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

---

[ Follow Ups ] Thread: [ Display  All  Email ] [ Vinyl Asylum ]

---

[ Alert Moderator ]

---

before you get to naming your first son "brian"

Posted by J.D. (A) on December 6, 2005 at 10:57:22

In Reply to: New into records, help, Rega vs VPI posted by thebigtummy on December 6, 2005 at 05:19:07:

Hi,

Welcome to Vinyl Asylum. You might find it as worthwhile as we have, to stick around, take a lot of grains of salt, and keep researching the archives, which really help once you get the feel for it. Also keep doing net searches for super specifics (like building a wallshelf, etc).

Here are five thoughts :

*** Rega / Vpi ??
You probably can't lose with either. The more dialled in you can get with support rack / shelf, cartridge, alignment / gauges and record care, the more you will be amazed --- with a diligent installation of either one.
A little shorthand on the comparison --which I think the archives would correllate--- is Rega / Pace, Timing, Set-Forget Simplicity and then Vpi / Scale, Solidity, Upgradeability.
The only certainty is probably that, once you've lived with one for a few years, you'll wish you had a little more of the other's attributes.

*** And If It's A Girl, Brianna !
Without knowing this guy, (or whether that's even the right name) I think it's right to think universally, of, say, the Ford dealer who whispers that 'the engines fall out of Chevys, you know...' Cmon ! Who is he fooling ? The old scams of the Brick-&-Mortar salesman are more comic than ever as the Internet expands geometrically. I think many of us here used a B+M shop, even with their oddball sales-games, to get our first and maybe second turntables up and running, but---- wow, how patronizing and false that stuff looks in retrospect.
When the answer to every tricky question is always "...lucky you, we just happen to carry that unit...."
And the competition is whisperingly accused of some kind of dealbreaking heresy... well.
Your call.

*** Rocket Science.
This gets us to a slightly tricky point, but I'll go ahead and say it. With the help of a Vinyl Asylum or other similar user-group, you can set up and align your own well-tweaked Lp Analog system. The advantages of the sage old guy down at the Hifi shop-- since that guy has generally retired or been replaced by some kind of dysfunctional SNL type--- are pretty well dried up by now that the net is exploding with Info and Interactive groups like this one.
As long as you can ascertain that you are starting out with legit non-trashed gear, anyone capable of setting up components and speakers is capable of setting up a turntable, arm, cartridge.

*** Hundreds Of Pounds Of Records.
We'll start early with just how helpful user groups like this one can be. You know the hundreds of pounds of records you're buying on Ebay ? Stop, right now. Even guys who have been buying records for fifty years are apt to get lemons from this kind of binge. It's not Ebay, but any situation where you can't see, touch, and play the record is going to limit you substantially in getting the goods.
Add to this that you're a better Lp buyer six months into the game, and and even better one a year later .... Ideally the number of records you buy in your early days should be few and only slowly increase once you've got a lot of confidence in the pursuit backed by experience. ( It's reversible, though. You can exchange or resell them. ) It really does work this way.

*** First Dates.
My opinion on first cartridges, as I've mentioned here before, is that you should go cheap and cheerful at first. Think of it as Pre-Buying your backup cartridge which you'll use for a year before you get that expensive Gradovector or whatever. You'll be learning all the fundamentals and nuances at not-such-a-steep failure / replacement rate. Think $100 moving-magnet with replaceable stylus.
And you'll have a nice backup next year when you step up....

good luck,

JD.

This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:

Schiit Audio

---

[ Top of Page ] [ Contact Us ] [ Support/Wish List ] [ Copyright © 2024, Audio Asylum, all rights reserved ]

---

[ General ] [ Speakers ] [ Tubes ] [ Vinyl ] [ Digital ] [ Hi-Rez ] [ Video Asylum ] [ Cables ] [ Tweaks/DIY ] [ Music ] [ Films ]

---