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Originally Posted by periurban
Aman.
So, the means of solving the problems I experienced is a secret, is it? Or is it only about money? I had thought that these issues were an intractible part of the vinyl experience. I had pals who had expensive systems, but the problems I described above persisted on their systems to varying degrees.
Obviously, things have moved on since the dark eges of the 1980's.
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I'll relate some of my experiences with vinyl thus far (I'm quite the newbie, only a few months into this game).
Is vinyl inherently noisy? No. Does it possess the possibility of developing more noise than a digital format? Oh yes. Dust is a nasty thing.
So the cleaning deal. New vinyl needs to be cleaned once because most new vinyl comes in those crappy white paper sleeves that leaves shreds on the vinyl. A brush with a carbon-fiber and then a wet wash and then a dry shoudl do the trick, then a quick dry brushing before each spin and one should be good to go.
I have some older vinyl that is as quiet as cd, it was well taken care of and was kept in anti-static sleeves.
As for sound, vinyl can actually present more detail than digital formats depending on the grade of the gear, the ability of the cart etc. There is one album I own that is brand new, and I have the cd as well. The vinyl has more microdetail, better dynamics and more bass. I believe the majority of the issues stems from the mixing/mastering, and not from the format specifically.
Digital is much easier to live with, very convenient, quick and easy, pretty flawless in identical playback each subsequent spin. Vinyl won't degrade if the cart is setup properly. CD's won't degrade at all, and if the actual media starts getting "rot" (as was the case from a few shops back in the 80's) then it is easy peasy to just rip it and back it up and reburn. Vinyl? Heh, no.
Is vinyl for everyone? No. It took me years of decision making before I finally went for it. I don't regret it, but I don't think that one needs a $$$$$$ system to get amazing sound out of an lp. The initial offering I had experience with ran about 200 USD tops and it was stellar.