Enjoying vinyl more than ever.........


I've been going through a "vinyl renaissance," and want to share some feelings. My set-up is simple, and extremely enjoyable. I'm not sure of the proper "audiophile terms" to describe my system, other than saying that everything seems to work incredibly well together, and it all sounds wonderful. I'm driving Vandersteen 1C speakers with a Rogue Audio Cronus (EL-34 tubes) integrated amplifier and an NAD 533 turntable with a new stylus on the pre-mounted Goldring Elektra cartridge. Audioquest type 6+ cables connect the speakers, and I have a very warm and rich sounding Rotel RCD-1072 CD player (with an AQ King Cobra interconnect). Upgraded power cords for the Rogue and Rotel are SignalCable.

I am enjoying my record collection more than ever before, since replacing the stylus. I never realized that the original stylus (eight years old) was missing so much of the "deep groove" detail. All my records sound so great again, that I'm rarely listening to my CD's. All my old jazz and classic rock albums sound fantastic, and my evening listening sessions are extending later into the night each time I sit in my "sweet spot" chair.

I've been buying a lot of new albums from a website called "Dustygroove.com", and I'm quite impressed with their collection of new jazz albums (mostly Blue Note re-issues). For $8.99 each, I'm quickly buying uo a lot of jazz classics, and the LP's are wonderful.

Now, I certainly won't be giving up on my CD collection any time soon......but it's a pleasure to be enjoying vinyl again. There's something about it that "just sounds right," and to my humble ears, sounds "more musical" than CD's. I'll stop rambling now. I just wanted to share my excitement about vinyl LP's, and see if anyone has a similar system as mine, and can recommended an upgraded analog front end. Thanks a lot.
adam18
This thread is great- thanks Adam. I remember my purchase of a Rega P3/Super Elys in December of 2000. I had churned through several cd players in the years prior and had bought a Rega Planet in June of that year. The P3 was a lark for me and I thought well, I'll give it a try since it cost about as much as a Planet and had been favorably written up. I was just amazed when I brought it home and had to overcome the temptation several times to throw the Planet from my second floor balcony onto the parking lot below in the days that followed. Look, vinyl is the living, breathing word of music- that is my hardened conviction. It lives and breathes as you and I do. Digital has gotten better and in the present era is quite impressive sonically but it is not the same.
I'm really happy to read all your responses to this thread. Just imagine.......we all have the ability to enjoy music via several different means.....live performances are phenomenal, and both digital CD's and analog LP's are ours to enjoy at home. It's pretty cool that we can listen to both CD's and vinyl, and enjoy both modes of playback for their own intrinsic values. My intention is NOT to choose which is "better".....digital or analog. I enjoy fully both my CD's (through my Rotel RCD-1072) and my LP's (through my NAD 533), and my mood at any particular time dictates which power button I hit. I'm simply very happy and proud to be a part of a community such as this one, as we are all lovers of music. That's the bottom line.
Adam18, your story is similar in that I am (within the last year or so) back into vinyl, and enjoying it more than ever. My front end is better, but more important, I've learned how to do proper set-up, and that has lead to much greater enjoyment.
Thanks to a fellow A'goner named Crem1, I just learned about steam cleaning records. For about $30, you can purchase a steamer at Walgreen's. It works extremely well, you can clean your records first with your favorite cleaner, then steam 'em, then dry with a lint free towel. A lot of guys use the steaming with an RCM, but I don't think it's necessary, they come out so clean. It's very important, though to use very pure water doing this, the cleaner the better. Check out the thread here on the analog forum. It even flattened a warped record, as a happy by-product!
Enjoy,
Dan