A box of LPs

Ninja_RebornNinja_Reborn Posts: 124Member
edited August 2016 in Guitar Chat
Since I moved to my current house I've had a box of LPs floating around for around 10 years - moving room to room, stored here there and everywhere.   The is a around 60 or so albums in there - they're the core of my collection which remains after a lot of stuff was borrowed by various "mates" following my switch to CD during the 90s. So last week I figured I'd look for a turntable - nothing flash or expensive; just something that could be plugged into my ageing Technics system.  After a bit of dithering I bought a Marantz TT5005; which I suspect is a rebadged version of every other turntable in that price bracket! Since it arrived i've been rediscovering the Vinyl experience - which includes some of the very first "proper" records I ever bought (although everyone probably has a lot of love for the Funky Gibbon, I wouldn't really put it up there with Led Zep IV). Now to be fair my old record decks were typical teenage MIDI systems, so now hearing the same discs through a reasonable amp, speakers and better turntable I've noticed a massive improvement is quality - it surprised me just how good vinyl could sound and how non intrusive the odd crackle and pop is.  I've also fallen for that indefinable alure of vinyl - which while it has many drawbacks - is such cool listening experience.  What I love the most is that pause between putting the needle down and track one starting.  Also the way tracks take on greater significance - the side one opener, the side one closer, the side two opener and the grand finale.  I can't believe I forgot all of this. It's great fun listing to a lot of my old LPs and although I have a lot of them on CD there are a lot that I haven't.      

Comments

  • Derek_RDerek_R Posts: 1,721Member

    I need to do something similar. I still have a couple of hundred old LPs and I'd love to start playing them all again. I do have a turntable of sorts - but it needs some setting up. There's something about those old albums - must saved up for week by week - and I remember pretty much the story behind each and every one. You've got me thinking now Ninja!

  • Reg SoxReg Sox Posts: 3,121Member

    Ninja, welcome back to the vinyl club!

     

    I know all the science about how sampling rates on CDs in theory provide a better sound than vinyl and how SNRs are infinitely superior, but a well produced vinyl record played on a decent system just has some sort of undefinable aura to it that makes the same record on CD sound sterile.  Call it mojo (although I've always suspected it's more down to harmonics)!

     

    Cheers, Reg.

  • Ninja_RebornNinja_Reborn Posts: 124Member

    I think there has always been something about an LP that a CD can't offer - I miss the gatefold sleeves, inserts that were big enough to read (even the merch flyers some records had in the sleeves).  I can't recall the last time I read the sleeve notes on a CD - which generally comes in, gets ripped to iTunes and then stored.

     

    The other thing I'm enjoying is hunting down old records for a price I want to pay; it's almost as much fun as listening.

     

    So far I've not really looked at 180g reissues - but my wife has ordered me a copy of "Live after Death" - which might start the re-issue ball rolling!

     

     

  • Reg SoxReg Sox Posts: 3,121Member

    I agree totally on the large format goodies - you just can't get a good bedroom wall poster out of a CD jewel case!

     

    I have a few of the 180g remastered jobbies.  After the initial gulp they are excellent.  Includes Richard Thompson, Slade (actually, Ambrose Slade - Beginnings), Thin Lizzy, Hendrix, Ricky Lee Jones.

     

    I've also bought some second hand bargains of obscure folk stuff that are no longer in print and never released digitally.  I've learnt though to keep to the specialist vinyl sellers on the bay as I've found their descriptions of quality pretty fair.  Private sellers are a bit of a lottery and some descriptions at best could be described as "optimistic".

     

    Also look out for record fairs if you see any locally.  Great bargains to be had, and you can visually inspect the records.  If nothing else, for me Record Fairs are nostalgic in that it recreates that Saturday afternoon pleasure of spending a couple of hours in a record shop just browsing - a pleasure for me that just cannot be recreated shopping online.

     

    Cheers, Reg.

  • 1950sparks1950sparks Posts: 2Member

    It's certainly very seductive this fiddling with vinyl, the trouble is I started off collecting records and now find I am collecting turntables as well....oops! have to go now just spotted another lovely Thorens on e-bay.....

  • MegiMegi Posts: 7,207Member

    I started buying vinyl in my teens, and then at some point switched to CDs. I do love the vinyl I still have now - maybe a few hundred discs, including some female singer songwriters - Joni Mitchell, Ricky Lee Jones, Carole King, Kate Bush, etc. I had various phases really. Still got some Hendrix also, plus some jazz and fusion guitarists - John Scofield, Mike Stern, Allan Holdsworth. Quite a bit of Beatles stuff on vinyl now I think about it, and some others I can't think of just at the mo. I must have had quite a few more albums once, but sold them on - wish I'd kept them now. But the ones I still have are generally in very good nick, as I used to be a bit fanatical about looking after them, and often would copy them onto cassette if I thought I'd want to listen to them a lot. It is nice to still be able to play vinyl records - I have a Pioneer turntable that is quite nice quality, fitted with an Ortofon something-or-other model cartridge/stylus.

     

    I used to love going to record fairs in the 90s and early noughties, and searching for elusive rarities (or at least they were to me) - CDs more than vinyl at that point, but still fun. I guess I was kind of an anorak collector really - armed with discography lists of artists I was interested in, plus copy of "Record Collector", and happy to spend all day flicking through bins of CDs and vinyl, looking for that missing rare CD single or whatever it was. There were days when I'd hardly come across anything I wanted, but when something did show up, it was always a bit of a buzz. At that point I'd got a few more musical interests to go at - various indie rock things, especially the "Shoegaze" scene of the early 90s (which I still love). I was also big into Tori Amos for a while - I think some of the rarer cds I have by her would probably be worth a few quid now. Always have been into jazz of course. I was a frequenter of second hand record shops at the time also.

     

    It seems sad in a way, but the advent of the MP3 seems to have caused a big decline in that whole world - I remember the record fairs becoming smaller and smaller events, and some of the ones that used to be held near me stopped altogether. I can remember in  my early collecting days, when there were some really whopping big record fairs - that was quite a thing to behold. I wonder if the resurgence of vinyl is giving the record fairs a boost now though - I'll have to check and see what's happening these days. I could waffle on about the whole thing for hours, but I'll quit now before I boost my anorak status to dangerous levels, if I haven't already... image

  • Derek_RDerek_R Posts: 1,721Member

    I used to read Sounds and NME and International Musician and all those things back in the day and very early on I got in the habit of cutting out interviews and articles and record reviews and simply slipping them inside the LP sleeve of the relevant band (try doing that with a CD or MP3). Now, whenever I pull out an old album, there's a good chance that several cuttings will come out, too. The interesting thing is that the articles on the reverse of the things I kept are often more interesting than the intended piece - on the back of a Little Feat article might be a piece on this new up and coming band called The Stranglers...

  • JockoJocko Posts: 7,107Member, Moderator

    My grandson is into vinyl so I gave him the choice of my collection. What he didn't want I binned. I found my fathers album collection in an old garage we rented, but I didn't even sort through that lot. There is only so much Sydney Devine and Mrs Mills you can take. All my CD collection is on iTunes and most music I buy now is just a download. My hearing is so poor what with tinnitus and loss of frequency response that a download gives me all the spectrum I can assimilate.

  • lancpudnlancpudn Posts: 1,393Member

    My vast vinyl collection got sold to pay for the whole back garden fenced off & new  drive gates.

  • Reg SoxReg Sox Posts: 3,121Member
    Originally Posted by Jocko:

    My hearing is so poor what with tinnitus and loss of frequency response that a download gives me all the spectrum I can assimilate.

    You know Jocko, out of all the ailments that old age can throw at me I really fear impaired hearing as much as total blindness.  I have always, and continue to get, so much pleasure from listening to music (and I mean properly listening, as an activity rather than a background exercise) that a massive hole would be made in my life.  On any given week I probably spend at least twice (if not more) as much time listening to music than watching TV.  I could quite happily live without TV (and have done in the past), whereas take my music away and I'd be bereft.

     

    Cheers, Reg.

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