Vinyl Asylum Welcome Licorice Pizza (LP) lovers! Setup guides and Vinyl FAQ.

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RE: FWIW I doubt your budget is adequate

Posted by artemus (A) on July 9, 2017 at 14:36:28

In Reply to: TT & Phono stage recommendations posted by Jai on July 8, 2017 at 18:06:00:

$500 doesn't go very far in vinyl playback. It used to. But you had to be knowledgeable of what table to buy on ebay. The resurgence of vinyl has driven up prices. BCR gave a TT in your price range. But is that table up to the job? I'd trust John's recommendation more. But its $1k

Ralph gave a good explanation of the shortcomings of vinyl vs digital yesterday on another site. In short, he said the problem with vinyl is the shortcomings of the playback system. Its always been known that creating good vinyl playback is more costly than digital playback. Cheap cartridges enhance surface noise, pops and clicks. Cheap arms wear records through mis-tracking. I used to buy records for 10 cents. That was the alure of vinyl plus they CAN sound better than digital. Now a cheap record is probably $5 or more, if you can find them in good shape. I've been out of the used market so I'm unsure.

Now, if you still want to proceed and you understand that a $500 vinyl experience will most likely be inferior to the same amount spent in digital playback, then continue on by all means. You may enjoy the tactile feel of the album cover and the album itself. This is where the ritual comes in. Lots of info in the cover. Cover art used to be very important.

Vinyl must be clean. So you will need a way to clean your albums before playing them. Not every time. But you will need tgo clean them. I did it by hand for a year or so after getting back into vinyl. I also had a discwasher for maintenance. But its no good for thrift store finds. So you will need a brush to brush off the dust which comes on LP's. Even though they are in a jacket, the dust still finds them. No biggie. $20 for a brush. Then you will need a way to take the static charge from the record. That draws the dust and makes for poor sound too. The Milty Zerostat is $75.

Then there is the ritual itself. get ready to change lift the arm every 20 minutes or so. Never ever touch the grooves. Always use the cue lever to set the needle (stylus) down on the record and use it to lift the arm off the record. Stay away from paper sleeves because they help build up static and dust. get some anti-static sleeves from Sleeve City. New albums will usually come with good sleeves. Thrift store finds will not.

I don't hang around here much but have played vinyl for 55-60 years. The one thing that I suspect all of us on Vinyl asylum enjoy is the vinyl experience. Unlike digital, vinyl demands involvement. If you want convenience, vinyl is not for you. There is a learning curve with vinyl also. That''s part of the involvement. If you enjoy the involvement which vinyl demands, then it can be very rewarding.

I write all this not to scare you off. I began buying records at age 8. I'm 66 now. I bought into the "perfect sound forever" sales pitch and went digital early on. The lack of involvement left me feeling as if I was missing something. I came back to vinyl and hung out a the Thrift stores for years until I built up a substantial collection of LP's. I still play 90% vinyl. I hope you get into it and have the pleasure I and many others have had.

My only concern is your budget and not having enough to get an adequate feel for what is really available. Your Accuphase is good equipment from my understanding. But no system is any better than its weakest link. I'd hate to see you get disappointed in vinyl all because you never gave it a fair chance.
Just one man's thoughts. Sorry for the long post. I wish you the best
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You paid HOW MUCH for that electrical receptacle?!!! Are YOU nuts?

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