The Vinyl Revival

I'm 22 and am a 78 rpm record collecter, mostly jazz and dance bands and 1910s stuff, i have an mp3 player but guess what? it's full of transfers of 78s and 50s 45s and cylinders that i have downloaded.
so nope, you're not the only younger person into records, you'll be pleased to know.

Could anyone recommend a record player? I'd like to start collecting records. I was also thinking of transferring my vinyl findings over to mp3's but I read by getting a turntable with the USB port means possible lesser quality in the rest of the unit? Looking for enlightenment...

The thing is that most usb turn tables play 33 rpm at about 35, 45 at about 47 and so on, because they are made with the least expense possible.
so the best way for you to do it is get one from a place that accept returns, find a record you have on cd or can listen to online and test it or yourself.
78 rpm shelac records can not be played with the same stylus/needle as your 33 and 45s whatever people tel you, it sounds awful. If you're interested I can shoBw you a transfer of a 78 i did with a friend on a usb turn table verses one I did with my set up, you realy will hear the difference.

Heather said:

Could anyone recommend a record player? I'd like to start collecting records. I was also thinking of transferring my vinyl findings over to mp3's but I read by getting a turntable with the USB port means possible lesser quality in the rest of the unit? Looking for enlightenment...

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I'd say the best bet is to scour thrift/consignment stores for an older model. It will take longer but probably worth it to get a more quality machine. The needle may be shot, but I think the Bull Moose in Brunswick specializes in needles and cartridges (at least, I read this somewhere, once). I don't know anything about MP3s, but would imagine there must be some device to digitally record from the standard out signals on a receiver/amplifier.

Larger antiques stores or consignment shops might be a good source of turntables, too. It was one such modernized barn store where I got a good GE portable player (I'm thinking '80s, but it has some old-fashioned charm). They had a lot available, so I could pick and choose what works for me. I've been patiently building up records since, and boy, they're easy to find in quantity. If I didn't carefully select what I buy, the thrift shops around here would own my soul by now!

I'm not in it for the sound quality, though I do know the attraction there: my father got absolutely stunning results transferring his old LPs to electronic format. Sure, I get more play time out of MP3s and such on a daily basis, but the charm of playing old songs on their original recording format... hard to beat! :thumb: Would it be too much to say it's gone full-circle and become a novelty?

In Southsea (on England's South Coast) there's an interesting little shop 'Pie and Vinyl'.

Its owners wanted to open a record shop just selling vinyl but knew they could never make enough money to survive. So they combined the record shop with a 'Pie & Mash' shop, selling very nice locally produced pies.

As they put it ... Welcome to Pie & Vinyl, an experience for all of your senses…..



I fully approve of supporting small scale businesses like this who offer something unique and tasty - not the usual bland high street nonsense.

There is just something about the LP.....

Just won an old Califone record player on EBay. It has a new old stock 78 needle. So now I'm collecting old 78s to play on it. I still have many of 33 1/3 records. My 6 year old loves it! I suspect my wife thinks I'm nuts and that I need a new hobby like I need an extra cranium puncture.

You can't clean your stash on a CD case, man...

You know, I grew up in the LP era and still have a few hundred albums from the old days. But as an earlier poster said, to make vinyl sound good you need to expend a lot of effort and $$$ on gear and knowledge. Most CD's are quite good and I, generally, enjoy them far more than my records even though I have a couple of very decent turntables in my gear collection. However, I do get the nostalgia aspect, the retro aspect for younger people, and the audiophile love affair for those willing to devote the time and money to play vinyl at its potential best.

I've been playing guitar for a long time and some have told me I have a decent ear. But I'm sorry to say, I just can't hear the "goodness" in LPs. I grew up on them, sure'nuf, and I still have a bunch stored in a closet somewhere. But I just can't hear how they're superior to CDs or my iPod.

AF

Atticus Finch said:

I've been playing guitar for a long time and some have told me I have a decent ear. But I'm sorry to say, I just can't hear the "goodness" in LPs. I grew up on them, sure'nuf, and I still have a bunch stored in a closet somewhere. But I just can't hear how they're superior to CDs or my iPod.

AF

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I listen to shellac 78s on period equipment -- a late-thirties Philco console radio with a record-player attachment -- and the sound is substantially richer than the LP reissues I've heard of the same recordings. The difference is the "sound restoration" work that's done in the process of remastering, which masks surface noise but distorts the audio in the process. MP3s are even worse -- if you want to listen to the music of the Era the way it should sound, forget about reissues and go back to the originals.

What it is about records is, ownership. If you have the five records that Elvis released on the Sun record label, in good condition, you would be sitting on a gold mine. Had digital been around in the fifties, and we all downloaded it, much as most of today's youngsters do, what value would a digital recording of Elvis be on Sun, over that of a digital recording of Elvis on RCA?
There's a quintet of ladies who call themselves The Shellac Sisters, they are none other than vintage DJ's. And very good they are too. Complete with wind-up gramaphones. The Shellac Sisters.
If anyone has a big collection of 45's I can recommend investing in a juke box. Mine is the dome top Wurlitzer, Known as a 1015, or: One More Time. And on that subject, I'm in the market for a copy of Django Rheinhardt's: "Minor Swing." Must be on 45, to go in my juke box. I am not that good with the internet, I just cannot fathom out how to find out if there ever was a recording on 45. I have it on LP & CD, but I really want it in my juke box.
Minor Swing

This weekend I visited a retired mechanical engineer cousin of mine. He still likes to putter in all things technical. He has a few north of 4000 vinyl LPs, and he knew he could build a better mouse trap. Or re-invent the wheel. Or something to that effect.

Here is the air-driven turntable he built. Even the tone-arm glides on a cushion of air on a linear track, not on a pivot point! Crazy!!


MOST of his vinyl...


Too much time on his hands? It sounded beyond amazing!!!

I didn't truly start listening to music and honing my tastes until I was in high school, amidst the birth of the iPod. I received a CD player at some point during those years, but I could never get into it. Everything about the cd bothered me: I hated how much space they took up. I hated how the slightest bump would mess up the playback. I hated how easily scratched both cases and cds could be. I hated how awkward fitting the headphones were.

By the time I shipped off to college for my freshman year, I had a small, but growing digital music library full of ripped tunes that made me ripe for the iPod era (college campus was LOADED with those white earbuds).

That being said, I love listening to vinyl records. I received a record player as a gift a few years back from my dad. It was a blast. He brought out his entire record collection and split up every album that he owned to give to my sister and I. I've since slowly been building my record collection, buying used, seemingly impossible to find, records from eBay and record stores, as well as buying newly pressed more "mainstream" albums.

I love the freedom of the iPod: from ease of mobility to being able to only buy one song from an otherwise mediocre album. But with vinyl records, it's almost more of an intimate experience. I'll only purchase the albums of artists who I adore, the albums in which I can listen to the tracks in their entirety, with little desire to reach for the skip button. iPod/iTunes/digital music libraries have been described as a view into a person's soul; vinyl record libraries are more of a view into a person's heart.

There are many good modern turntables and some are not even that expensive. Needledoctor.com or Audio Advisor might be a place for a person new to vinyl to start. There are also mom and pop shops that restore old turntables and have restoed tables for sale. In the past I've bought a "like new" AR table and had the Thorens I picked up used as a teenager completely rebuilt. The deal of a lifetime.

The U-turn turntable that is floating around out there is quite decent for the price.

At some point I'll make a list of the turntables I've had in my system. It's a bit over the top.


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Can't go far wrong with a Rega, especially, bang for buck wise, the latest version of the Planar 3 (2016 onwards), or, on a budget, the Planar 1. Pro-ject also make a nice turntable. For those who fancy direct drive, the "affordable" version of the reduxed Technics 1210 should be out soon.

Atticus Finch said:

I've been playing guitar for a long time and some have told me I have a decent ear. But I'm sorry to say, I just can't hear the "goodness" in LPs. I grew up on them, sure'nuf, and I still have a bunch stored in a closet somewhere. But I just can't hear how they're superior to CDs or my iPod.

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Most music is really a reminder of the song, our memory of a certain time or a better listening experience ... I'm not sure that true high fidelity is really a big thing. I can go listen to any CD I have in a recording studio so well built (different from being crazy expensive, however) that speaker manufacturers come over to test their products in it ... but 99% of the time I don't, I just listen on the 40 year old Ebay bought system in my house. I like it just as much.

That said the first thing (to tell the difference between an MP3 and good vinyl or other formats) is to get the whole playback chain cleaned up. That needn't mean spending a fortune just good equipment and cables (as an interconnect I have found commercial Belden 1800F to be as good as the stupid expensive stuff) ... the next step is to compare recordings that are actually well done; no playback system will make a crap recording (of which there are quite a few) sound good. I tend to test studio gear on Mark Knophler's "Golden Heart" CD, one of the most wonderfully recorded pop albums around. For the true top end I'm in favor of "Dick Hyman plays Fats Waller" or his "Swing is Here" album. Beautiful recordings with a minimum of gear between mic and CD.

Standard MP3s produced from typical CD or LP masters are the bane of any good engineer's existence, the cassette tape of our time. BUT an MP3 produced from its own master from a 24 bit studio session can compete with a CD if everything is done correctly and you use the higher (above 128 Kpbs ... like 320) bit rate the sound is pretty competitive.

There are lots of audiophiles who claim that LPs "sound better" than CDs. I'm skeptical provided you work just as hard (meaning $$$) to get a good playback chain. But many, many, early CDs were poorly mastered and so accurately comparing them to the LP is difficult. I completely agree with Lizzie that to hear something as it was originally intended and thus to take advantage of a clear set of standards all the way through the process, you have to listen to records, especially 78s, on the right vintage equipment. Even LPs can benefit from listening on the sort of equipment they were intended to be played back on. The only way to beat that approach is to go totally crazy attempting to assemble something like a studio mastering chain and then "improve" the sound as an engineer rather than a normal listener. I don't necessarily mean studio equipment but a similar amount of time and effort and money may be required.

Many American LPs sound poor because of the preparation of the vinyl compound. Producing records quick and dirty left tiny bubbles in the mixture which do you no favors on playback of even a pristine record. There's a lot to doing good vinyl. There's a lot to doing good digital too; for 30 years most of the engineers insisted on doing digital recordings like analog and put the signal on the medium 6 or more db too loud. I can get into that if anyone wants me to but the point is that many are still learning, even today.