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Vinyl goes from throwback to comeback


Jahfin

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I have some vinyl, but I never really listen to them. It's more convenient to just carry an MP3 player around.

Besides, I don't even remember the last time I actually paid for music. (Shh... )

I'm actually the opposite. I'm always listening to vinyl but I never listen to my MP3 player. It just doesn't sound like a record spinning on my turntable. :P

I think we're very privileged to have so many options like vinyl, mp3, cd or whatever. I use my mp3 player or computer a lot, it's more practical and simpler, but I love the sound and everything about the experience of listening to vinyl.

One of the things I really like about vinyl though is that it's impossible to compress the audio to levels where the music starts to clip and really degrades the quality and depth of the sound, the so called "Loudness Wars".

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One of the things I really like about vinyl though is that it's impossible to compress the audio to levels where the music starts to clip and really degrades the quality and depth of the sound, the so called "Loudness Wars".

Which has lead to lots of folks doing "needledrops" so there's plenty of vinyl rips out there that sound vastly superior to the CDs they originally came from.

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  • 1 month later...

I'm a young guy and I haven't bought vinyl yet, but I've been to record stores in NYC, and for me, a large part of it is the nostalgic effect and the vintage feeling of owning an album as opposed to a CD or an mp3. It's the little things like the vibrant and vivid colors of an album cover. Compared to cds or casettes, album covers are just huge and it's like owning a book or a canvas painting, its like being part of a collection.

Another small thing is the experience of opening an album and looking through the booklets and the pictures. Take for example, an album like Physical Graffiti. Many believe it to be one of the greatest album covers of all time, with the little window slots to put different pictures in it. I wish new music could have that same effect.

I use mp3 because I can listen to it on the train and outside, but when I'm at home, I want something different. I want to build my own vinyl collection just as someone builds their own book collection. It's something that you can call your own, and defines your own style and personality. That's why I think vinyls are cool again, aside from the sound quality.

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By Jonathan Perry

Globe Correspondent

Monica Morgan, an 18-year-old high school student from Jacksonville, Fla., is taking a breather from scouting prospective colleges in and around Boston. She is standing inside Newbury Comics in Cambridge, scouring the bins of new LP releases by artists such as Gnarls Barkley and Bjork. Rows of colorful album covers catch her eye.

"My dad just gave me a record player, so I mostly like to buy vinyl," says Morgan. A stash of records originally owned by her mother, and now bequeathed to her, led Morgan to her latest love. "I have some old Beatles records with my mom's maiden name on them," she says. "I just like the way they sound."

You can read the rest of the article by clicking here.

How's it going "Jahfin?" I hope all is still well with you. This is a good question "Jahfin!" I own a "top of the line" turntable and I have heard many Analog Vinyl/LP's recently. Hearing albums such as "RAINBOW BRIDGE" by JIMI HENDRIX or any of my complete BEATLES Vinyl/LP Collection by MFSL, sometimes I do wonder. Some of the Vinyl albums that I have heard such as "THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON" by PINK FLOYD, sounds better than the regular aluminum CD's with the exception of the 24 KT Gold ULTRADISC CD version of "THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON" by MFSL. Have a great day "Jahfin" and ROCK ON!

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  • 1 year later...

Jahfin (or anybody else really)...........I want to get back into analogue listening. I still have a small box of vinyl LP's from the old days but really I want to buy a few MFSL albums that I've seen on their website. The problem is my old turntable is long gone and I need a new one.

What would you suggest? I really don't want to spend thousands of dollars but I do want something very good. USB style turntables need not apply. Back in the day I had a Dual with a Shure cartridge and then a Technics with an Ortofon cartridge. I'd like similar now if it even exists........the quality and that price range I mean. Everything I've seen online looks like it was flown in from Mars and costs mega money.

Wow and flutter and rumble.........it's all good. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks

edit: I might have found one here:

http://www.needledoctor.com/Denon-DP300F-with-2M-Red-Package?sc=2&category=348

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Thanks for asking but I'm still in the market for a new turntable myself. I've had a Technics model recommended to me that seems to be a very likely contender. I'll be interested to know what you end up going with.

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I don't know if I'd be any help to you either -- I have one of those combination turntable/stereo setups, and it's very very basic, nothing fancy. I think the whole thing cost about $200 or so, but I wouldn't know for sure; it was a Christmas gift.

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Well after much research I decided to buy the Denon turn table that I linked above. Based on the reviews and other stuff I've read up on it seems to be the best option for the money I wanted to spend. I really did love the Ortofon cartridge that I had years ago, so here's hopin'.

After I get this I'll go broke ordering 180 gram vinly from the MFSL website. It never ends..........

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I have a Technics direct drive TT from around 1990, not sure how good it is but it cost around £100 back then. It's still set up in my living room, but I haven't used it for at least 3 years.

I'd guess I still have around 1000 vinyls, bought between 1972-88. Don't know what to do with them. I've moved house 4 times in the last 10 years, and every time I move I curse my collection and vow to sell it before my next move...but I probably never will. It's nice to have around.

If anyone's desperately looking for a specific album, pm me - I might be prepared to sell a few at the right price.

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If I was dating, what would be more sexy to me, at a prospective girl's pad, would be a nice stereo system with a turntable and albums, over, a CD collection, and a big-screen 3-D TV.

I do miss the days of browsing through the record bins at the independent record stores. :D

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Echoes will be the first thing I play once my spiffy new turntable arrives.............the MFSL version of the LP that I purchased back in the mid 80's. Played it once to record it and stored it away. Mercifully I didn't sell this one off like I did with so many others.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well after much research I decided to buy the Denon turn table that I linked above. Based on the reviews and other stuff I've read up on it seems to be the best option for the money I wanted to spend. I really did love the Ortofon cartridge that I had years ago, so here's hopin'.

After I get this I'll go broke ordering 180 gram vinly from the MFSL website. It never ends..........

Well for what it's worth I did order this Denon turntable package I mentioned on the previous page. It's very very similar in fidelity to my last turntable and cartridge setup and I'm very very pleased with it. I've forgotten how good an album sounds.

http://www.needledoctor.com/Denon-DP300F-with-2M-Red-Package?sc=2&category=348

It's Back to the Future at my house right now and I'm in vinyl heaven.

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  • 7 months later...

Real nice read from the folks at Pop Matters.

Stacked Wax: The Vinyl Comeback

"the early Zappas and Beefhearts, the Jefferson Airplane LPs that I imagine soundtracked a troubled adolescence among uptight immigrant parents."

That line pretty much sums up my generation. Whether we wanted to admit to it or not that's probably most accurate.

You can get a history of a person by their record collection too, nice article.

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You can get a history of a person by their record collection too, nice article.

Yes, you can. If you were to look at my vinyl collection you would not only find all of the albums I've purchased over the years (save for a handful that I've lost along the way) but you would also find selections from my parents collection, my sister's collection and odd and ends I've acquired from friends who wanted to get rid of their vinyl as well as various records I picked up from radio stations I worked at over the years. I also have a copy of Jimmy Buffett's A White Sportcoat and A Pink Crustacean which has a girl's number and address scribbled on it by one of my older brothers. It was his girlfriend at the time so, rather than leaving me a note, he wrote it on the back of my album so I would have his contact info. It's not something I was too happy about then or now but it also tells a story about at least one of the records from my collection and takes me back to a certain time and place in my life. In that sense, I'm perfectly ok with it.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Good article and to me vinyl is the best sound. It is an emotional attachment to me, having that album cover, turning it over on the turntable, then put the icing on the cake with a set of headphones...nothing like it. I honestly have much more fun in a VINYL RECORD store, one of my favorite places to go and uncover a few treasures when I am back home to New Orleans is Jim Russell's Record Shop. I literally get there and end up spending hours getting lost in vinyl heaven:-)

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Someone just opened a new record store in Raleigh called In the Groove that specializes in used vinyl. The owner has a blog where he posts lots of cool stuff about records that find their way into his shop. You can check it out here. Next time I'm in there, if he still has that rare copy of Some Girls with the recalled cover I may just have to pick it up.

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