Is it too late to get into vinyl now?

This post is dead on

Those who chase first pressings owned a lot of them when they came out.
Music lovers that built up a40 year collection in most cases
Or paid big bucks

What groups are you looking to buy via vinyl?

A lot depends on your table and system
If your table and phono stage aremodest a $300 rare hotstamper will be lost on it

Your best bet and usually best sound is used, some exceptions

You can pick up a lot on the cheap if you are willing to dig through drek
Or post "I buy record collections" on craigs list

Have fun

 

Perfect time to get into vinyl. There's more than ever to choose from and none of it brickwalled.

 

It depends, how late is it there?

 

Your question is very general, and you leave too many variables open.

What's your budget?
What's your system?
Most importantly - what music do you love?

You can get a wonderful, better than digital experience for not too much money, if you love the music.
Don't worry about stuff that we (including me) tend to get anal about.

Just get started, and you won't look back.

 

I ordered my first "vinyl" on May 28th (a month ago) after not listening to albums since 1989. I got an e-mail yesterday asking if I still wanted to keep waiting for it. I said yes.

Per The Beatles - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band [Mono LP] - Amazon.com Music

The challenge is to see if my turntable still works after all these years.

"In an audiophile-minded undertaking, The Beatles' acclaimed mono albums have been newly mastered for vinyl from quarter-inch master tapes at Abbey Road Studios by GRAMMY®-winning engineer Sean Magee and GRAMMY®-winning mastering supervisor Steve Berkowitz. While THE BEATLES IN MONO CD boxed set released in 2009 was created from digital remasters, for this new vinyl project, Magee and Berkowitz cut the records without using any digital technology. Instead, they employed the same procedures used in the 1960s, guided by the original albums and by detailed transfer notes made by the original cutting engineers.

Working in the same room at Abbey Road where most of The Beatles' albums were initially cut, the pair first dedicated weeks to concentrated listening, fastidiously comparing the master tapes with first pressings of the mono records made in the 1960s. Using a rigorously tested Studer A80 machine to play back the precious tapes, the new vinyl was cut on a 1980s-era VMS80 lathe.

Manufactured for the world at Optimal Media in Germany, The Beatles' albums are presented in their original glory, both sonically and in their packaging."

 

It is not too late, my friend. You don't have to spend a lot of money on your turn table and I go to record stores across the country when I travel and find original lps in great shape in the $8 to $15 range across a range of genres. Don't feel like you've missed anything - you can start this weekend. And this forum is an excellent guide once you're up and running!

 

It's never too late to get into vinyl!

 

I agree largely with the sentiments expressed. Get a turntable and have fun. If it's not a brand and model number accepted here, don't add it to your profile though. You'll open yourself up to ridicule. It happened to me a matter of days ago. I hate Crosley turntables and those sold at B&N because they kill records but there are other inexpensive brands of turntables that sound very good despite what the intelligencia here believes.

Translation: if it sounds good to you, go for it. A. If investment is NOT required, again no matter what's said in these parts.

Ed

 

Barnes & Noble sells the Rega P1, as well as U-Turn Orbit, and Music Hall turntables.
How would these kill records played on them, if they were properly set up?

 

The cost of LP's today depends on your music taste. Here is an idea based on used ones -

If you are into classic rock or 80's hair bands like Zepplin, Floyd, Eagles, The Police, The Who, Cinderella, Metallica, etc... Those will cost a bit more whether re-issues or used.
If your taste is 80's top 40 pop, typically albums run $1 to $6 depending if you get them on ebay or find then at thrift.
It it's more along Engelbert Humperdinck, Percy Faith, Streisand, Herb Albert, Shawn Cassidy, Andy Williams, christmas albums, or classical - You are in luck. Thrift stores are usually overloaded with them and run about 50 cents to $2 each depending on the store.
Sadly, this last example constitutes the vast majority of thrift LP's

As far as a turntable - yeah there is a lot of debate about what is "best" or how much you should spend but here are a couple tips for a beginner -

Get a dedicated TT instead of a stereo that is "all in one" with radio, cassette, 8 track, TT...
Avoid Crosley. They look nice but without getting technical - they sound bad and ruin albums quickly.
Find a used one on the web or thrift if you can. It should have at least an anti-skate and counterweight adjuster. Usually if they have at least those adjustments, it is good to start with. Generalizing here.

Though all mine are from the late 70's thru 80's, i discovered the same - nice dynamic range. I do wonder how vinyl managed to avoid brickwalling

 

It's true that there really are a lot of good records in the $6-$10 range. Perfectly great music without a scratch on it. I have a ton of 70s represses that I found for under $20. If you are in it for listening first, you can get by very well for not a ton of money.

 

If anything it's a great time because of the resurgence it's going through.

My approach is to concentrate on my favorite albums and finding the best release I can (which could be vinyl, but not always). I won't buy an LP of an album I don't place very VERY high on my personal list. CDs do just fine for the non-top tier stuff. But because I'm a lot more selective, I'm willing to shell out more $$ for albums I feel are worth it. PLUS, the way I look at it is the more expensive/rare/quality releases (again, whether original pressing LP or MoFi CD or whatever) often hold their value - if not increase - more than a newly bought CD which immediately plummets in value the moment you break that plastic.

 

I was more on those cheap Audio Technica and Crosley things I've seen in my local stores. My bad on that one.

Ed

 

It's not too late, but the waters are definitely choppy. Most newly released records are not worth buying imo. You really have to do your research on this forum or others before buying. If it's a new release, just skip it unless you read here or elsewhere that the vinyl sounds fantastic (from someone you trust). Try to find out if it was mastered for vinyl with care, by someone like Grundman, Bellman, KG, Ludwig, etc. Spend time on discogs, or reading pre-release threads on this forum before buying. If you take the plunge on something that you can't find any info about, be prepared to receive a sonic turd. You *can* find gems this way, but 9 times out of 10 you're wasting your time and money (and storage space). The cost is nearly prohibitive for new releases, be prepared to spend 2-3X what you would pay for an equivalent cd. And even so, the way music is recorded and processed these days, it just doesn't lend itself to sounding all that great on vinyl compared to the best sounding stuff from the 60's to the early 80's (which is basically all AAA, not bricked, etc.)

There are some fantastic AAA box sets and very well mastered reissues coming out in the past few years. Definitely put some focus on these, if your budget allows. (They are pricey!)

Old original pressings are fun, but demand is high, so prices have been climbing fast. Not to mention everyone and their mother is overgrading their old records trying to make a quick buck it seems.

Be careful out there!

 

Buy low sell high, you missed it
Bad pressings, overpriced everything, pitiful shippers, and few knowledgable sales folks. you could get in now, but I think most of the fun ended in the 90's

ITs a great time to pick up more stuff on used CDs

 

Absolutely!

But I wouldn't do it to chase sonic nirvana. (although it does sound great) I do it because it's fun, and there's a ton of great records available. I enjoy the act of spinning records. I enjoy hanging out at the local used record shop on Saturday mornings where the owner knows my name. I enjoy the artwork. I enjoy the chase. Even my wife likes to throw on a record and crank the stereo.

Just remember it's like any other hobby. Somebody will be happy to sell you an A1/B1 pressing of DSotM for $700, but it's certainly not a necessity.

 

Never to late to get into vinyl, but I also recommend cds as well. Love me vinyl as well as me cds.

 

How can it be too late to get into Vinyl? The question really is - why are you doing it. If you doing it because everyone else is, it's probably silly. If you have another reason, then maybe it's not silly. I wouldn't get into Vinyl "just because". But then, whatever brings you pleasure.

I'm not doing Vinyl. If I want better than CD I'll get Blu-Ray if available. I'm not going to go back to spending £20 for 40 minutes of music - I have a budget to work with, and for £24 these days I'm getting 3 CD's, which is more music for me to enjoy. Vinyl is over-priced, imo. Still, prices may drop (I see Sony are opening a new pressing factory in Japan). Not sure of prices of decks these days, I did most of my Vinyl playing on a Linn LP12. It was a bad day when you had to replace the cartridge.

If you're considering Vinyl now I'd make sure the titles you want are available, and at a price you can afford. I'd compare and contrast with CD, and go from there based on your preference.

 

One problem is that my turntable always seem to skip when I play it .... in my car.

 

That's too bad. Just buy another!

ARC 45/2500 vynal in car record player, chrome polish. | eBay

Ed

 

Like anything analog audio, it is a hobby. Yes there will be bargain hunting, bad pressings, the occasional mishap in shipping etc...
If someone wants to get into an analog audio hobby, there is going to be a learning curve. Sometimes frustrations, etc.

As far as bad pressings or copies, that isn't limited to vinyl. I have bought brand new cassettes in the past that sounded horrible (Suicidal Tendencies "join the army" was one of the worst). Sometimes it is down to bad production. Megadeth's "killing is my business" sounded pretty bad (supposedly Dave Mustane used a lot of the already limited production money for booze and drugs... imagine that)

There is kind of a reason analog went out the window save for hobbyists like all of us here.
My advice to anyone wanting to get into analog is this - be prepared for a good share of headaches. No matter what fun things we want to do in life, there will always be a certain amount of "bull" we have to deal with.

 

That is so cool. I did not realize that such a thing actually existed and wasn't just a tongue in cheek joke.

 

That seller has exactly zero feedback. I wonder if someone would actually take a chance doing $100's worth of business with a complete new ebayer?

 

Didn't notice that! I might but I'd be asking a lot of questions before I did. I tend to avoid sellers who are brand new.

Ed

 

I do agree that really good vinyl reproduction costs. I have two levels of playback to compare and vinyl flaws are far less intrusive when you spend nearly 10 times as much on a vinyl front end. However you can get reproduction that will see off all but the best (read expensive) digital with the cheaper set up (approx £800 incl cartridge and phono pre amp). With the number of new releases and reissues and improving mastering and pressing quality (in my experience) it is certainly now viable to start a vinyl collection and avoid overpriced used records. Previously you had to major on used buys but at least they were generally cheap before vinyl became fashionable.