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Should I sell my vinyl rig?

Rubbersoul2

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Oct 11, 2021
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This question is less technical and more... philosophical? So apologies if it offends. I'm asking here because I think ASR leans away from vinyl being a good way to listen to music, so I'm hoping I'll get from you good, rational reasons to counter my slightly misty eyed ones.

The facts:
  • I have a low spec 1980s Linn LP12 turntable with a new MC cart, which I run into a mic amp, then into an AD converter, then into a Mac mini where I do digital RIAA and room correction before sending it to a DAC and then on to speakers.
  • I've a small but growing collection of around fifty records.
  • My partner gave birth to our twins ten weeks ago.
  • Our house needs renovations.
  • If I sold the vinyl-enabling portion of my system, I'd probably get around £2000, which is a long way towards a badly-needed new kitchen.
  • I am under no pressure from my partner to sell anything.
My arguments for vinyl:
  • I love the ritual of playing records, and how my records sound.
  • Before the twins were born I loved going to second hand record shops.
  • I have found some great music this way, that I wouldn't have done otherwise.
  • I like having a slowly growing physical representation of my favourite albums, rather than them just existing as little hearts in the Tidal ether.
  • I like the thought that in years to come the twins will leaf through and find music they might never encounter on YouTube, or whatever young people use by then.
  • Records look nice.
  • My LP12 looks nice.
  • I am proud to have created a vinyl playback system that is balanced from cartridge to speaker, that enables me to room correct a turntable, that is I think totally unique (not so humblebrag, sorry).
My arguments against vinyl:
  • Records are expensive
  • Records definitely don't sound as good as the same music streamed.
  • Modern LP pressings are often really disappointing.
  • My system would be far simpler without.

What should I do?

Thanks!

James

james what you should do buddy is work out were love arrives and were it exits .
im about 80.000 records in ,, i fit kitchens somtimes for people,,,,but try not to !, i spent many hours at the kitchen sink , neither nither as much enjoyment as my life with records over the years .
do your wife n childrens needs might come first ? who knows .
question do you enjoy Art , yes its good for somthing . look at your LP covers .cmon . wow
or
if you want i will buy your record collection .fit you a new kitchen .
just never sell your vynl anolouge part of your system EVER!
good luck
 

Rubbersoul2

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Of course you can still collect records for the sake of collecting records:
https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2016/04/14/icm-poll-48-of-people-who-buy-vinyl-dont-listen-to-it/
I overhead a couple of younger folks talking while flipping through the bins at a record store. One of them was "thinking about" buying a record player.
yeah i had a young man ( electrician in my apartment last week , more of a record libary shop type living space , he walked through to kitchen and asked what are all those ??? who , oh records .. vas is das ! omg dude . yes he was about 22 suppose .. shock i dident ask if he liked music to early .
 

bravomail

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This question is less technical and more... philosophical? So apologies if it offends. I'm asking here because I think ASR leans away from vinyl being a good way to listen to music, so I'm hoping I'll get from you good, rational reasons to counter my slightly misty eyed ones.

The facts:
  • I have a low spec 1980s Linn LP12 turntable with a new MC cart, which I run into a mic amp, then into an AD converter, then into a Mac mini where I do digital RIAA and room correction before sending it to a DAC and then on to speakers.
  • I've a small but growing collection of around fifty records.
  • My partner gave birth to our twins ten weeks ago.
  • Our house needs renovations.
  • If I sold the vinyl-enabling portion of my system, I'd probably get around £2000, which is a long way towards a badly-needed new kitchen.
  • I am under no pressure from my partner to sell anything.
My arguments for vinyl:
  • I love the ritual of playing records, and how my records sound.
  • Before the twins were born I loved going to second hand record shops.
  • I have found some great music this way, that I wouldn't have done otherwise.
  • I like having a slowly growing physical representation of my favourite albums, rather than them just existing as little hearts in the Tidal ether.
  • I like the thought that in years to come the twins will leaf through and find music they might never encounter on YouTube, or whatever young people use by then.
  • Records look nice.
  • My LP12 looks nice.
  • I am proud to have created a vinyl playback system that is balanced from cartridge to speaker, that enables me to room correct a turntable, that is I think totally unique (not so humblebrag, sorry).
My arguments against vinyl:
  • Records are expensive
  • Records definitely don't sound as good as the same music streamed.
  • Modern LP pressings are often really disappointing.
  • My system would be far simpler without.

What should I do?

Thanks!

James
yes sell it
 

Godataloss

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Joined
Aug 16, 2021
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Location
Northern Ohio
This question is less technical and more... philosophical? So apologies if it offends. I'm asking here because I think ASR leans away from vinyl being a good way to listen to music, so I'm hoping I'll get from you good, rational reasons to counter my slightly misty eyed ones.

The facts:
  • I have a low spec 1980s Linn LP12 turntable with a new MC cart, which I run into a mic amp, then into an AD converter, then into a Mac mini where I do digital RIAA and room correction before sending it to a DAC and then on to speakers.
  • I've a small but growing collection of around fifty records.
  • My partner gave birth to our twins ten weeks ago.
  • Our house needs renovations.
  • If I sold the vinyl-enabling portion of my system, I'd probably get around £2000, which is a long way towards a badly-needed new kitchen.
  • I am under no pressure from my partner to sell anything.
My arguments for vinyl:
  • I love the ritual of playing records, and how my records sound.
  • Before the twins were born I loved going to second hand record shops.
  • I have found some great music this way, that I wouldn't have done otherwise.
  • I like having a slowly growing physical representation of my favourite albums, rather than them just existing as little hearts in the Tidal ether.
  • I like the thought that in years to come the twins will leaf through and find music they might never encounter on YouTube, or whatever young people use by then.
  • Records look nice.
  • My LP12 looks nice.
  • I am proud to have created a vinyl playback system that is balanced from cartridge to speaker, that enables me to room correct a turntable, that is I think totally unique (not so humblebrag, sorry).
My arguments against vinyl:
  • Records are expensive
  • Records definitely don't sound as good as the same music streamed.
  • Modern LP pressings are often really disappointing.
  • My system would be far simpler without.

What should I do?

Thanks!

James
At least keep the records. They will likely appreciate.
 

Cote Dazur

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Records definitely don't sound as good as the same music streamed
That would settle it for me, fortunately it is not true for me, records on my LP12 regularely sound better to me than streamed or any other digital medium. So my TT and record collection are not going anywhere soon.
sitting at home listening to perfectly reproduced music.
Perfectly reproduced music does not exist. Some digital medium have the potential to offer great performance, does not make it perfect, streaming is not the best digital experience anyway. don’t drink the kool-aid.
 
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Chrispy

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@Jas0_0 curious did you stick with the gear? Just saw the thread and looked thru your posts, and that a while back you decided to keep the gear....but wonder if you changed your mind, continued your use, or put it away out of the reach of the little ones for a while, how much you added to your vinyl collection, etc

Personally I kept my tt/vinyls around all these years (my tt I've had for over 35 years and vinyl going back to early 60s when I bought my first one, and quite a few vinyls in total), altho I rarely play them. I have too many good memories invested for me to get rid of, despite their inconveniences.
 

Frank Dernie

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Perfectly reproduced music does not exist. Some digital medium have the potential to offer great performance, does not make it perfect, streaming is not the best digital experience anyway. don’t drink the kool-aid.
When I retired I did some experiments to see if some of the audio myths were real or not by checking what level of distortion I could hear and the dynamic range I needed for the music I like.
There is no left doubt in my mind that CD is audibly transparent, for me, from this, so I would say CD is perfect reproduction.
The problem is there is no such thing as a perfect recording.

CD has a flat frequency response inaudibly low levels of distortion and a frequency response that goes higher in frequency than I can hear, so “better” reproduction than CD is completely pointless IME.

The thing with LPs though is that very few cartridges have a flat frequency response, quite a lot (probably the majority) of turntables used in the listening room pick up enough spurious vibration in the environment to add a nice bit of reverb so with LPs one can dick about with the sound to suit yourself whereas with CD you are stuck with listening to exactly what the record company released. The dynamic range isn’t a wide as CD but is usually enough. Distortion is sometimes audible, depending on modulation and where on the disc but is rarely enjoyment ruining for me.

All 4 of my turntables sound different.
On good recordings they can sound sublime.
On bad recordings they are awful.
All my CD players sound the same but the limit is still the recording, with good ones sounding sublime and bad ones awful.

For me it is pointless getting tribal about LP versus digital since the limit on SQ is recording quality not ones HiFi.
Which is a shame if you are a Hi-Fi nut but still true ;)
 

Cote Dazur

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For me it is pointless getting tribal about LP versus digital since the limit on SQ is recording quality not ones HiFi.
Which is a shame if you are a Hi-Fi nut but still true
Yes, absolutely, closely followed by room speaker/seat positioning, room treatment. Everything else is way down in the list of importance.
so “better” reproduction than CD is completely pointless IME.
For me to, there is much more at play in what is important than the few specs most people seem to be obsessing about.

so I would say CD is perfect
To me it does not qualified as perfect, good enough does not mean perfect. Even if we had a “perfect” medium, in an imperfect chain, it means nothing as any chain is only as strong as the weakest link. The weakest link does not appear to me, at this point in time, to be in any of the hardware we use in our system, even though most conversation/thread, here and anywhere else is about changing one perfectly adequate link for an other perfectly adequate link not addressing the weakest link.
 

Frank Dernie

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To me it does not qualified as perfect, good enough does not mean perfect. Even if we had a “perfect” medium, in an imperfect chain, it means nothing as any chain is only as strong as the weakest link. The weakest link does not appear to me, at this point in time, to be in any of the hardware we use in our system, even though most conversation/thread, here and anywhere else is about changing one perfectly adequate link for an other perfectly adequate link not addressing the weakest link.
Of course the speaker and where it is in what sort of room makes the most difference, as does the microphone and its position relative to the performer, though the latter is only of interest to those who make recordings.

Most of the electronics, suitably matched, will be audibly transparent. LPs aren’t but can be quite nice anyway.

My point is better than CD in terms of frequency response and dynamic range is pointless for music recordings.

I am an engineer and was taught that making something better than it needed to be was expensive and stupid. Nothing I have learned as a practicing engineer, first with record players and then racing cars has disabused me of this valuable lesson.
 

MattHooper

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That would settle it for me, fortunately it is not true for me, records on my LP12 regularely sound better to me than streamed or any other digital medium. So my TT and record collection are not going anywhere soon.

Same here.

If I wasn't able to get a similar level of satisfaction from the sound of my LPs as I get from my digital stuff, the rest of the aspects of vinyl owning/playback wouldn't be enough to get me on board.

I was playing a bunch of electronica streamed to my Benchmark DAC last night. Sounded amazing. Afterwards I put on an electronic music LP by Disclosure. Sounded amazing.
 
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