1 month into vinyl, what I've learned*

DS Love Over Gold. The songs are somewhat lame but the dynamics are off the charts.

 

And vice versa, I've seen some pretty beat up looking records that play fine. Depends a lot on the type of music. A heavy metal record can be in worse condition than a low key jazz recording.

 

those Neil Young albums will bankrupt you. I speak from experience. As a guy who owns, for example, Blue Note Cafe...

 

Somehow that one passed me buy. It's rather expensive (lowest priced UK based seller is £90).

 

Picked up a pair of Sennheiser 598se open phones and a Schiit Magni 2 headphone amp for about $230 out the door. I gotta say, the phones combo sounds really good. A lot less to worry about than with speaker placement, sub, room blah blah blah. Amazing to me the difference in amps. The headphone amp on the Yamaha was bland and flat, weird bass. With the Magni they really come alive. Great for great recordings. Bad for crap ones.

 

Hey, I have an As501 and am about to pull the plug on a pair of HD598s. I had read that they don't need an amp because they are easy to drive. Can you go more in to depth about why you don't like them through the Yamaha and the improvement of the schiit? Also how are you connecting the mangi to your Yamaha? I've been eyeing the mangi and Vali for a while but was hoping I wouldn't need them.

 

Vinyls, mouses, and more datum points. Speak the kings English as it is spoke. I make it a point to use optical mouses.

 

Well it's not going to be a very scientific answer but sound is complicated. The sound quality is just dramatically better through the Magni 2. When I first got the headphones and plugged them in I took them off after about 2 songs because they sounded like Schiit. Or didn't sound like a Schiit, if you get my drift. Through the Magni I don't want to take them off. Try it for yourself and see what you like. Schiit products seem to get a good amount back on the used market, so if you don't like it you could certainly sell it on Ebay for close to what you paid. It's not about the power to drive them. It's about how good it sounds. The headphone jack on my Vintage Marantz was higher quality. I just don't think today's amps take the time to build a quality headphone amp in. At least that's what I read on Crutchfield. If I hadn't spent the $109 (with shipping) on the Magni, I wouldn't listen to the headphones. I had to see what the fuss was about with headphone amps, and now I see the dramatic difference.

Connect the headphone amp to the rec out on either line 2 or line 3 via RCA cables and turn it on. That's it.

 

I have it,and love it. When it arrived here in Norway it only cost a little over 40 Euro,and i bought it. I see it have reached more "normal" prices here too now.

 

I guess I'll try the HD598s and see if I like the sound without a dedicated headphone amp first before I buy anything else. My wife also seems to think I am nuts. I love my schiit mani so I am sure the mangi is great. I'd be curious to try out the Vali though.

How do the HD598s do with surface noise? My Audio Technicas seem to accentuate it.

 

I think they are true to the source. If the noise is there you will hear it. I don't think they accentuate it though. I think they are enjoyable with the Magni.

 

I'm demo-ing a pair of Elac UB5's, and I gotta say they sound surprisingly good with my Sansui 9090 in my small 10x12 room. I may keep them. I've got them about 2 feet off the back wall and about 2.5 feet from the side walls and the bass is ridiculous. I'd swear I was using a 10 inch sub. They have a nice soundstage and image really well.

Surprised you didn't dig them B&B, but as you probably know synergy is a strange beast. I'm glad I tried them. These things are a steal at the 4 bills I'm gonna pay for them...

 

I managed to get Neil Young Volume 2 for €100 and I bought the Blue Note Café boxset for €39.99 both sealed.

JG

 

My bad rate for vinyl is very high. I just have no luck getting a pressing that is not damaged in some way. Even RTI has potshot issues.

Some sound great and sound even better than the original, but most of the times it is not the case.

Best bang for the buck is the salvation army and record shows. I have built a great collection over the last 13 years for mint or sealed old vinyl and all a buck or under. You just can't beat that as a music collector.

 

I had the same issue with a Boston album pressed by RTI. I was amazed how bad it sounded. Never ever got a new record that sounded like that.

 

Very true. The challenge is the time it takes to dig through unorganized collections and being able to travel to differnt city's helps a lot. I think many times a new collector doesn't know who the good artist are to pick jems out of thrift store dollar bins.

 

That's the one thing that bugs me at record shows and it's big inventory. I would personally take the time to organize it even if minimum organization. I have skipped some tables cause it is such work and an endless starting point.

Salvation army gets so much turnover, of you hit right you will walk away with some great and most of the time unused or hardly used or sealed. Maybe I am lucky at my location, but most of my collection is mint and most came from the salvation army. Although I have done well at record shows too.

I went to Newbury Comics in the mall this weekend, what a shell of what it use to be. Used CDs are gone and selection minimum. Vinyl is mostly new and used stuff looks like abused salvation army vinyl and they are charging a premium for it. The store is a Dept store now. It was busy in there and I was the only one looking for music. I was looking around in amazement at people. It was a sad day for me.

Newbury Comics use to be a great place to find music.

 

Thrift store picking is very hit or miss. Motivation is the key ingredient. I've seen shops get flippers lined up at the door before they open. I don't have that kind of motivation anymore, it takes a special day day me to want to flip through a bin that is on the ground. Just my story, your point is good. A great collection can be sourced with very little financial investment. You just have to work it and have broad interests in music.

 

Bingo, in the last three cities I've lived in all the thrift stores are a waste of time. Everything gets picked over by the professional flippers that have all day to dick around at these places or gets held back before it even hits the floor.

I think this video goes over some pretty common scenarios re: what happens with thrifts nowadays:

 

I've heard that RTI has issues recently. I've cut back severely on new vinyl purchases over the last 6 months, so I can't say what is happening right this minute with the quality of their records. I wouldn't be surprised if QC/QA is much worse right now than it was at most plants (not just RTI) even a year ago

 

I don't find as much worthy stuff as I use to. 10 years ago it was very different.

 

I do like the Elac's and would absolutely recommend them to someone not wanting to spend a fortune on the their system. I have a feeling the room placement of yours makes them sound like a completely different pair of speakers. I have not sold them and will give them another chance at some point. Unfortunately I'm stuck with a desktop system and the rear port is a problem if they aren't far enough from the wall.

I agree with your take. The image, midrange and bass were really impressive. The treble is there but I just felt like it never came alive. Like they rolled it off a bit too much. Maybe they aren't broken in yet or something. To be fair I'm comparing them against B&W speakers that were $700 to start with and vintage Advent Loudspeakers, aka the greatest value speaker in the history of audio (or one of them at least).

 

If your wife doesn't think you are nuts there are three possibilities:

1) You aren't really an audiophile.
2) You somehow managed to find a system that sounds so good you no longer feel the need to upgrade it.
3) You just got married.

 

4) mail order bride, doesn't speak the same language

 

Oddly enough my recent new purchases have been fantastic. The Hoffman CCR, the Zappa re-issues, Neil Young re-issues, Springsteen. Fantastic. To the point I'm more interested in new releases that are done by the right mastering engineers. I'm eagerly awaiting the Tom Petty individual releases.