Vinyl

[Magmoormaster]

So, given the results of the elections here in the US, the likelihood of a third, and much bigger, stimulus check will come is pretty high. Not to spend it before it's here, but I'm looking at getting into vinyl. I've looked at few lists of good turntables, and the one I've zeroed on is the Fluance RT80. It'll go in my office, which already has some "decent" speakers (M-Audio AV42s) that I can plug into. I'd love some input from some aficionados on whether or not I'm going the right direction.

The unfortunate thing about vinyl is that it's limited strictly to the album format. I listen to a fairly diverse range of music, but the only albums I like from start to finish are death metal albums haha.

Anyway, I'd love to see other's setups and vinyl collections.

[Boddah2]

Be careful with that money. In Canada here our piece of shit prime minister is demanding it back if you didn’t qualify and auditing people who took that covid money. Easy way to recoup that money is for people to pay back tax


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[KingxSlinky666]

If you're dead set on buying a new turn table I would go with a U-turn Orbit to be honestly its better to start on that or something similar.

This is an awful rabbit hole and very expensive but honestly a Uturn and a decent cart will do you pretty well for years. R/vinyl on reddit used to have a pretty good write up on starter gear.


I've been buying records since like 07-08 and I don't think I've ever had a working set up for any measurable amount of time. I've toted them from coast to coast and at this point I don't even know what all I own haha. These days I'll just try to hit my favorite shop when I can and pick up something but this year has seen likens albums I need to have.

[Menso]

I know it’s not the same, but my girlfriend bought me an RT82 almost a year ago as a gift and I love it. The quality was top notch and I didn’t have to do any major adjustments to it out the box other than leveling it out and the counter weight.

[Magmoormaster]

If you're dead set on buying a new turn table I would go with a U-turn Orbit to be honestly its better to start on that or something similar.

This is an awful rabbit hole and very expensive but honestly a Uturn and a decent cart will do you pretty well for years. R/vinyl on reddit used to have a pretty good write up on starter gear.


I've been buying records since like 07-08 and I don't think I've ever had a working set up for any measurable amount of time. I've toted them from coast to coast and at this point I don't even know what all I own haha. These days I'll just try to hit my favorite shop when I can and pick up something but this year has seen likens albums I need to have.

I'm not opposed to buying used, it honestly didn't even occur to me. Are there specific brands/models I should look for used? I would prefer a built-in preamp, other than that I'm not too picky.

[KingxSlinky666]

Uturn orbit (179-350)

Little bear T7 or ART DJ Pre II for preamp.

Could have a bitchen set up for as low as 250 barebones....which aint bad...

[KingxSlinky666]

I'm not opposed to buying used, it honestly didn't even occur to me. Are there specific brands/models I should look for used? I would prefer a built-in preamp, other than that I'm not too picky.

I was saying to avoid used and buy a new table from a solid company(uturn), honestly when you're starting out anything is good as long as it works and doesn't damage your records. I cant recommend a preamp but I remember there being some pretty good 30-50 dollar options from Amazon, and you already have speakers.

This is a hobby where the point of diminished returns is pretty close to the buy in point, and some people spend a fortune on shit that I honestly can't hear a difference in and 2 aint gonna make my power violence records sound any better.

And be prepared to be shocked by the price of some records you want, its unavoidable haha

[KingxSlinky666]

Buying used tables and such can just get really frustrating and end up being a waste as a beginner.

[Challenger007]

I was saying to avoid used and buy a new table from a solid company(uturn), honestly when you're starting out anything is good as long as it works and doesn't damage your records. I cant recommend a preamp but I remember there being some pretty good 30-50 dollar options from Amazon, and you already have speakers.

This is a hobby where the point of diminished returns is pretty close to the buy in point, and some people spend a fortune on shit that I honestly can't hear a difference in and 2 aint gonna make my power violence records sound any better.

And be prepared to be shocked by the price of some records you want, its unavoidable haha

I am also for buying new equipment. You can save money on a used one, but most likely you will soon spend more in total on repairing an old thing than if you immediately spent a little more and bought a new thing.

[MrKittyCatMeowFace]

My roommate should get his third audio technica record player this week since the first two didnt work. The first was refurbished and wouldn't turn on and the second couldn't play the record without loud horrible bouncing static. I have a few albums i need to get, he basically has all the ones he wants already

[cellophane]

The unfortunate thing about vinyl is that it's limited strictly to the album format. I listen to a fairly diverse range of music, but the only albums I like from start to finish are death metal albums haha.

Anyway, I'd love to see other's setups and vinyl collections.

If you have the spare change you can't go wrong with the Technics 1200 series. The old ones can be hard to find (and expensive to fix) but they are tanks. A 30 second glance at eBay has pricing in the $400-$500 range. The new model looks pretty sweet but I've not seen one in person- it is also not cheap. They will need a preamp of some sort. There are small preamps available, a small 2-channel mixer would work, or you could get a full-on amplifier.

As for the album format- I find that the limitation is actually a benefit quite often. I have loads of records that I buy because of one or two songs, but by listening to the whole album you will find songs and even whole albums that you end up really liking that would normally have just been skipped. It also allows for themes to be explored by the artists. Albums like Janelle Monae's The Chase Suite or Green Day's American Idiot are amazing and tell a story as you go through the entire thing.

I'll try and get some pictures later- but I currently have 2x SL1200 M3D's, a Denon DN-X1500 4-channel mixer and a set of Mackie CR5-XBT 5 inch Monitors, and about 13 crates of records; here's what I've cataloged on Discogs so far. I've been avoiding going through a lot of the more mainstream releases because they suck to catalog. Days Of Future Passed, for instance, has 100 different releases on vinyl and the differences between them frequently come down to minutiae like which plant it is pressed at. Huge pain in the ass to figure out.

[SignOfZeta]

The unfortunate thing about vinyl is that it's limited strictly to the album format.

Doesn’t like albums...doesn’t know about singles...hasn’t wasted any money yet...I recommend you just not do this and stick with the streaming.

If you’re into old prog or Motown or Rainbow or Yellow Magic Orchestra or hiphop or house or...disaster movie soundtracks or whatever, something that had a natural techno-cultural anchor point to records and you already had an amp your uncle gave you, or your brother was a DJ in the 90s, etc, that’s one thing but it sounds like you’re just responding to a fad and that would be a waste of money.

FWIW My opinion is old gear is massively better than new stuff, digital amps blow, and my favorite LP is probably Trespass by Genesis or The Yes Album.

[cellophane]

Doesn’t like albums...

If you’re into old prog or Motown...

I legitimately had no clue just how awesome Stevie Wonder is until I got some albums and just put them on to listen to, never mind the insane number of his songs that have been sampled elsewhere and trying to figure out where I've heard it before (which is honestly half of the fun for me.) I always appreciated his body of work, but holy crap does he have some amazing songs that aren't the 5 you hear on the radio.

[SignOfZeta]

I didn’t know about how great he was until my girlfriend forced me to listen to him. Now I buy her his 180g LPs so that I can listen to them.

[Magmoormaster]

I was saying to avoid used and buy a new table from a solid company(uturn), honestly when you're starting out anything is good as long as it works and doesn't damage your records. I cant recommend a preamp but I remember there being some pretty good 30-50 dollar options from Amazon, and you already have speakers.

This is a hobby where the point of diminished returns is pretty close to the buy in point, and some people spend a fortune on shit that I honestly can't hear a difference in and 2 aint gonna make my power violence records sound any better.

And be prepared to be shocked by the price of some records you want, its unavoidable haha

Ah ok, I misunderstood. I thought you were making the argument we make in paintball "you cooould buy a Mini, but for the same price you can buy a used Geo3." If new is the way to go, I'm perfectly happy with that.

As for diminishing returns, that's pretty much what I've heard. All sorts of nonsense upgrades that don't do anything. "But these are DIRECTIONAL cables!!" Honestly.

Most of the albums I'm looking at getting so far are limited run prog albums, all floating around $50-75. And I know that's chump change compared to the *actually* expensive stuff.

Doesn’t like albums...doesn’t know about singles...hasn’t wasted any money yet...I recommend you just not do this and stick with the streaming.

If you’re into old prog or Motown or Rainbow or Yellow Magic Orchestra or hiphop or house or...disaster movie soundtracks or whatever, something that had a natural techno-cultural anchor point to records and you already had an amp your uncle gave you, or your brother was a DJ in the 90s, etc, that’s one thing but it sounds like you’re just responding to a fad and that would be a waste of money.

FWIW My opinion is old gear is massively better than new stuff, digital amps blow, and my favorite LP is probably Trespass by Genesis or The Yes Album.

...So because I'm "responding to a fad" I shouldn't explore new hobbies? That's really freakin dumb.

[cellophane]

And be prepared to be shocked by the price of some records you want, its unavoidable haha

Discogs publishes the most expensive items sold every month. It is insane, especially considering how many of them are 45's

[SignOfZeta]

Ah ok, I misunderstood. I thought you were making the argument we make in paintball "you cooould buy a Mini, but for the same price you can buy a used Geo3." If new is the way to go, I'm perfectly happy with that.

As for diminishing returns, that's pretty much what I've heard. All sorts of nonsense upgrades that don't do anything. "But these are DIRECTIONAL cables!!" Honestly.

Most of the albums I'm looking at getting so far are limited run prog albums, all floating around $50-75. And I know that's chump change compared to the *actually* expensive stuff.


...So because I'm "responding to a fad" I shouldn't explore new hobbies? That's really freakin dumb.

I don’t think it’s dumb at all. Doing something only because it’s popular never pans out. Getting a Chicago Bulls tattoo, for example. Real cool for like two years and then it’s just sad reminder of how small your world once was. Eventually it won’t be popular anymore and your interest will die with everyone else’s. This vinyl comeback thing has got two years max left on it...but it’s a 70 year old format that will easily outlive us all. Where are you in that universe and is it worth being there at all?

You know about comic books, right? Its 1992 right now, by that measure. You’re that guy who parks his conspicuously non-POS car at the comic shop and goes in, buys three of everything and sits on it until it eventually gets basement wet on it and it throws it out.

If you think I’m trying to talk you out of this because in fact I want all the LE Dream Theater 12”s and Iron Maiden box sets...that’s actually about half true. The other half is me trying to talk you out of filling your garage with Beanie Babies. You are TOTALLY outside this world looking in. It’s a unique opportunity to just not go in at all.

Ask your girlfriend if what I’m saying makes any sense.