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I've never even held vinyl. - Page 3

post #31 of 63
10/10/05 at 7:38am
Quote:
Originally Posted by joelongwood
Last weekend I picked up about 1000+ vinyl albums for $25 at a yard sale. There is an occasional crackle or pop, but most of the time there is absolutely no background noise whatsoever. And I have yet to encounter a scatch of any kind...
You dog! $25, and they are in that good a shape? That's great. Even if you dumped a few due to damage... that's excellent.
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post #32 of 63
10/10/05 at 8:35am
A thread like this makes me want to get into vinyl. It's a good thing I don't have a space for vinyl setup on my rack - for now. Maybe someday...
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post #33 of 63
10/10/05 at 11:39am
Quote:
Originally Posted by bigshot
When it comes to sound quality, mid 70s-80s music is usually better on CD. 50s - mid 70s usually sounds better on vinyl. Of course, there are plenty of exceptions to this...
I disagree -- I have a lot of 80's music on vinyl and to my ear, most of it sounds better in the vinyl versions. If anything, the 80s vinyl often sounds better than 70s vinyl. So I'd say 50s-80's vinyl, 90's+ CD.
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post #34 of 63
10/10/05 at 12:39pm
The problem is that in the late 70s and 80s, the oil shortage forced record companies to recycle vinyl and use melted down old records in along with the virgin vinyl. If you get ahold of an audiophile pressing from the 80s that uses virgin vinyl, it sounds great... but the average pressings have a pretty bad surface compared to those of the 50s and 60s.

See ya
Steve
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post #35 of 63
10/10/05 at 9:24pm
i too am a gen xer who really seriously got interested in vinyl for a while but then i realized...

do i really want to spend $300 on something that might end up just clicking and popping always needing my attnetion? (the needle breaks need to be changed every once in a while doesnt it? something like that? i dont really know, this is probably not a valid point..).

I understand that its cool for those who are already into vinyl...but I mean really, why get into it now when you can just have CD's? Like the two posters said above, the quality can be bad. So maybe you'll get a couple of awesome vinyl records that sound great, but like, do you HAVE $300 just lying around for this sort of thing? Not to mention money for CD's and records?

Hope that helps dissuade you, haha, but if you really want to do it, don't listen to me...don't listen to anyone ... just do it.
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post #36 of 63
10/10/05 at 9:42pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by stargirl
do i really want to spend $300 on something that might end up just clicking and popping always needing my attnetion? (the needle breaks need to be changed every once in a while doesnt it? something like that?
Styli wear out eventually, but unless you listen for hours per day it will take years. As far as clicks/pops there are usually some, but it's not hard to get used to. It's probably FAR less troublesome than you think, particularly if you're thinking of the Hollywood movie "drop the needle onto the record" sound (BTW, they use that exact same sound effect in almost every film where someone drops a needle onto a record).
Quote:
I understand that its cool for those who are already into vinyl...but I mean really, why get into it now when you can just have CD's?
Many reasons. It can often sound better, it's a fun hobby, the rituals of vinyl can be enjoyable, etc. It's just more involving to listen to vinyl than the sterile act of putting in a CD and pressing "Play." There's something more organic about vinyl, like playing a musical instrument. It involves you in the process of reproducing music.
Quote:
Like the two posters said above, the quality can be bad. So maybe you'll get a couple of awesome vinyl records that sound great, but like, do you HAVE $300 just lying around for this sort of thing? Not to mention money for CD's and records?
Records can be had for 25 to 50 cents apiece, oftentimes. And is $300 really so much? A lot of people buy $300 CD players, is this uncommon or something?
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post #37 of 63
10/10/05 at 9:52pm
The clicks and pops are being blown out of proportion here. If you good solid equipment you won't notice it on good records. That being said, you always run the risk of scratching your record or dropping the stylus. There's a lot more care to be taken with records, but I think the rewards can be worth it. There's also quite a bit of equipment involved with vinyl: Turntable, Arm, Stylus, Phono Pre, and record cleaner (very useful!) which can be a huge factor in getting into it. But at the end of the day, what are we all here for? I bet you never thought of spending hundreds on headphones, amps and cables just a little while ago.

Coming from a DJ angle, I'll have to say that its pretty nice to get the 12" of a hot single that you've been checking out. Lot's of times there'll be the instrumental, remix or even acapella versions on the 12. Plus, if you have a decent sound card, you can archive the vinyl on your HD with great results. Use sound editing software like cool-edit to take out the clicks and pops too.

So I think Vinyl is cool. Look at what your able to spend and do some research into what makes a vinyl rig good have some fun.

If you get the chance, roll by someone's place who has vinyl and check it out.

Check out this article for the chep: http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue18/turntables.htm
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post #38 of 63
10/10/05 at 10:10pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by fewtch
Styli wear out eventually, but unless you listen for hours per day it will take years. As far as clicks/pops there are usually some, but it's not hard to get used to. It's probably FAR less troublesome than you think, particularly if you're thinking of the Hollywood movie "drop the needle onto the record" sound (BTW, they use that exact same sound effect in almost every film where someone drops a needle onto a record).

Many reasons. It can often sound better, it's a fun hobby, the rituals of vinyl can be enjoyable, etc. It's just more involving to listen to vinyl than the sterile act of putting in a CD and pressing "Play." There's something more organic about vinyl, like playing a musical instrument. It involves you in the process of reproducing music.

Records can be had for 25 to 50 cents apiece, oftentimes. And is $300 really so much? A lot of people buy $300 CD players, is this uncommon or something?

Oh i know all those many good reasons...I was just weighing them against the ...bad reasons.

As a Gen X, I assume the poster (like myself) is a student who doesnt spend $300 on equipment and leeches off their parents good equipment. Unless said poster is very rich or very convincing, hes not going to get his parents to drop $300 on a new hobby. Maybe poster wants to earn money himself ... me? i'd rather save up for food and books for university that i will be payinf for. So yeah, it is a lot - not uncommon. just a lot.

And some records go for cents but most of the ones ive seen at the used CD place I go to go for between 5 and 20...same price as a CD.

I was just saying, for the price - you're getting stuff that you MIGHt get pops on. You probably wont, but do you have the money lying around to take that chance? Do you have the time to take care of these thigns? I've got CD's out of cases lying all over the house, and they're all still ok. For someone who's used to (litterally) throwing a CD into a CD player, do you have the patience to work out a turntable?

Anyways, like I said, if this guy wants to buy vinyl, he should just do it. I just noticed he said "You know, your answers aren't really helping me in staying away from buying a vinyl rig" so I was just giving him some reasons

Although thanks for the information about the stylii or whatever, I thought you had to replace them more often than that. Now I know.
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post #39 of 63
10/10/05 at 11:28pm
You haven't been shopping for vinyl. At swap meets, the average is
a dollar a disk. You don't generally by records in a store like you do
CDs.

In the past 20 years, I have had about five CD players. They burn
out eventually. I still have the turntable I bought in 1975 and it
still works great. To me, that's a bargain.

See ya
Steve
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post #40 of 63
10/11/05 at 12:48pm
Quote:
I've never even held vinyl.


neither had this guy and look what happened to him !





ooooh ! Vinyyyylllll! Yum!!!!!!!
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post #41 of 63
10/11/05 at 1:17pm
I just bought literally the cheapest turntable on Amazon.com that used standard 1/2" mount cartridges and am pretty happy with it. I only have a dozen records already and have a few more on the way. I haven't yet looked in a thrift store for records but that will be something I do soon. The clicks, pops, and other surface noise doesn't tend to be all that bothersome to me. As fewtch mentioned, vinyl playback is more involving and requires more from you. Some people will like that, some people won't.
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post #42 of 63
10/11/05 at 2:50pm
Expecting to only pay a dollar a disc is just nuts. The only meet I've been to was the ARC (which claims to be the largest in the world), and mint (green sticker) vinyl invariably goes for $6-7. The low quality stuff is around a buck but most of the artists you'll want to listen to will cost more than that. If you're hoping to spend $1/disc at stores, eg half price books, then you better like Menudo. =)

That said, you can occasionally find some gems, and I scored Steely Dan's Aja for something like a buck last weekend. I averaged around $3-4 a disc for about 25 discs.

From my experience, based on the average cost of used vinyl and the value of my time to clean/process the record for PC playback, the TCO for one LP is between $5-10. This does not include up front equipment costs.
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post #43 of 63
10/11/05 at 4:21pm
stargirl,

have you actually heard good vinyl playback? not the fisher price turntable you think you know about, but real, hifi vinyl playback?

i'm a university student too. i cannot even begin to explain the difference between vinyl and cd in terms of stuff to listen to while i'm studying. cd is cool and all, but it's not "alive" sounding like vinyl is. listening to vinyl on my Rega P3 with Rega Super Bias and a Pro-Ject phono box is the most relaxing and immersing experience ever. add to that the overabundance of used record stores in my town and it has almost entirely replaced CD's in my listening habits.

i seriously recommend you sit down and listen to some solid, high quality vinyl playback before you start spouting off about clicks and pops being so horridly bothersome. the human brain minimizes spurious noise like that anyway, its not something your brain is designed to notice.
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post #44 of 63
10/11/05 at 10:18pm
Records do wear out - even if played on good equipment in good repair.
As long as the equipment is in good shape, and the record is kept clean,
it will wear out slowly.

What I never understood is why a stylus would wear out. After all
you are dragging a piece of diamond across as plastic surface.
You would think the diamond would last a long time. Alas,
it to wears out.
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post #45 of 63
10/11/05 at 10:22pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by dknightd
What I never understood is why a stylus would wear out. After all
you are dragging a piece of diamond across as plastic surface.
You would think the diamond would last a long time. Alas,
it to wears out.
The contact point is very small, and the heat/friction generated are high. With such a small contact surface having to absorb everything, if you think about it then it's not so mysterious...
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