Worth it for me Getting into Vinyl?

You might be joking but it really is a state of mind as much as anything else. Listening right now to my original copy of The Yardbirds "Over, Under, Sideways, Down". My mind is in an altered state as I bought this very album in junior high.

 

Whether you should or should not get into vinyl or not is a question only you can answer and live with.

As many have already replied, just don't go into vinyl with a notion that you can do it well while also doin' it "on the cheap". Very little in the audiophile world is truly done on the cheap although that also doesn't mean vinyl can only be prohibitively expensive. Vinyl is antithetical to the digital world (duh) so if that clean break is what you seek, then maybe vinyl is for you. A tangible medium versus a digital replication and reduction.

Equivalent sound quality between vinyl and digital can be much easier and more inexpensively done in digital IMO. Spend what you are comfortable spending but there's no easy way to do it except by figuring it out yourself. This is a hobby...it's not supposed to be easy.

 

Really? Hobbies are supposed to be fun in my world.

 

Then you're not doing it right

 

Thanks so much for all the replies! Such a great community

Well...I took the plunge!

I went to a nice record store this morning...started off by picking up nice $2 CD specials. Then I started looking at the jazz cd's, some to replace digital downloads and others I had on my list. These were closer to $10 Canadian as it's Miles, Coltrane, etc. I get to the cash and learn of a music club they have with a discount if you buy x$ worth in a year. Idea is you start getting a discount after spending the $. So I ask what if I bought the required amount to join the club, figuring this would be the start to vinyl, but get today's purchase at the discounted rate, plus black Friday deal...great guy obliged, so I said I would see what I can find. Found a lot of my top 20 and then some...and got them at a great discount...not to mention several were 1/2 off and then a discount on top of that. I feel like I got a nice mix to get my feet wet.

Now I need a turntable (have a line on one from a guy I bought speakers from...such a knowledgeable and great guy). And then I have to sort out my room.

We'll see how deep this rabbit hole goes!

 

The thing with vinyl vs CD is with CDs you're assured a solid 4/5 experience. With vinyl there can absolute bliss and absolute dread. Setup & pressing flaws can lead to an awful experience. That being said, a perfect setup and outstanding pressing will get a 5/5 experience topping anything digital can deliver. Tradeoffs....

 

@Noonie If you're still looking into getting a turntable, I would recommend visiting Planet of Sound on Queen Street and Bay Bloor Radio along Bay/Bloor Street for some turntable listening demos. Ask the salespersons there and they'll help you.

 

Good high-res with a good DAC can get you up to about 4.7/5 on that scale.

 

Congratulations and as you have figured out by now there is a learning curve but nothing that can't be accomplished for a reasonable cost/benefit ratio. Let us know what you get for a turntable.

 

Don't overlook old used Technics Japan Turntables. They are built very solid and perform very well. I have a Technics SL-Q2 and a Ortofon Super OM-10 ($75.00) that sounds very good. A good site to learn about Turntables is Vinyl Engine.

Vinyl Engine - The Home of the Turntable

 

I only spent $400 on my turntable and cartridge and am very happy. My wife bought me Wish You Were Here on LP 6 months ago because it's my favorite album and I listen to music a few hours every day. She thought I would like playing records. She was right. I buy used records from various shops and have a high success rate spending on average $10-$12 each. I've only bought 4 records that I consider "un-listenable" and 90%+ of my records I would grade at VG+ or better. I have around 150 records now and love every minute of both shopping and listening. I wash my records in the kitchen sink.

BUT.....if you are obsessive about surface noise, do not have time to shop for records in good condition, do not have time to sit still and listen in your home, and are too lazy to get off your butt and flip the record over, stick with digital. I still listen to my CDs almost every day. Most of the albums I have on both CD and vinyl sound better on vinyl. CDs sometimes hurt my left ear if played over 75db; only a 2 or 3 of my LPs do that.

 

There is also other costs of vinyl to consider:
Phono Preamp
Cleaning accessories (Record Cleaning Machine is a must buy)
Stylus Force Scale
Alignment tools

 

In general, I agree with most of you. However, if the only available choices for a particular album are a properly-mastered vinyl copy and a horribly-mastered digital copy, then give me vinyl (in that particular instance). I'm in the camp where mastering quality trumps format choice.

 

But what percentage of the time does the setup/pressing combo result in the 5/5?

 

Many things come into play with vinyl, and similar things come into play with digital, just more with vinyl.
1. Was it recorded with great care
2. Was it mastered with great care
3. Is the vinyl high quality
4. Was the record pressed with great care
5. Is the pressing a good flat playable record
6. Does the record have residue from the pressing
7. How quiet is the vinyl
8. Was lots of compression used

Just a few more things to worry about with vinyl

 

I get ALL my records from thrift shops and flea markets and the most I ever paid was 3 bucks each for a couple of new Emmylou Harris albums. Man she can sing.
Heck I was in the check out line at the GoodWill store last week with a few records in my hand and a fellow behind me asks if I like country. Well I like old country and long story short, stopped by his house a few days later and picked up 41 albums in very good condition. Johnny Cash at San Quentin is great, didn't even know that existed! Lots of really good stuff in that collection.
My turntables? A rebuilt Yamaha PX-3 and a rebuilt Pioneer PL-41D, switching a AT-120eb cart between them but I have a Denon DL-103 in the works with several SUT to try out. Between all of my TT gear I don't have 500 bucks invested.
The rest of my gear is Audio Research SP-8 preamp, has an awesome phono stage, Mac MC40 monoblocks and a set of HeathKit AS101 speakers that are just Altec Valencias in nicer cabinets.
None of this system is new, it dates from 1960 to 1983 and sounds better than most of the new gear I have heard.
The nice thing is that my vinyl setup is so much more musical than any digital setup that I have ever heard. I don't care if I have to flip or swap an album every 20 minutes or so, I enjoy the whole experience so much more.
If you enjoy music than I say yes to getting a TT and start collecting.
My next step is to set up my vinyl washing and vacuuming machine a friend gave me. Some of those "buck a piece" albums really need it. LOL

BillWojo

 

This is good advice: (Esp. the comment re: ORTOFON carts. I love the ORTOFON sound)

Your OP suggests you've made the decision to dive in, and you're looking for an AMEN. I'm here to help along with all our friends.



I know you already bought the TT (my post is for others considering the same investment). Seems like you're dipping into a new format & experience, and itching to acquire some new gear. AWESOME decision! Set a budget & stick within it, you'll be fine.

Don't forget to acquire the tools and wisdom to properly calibrate the TT/Cartridge, stylus cleaner, and record cleaning/care system.

My experience with TECHNICS units has been almost perfect. I own (2) SL-1900 units, (Direct Drive, fully auto, not a high-end model), one of which I bought new in 1977, I believe. The other is a $60 EBAY score for a parts unit: No headshell, and the cueing mechanism was buggy. I already had the headshell, and a local hobby shop had the exact specified oil, so with some patience & Youtube vids, I got it operating like new. My ORIGINAL unit needed patchcords about 10 years ago, yet has otherwise performed flawlessly.

The advice above concerning avoiding super-revealing carts is wise. I have used a PICKERING cart since about 1976, now in the second unit (I still have a couple styli). I have utilized an ORTOFON 2M-Red since 2016, and I find it sonically perfect to my ears and system: pretty ordinary. I have tried the 2M Blue, and it's slightly too smooth for my taste. I like the Red's dynamics a bit more. Plus, it sells for $99 vs. $250 for the Blue.

 

For a home system, vinyl is the only format that makes any sense to me. Why would anyone bother setting up a digital/streaming system to listen to at home? It's just bizarre. I just don't get it. Digital and streaming belong in the car or on headphones. When I sit down to really listen to music, I want the full experience, and that means vinyl. It's totally worth it, even though it's frustrating as hell at times.

 

To have access to several million albums instead of a couple hundred on vinyl.
What’s so bizarre about that?

 

I don't pretend to make any sense about this...it's just the way it makes sense in the ol' noggin for me personally. I would just rather put the money towards the highest quality analog gear for my home set up. Digital only equates to easy, convenient and cheap for me, I never get the same experience with it as I do with vinyl somehow. So for me digital belongs in the "convenient, portable" realm and vinyl belongs in the "serious, hi-fi, full experience" realm. Quantity means nothing to me, I don't care about the instant access to "millions" of albums. Quality is more important to me.

 

I'm not surprised. In my experience, people who post these threads aren't actually looking for advice ; just encouragement to do what they already were planning on doing.

 

Yes. And it is our responsibility to encourage them to spend more money to do it better.

 

Especially easy when it's not our money.

 

And we don’t have to feel bad about it, because it is money well spent!

 

The advice I got that it was possible to do vinyl on the cheap turned out to be my money wasted. I found out that it is not true that I could do a turntable setup for under $500 and be satisfied with it. I was very not satisfied with it. Money wasted. I'll be doing it again with a more realistic budget for the level of sound quality I'm after.

I'm just trying to save the OP from my mistakes.