2. amps-preamps
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How a turntable is like a gym membership

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I was a member of the YMCA for years. I was there every night five days a week working out and playing basketball. I got married and started having children, but I kept my membership, I just wasn't using it. I wouldn't drop my membership because I liked playing basketball so much, I just wasn't going to the gym. Once a year, I'd go to the gym to justify my keeping it. I had to go to the front desk to get the combination to my locker, I had been there so seldom, I forgot the combination. After about five years reality set in and I finally dropped the membership. So I bought a full-fledged home gym that I now don't use, I go walking with my iPod instead.

I own two turntables, a record-cleaning machine and over 3,000 jazz LP's. Over the last five years I may have played a total of three or four LP's. I bought both of my turntables because they are both beautiful and thought that it would force me to play my vinyl. Wrong! I have an excellent CD player and I also own a SqueezeBox. Sorry, but digital is just too doggone convenient. It was nice owning two beautiful turntables so my guests could oooh and ahhh when thay saw them. It was cool to say "yeah, I still spin vinyl" when the fellas saw my system. But the truth was, I rarely came near the turntables. They served as not much more than Audio Sculpture or Audio Eye-Candy. Both of them sound beautiful, but I'll be doggone if I'm willing to go through ritual of cleaning the LP, cueing it, and be standing nearby to remove the arm when the last song is finished on one side. I kind of always felt that there was an unwritten rule somewhere that to be considered a "true audiophile" that you had to have analog playback included in your system. Sorry, but I've given in to 21st Century technology and I'm moving on. There, I've said it, I've been faking it as an analog lover for the past few years. Well, I do actually love analog, I just don't have time for it.

So, I put on an album tonight and DAMN that vinyl sounded good! But, after about 30 minutes, I realized that I have been spoiled by the convenience of digital and I'm just not willing to go through the gyrations to play an LP any longer.

So, the turntables have to go, but I'm keeping my LP's just in case. Hopefully my 13 year-old son will take them when he graduates from college.
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128x128mitch4t
wolf_garcia
6,633 posts
 
I still use the word "groovy", I've been a musician/recording tech for over 40 years, and I love my Linn. I like digital also...and I wonder...why does this stuff have to be mutually exclusive? I'm too lazy to "digitize" all my vinyl, so I have fun playing with it from time to time and it often amazes me. I've been a surfer since 1960 and refuse to quit just because somebody thinks I should...I just get longer boards and sometimes a paddle! It's a lot of hastle to DO things...I suppose I could get a power boat...it's MUCH easier...and get somebody to play my guitars for me...and maybe put the food into my mouth...a driver for the BMW...or maybe somebody to EXPLAIN beauty to me so I don't have to work at experiencing it. I belong to a gym AND have one at home...now if I could get somebody to lift that tonearm for me....
phaelon
1,038 posts
 
It's not the flipping of sides or lifting of tonearms that bothers me about analog, it's the setup and tweaking and never being sure that you're at anywhere near your turntable assembly's potential. I realize that proper set-up, component matching and tweaking are a fact of life in audio, but their importance seems to be over-the-top in analog. You believe that you have expert set-up, and then one day someone suggests you use half a drop less of lubricant in some reservoir and bang, there it is. I think what bothers me the most is seeing just how much my analog friends suffer with their setups. One day they're ecstatic; the next day, they just don't know what's wrong. And it seems like it's always just after making a big ticket upgrade, that they find out that some small adjustment wasn't right. I'm not suggesting that digital is a better choice because of this, but I do think that analog, at least through a turntable, requires a long run commitment to the hardware aspect of audio. I don't know if analog devotees ever reach the point where they can ignore their system for a year or two and just hit play.
koegz
317 posts
 
I do very little, just minor teaks to vinyl now. My wife listens to digital. She does nothing but turn it on. For her it is atmosphere. Tweaking is part of the hobby. Most of us enjoy the minor adjusting, it makes us feel as if we are part of the music. Involved in it's reproduction. I will bet if you ask the freinds you talk about, do they mind the tweaking? A resounding NO, I love it? That is the point. It helps makes the music personel. You are involved. Other wise it is just back round. Listening to just the hits and not the entire album. It is clear most on this thread do not understand vinyl! It is about the feel, the involvement, the love of the music, the memories, the artist, the meaning, taking the time to really listen and the sound.
phaelon
1,038 posts
 
Koegz, I'm sure you don't really mean to say that anyone who doesn't enjoy the extra tweaking involved in vinyl, doesn't possess the requisite passion for music to appreciate it at a level beyond background music. To call a person who said, and meant, that "arrogant" would be kind.
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