vinyl wow

Hungryhalibut posted:

nigelb posted:

Ooohhh…..so tempting. I used to have a Rega Planar 3 and later a LP12 but never played them with the quality of amplification I have now. It would be very interesting to hear a mid spec Rega in my current system. Stupidly, I sold all my vinyl when CD became all the rage.

B**ger!

My Rega 2 sounds amazingly good through the Naim. Considering how good the SL2s are, and how they reveal every tweak, the £79 Bias cartridge is doing pretty well. A couple of the used records I've bought have horrible surface noise though, so I need to find a cheap way of cleaning them. 

Pop down and use my RCM !

Now, that sounds like a plan...

And I thought streaming was the answer to world hunger

[@mention:69849598655779894] I do have a Muso for background listening and it's ok for finding stuff like on Spotify prior to purchasing on vinyl. It can be good fun but doesn't compare to my vinyl system which costs many times more!!

I'm using a Thorens TD160 and have recently bought an Ortofon 2m black which is sounding fantastic at the moment.

Agree with the comment above about streaming to hear new music, and then buying the LP. I think Radio Paradise is a great source of finding new bands, and there are loads of recommendations over in the Music Room. 

Have fun!

Nigel

When CD was launched I had a large LP collection and a well specced LP12; these two factors dissuaded me from moving to digital. I was never tempted at any subsequent point to make the switch on the basis of sound quality - the two problems most probably experienced with their vinyl (mis-tracking and surface noise) were to a very large extent dealt with once you had a "reasonable" quality TT, albeit at what most people would regard as prohibitive cost.

Enjoy your vinyl but my advice would be this: depending on the era of repertoire and recordings you intend to collect I would be wary of some of the modern reissues as many (by no means all) have been mastered from digital tapes, or worse still from CD.  I was tempted to buy a very nasty sounding Thelonious Monk reissue on Wax Time. Having invested in a Moth record cleaner my preferred option now is to track down used recordings, if applicable, from the period before they were all digitally remastered. This doesn't have to be prohibitively expensive if you're avoiding first issues.  I've picked up some bargains on Discogs and from charity shops.

Enjoy!

Graham - there's obviously lots of choice in the Music Room and the various threads under same - you could be in for a long trawl . You may wish to start another suggestions-based thread there at some stage?

If you are looking at 180g's take care as there are, as Bluedog mentions, some 'budget' labels issuing this stuff and it's not easy to detect what's worth having and what's not. The Music on Vinyl label is a favourite of mine (Richard, I think OK to mention here). The cost of decent vinyl appears to have been escalating of late and there has been a plethora of back issues.

Care also to get a decent stylus cleaner and RCM if you are going to invest heavily.

Happy Listener posted:

Graham - there's obviously lots of choice in the Music Room and the various threads under same - you could be in for a long trawl . You may wish to start another suggestions-based thread there at some stage?

If you are looking at 180g's take care as there are, as Bluedog mentions, some 'budget' labels issuing this stuff and it's not easy to detect what's worth having and what's not. The Music on Vinyl label is a favourite of mine (Richard, I think OK to mention here). The cost of decent vinyl appears to have been escalating of late and there has been a plethora of back issues.

Care also to get a decent stylus cleaner and RCM if you are going to invest heavily.

Everything HL says.   I invested in Oki Nokkj RCM about 6 years ago - worth every penny. 

Hungryhalibut posted:

nigelb posted:

Ooohhh…..so tempting. I used to have a Rega Planar 3 and later a LP12 but never played them with the quality of amplification I have now. It would be very interesting to hear a mid spec Rega in my current system. Stupidly, I sold all my vinyl when CD became all the rage.

B**ger!

My Rega 2 sounds amazingly good through the Naim. Considering how good the SL2s are, and how they reveal every tweak, the £79 Bias cartridge is doing pretty well. A couple of the used records I've bought have horrible surface noise though, so I need to find a cheap way of cleaning them. 

Try the PHK record cleaning machine from Brazil looks like something cobbled together by a 12 yard old in craft club but is a really excellent and relatively cheap alternative. I bought a used on over on pfm about a year ago it's cleaned hundreds of LP's and still going strong.

grahambateman posted:

Purchased  some cat Stevens , daft punk , and pink Floyd , all on 180 g. Anyone suggest any other must have albums?

 

Thanks

Graham

 

Been listening to Howlin' Wolf His Greatest Sides on vinyl a lot lately.  Sounds great.  Sounds better than the same songs on the Howlin' Wolf Chess Box Set (CD format).  Old Muddy Waters is also really nice on vinyl.  Miles Davis' Kind of Blue is fantastic on vinyl.  As is Joni Mitchell's Blue.  And all would be your nice to have in your collection.

Graceland by Paul Simon is great on vinyl.  

Bert Schurink posted:

I have cats, so I will only enjoy this pleasure at hifi shows...

I will always have a cat if only to keep me away from vinyl.

It is fantastic that more and more people who are serious about HiFi are getting into vinyl it means better quality vinyl releases and a wider range of turntables and paraphernalia available.

Bob the Builder posted:

It is fantastic that more and more people who are serious about HiFi are getting into vinyl it means better quality vinyl releases and a wider range of turntables and paraphernalia available.

You think????

Certainly a great range of turntables but I think the jury must be out on the quality of vinyl. 

Regards,

Lindsay

And if it is best sound quality that is desired, money is better spent on digital! But this does not    negate the enjoyment some people get from playing vinyl, and if the retro angle gets young people more interested in music and hifi then it can only be a good thing.

You just haven't heard good enough vinyl, or maybe I haven't heard good enough digital (NDS/555ps but not in my system).

The only conclusion can be that both mediums have their virtues.  

Regards,

Lindsay

Room for both here. I have a large LP collection with some discs going back to the 1950s...and not full of click and pops either! Also quite a few discs not reissued on digital so worth keeping the vinyl. I'm also nearing a certain age where some may consider me retro

There's a lot of marketing piffle (no change there then) about the current crop of 180 gm (or whatever) remasters of classic albums. With all the examples I've heard; I've found that my original (thin!) vinyl sounds better and is of better/quieter pressing quality.

Is recycled vinyl being used and/or are production constraints limiting QC? There must be a few folk out there kicking themselves for letting their vinyl pressing plants go for scrap metal value.

What is it with pesky illogical humanoids? - give 'em perfect digital-sound technology over thirty ago and they still want to drag a piece of sharpened carbon through a rotating bumpy plastic rut.

John.

Funny - that "wow" is now a favorable term around turntables. While it has gotten far more difficult to find old vinyl in good conditions,it is still a much better source than the new releases 180 gm. or otherwise Most new vinyl of any kind carries obscene pricing   with it. Not averse to buying new, but to build with quantity,old is still the way, I still find some (rarely) at salvation army, used record stores (if local), and my library holds a book sale each year (just had it) and they include records- can find some sometimes. Awhile back,one of the "hot " new pressings of "the music of Peter Gunn". I came across an inexpensive original at a used record shop, and then found a better copy at the library sale- turns out it had been a best-seller so lots of copies turn up

J.N. posted:

There's a lot of marketing piffle (no change there then) about the current crop of 180 gm (or whatever) remasters of classic albums. With all the examples I've heard; I've found that my original (thin!) vinyl sounds better and is of better/quieter pressing quality.

Absolutely agreed. Although CD finally did for vinyl in the '80s, vinyl quality was already suffering and I think that the decline had already started. Maybe that is why people welcomed the "perfect sound forever" offered by CD. I just hope that the variable quality of current vinyl releases doesn't signal the decline of the present revival. I'm not too hopeful. 

The good news is that folk are dumping collections of treasured vinyl onto the market every day. 

Discogs is your friend. Customer satisfaction and positive feedback is sought, so it's relatively risk free. Vendors will in my experience, normally issue a swift refund if the goods  are not of the advertised quality or condition.

John. 

kraNick from Suffolk posted:

Bob the Builder posted:

It is fantastic that more and more people who are serious about HiFi are getting into vinyl it means better quality vinyl releases and a wider range of turntables and paraphernalia available.

You think????

Absolutely if you know what you are looking for and are prepared to pay extra for the 'right' releases.

Music Matters Blue Note re issue's especially the less expensive 33rpm single disc issues although a little pricey are excellent. 

Most of the Analogue Productions re masters for a cost of about 30% more than the bog standard 180g issues are excellent value IMO.

ORG remaster's are on the whole very good Diana Krall - Live in Paris for instance is very good.

Pure Pleasure, Speakers Corner and Classic Records also release excellent 'AUdiophile' releases the vast majority of which would not have been invested in or released had it not been for the so called 'vinyl revolution.'

Thought provocative. I still have all my records, but currently no record player. I've come to the conclusion that whilst digital music of the best quality is a multi-splendoured and wondrous thing that I would never want to be without, I am aware that, try as I have, I just cannot get reliably good results from analogue pop/rock recorded, produced and mixed before the advent of 'Brothers in Arms' and subsequent digital recordings. Amongst my roughly 1000 LP's  I reckon there must be at least 300 that I'd enjoy hearing more in that format than any digital version. However,  I'm not convinced that I will always prefer to listen to Vinyl in preference to digital for all my music, so any purchase would really only be for these 300 or so discs. So, ...

If I budget £6-7 a disc for hardware to resurrect these Vinyl performances, this gives me a budget of something like £2-2.5k to spend to achieve that aim. As a place to start my search, I'm reading rave reviews of the new Rega P6, which, with Ania cartridge and Fono stage would leave room for a record cleaning machine perhaps? Obviously, this is only a starting point for audition and other alternatives will be tried.

For reference, When I last left off owning a record player in the mid 90's it was an LP12 (Valhalla), Ekos (mk1) AT OC9 (poor replacement for a child-destroyed Linn Karma!). I listened to many LP12 alternatives at various times. Nottingham Analogue Spacedeck and a Well Tempered are 2 that come to mind as positive experiences. 

I'd really appreciate any informed views on:

1) the Neo P6

2) other alternatives in my budget

3) best blended cost/performance record cleaning system below, preferably well below, £500.