What’s the deal with turntables?

[yankees60]

Much of the allure of vinyl is the ritual of selecting the record from your collection, placing it on the turntable, cleaning the surface, lowering the tonearm, and sitting down with the sleeve to view the artwork, read the liner notes, the lyrics. You are in the groove, so to speak, focused on nothing else other than the artist and their music.

A CD with a single CD player has some of this, but the artwork is tiny, the liner notes usually abridged. So you still get to select the CD from your collection, but then you sorta let the music play and probably go do other things. Nothing wrong with that, it's just not the same experience.

If all you want is background music without any of the ritual or focus, streaming is generally the easiest. A multi-disc CD player on shuffle provides a similar experience.

I was a background music person. Getting my entire education from high school through graduate school with records playing.

I wanted to cram in as much music listening as possible without spending any time in ritual which was not productive music listening-wise.

[yankees60]

Also, when I was outside listening to that iPod via $15 Koss headphones I was always astounded by the quality of the sound. I know Neil Young would object but I don't think most of us in his age range can even hear all he wants in his purest way for us to hear.

I have a 2004 Honda Accord with the original sound system to it. I either listen to a CD or a radio station and I'm again amazed at how good the music sounds are on that music system.

Wonders of human psychology, and in this case psychoacoustics. Everything we perceive is relative and we adapt to recency. If all youve heard for a while is a 2004 Accord, you can still perceive bass as bassy even if it doesnt reproduce bass fully and your memory/mind fills in the gaps.

And in the end your brain allows you to enjoy the music.

You are correct about all of that.

When I'd visit my sister and brother-in-law and listen to music on their far superior sound system I'd be worried that I'd no longer enjoy my obviously inferior sound system that I owned. But I always quickly adapted back to it.

[iceport]

I was in my local Barnes and Noble and they had hundreds of vinyl albums and several types of turntables for sale. I really don’t get it - what’s the allure of listening to all those snap, crackle and pops? Why not just buy rice crispies? When CDs came out, I stopped buying albums because the audio quality was so much better.

Ok turntablers, what’s your story?

Well, I never got rid of all those old vinyl records. I don't play them very often at all, but I still want the option, especially for some stuff that's hard to find on YouTube. So when my old Dual turntable with a walnut base and Shure cartridge finally stopped working, I bought a replacement. Nothing extravagant, just a Music Hall mmf-2.1 turntable with their own cartridge, for $300 in 2003. Sounds at least as good as the old Dual turntable.

[adamthesmythe]

(answer) I don't know why, unless the same sort of nostalgia that leads to using Holga cameras and driving Chevy Impalas from the sixties.

I left my scratched LPs behind when I moved (and I really mean left, I think the used book and record store was figuring they would go through them and keep only the ones they could sell. I foxed them by fleeing in my car).

With the exception of a few opera CDs where the engineers pushed the dynamic range too much I much prefer the CD sound. I suppose if I wanted the LP sound I could get something to distort the CD sound appropriately. But I don't. I will say it here, I believe in Nyquist.

[yankees60]

Much of the allure of vinyl is the ritual of selecting the record from your collection, placing it on the turntable, cleaning the surface, lowering the tonearm, and sitting down with the sleeve to view the artwork, read the liner notes, the lyrics. You are in the groove, so to speak, focused on nothing else other than the artist and their music.

A CD with a single CD player has some of this, but the artwork is tiny, the liner notes usually abridged. So you still get to select the CD from your collection, but then you sorta let the music play and probably go do other things. Nothing wrong with that, it's just not the same experience.

If all you want is background music without any of the ritual or focus, streaming is generally the easiest. A multi-disc CD player on shuffle provides a similar experience.

For me, CDs were the worst combination of attributes. I ripped all my CDs to lossless FLAC and keep them on a NAS and stream using Roon.

Why have physical digital media sucking up space if I don't need to?

And as you say, the liner notes are tiny and lame compared to LP.

As I relayed earlier they were the thing to play in computers at the various offices I worked in both for listening and then converting to electronic files the chosen songs from those CDs. For those reasons they were an excellent medium.

[BolderBoy]

Turntables can produce a warm, rich sound that's unique to vinyl records and can't be replicated by digital music. Vinyl's analog format captures the full sound wave without the compression of digital formats

Real audiophiles also like listening to the sound of electrons boiling off of cathodes and banging into plates. It adds a particularly nice, tinny sound.

[yankees60]

Just in time for holiday shopping, Chet Baker reissue now available.

Only 395 GBP.

https://www.theelectricrecordingco.com/ ... pen-to-you

Not for me!

I several times bought over $500 worth of records in one purchasing session but that was buying probably 200 used records at a time.

I'm a quantity over quality person.

[watchnerd]

Rega is solid.

I use a Michell Gyro SE with an SME M2-9R arm and rotate cartridges a lot. Right now, it flops between a Nagaoka MP-500 when I'm in MM mood, and an Audio Technica AT-ART9XA when I'm in MC mood.

So you ARE still actively using your turntable? What is MM and MC?

I stopped using that Rega turntable. I now have a Thorens in place if I ever want to again play a record.

I think I now own about 8 turntables. I kept buying any cheap I found at tag sales as before this record / turntable renaissance I was fearing that turntables would become obsolete and no longer obtainable. Did not want to risk having my huge record collection with nothing to play them on.

Yes, I actively use it. I play LPs about 3 nights a week.

MM = moving magnet, MC = moving coil. They're types of cartridges.

I don't worry about the Michell and replacement parts. It's a simple mechanical device with an outboard motor on a pulley and a brass inverted bearing. The brass bearing will likely outlive me. And the electric motor inside the pulley is replaceable with common off the shelf motors.

All of the operating parts of my TT are fully manual, nothing electronic or automated to break.

Even switching speeds between 33 and 45 RPM involves me manually moving the pulley belt from one cog to another.

[watchnerd]

Turntables can produce a warm, rich sound that's unique to vinyl records and can't be replicated by digital music. Vinyl's analog format captures the full sound wave without the compression of digital formats

Real audiophiles also like listening to the sound of electrons boiling off of cathodes and banging into plates. It adds a particularly nice, tinny sound.

Tubes are fun to play with.

Vintage tubes have also been a great ROI collectible hobbyist investment for me.

I have some vintage Siemens tubes that now go for $1000/pair.

[telemark]

Analog simply sounds better to the human ear. The waves rise and fall curved like sand dunes. Digital rises and falls with sharp edges like a zuggurat.

Poetic but inaccurate. Digitally, the sound is represented as a sequence of numbers, corresponding to samples of the original wave form. You may have seen this drawn as a stepped graph, but that isn't how it's played. The numbers go into a digital to analog converter, or DAC, and the output from the DAC is a smooth wave, like drawing a smooth line through a series of points on a graph. DACs vary in quality and people argue about how much that matters, but even the cheapest ones don't output a stepped graph. A stepped output would introduce unexpected high frequencies and sound very odd indeed.

[watchnerd]

Analog simply sounds better to the human ear. The waves rise and fall curved like sand dunes. Digital rises and falls with sharp edges like a zuggurat.

Poetic but inaccurate. Digitally, the sound is represented as a sequence of numbers, corresponding to samples of the original wave form. You may have seen this drawn as a stepped graph, but that isn't how it's played. The numbers go into a digital to analog converter, or DAC, and the output from the DAC is a smooth wave, like drawing a smooth line through a series of points on a graph. DACs vary in quality and people argue about how much that matters, but even the cheapest ones don't output a stepped graph. A stepped output would introduce unexpected high frequencies and sound very odd indeed.

Whatever Sony engineer made that stair-step graph to try to explain how Nyquist sampling works when CD was first launched owes the world an apology.

[quantAndHold]

I’m still waiting for 78’s to come back into fashion.

Of course digital sounds better. Anyone who lived through the transition from vinyl to digital knows this. But there are full grown adults who never went to Tower Records, at least not when Tower actually sold records.

I do miss album covers and liner notes, though.

I don't think there is any tooling or supply chain left to make 78s anymore.

The vinyl revival lucked out in that there was still some remnant LP production capacity to serve the chunk of the affluent audiophile crowd that never fully embraced CD.

I was joking, actually.

As kids, my brother and I spent an amazing day in grandpa’s attic listening to 78’s on the old Victoria that was up there. But even as a kid, I recognized that by modern standards, the technology was objectively terrible.

LP’s aren’t terrible, but no sound reproduction technology will ever replace live performance, and to a non-audiophile, but conservatory trained ear, I prefer my music without the hiss that analog playback technologies always add to the mix. I can’t hear the minuscule steps that digital technology adds to the sound wave, but I can hear that hiss.

Also, I appreciate being able to listen to the entire opera without flipping records.

[c.coyle]

Analog simply sounds better to the human ear. The waves rise and fall curved like sand dunes. Digital rises and falls with sharp edges like a zuggurat. CDs also sound dead like there's a velvet curtain in the background soaking up all of the sound. LPs have a dynamic, warmer sound. If you have a good stereo system you can put this to the test by switching between a CD and an LP playing the same album. Give it a try with Miles Davis's Kind of Blue. there is no comparison.

Poppycock.

[watchnerd]

Analog simply sounds better to the human ear. The waves rise and fall curved like sand dunes. Digital rises and falls with sharp edges like a zuggurat. CDs also sound dead like there's a velvet curtain in the background soaking up all of the sound. LPs have a dynamic, warmer sound. If you have a good stereo system you can put this to the test by switching between a CD and an LP playing the same album. Give it a try with Miles Davis's Kind of Blue. there is no comparison.

Poppycock.

Mostly nonsense except for one real life distortion element to LPs that can have psychoacoustic effects:

Cartridges can pick up sound from the speakers and room reflections that basically add reverb distortion to LPs on playback.

This can be euphonic (i.e. pleasing) distortion to some, in much the same way that other 2nd order distortion in analog media can be perceived as euphonic.

Of course, in the digital realm you can replicate some of this via DSP.

[watchnerd]

I don't think there is any tooling or supply chain left to make 78s anymore.

The vinyl revival lucked out in that there was still some remnant LP production capacity to serve the chunk of the affluent audiophile crowd that never fully embraced CD.

I was joking, actually.

As kids, my brother and I spent an amazing day in grandpa’s attic listening to 78’s on the old Victoria that was up there. But even as a kid, I recognized that by modern standards, the technology was objectively terrible.

LP’s aren’t terrible, but no sound reproduction technology will ever replace live performance, and to a non-audiophile, but conservatory trained ear, I prefer my music without the hiss that analog playback technologies always add to the mix. I can’t hear the minuscule steps that digital technology adds to the sound wave, but I can hear that hiss.

Also, I appreciate being able to listen to the entire opera without flipping records.

I don't listen to classical on LP (and yes live performances are better) as the works weren't composed with LP playback in mind, so you run into awkward breaks, in addition to dynamic range issues.

On the other hand, mid century jazz and pop music was composed with LP playback in mind.

[Kenkat]

[Cartridges can pick up sound from the speakers and room reflections that basically add reverb distortion to LPs on playback.

My college roommate and I frequently ran into this effect in our room at the fraternity house back in the 80s. I remember Motley Crue being particularly bad in terms of bass feedback. We’d put a 12 pack on top of the turntable and that would quiet things down. However, by the end of the evening, the problem would always mysteriously return.

[skjoldur]

Poppycock.

Mostly nonsense except for one real life distortion element to LPs that can have psychoacoustic effects:

Cartridges can pick up sound from the speakers and room reflections that basically add reverb distortion to LPs on playback.

This can be euphonic (i.e. pleasing) distortion to some, in much the same way that other 2nd order distortion in analog media can be perceived as euphonic.

Of course, in the digital realm you can replicate some of this via DSP.

There was a widely reported study that showed that wine tasted better when people were told it was expensive. Who knows if that's reproducible, but it does support my preconceived notion that sensory experiences are highly suggestible and modified by what we expect or want to perceive. Other studies have shown that violinists can't pick out a Stradavarius when blindfolded and have suggested that wine experts can't repeatably judge wines if they are blinded and that white wines with red food coloring will get completely different reviews even though there is no difference other than color.

I suspect that one reason vinyl sounds ineffably different is because listeners want it to.

[watchnerd]

Mostly nonsense except for one real life distortion element to LPs that can have psychoacoustic effects:

Cartridges can pick up sound from the speakers and room reflections that basically add reverb distortion to LPs on playback.

This can be euphonic (i.e. pleasing) distortion to some, in much the same way that other 2nd order distortion in analog media can be perceived as euphonic.

Of course, in the digital realm you can replicate some of this via DSP.

There was a widely reported study that showed that wine tasted better when people were told it was expensive. Who knows if that's reproducible, but it does support my preconceived notion that sensory experiences are highly suggestible and modified by what we expect or want to perceive. Other studies have shown that violinists can't pick out a Stradavarius when blindfolded and have suggested that wine experts can't repeatably judge wines if they are blinded and that white wines with red food coloring will get completely different reviews even though there is no difference other than color.

I suspect that one reason vinyl sounds ineffably different is because listeners want it to.

Sure, cognitive bias plays a huge part.

But there are also solid physics reasons why vinyl should sound different from digital, including distortion, dynamic range, the bass being mixed to mono below 60 Hz, etc.

It also often uses a different mix from the studio.

As for the acoustic feedback into cartridges:

You can easily test it by ripping an LP to digital with the speakers on vs off.

The difference is visible in spectrum analysis and easily audible if you play the digital files back over headphones.

[watchnerd]

[Cartridges can pick up sound from the speakers and room reflections that basically add reverb distortion to LPs on playback.

My college roommate and I frequently ran into this effect in our room at the fraternity house back in the 80s. I remember Motley Crue being particularly bad in terms of bass feedback. We’d put a 12 pack on top of the turntable and that would quiet things down. However, by the end of the evening, the problem would always mysteriously return.

Cerwin Vega speakers to go with it?

[rob]

What is MM and MC?

Moving Magnet vs Moving Coil are different styles of cartridges. Some say they produce a different sound & mood. You need more grunt and $$ with MC. I might have grossly over simplified that rabbit hole

[watchnerd]

What is MM and MC?

Moving Magnet vs Moving Coil are different styles of cartridges. Some say they produce a different sound & mood. You need more grunt and $$ with MC. I might have grossly over simplified that rabbit hole

Yeah, grossly over simplified, but not wrong.

I won't even get into stylus shapes.

[Kenkat]

My college roommate and I frequently ran into this effect in our room at the fraternity house back in the 80s. I remember Motley Crue being particularly bad in terms of bass feedback. We’d put a 12 pack on top of the turntable and that would quiet things down. However, by the end of the evening, the problem would always mysteriously return.

Cerwin Vega speakers to go with it?

That actually made me laugh out loud!

I very much remember those Cerwin Vega speakers with the orange foamed 15 inch woofers. I had a nice pair of Jensen speakers (which I regret not keeping) but Cerwin Vega would have been time period appropriate for sure.

[c.coyle]

There was a widely reported study that showed that wine tasted better when people were told it was expensive. Who knows if that's reproducible, but it does support my preconceived notion that sensory experiences are highly suggestible and modified by what we expect or want to perceive. Other studies have shown that violinists can't pick out a Stradavarius when blindfolded and have suggested that wine experts can't repeatably judge wines if they are blinded and that white wines with red food coloring will get completely different reviews even though there is no difference other than color.

I suspect that one reason vinyl sounds ineffably different is because listeners want it to.

Sure, cognitive bias plays a huge part.

But there are also solid physics reasons why vinyl should sound different from digital, including distortion, dynamic range, the bass being mixed to mono below 60 Hz, etc.

It also often uses a different mix from the studio.

As for the acoustic feedback into cartridges:

You can easily test it by ripping an LP to digital with the speakers on vs off.

The difference is visible in spectrum analysis and easily audible if you play the digital files back over headphones.

Your ears and brain are part of your system. If you think you hear a difference, then you do.

[watchnerd]

Sure, cognitive bias plays a huge part.

But there are also solid physics reasons why vinyl should sound different from digital, including distortion, dynamic range, the bass being mixed to mono below 60 Hz, etc.

It also often uses a different mix from the studio.

As for the acoustic feedback into cartridges:

You can easily test it by ripping an LP to digital with the speakers on vs off.

The difference is visible in spectrum analysis and easily audible if you play the digital files back over headphones.

Your ears and brain are part of your system. If you think you hear a difference, then you do.

Yes, I don't think I said anything that disagrees with that.

But you don't need to introduce hearing into the equation. LPs and CDs also measure differently; CDs measure better. Which is completely expected.

[eddot98]

So you ARE still actively using your turntable? What is MM and MC?

I stopped using that Rega turntable. I now have a Thorens in place if I ever want to again play a record.

I think I now own about 8 turntables. I kept buying any cheap I found at tag sales as before this record / turntable renaissance I was fearing that turntables would become obsolete and no longer obtainable. Did not want to risk having my huge record collection with nothing to play them on.

Yes, I actively use it. I play LPs about 3 nights a week.

MM = moving magnet, MC = moving coil. They're types of cartridges.

I don't worry about the Michell and replacement parts. It's a simple mechanical device with an outboard motor on a pulley and a brass inverted bearing. The brass bearing will likely outlive me. And the electric motor inside the pulley is replaceable with common off the shelf motors.

All of the operating parts of my TT are fully manual, nothing electronic or automated to break.

Even switching speeds between 33 and 45 RPM involves me manually moving the pulley belt from one cog to another.

The Michell sounds a lot like my AR XA and XB-91 turntables, but at a very small fraction of the cost of your setup. I retired the XA, purchased in the late 1960’s many, many years ago and stored it in its original box in our attic. I recently took it out, put a new belt on it, lubed the motor and the arm pivot mechanism, and replaced the broken arm stand with a new one that I had bought for a few dollars years ago. I also bought an aftermarket stylus for the Shure M91ed and installed that, too. I spun a few records and, except for the old AR slow to start spinning characteristic, it sounded like it always did. I put it back in the box and put the XB-91 back where in service. Its dust cover is in better shape (no stickers from my college days) and, even though it has a walnut vinyl veneer on it, it’s my preferred turntable now. It also has a new, aftermarket stylus in the Shure M91ed cartridge.
My 2 cents on vinyl: I was one of those people who made a ritual of listening to albums. I read every liner note, I knew who was in all the bands, I was a fanatic. But I hated clicks and pops so much that I considered buying one of those electronic click and pop removers. Then along came CD’s and I loved them. But like everything else, there are some CD’s that sound great and some that don’t.

[eddot98]

I was once told when all we had were records were that after you played a record the walls of it were soft for an hour so you should wait an hour before you played it again otherwise you could damage the grooves while they were quite soft.

I observed that after I learned the "fact". Anyone know if that was true or not?

I've read some studies on this.

Back in the day when 45s and LPs were mass market products made as cheaply as possible (the opposite of today) and often used low weight vinyl, combined with "groove chewer" high VTF ceramic mono styli with no vertical compliance of the early 45/LP era, yes, it could happen.

Once people started using stereo microtip diamond styli with vertically compliant suspensions as the default (say by the early 1970s), not very true.

Way back in the late 1960’s I read an article in Stereo Review that said to only play a record side once a day. They talked about the amount of pressure and heat produced by the very small surface of the stylus riding on the vinyl and that pressure and heat would actually distort the vinyl. From then on I never played a side of a record more than once a day. Their logic made sense to me. Almost all of my 500+ records are still in very good shape. Fact or fiction?

[watchnerd]

I've read some studies on this.

Back in the day when 45s and LPs were mass market products made as cheaply as possible (the opposite of today) and often used low weight vinyl, combined with "groove chewer" high VTF ceramic mono styli with no vertical compliance of the early 45/LP era, yes, it could happen.

Once people started using stereo microtip diamond styli with vertically compliant suspensions as the default (say by the early 1970s), not very true.

Way back in the late 1960’s I read an article in Stereo Review that said to only play a record side once a day. They talked about the amount of pressure and heat produced by the very small surface of the stylus riding on the vinyl and that pressure and heat would actually distort the vinyl. From then on I never played a side of a record more than once a day. Their logic made sense to me. Almost all of my 500+ records are still in very good shape. Fact or fiction?

It certainly could have been fact with the ceramic stylus, no vertical compliance (no vertical suspension) high VTF (vertical tracking force) cartridges that were still in the market at the time.

But those kind of cartridges went out in the 1970s.

Modern cartridges use diamond tips, have vertical compliance, and teensy VTF. Plus high end vinyl these days is much heavier and thicker (180g-200g).

[watchnerd]

Yes, I actively use it. I play LPs about 3 nights a week.

MM = moving magnet, MC = moving coil. They're types of cartridges.

I don't worry about the Michell and replacement parts. It's a simple mechanical device with an outboard motor on a pulley and a brass inverted bearing. The brass bearing will likely outlive me. And the electric motor inside the pulley is replaceable with common off the shelf motors.

All of the operating parts of my TT are fully manual, nothing electronic or automated to break.

Even switching speeds between 33 and 45 RPM involves me manually moving the pulley belt from one cog to another.

The Michell sounds a lot like my AR XA and XB-91 turntables, but at a very small fraction of the cost of your setup. I retired the XA, purchased in the late 1960’s many, many years ago and stored it in its original box in our attic. I recently took it out, put a new belt on it, lubed the motor and the arm pivot mechanism, and replaced the broken arm stand with a new one that I had bought for a few dollars years ago. I also bought an aftermarket stylus for the Shure M91ed and installed that, too. I spun a few records and, except for the old AR slow to start spinning characteristic, it sounded like it always did. I put it back in the box and put the XB-91 back where in service. Its dust cover is in better shape (no stickers from my college days) and, even though it has a walnut vinyl veneer on it, it’s my preferred turntable now. It also has a new, aftermarket stylus in the Shure M91ed cartridge.
My 2 cents on vinyl: I was one of those people who made a ritual of listening to albums. I read every liner note, I knew who was in all the bands, I was a fanatic. But I hated clicks and pops so much that I considered buying one of those electronic click and pop removers. Then along came CD’s and I loved them. But like everything else, there are some CD’s that sound great and some that don’t.

Yeah, they're both suspended tables, which gives them (and the Linn) some common sounds.

But the Michell looks like a space ship.



(I use a different tonearm than this, the SME M2-9R)

[lazydavid]

Analog simply sounds better to the human ear. The waves rise and fall curved like sand dunes. Digital rises and falls with sharp edges like a zuggurat. CDs also sound dead like there's a velvet curtain in the background soaking up all of the sound. LPs have a dynamic, warmer sound. If you have a good stereo system you can put this to the test by switching between a CD and an LP playing the same album. Give it a try with Miles Davis's Kind of Blue. there is no comparison.

That (and other exceptional recordings) sounds godlike in 24bit/192khz through my DAC and tube amp. I don't miss Vinyl at all.

[Thesaints]

I was in my local Barnes and Noble and they had hundreds of vinyl albums and several types of turntables for sale. I really don’t get it - what’s the allure of listening to all those snap, crackle and pops? Why not just buy rice crispies? When CDs came out, I stopped buying albums because the audio quality was so much better.

Ok turntablers, what’s your story?

Yes and why is Rolex still in business ? A $30 Casio is much more accurate and doesn't run out of power for many years.

[Random Musings]

[Cartridges can pick up sound from the speakers and room reflections that basically add reverb distortion to LPs on playback.

My college roommate and I frequently ran into this effect in our room at the fraternity house back in the 80s. I remember Motley Crue being particularly bad in terms of bass feedback. We’d put a 12 pack on top of the turntable and that would quiet things down. However, by the end of the evening, the problem would always mysteriously return.

If you had 100 bottles of beer on the wall, that may have solved your problem. At least for a few more hours

RM

[yankees60]

I've read some studies on this.

Back in the day when 45s and LPs were mass market products made as cheaply as possible (the opposite of today) and often used low weight vinyl, combined with "groove chewer" high VTF ceramic mono styli with no vertical compliance of the early 45/LP era, yes, it could happen.

Once people started using stereo microtip diamond styli with vertically compliant suspensions as the default (say by the early 1970s), not very true.

Way back in the late 1960’s I read an article in Stereo Review that said to only play a record side once a day. They talked about the amount of pressure and heat produced by the very small surface of the stylus riding on the vinyl and that pressure and heat would actually distort the vinyl. From then on I never played a side of a record more than once a day. Their logic made sense to me. Almost all of my 500+ records are still in very good shape. Fact or fiction?

But tell me if you have this unique feature to your records?

In the late 70s I loaned some of my records to someone to record on cassette tapes. He later said to my that my records were in great condition except that every time he took a record out of its jacket .. cat hair went flying everywhere!

[yankees60]

I was in my local Barnes and Noble and they had hundreds of vinyl albums and several types of turntables for sale. I really don’t get it - what’s the allure of listening to all those snap, crackle and pops? Why not just buy rice crispies? When CDs came out, I stopped buying albums because the audio quality was so much better.

Ok turntablers, what’s your story?

Yes and why is Rolex still in business ? A $30 Casio is much more accurate and doesn't run out of power for many years.

In that case I just listened to the reason why. It's a thing of beauty plus it's a way for its owner to show the world that said owner is a person of means.

[yankees60]

An apt Freecycle email to receive today?



OFFER: Offer, old record albums (Downtown Holyoke )
Date: Fri, 29 Nov 2024 10:48:53 -0500
From: haatsie


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

At least a hundred, all in playable condition. Big band, I think some jazz, etc. Also some 78's. Please take all. Located in Holyoke.

[StevieG72]

I made the mistake of storing my old LPs from my teen years in the attic. The heat destroyed them.

I still have 1 cassette tape that survived many years of use in my garage “boom box”. Listen to it often when working in the garage.

I am too careless to take care of LPs and they would have distortion due to damage.

Any of the audiophiles care to comment on the backmasking of LPs? Is it a thing? A few noteworthy examples I certainly hope are unintentional and coincidence. How do you even play an LP backwards?

[valleyrock]

Turntables have improved substantially, I'm told, because the needles and pickups are vastly better today.

You can also take an old turntable, update the needle and pickup, and really have something.

[Dottie57]

This debate did not start recently.

About a couple of decades ago or longer a leading hi-fi magazine decided to poll the most highly esteemed audio recording engineers of the day, the stars of that industry: Which produces better sound, a well mastered and recorded vinyl album, or a well mastered and recorded CD?

To a one they preferred CDs. Their comments were emphatic, the contest was not close.

+1. Digital sound is superior to vinyl in every way, but purists will never accept it.

I’ve heard the praise of analog and criticism of digital ever since I bought a cd player. Crazy.

[yankees60]

I made the mistake of storing my old LPs from my teen years in the attic. The heat destroyed them.

I still have 1 cassette tape that survived many years of use in my garage “boom box”. Listen to it often when working in the garage.

I am too careless to take care of LPs and they would have distortion due to damage.

Any of the audiophiles care to comment on the backmasking of LPs? Is it a thing? A few noteworthy examples I certainly hope are unintentional and coincidence. How do you even play an LP backwards?

It must have been extremely hot in your attic? Any idea what temperatures it reached?

I once lost three precious records when I left them in the back window area of my car. They definitely melted from the combination of the high temperatures that can be reached in a car plus the sun being directly on them.

[annebert]

If digital is MP3, which is all some people have ever heard, it is valid to say good quality analog is better. Carefully handled LPs really don't have crackle. I have many 40+ year old LPs that still sound great - including one from Tower Records.

[yankees60]

If digital is MP3, which is all some people have ever heard, it is valid to say good quality analog is better. Carefully handled LPs really don't have crackle. I have many 40+ year old LPs that still sound great - including one from Tower Records.

Some of my records are now coming up on 60 years. At least 500 (of the 7,000) of them at about 55 years.

For about the first four year they were played on an inexpensive turntable with a heavy, heavy arm. First replacement (around 1970, I think) was an improvement over that but probably not close to what I later ended up with.

I do have this one record I bought in 1972 -- a double Bee Gees record -- that I've never listened to. It would be a good test to see how it sounds.

[BrooklynInvest]

It is a warmer sound. It's a more natural sound - at least to my ears.

I agree. People can argue whether or not it's "better" and come to different conclusions.

I have my father's old vinyl. Some of it's 70 years old and plays well. He was killed in action when I was a baby so the experience of playing his early Sinatra is priceless to me. I also have "new" records - everything Tom Waits has done, pretty much everything Jack White's released (and manufactured) and so on. I have the copy of Saturday Night Fever that I bought with my pocket money when I was 11.

I love the ritual of playing a record, sitting and listening and then flipping the side. The slight inconvenience is part of the enjoyment. Some people sit through commercials as they watch sports, some stand in line for brunch. Things that don't make sense to me. I play vinyl.

[watchnerd]

The real debate is belt-drive vs direct drive turntables.

[upwind]

I'm looking for another working Dual 1229q with base and cover.

Nostalgia? Yes. But, there is a large group that just loves the sound, the interaction with all the equipment and the mellowness of the sound that can't be beat.

Grew up in a house with a more lowly dual 1210 model I think. I did like wood base; it was sharp looking setup. We also had nice sounding AR speakers. The components and speakers were all encased in walnut.

Still I have no interest in listening to scratches and snaps again. My niece got a turntable a few years ago. So young people are interested for some reason. I blame tick tock not a quest for music fidelity.

[c.coyle]

Your ears and brain are part of your system. If you think you hear a difference, then you do.

Yes, I don't think I said anything that disagrees with that.

But you don't need to introduce hearing into the equation. LPs and CDs also measure differently; CDs measure better. Which is completely expected.

I get it, but in the end, you enjoy music by hearing it, not by watching an oscilloscope.

[watchnerd]

Yes, I don't think I said anything that disagrees with that.

But you don't need to introduce hearing into the equation. LPs and CDs also measure differently; CDs measure better. Which is completely expected.

I get it, but in the end, you enjoy music by hearing it, not by watching an oscilloscope.

Cognitive bias works in both directions.

If I know how it measures, that impacts what I hear.

[Base Hit]

I have a "Made in West Germany" 1980 Dual CS5000 that's so pleasing to look at. I like the turning of the record, the moving tonearm and gatefold record albums.

[22twain]

Man, this thread has me flashing back to the 1980s and the digital vs. analog wars in the audiophile magazines!

[Thesaints]

I get it, but in the end, you enjoy music by hearing it, not by watching an oscilloscope.

That's why people never waste money to go see their favorite band live in concert...

[Tony-S]

I get it, but in the end, you enjoy music by hearing it, not by watching an oscilloscope.

That's why people never waste money to go see their favorite band live in concert...

I went to a number of stadium rock concerts in my younger days but now I get the best experience playing lossless audio and allow my 5.1.2 receiver do its magic with Dolby Pro Logic surround. It’s remarkable that it can take a stereo source and envelope you with multidimensional music. Of course, in the dark and with a glass of single malt.

[INLAFF]

Am I the only one who read the thread title in the voice of Jerry Seinfeld?