I might feel differently.
(My latest venture has been to convert my records to digital files, to eventually put onto my Bluesound Vault 2i. A nice fellow here helped direct me to the Focusrite Scarlett 4i4, which can convert the music on records to 24/96 digital, or even higher. I will be able to access my vinyl recordings as easily as I do CD’s, but with even greater resolution. That is the plan anyway. And it gives me something to amuse myself with).