Turntables

[TapeMaster]

BSR, Garrard,Dual,Kenwood,Pioneer Are all really good.

 

[sterling shoote]

I dusted off my 32 year old Sony PS-4750 w/Shure V15vMR to get some old Rolling Stones recordings into iTunes. It's been at least a decade since I've spun a record, and the new experience helped me remember why I boxed up my turntable a decade ago... snap, crackle, and pop. Nevertheless, forging ahead, to see what all the new interest in vinyl was all about, I bought some remastered and reissued records: The Rolling Stones, Between The Buttons, Get Yer Ya Ya's Out, and Let It Bleed. Except for a few pops here and there, I cannot distinguish between these recordings and the same material on SACD, or CD. I don't know what this means, however. It could mean that my turntable/cartridge is as good as it gets, or it could mean my turntable/cartridge is not as good as it gets. After all, it does not sound better than CD, which is, as it appears, the reason folks have an interest in vinyl today. Question is, therefore, will a new turntable/cartridge, that are on the market today, give me something I would perceive as being better than CD?

I've been looking; and, so far, I've had a fleeting interest in the New Rega P3-24, VPI Classic, and Clearaudio Concept, as well as the SME 309 tonearm and Ortofon 2M Black cartridge. Thing is, in my geographic area, I cannot audition any of this stuff to come to a real understanding of whether the expenditure on any of these concepts would actually yield at more satisfying listening experience. i'm skeptical.

 

[TLS Guy]

I dusted off my 32 year old Sony PS-4750 w/Shure V15vMR to get some old Rolling Stones recordings into iTunes. It's been at least a decade since I've spun a record, and the new experience helped me remember why I boxed up my turntable a decade ago, snap, crackle, and pop. Nevertheless, forging ahead, to see what all the new interest in vinyl was all about, I bought some remastered and reissued records: The Rolling Stones, Between The Buttons, Get Yur Ya Ya's Out, and Let It Bleed. Except for a few pops here and there, I cannot distinguish between these recordings and CD. I don't know what this means, however. It could mean that my turntable/cartridge is as good as it gets, or it could mean my turntable is not as good as it gets. After all, it does not sound better than CD, which is as it appears, is the reason folks have an interest in vinyl today. Question is therefore, will a new turntable/cartridge that's on the market today give me something i would distinguish as better than CD?

I've been looking; and, so far, I've had a fleeting interest in the New Rega P3-24, VPI Classic, Clearaudio Concept, as well as the SME 309 tonearm. Thing is, in my geographic area, I cannot audition any of this stuff to come to a real understanding of whether the expenditure would actually yield at more satisfying listening experience.

We have been over this again and again.

First of all vinyl LPs are an inferior medium to CD. It has higher distortion and LESS dynamic range.

The problem is the pop culture world, were there is severe dynamic compression to keep everything loud. The reason is that executives who run record companies are as daft as the rest and generally an inferior low IQ crowd.

You can't do that with an LP or the playing time would be very short.

You are thinking of good turntable gear, by the way.

The reasons for getting a turntable in my view are to, that you have an LP collection, or you want to collect rare out of print LPs not available on CD. One other reason, you have a nostalgic yearning for a turntable.

 

[sterling shoote]

I think you see the reality of it all, or perhaps the illusion of it all. At any rate, I think I'm on the same sheet of music as you are, pun intended.

 

[DD66000]

I dusted off my 32 year old Sony PS-4750 w/Shure V15vMR to get some old Rolling Stones recordings into iTunes. It's been at least a decade since I've spun a record, and the new experience helped me remember why I boxed up my turntable a decade ago... snap, crackle, and pop. Nevertheless, forging ahead, to see what all the new interest in vinyl was all about, I bought some remastered and reissued records: The Rolling Stones, Between The Buttons, Get Yer Ya Ya's Out, and Let It Bleed. Except for a few pops here and there, I cannot distinguish between these recordings and the same material on SACD, or CD. I don't know what this means, however. It could mean that my turntable/cartridge is as good as it gets, or it could mean my turntable/cartridge is not as good as it gets. After all, it does not sound better than CD, which is, as it appears, the reason folks have an interest in vinyl today. Question is, therefore, will a new turntable/cartridge, that are on the market today, give me something I would perceive as being better than CD?

I've been looking; and, so far, I've had a fleeting interest in the New Rega P3-24, VPI Classic, and Clearaudio Concept, as well as the SME 309 tonearm and Ortofon 2M Black cartridge. Thing is, in my geographic area, I cannot audition any of this stuff to come to a real understanding of whether the expenditure on any of these concepts would actually yield at more satisfying listening experience. i'm skeptical.

First off, you can clean those old LPs with a 50/50 mixture of distilled water and rubbing alcohol. Just put the mix into a spray bottle and use one of those wide record antistatic sweeps. Then use clean soft cloth damped with more distilled water and then complete by drying with another cloth.
I've managed to clean my old, thought I was going to throw out records, to a point of being somewhere between 90~100% clean.
The new 180g, 200g virgin vinyl records are very good, much better than the old 90g,100g vinyl.

As for TT, I have an old Yamaha DD table. But have since bought a Marantz 15S1 belt drive, which is built by ClearAudio. It comes with a ClearAudio $800 cartridge, for a total of $1600.
Years ago I also had the V15 type 5, until I couldn't find anywhere that sold the replacement stylus.

 

[sterling shoote]

An OEM replacement stylus is available, but at a price, about $500.00. Thanks for the cleaning tip; however, I think my really old records are just plain damaged. The result of being played on a Magnavox suitcase record player with suspect stylus; but, that was all I had back in the mid 1960's.

 

[alex_qakulov]

I have REGA Planar 3 since 5 years already, bought 2nd hand from eBay. I must say that this is a real spectacular machine, very robust and I'm highly satisfied with it. I use it with LINN K5 cartridge, that came with the turntable and the sound, produced is just amazing!

I have also Dual CS-501, fitted with Rega cartridge (MM) and it sounds also very good, but the dynamics isn't like the Rega.

 

[3db]

To TLS

You forgot one other reason..involvement. There's a ritual to taking care of records and playing them that just ins't there with a CD. One can actually read the liner notes of an album versus that of a CD.

When I can, I buy new vinyl if it comes with either a CD or downlaod coupon. I still need access to portability which cannot be achieved with vinyl.

 

[audiofox]

You forgot one other reason..involvement. There's a ritual to taking care of records and playing them that just ins't there with a CD. One can actually read the liner notes of an album versus that of a CD.

I quite agree-there is a certain "zen" to the process of playing a vinyl record, (including having to get up to flip the record over) that has nothing to do with the sound but everything to do with the experience, at least for me. I have very strong and pleasant memory associations with certain vinyl records that I don't get even when I play the same music in other media formats. It is certainly much more convenient for me to fire up a hi-res audio file through my Mac Mini with my iPhone Remote app, but it doesn't have the same feel for me that pulling out an old record from my youth still does.

 

[Alex2507]

The reasons for getting a turntable in my view are to, that you have an LP collection, or you want to collect rare out of print LPs not available on CD. One other reason, you have a nostalgic yearning for a turntable.

Another reason to get a TT is economics. Inexpensive LP's are a great
way to to check out music that would otherwise go unexplored ... like this:

... 3 bucks.

The CD is at least $9 and I would never have gotten it because I'm not familiar with them so ... having a TT plus 3 bucks kind of let me have a peak at what they were doing at Trident Studios over in London back in the early 70's. I also found a receipt in the jacket from 13 May 75 for $4.17. I'm not so in love with flipping records though ... and it would be cool if your remote worked to make it go to the track of your choice.

 

[3db]

Another reason to get a TT is economics. Inexpensive LP's are a great
way to to check out music that would otherwise go unexplored ... like this:

... 3 bucks.

The CD is at least $9 and I would never have gotten it because I'm not familiar with them so ... having a TT plus 3 bucks kind of let me have a peak at what they were doing at Trident Studios over in London back in the early 70's. I also found a receipt in the jacket from 13 May 75 for $4.17. I'm not so in love with flipping records though ... and it would be cool if your remote worked to make it go to the track of your choice.

Do you like them? I have this album and I really enjoy their work.

 

[Alex2507]

Do you like them? I have this album and I really enjoy their work.

I think I do. Their lyrics deserve a little more attention than I paid them.
I read through Ghosts while I listened to it. It borders on real poetry which isn't really my bag but this was pretty good.

Then again I just got through listening to Rick James' Super Freak.
My tastes can't be accounted for.

 

[3db]

I think I do. Their lyrics deserve a little more attention than I paid them.
I read through Ghosts while I listened to it. It borders on real poetry which isn't really my bag but this was pretty good.

Then again I just got through listening to Rick James' Super Freak.
My tastes can't be accounted for.

We'll all have our moments.... Boney M "Rasputin" the whole 8-9 minute version.

 

[Alex2507]

We'll all have our moments.... Boney M "Rasputin" the whole 8-9 minute version.

Outstanding ... I'd like to have that.
I'd like to run across Santa Esmeralda and Falco.
There is always YouTube but it's not the same.

 

[slipperybidness]

2nd on the technics 1200

You simply cannot go wrong with the technics 1200. It is built like a tank, it is the standard for pro DJs for about 25yrs. It will last a lifetime and sound great. Also, numark makes some very similar designs that are probably slightly cheaper.

 

[3db]

You simply cannot go wrong with the technics 1200. It is built like a tank, it is the standard for pro DJs for about 25yrs. It will last a lifetime and sound great. Also, numark makes some very similar designs that are probably slightly cheaper.

Numarks are cheap knock offs and should be avoided at all costs.

I'm into my 4th year with my ProJect XpressionII and its working great. The only thing I did was to ugrade to an Ortofon Red