Can anyone explain the vinyl renaissance?

[Victor Martell]

er, man-made

No, man refined and exploited. Nature made all the wonderful Texas tea we have grown to love so much thru the years!

 

[Victor Martell]

No, man refined and exploited. Nature made all the wonderful Texas tea we have grown to love so much thru the years!

Also, well, as non-native speaker I understand the confusion - in my origin country and others I know (well in their languages) we (and they) don't call it "oil"; it's "petroleum" all the time. Freely translating, there's "crude petroleum" and "refined petroleum" - maybe is just a matter of peeps thinking that however is done in the USA, it is true for all the world.

 

[anmpr1]

Nice detour.

There comes a time when choice becomes anarchy. Recently, one good friend, a classical pianist, sent me some of her homemade Chopin recordings. Horrible sounding audio. But you 'hear through' all of that when listening. You concentrate on the musical experience.

Because of it I've resurrected a meager Chopin collection. From Takako Takahashi's wonderfully sounding 6 volume DSD Exton recordings, to an old Vox Box 'mono reprocessed for stereo' record set. And everything in between: Peter Frankl, Walter Klein, Ingrid Haebler, Orazio Frugoni, Rene Kyriakou, Guiomar Novveas, John Browning, Tamas Vasery, and on and on. Even the miserable quality Max Wilcox produced Rubenstein recordings which are so horrible in the pops and ticks department that I will never forgive RCA.

But you get to the point that you can almost forgive whatever media. And whatever gear you listen upon. I'm to the point of not even caring. I'm simply happy I have the option of hearing the music. At my age gear becomes secondary to the music, and nothing else matters.

 

[Robin L]

There comes a time when choice becomes anarchy. Recently, one good friend, a classical pianist, sent me some of her homemade Chopin recordings. Horrible sounding audio. But you 'hear through' all of that when listening. You concentrate on the musical experience.

Because of it I've resurrected a meager Chopin collection. From Takako Takahashi's wonderfully sounding 6 volume DSD Exton recordings, to an old Vox Box 'mono reprocessed for stereo' record set. And everything in between: Peter Frankl, Walter Klein, Ingrid Haebler, Orazio Frugoni, Rene Kyriakou, Guiomar Novveas, John Browning, Tamas Vasery, and on and on. Even the miserable quality Max Wilcox produced Rubenstein recordings which are so horrible in the pops and ticks department that I will never forgive RCA.

But you get to the point that you can almost forgive whatever media. And whatever gear you listen upon. I'm to the point of not even caring. I'm simply happy I have the option of hearing the music. At my age gear becomes secondary to the music, and nothing else matters.

Though technically limited due to the date of recording (and Cortot's limited technique) but still my favorite. This has appeared on both LP and CD, hard to find as physical media these days:

Owned this recording as a Seraphim LP back in the mid seventies. There was a late night radio show on LA's Classical music station, sponsored by a local high-end audio outfit. They played this track using a Grace 707 arm, comparing it to a stock AR XA arm (as I recall), same cartridge on both. Convinced me that I needed that arm for my AR XA, took another ten years before that happened. Great set of the Chopin Etudes:

This box showed up at Rasputin's (now "Mad Monk") in Fresno, has some wonderful Chopin in it:

 

[anmpr1]

Owned this recording as a Seraphim LP back in the mid seventies. There was a late night radio show on LA's Classical music station, sponsored by a local high-end audio outfit. They played this track using a Grace 707 arm, comparing it to a stock AR XA arm...

Yeah... if AR only had a Japanese connection, and if they would have had the foresight to incorporate the 707 on their otherwise wonderful turntable, I think it could have prevented a lot of the intervening analog nonsense.

Right now I'd like an AR with a Grace...

 

[Robin L]

Yeah... if AR only had a Japanese connection, and if they would have had the foresight to incorporate the 707 on their otherwise wonderful turntable, I think it could have prevented a lot of the intervening analog nonsense.

Right now I'd like an AR with a Grace...

I had one with full Merrill mods (motor, subchassis, platter, etc.) and a Grace 707 arm. Pretty good, but not quite as good as I hoped. Had a Linn Sondek/Ittok LP-12 with Valhalla mods that was better, in large part because the cartridge (and Audio Technica high-output moving coil with a micro-ridge stylus) was so much better.

If, for some weird reason, I were to get another turntable, my dream deck would be a top of the line Technics with an Audio Technica moving coil cartridge.

 

[anmpr1]

I had one with full Merrill mods (motor, subchassis, platter, etc.) and a Grace 707 arm. Pretty good, but not quite as good as I hoped. Had a Linn Sondek/Ittok LP-12 with Valhalla mods that was better, in large part because the cartridge (and Audio Technica high-output moving coil with a micro-ridge stylus) was so much better.

If, for some weird reason, I were to get another turntable, my dream deck would be a top of the line Technics with an Audio Technica moving coil cartridge.

I liked it because it was about as simple as you could get. And inexpensive. Handsome in its own way. Downside was you might have to give it a 'push' on start up; the belt and motor were in no hurry to get where they were going. Tonearm was not exactly suited for the higher end crazy compliant cartridges of the day (ADC, Shure V15 III, etc). I think I was using a Shure M75, or maybe it was an M91. Could have even been an M44. Whatever the dealer threw in. I found it tended to work best on concrete, unsprung floors--but that's typical of genre.

I had no experience with the later AR turntable, the one with the updated arm. I have no reason to think it was not good value for its price and intended purpose. HK also sold a similar deck, which I thought more attractive and just as ergonomic.

 

[Robin L]

I liked it because it was about as simple as you could get. And inexpensive. Handsome in its own way. Downside was you might have to give it a 'push' on start up; the belt and motor were in no hurry to get where they were going. Tonearm was not exactly suited for the higher end crazy compliant cartridges of the day (ADC, Shure V15 III, etc). I think I was using a Shure M75, or maybe it was an M91. Could have even been an M44. Whatever the dealer threw in. I found it tended to work best on concrete, unsprung floors--but that's typical of genre.

I had no experience with the later AR turntable, the one with the updated arm. I have no reason to think it was not good value for its price and intended purpose. HK also sold a similar deck, which I thought more attractive and just as ergonomic.

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Initially, used a Shure M91, now wish I had a M44-7 which would have stuck in the groove better than the M91. But in any case, it's all CDs and ALAC files now. Had a Sumiko Blue Point on the mod-ed AR XA.

 

[anmpr1]

Had a Sumiko Blue Point on the mod-ed AR XA.

The AR was a popular mod platform. Like a Squire Strat, it was good looking, sturdy, cheap, and you could easily replace stuff. A modder's dream. I used to sub to the Boston Audio Society magazine, the Speaker. Located in New England, most BAS members were all things AR. Villchur, Kloss and Allison were living gods. West Coast JBL and Altec might as well have been spawn of the Evil One in their eyes.

I hope I'm not making this up since I haven't thumbed through the old issues in a while, but you'd often find articles about how to mod the AR. Usually odd ball "Why am I doing this?" sort of modifications--installing the fumble fingered Formula 4 unipivot (Good Grief!) or the then 'popular' Rabco SLT tonearm. And once done, further modding the Rabco to to make it lower mass for use with the ADC cartridge.

But all good things come to and end, and soon HK came out with their version of an AR plus Rabco, taking away the pleasure of tinkering. Definitely more ergonomic and less tweaky than any authentic AR/Rabco mod.

 

[Down South]

I had an AR deck when I lived in Rotterdam. Every time a lorry used the road the deck began to samba. From the mid 70s' the Japanese d/ds slaughtered all the belt drives in every way. The Sondek and the never ending mods and the mugs kept shelling out.

 

[egellings]

What are you talking about - we all know that Gaia sat there personally squeezing the dino bodies to make dino juice....

(if only I was a cartoonist... I can just picture this one!)

Dino Whizzz!

 

[MattHooper]

An friend of mine, an architect pal, who is no audiophile, wanted some recommendations for some decent speakers. I found him a good deal on some used KEFLS50s and he and his wife have been thrilled with how much they have contributed to their enjoyment of music. They stream music and I've listened on their system and despite a far from audiophile-approved positioning of the speakers too close to the floor, it still sounds really good, from their listening sofa.

Anyway, they recently acquired a turntable - a super cheap (sub-$100 I believe) usb/RCA turntable. Just about as cheap as you can get before a Crosley I'd guess.
The whole family has been having lots of fun spinning records - whatever their kids find while passing a garage sale, or in a record store or wherever. Very goofy eclectic stuff, but clearly they are enjoying it.

I brought over a record I knew they'd like, and it is a very well recorded album. While it sounded "ok" boy was the lack of quality obvious on that turntable! There was an obvious drop in sound quality from the turntable vs their digital streaming source. I'm used to that album sounding spectacular in my system. I don't have much experience with really cheap turntables, and I wonder what the ground floor price is where you hit at least decent quality playback for vinyl.

 

[Down South]

Surely the friend can spend more than that on a deck?

 

[Newman]

Why should he? Like Matt said, his friend was 'having fun' listening to his vinyl. Some people say that's all that matters when it's vinyl.

And he's got digital. I'm told, by some here, that nobody here says vinyl sounds better than digital. So what's the point of him spending more on vinyl than the amount that gives his whole family so much enjoyment?

 

[Down South]

You didn't read what Matt said - $100 on a deck, I bet if the architect takes his wife out for a meal he spends more than that - (1) meal and it's gone, a decent deck will last an awful lot longer - value for money and more enjoyment. Your pushing your point of view rather than replying to the posts.

 

[Newman]

Oh I read it. And I replied to it, clearly and logically.

I'm not aware of $100 TTs breaking down especially quickly. Probably simpler.

 

[Galliardist]

Why should he? Like Matt said, his friend was 'having fun' listening to his vinyl. Some people say that's all that matters when it's vinyl.

And he's got digital. I'm told, by some here, that nobody here says vinyl sounds better than digital. So what's the point of him spending more on vinyl than the amount that gives his whole family so much enjoyment?

One of the fun things about an old technology is that you can have a good time simply using it: wind up gramophone, magic lantern, old Pong video game and so on. It doesn't matter whether the results are good bad or indifferent.

For some people, LP is also an old technology and they will just enjoy it doing what it used to do. When I was a kid, records were played on a 1950s equivalent to that Crosley. It played 78s and some cheap 16 RPM records of fairy tales. Never mind sound quality, stuff like that was just fun and probably still would be.

 

[Galliardist]

You didn't read what Matt said - $100 on a deck, I bet if the architect takes his wife out for a meal he spends more than that - (1) meal and it's gone, a decent deck will last an awful lot longer - value for money and more enjoyment. Your pushing your point of view rather than replying to the posts.

And you're not?
This thread is about "explaining the vinyl renaissance", and cheap turntables are part of the modern vinyl scene, in fact a rather large part of it. In fact cheap record players have always been there, maybe giving more people more enjoyment than a lot of audiophiles get chasing some magic vinyl dream and mostly lying to themselves about their disappointment at never quite reaching their nirvana.

 

[anmpr1]

... recently acquired a turntable - Just about as cheap as you can get before a Crosley I'd guess. The whole family has been having lots of fun spinning records - whatever their kids find while passing a garage sale, or in a record store or wherever.

I remember the old man bringing home a record player. Packaged like a suitcase with a fold down record changer, and detachable four or five inch car radio speaker. I think the brand was Symphonic. Not sure.

We'd all pile in the Rambler (no seat belts back then, how did we survive?) and drive to the large supermarket (Sunday featured loss leader 5 cent hot dog w/Coke). Store had a couple of fold up tables in the front with boxes of discount label records: Pickwick, Somerset (101 Strings), a knock-off of the new Beatles LP on the Rondo label, by a group called the Liverpool Beats, RCA's budget label Camden, and so on.

Back home we'd all sit in front of the record player and listen to whatever we'd brought home. The big discussion was whose record would play first. The old man would just stack them all on the changer, and let the mech do its thing.

I know it sounds corny, but it was a family experience. The kind you don't forget. Probably if pop hadn't done that, I might have taken up another life-long hobby. I wonder if anything like that happens now, what with 'modern' tech--portable hand held and earphones? I mean the 'togetherness' part of the equation. Or if families even exist much anymore, in the traditional sense.

PS: Don't knock the Crosley!

 

[Down South]

Oh I read it. And I replied to it, clearly and logically.

I'm not aware of $100 TTs breaking down especially quickly. Probably simpler.

No but the vinyl will almost certainly degrade faster. My wife used to take her all in one just like the one anmpr1 showed to parties in the late 50s'. she still has the 45s and they are in very good condition, shame they are not my kind of music at all.

I have over 1000 LPs 95% of them are in NM / VG++ condition. I do intend to sell them after I have digital copies of around 500, only because (a) I have no one around who would appreciate them and (b) I could well decide to live permanently in a properly fitted out motorhome if I outlive my wife much cheaper, easy to maintain and flexibility where I spend my time - many friends to visit across Europe/North Africa.

I certainly wouldn't recommend any young person to get into vinyl but CDs can be bought very cheaply. Digital collections can be lost very easily with degradation, especially with SSD. It depends on how much you are attached to music. I grew up in a generation where music was an essential part of our lives and it has remained so for many of us. It's a very different mind set today - so it goes.