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I'd like to add a bit more about vinyl care. Langelo's comment about going through 2 Hendrix albums from playing them so much might be from how they were handled. Considering that all my vinyl is still in near mint condition, even the ones I DJ'd with, you won't find a scratch or finger print on any of them. I've observed over the years that most people don't actually know how to handle records or how to set their turn tables up causing the quality of the sound to degrade badly.
Like our beloved S2000, vinyl does require special care and turn tables need to be setup and calibrated in a certain way so that your records will last a life time.
1. Never, ever, never, EVER put your fingers on the grooves of the record. Always handle them by the edges and center, you can easily put the edge of the record in your palm and middle finger on the center when pulling out of sleeve or placing in. When flipping the record to the other side handle it be the edges with your palms. Once you get your booger hook grease on the grooves it will never come off, and it will start to cake in with dirt, grime and dust. The grooves are tiny and require precision to be read correctly. Watching rap or other dj's palm the entire record while spinning is the equivalent of someone sitting in your passenger seat with muddy work boots...with them resting them on your dash board.
2. Cleaning and protecting. Always give it a light swipe with a record brush, one revolution is enough unless a lot of static and dust has built up. Then you can use a solution and static gun. I've been using this kit for years: https://www.needledoctor.com/Discwasher-D4-Kit
Also, getting some the soft plastic sleeve inserts that have anti static properties will help reduce wear, so that you're not putting vinyl into paper sleeves.
3. Turntable Calibration. This is just like the alignment on the S2000, to much or too little will cause great imbalance. The key is you want the needle to have just enough force to rest comfortably in the grooves without popping out. What you do is take the tone arm and while it's in the cradle, use the weight adjustment spindle on the back and spin it so the tone arm is floating perfectly in the center. Then spin it one revolution to give it some weight and it should drop to the cradle. You are not set. Most people spin it all the way so that the needle is basically digging into the grooves, that's very bad as it's carving itself into the channels and scraping away material (SOUND!).
4. Needles. Get a good quality cartridge if you value your records. The needle is just like the tires on our S, crappy tires, crappy response. Different cartridges do different things and depending on what type of music you listen to, the type of cartridge will make all the difference. I have a nice set of gold plated Ortofons.
5. Turntable. There are two types, belt driven (uses a rubber band) or direct drive, which uses a motor and is very precise. Belt is not precise, the rubber stretches over time and the revolutions of the platter are not equal, which over time will cause wear on your albums. I use a Technic 1200 MD, it's a beast and will last forever.
@windhund116 My setup is broken down and in boxes at the moment from moving last year. Will see if I can dig up some old photos.
I like your vintage setup!
btw, Technics are made by Panasonic not Pioneer. But Pioneer does make quality stuff, I worked for one of their now defunct divisions for a couple years, all their electronics were available at cost to employees during the Christmas season, nice way to make a bit of extra cash on the side...
5. Turntable. There are two types, belt driven (uses a rubber band) or direct drive, which uses a motor and is very precise. Belt is not precise, the rubber stretches over time and the revolutions of the platter are not equal, which over time will cause wear on your albums. I use a Technic 1200 MK2, it's a beast and will last forever.
Turntables have come a long ways over the years. They've also become considerably more expensive in many cases. There are now speed controlled belt-driven tables that run every bit as stable as their direct-driven counterparts. Similarly some of the latest direct-drive motors no longer suffer from cogging or rumble like the old 1200 MK2. My biggest problem living in an old house was properly isolating my turntable given the suspended wooden floors in our house. I finally ended up mounting it on the wall.
I've been buying LPs since the seventies and never stopped as most all of my friends did with the arrival of the CD. I now own a couple thousand LPs and at this point am limited primarily by storage space. I mostly listen to music in my living room, but my vinyl is stored downstairs in the basement. There's not all that much left that I want to buy in the way of LPs, but if there were I'd have to sell of some of the old to make room for anything new. Pretty much all of my vinyl is in pristine condition and quite a bit of it would price out nicely on Discogs. But as others have figured out, selling off vinyl, even the pricier stuff, can be a pain. That said, what people are paying for albums these days strikes me as crazy. I was informed around $25 on average for a new LP the last time I stopped by an actual record store here in Portland last year. I realize that everything is more expensive than it used to be, but that did surprise me. If you only own a few albums, unless you happen to have something truly collectible you're almost better off donating them to someone who's recently taken up vinyl for the first time. You might be surprised at what some younger folks are willing to give a spin these days. If you lug a bunch of vinyl to a shop they might buy a small percentage of it and leave you to deal with the rest. It used to be libraries had vinyl for people to check out. I have no idea whether or not that's the case these days or if they would have any interest.
I personally have no intent of parting with my vinyl collection any time soon. I still enjoy it on a regular basis. If I do get to that point I'd likely rent out space at a record show or sell the whole lot off all together, letting someone else deal with the selling of individual LPs. Then again, maybe I'd set some LPs aside just to hand over to a younger person who was just starting out with the big discs for the first time as I never bought any of my albums with the idea of making any money from them.
Wall mount is one of the best ways to go. In terms of sub-sonic coupling issues. Is that a Dyna-Vector phono cartridge?
Pat Metheny's "Offramp" hiding in the corner?
I just got this one off Discogs. Where else are you going to find a nice Riverside/Victor of Japan copy of "Know What I Mean?" No CD ever sounded this good.
Last edited by windhund116; 02-11-2019 at 05:13 PM.
02-11-2019, 05:58 AM
