I’m coming into this area as a practical and philosophical result of:
- me wanting to own my music
- CDs are barely being made
2.1. If they are - they’re not being shipped to my corner of the world - Torrenting often failed me in terms of variety.
However - I am absolutely ignorant about equipment, maintainance, and know-hows of the audiophile world.
Avoid all and any modern day record players. They simply are built cheaply, they don’t really know how to do it right and they’re just ruined by modern crappy design.
You’re best off thrifting for an actual record player.
I’m pretty happy with my Fluance RT82. Zero complaints.
Though, to be clear: it’s the only one I’ve owned, so far.
I recently got into records but I wouldn’t consider myself an audiophile. I have a AT-SB727 “Sound Burger” and I usually connect it to a SoundCore Mini. The whole setup was under $200 on sale.
The main advantage for me is that it’s somewhat portable. I have 0 wires to mess with, not even a power cord. I’m sure the audio quality isn’t great but I like watching the record spin and listening to albums from start to finish.
I do have a different old record player (Sansui P1000) but it needs to be connected to AC then that has RCA connectors that need to go to a stereo which then has copper wire speakers. It sounds a lot better but also it’s a lot less portable
The sound burger does come with a line level RCA output so maybe it does sound as good when connected to an actual stereo. I want to get an elliptical stylus upgrade in the future which is supposed to help with sound quality
Those red cartridge style needles that cheap turntables use will destroy your records. If at all possible, buy an old player. Or, buy new but don’t cheap out on it. Your collection will inevitably contain rare and unreplaceable records. If you want to preserve them for the next generation don’t skimp on your gear.
Don’t buy a crappy all in one suitcase player and you’re good.
I mainly buy used albums, because I like older music. I have two record players, one Pro-Ject and 40 years old Beogram, both have a good sound. I also listen to CD’s, if I have to buy new music. CD’s are much cheaper than vinyls. Besides that, I have started to buy old C-cassettes that I play with an old Beocord player.
Starting with vinyls is not as difficult as it sounds. Just pick up some reasonable priced player, used ones are usually great too. Just make sure the needle is in a good condition. The heavier the player is the better it usually is, tone arm’s shape is obsolete both are good, regardless if it’s a straight or S shaped.
You also need amplifier and speakers. Many of newer ones don’t have build in RIAA connections, which you need with an older turntables, some newer models might have RIAA build in the player itself so you can plug them into any amplifier.
Vinyl isn’t a cheap hobby.
- You need a decent record player.
- Used is fine.
- It should feel heavy.
- The arm should not be designed straight unless you’re a scratch dj.
- It should use a standard head shell so that replacing the needle is simple.
- “Direct drive” motors are nice but not essential.
- Automatic stylus return is essential.
- Technics brsnd “1200” series players will be overpriced but a lot of others are out there. I have a pair but use a Gemini brand player for listening.
- Pitch control isn’t essential.
- You should calibrate the counter weights and other settings to avoid excessive wear on your records.
- You need to place the player on a solid surface that is not near speakers.
- You need a line level converter and you must attach the ground.
- You need a record cleaning brush.
- You need space for the records. Lots of space.
- Don’t leave records in a car or somewhere that gets hot or they will warp.
Many respectable (even high end) turntables have a straight tone arm.
It causes additional wear. Looks modern though.
You need to place the player on a solid surface that is not near speakers.
What’s this about?
vibrations from the speakers can cause unpleasant noise and distortion or even cause the record to skip.
Most likely so that the vibrations from the speakers does not interfere with the records playback. As the needle should touch the LP as lightly a possible.
Oh okay. I grew up with vinyls. I never noticed anything of that sort, though I admit that the turntable wasn’t too close to the speakers. I’ve my clumsy 10-year-old ass did bump a few times into the player, causing it to skip. It was just part of life back then.
Speakers vibrate. You don’t want vibrations getting to the needle or you get feedback.
You also don’t want the player moving around as it can cause the needle to jump.
Ok, thanks. I thought it was something else.
What do you think about audio technica AT-LP70X model? It looks fine for audiophile beginners.
Yeah it’s fine. I started out with an LP60 and I had no complaints.
yeah that’s probably fine, i don’t have any experience with it myself though. AT is known to be decent and deserves credit for staying in vinyl business even when everyone else was exiting it.
I personally would check out the local 2nd-hand stores, pawn shops, and estate sales for a week or two 1st to see if there’s anything laying around though. I paid $75 for my old gemini from a vintage/antique shop 5 years ago and I think all it needed was a new cart and soldering of some new line-out leads. Anything Technics will be overpriced but i regularly come across gear from the 70’s and 80’s that probably work great. I suppose i should buy them up, fix them, and get them into people’s homes.
Another perspective:
- You can own your own music in many more formats than just vinyl.
- CDs are still being made, and cheap. Second hand CD trade is huge, and they are always cheaper than vinyl to buy and ship. Digital ownership is even cheaper (eg Bandcamp), and the same or higher quality.
- RuTracker has an enormous collection of FLAC well-seeded, as do other sites (but they require invites). Soulseek has an enormous collection and requires no account.
Regarding equipment just get some good speakers and an amp, you’ll need that regardless of what format you end up getting your music in.
Vinyl is often a trap. Expensive, fragile, degrades, difficult to resell unless you live in a big city (postage & packing), and the quality is ultra subjective and varies wildly between pressings. Just look up a couple of popular albums you know on Discogs or rateyourmusic and browse the comments see what they cost and how many people bring up complaints on pressings.
I’m all CD and FLAC and loving it. Bandcamp is my first port of call, then CD (new or second-hand), torrent if rare or OOP or unavailable anywhere I frequent.
Something else that may help - if you really think vinyl will sound better, enormous FLAC rips (2GB+) of popular high quality pressings in 192kHz/24-48bit rips are not uncommon on torrent and Slsk - vinyl enthusiasts often make a high quality digital capture of their purchases while the vinyl is new, so that they have a near-new copy in case their vinyl ever degrades with wear - or simply so they can use digital for convenience, but keep the analog hiss and increased frequency range of vinyl pressings. Best of both worlds.
(Edit: rutracker, not rutorrent)
Thank you for the soulseek tip, never heard of it, will try.
So far, DDGing RuTorrent tell me it just another torrenting client. Do people mean the russian site called rutracker when they say RuTorrent?
Oh yeah my bad, i meant rutorrent. The site is in Russian but easy enough to navigate as it uses the same forum template as a lot of sites, band names are all in original language so searching is simple enough. I sometimes use a translation browser extension to help.
As someone who is flirting with the idea of attempting to own my media, I have a question for you. If I couldn’t find a torrent for some song I wanted, is there a recommended tool or path for “collecting” my own version of a song? I don’t see myself getting into such a situation where I want some super obscure song, but knowing I have a path for getting a version from one of the major streaming services to bridge any gap I come across would be nice. Where would one go to learn how to safely collect rare/difficult to torrent music files?
Are you in Canada? Fluance is a great local company
I have a Fluance RT-82. It’s perfect for my needs.
I love my fluance
Audiophile rabbit hole is deep. Start with used equipment and second hand vinyl stores. It’s a fun pastime to browse.
Otherwise bandcamp is a fun place to acquire FLAC and vinyl as well.
Essentially this. You don’t need fancy or expensive equipment to start, and you can replace parts as you go about. However, do avoid the all-in-one mobile players from brands like Lenco and Denver. They put really poor quality parts in there that can hurt your records. But anything above that is already good enough
I bought a used super-oem player years ago for €100. They’re more for DJ’s I think, but the quality and maintainability is great and spare parts are abundant.
What to know? Other than the 12x12 graphic format, vinyl is a pain in the ass and it sucks, and the new pressings are ridiculously over priced.
CDs are still the best way to go. Better sound, easier to handle, fairly indestructible. Used ones used to be super cheap, prices are rising, but they are still a better deal than vinyl, and you can still find lots of good deals at garage sales.
Those aren’t really sufficient reasons to deal with vinyl IMHO. Do it because you want another weird expensive hobby maybe, or because there’s music you like that you can’t easily get in other formats. Or you like full sized album art, etc. Otherwise in practical terms it’s mostly not worth it, IMHO.
I was into it back in the day. But I found when I bought a new LP, I’d usually dub it to tape cassette on the first listen. After that I’d usually play the tape instead of the LP just because it was less hassle.
These days just rip everything to FLAC and transcode that to other formats as the need arises. It’s on your HDD so you still own it. Make backups of course.
Vinyls are, to me at least, more a way of having something to directly support the artist and gaining a piece of musical art.
My record player has been out of commission after being stupid enough to hit the play button without a record or deck protector and chunking off the tip of the diamond. (Since it’s a vintage record player a new stylus is about 300)
In terms of gear, a good amp, and a good DAC (Digital Audio Converter) with a solid pair of headphones can turn your digital music into brand new songs.
Even my cheap DAC and headphone amp can output enough quality to hear the difference between FLAC and every other format (the realisation that music having ‘texture’ wasn’t just audiophiles being pretentious and was more like ‘being able to hear ALL the instruments’ ruined my bank account) :')
If you’re looking to “own” your music, another path is something like Zotify. You can actually download tracks from the service with the similar name. Philosophical issues aside, I have no issues using them for a bit to build out my collection.
There’s also the revived Deemix-GUI project on github, which does the same for Deezer and supports 320kbit mp3 or 1411kbit FLAC downloads.
Replacement cartridges (needles) get expensive quick when you aim for quality, choose your table wisely. And, when you do replace your cartridge, rebalance your tone arm.
