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Sweetnighter View Drop Down

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Topic: Vinyl
Posted: November 14 2004 at 15:30

Ahh, the good ol' musical medium. Does anybody here still play of buy/sell vinyl material?

I bleed coffee. When I don't drink coffee, my veins run dry, and I shrivel up and die.
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sigod

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Posted: November 16 2004 at 11:04

Yeah I still buy vinyl off e-bay. You can still by 12' stuff new that's dance related but good prog? Only second hand so it seems.

BTW check out the 'currently listening to..' thread for more news and views on this subject

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goose

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Posted: November 19 2004 at 12:10

Buying a turntable on Sunday maybe I can't use it till christmas though...

oliverstoned View Drop Down

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Posted: December 13 2004 at 05:02

bUY A REGA PLANAR 3 TURNTABLE AND YOU WON'T BE DISAPOINTED

If you're rich enough, buy a Linn lp12

Certif1ed

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Posted: December 28 2004 at 15:56

Do I buy vinyl?

I need some more shelves

Reed Lover View Drop Down

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Posted: December 28 2004 at 17:10

I buy Lino.

I need some more flooring. LOL

Certif1ed

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Posted: December 28 2004 at 17:36

Why not put it on the walls instead, for a unique, yet practical, easy-to clean and fully water-resistent wall covering that is bound to be the talking-piece of any dinner party you might hold?

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Posted: December 31 2004 at 17:32

I wouldn't recommend buying any used vinyl unless you can return it for refund or test it before you buy it; here's why. I bought an assload of progressive and jazz albums like Rush, Weather Report, Yes, King Crimson...and ALL of them skipped on at least two of the tracks. I was SO pissed that they were all defective in some way or another. I realized why they were so cheap ($2.99 a piece) and why people got rid of them. I would suggest selling your turntable or refraining from buying one, and use the money to buy the records on CD. The only two reasons I could see someone buying vinyl these days is for collecting purposes or for the album art. Album art really took it in the shorts when CDs became the main format for music.

Certif1ed

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Posted: January 01 2005 at 09:31

The main reason for buying vinyl is that First presses of albums up to the end of the 1970s sound absolutely amazing and blow their CD equivalents out of the water on a good HiFi.

The downside is, of course, that spotting scratched or defective vinyl is a bit of an art that you need to develop. Generally, if you can feel the mark with your fingers, it can cause either pops or skips, and it's the tiny ones that tend to be worst.

On (e.g.) Beatles' First Presses, the vinyl is so thick and robust that most surface marks do not cause a problem. However, there is still the problem of those really tiny (about 2-3mm) marks that are really deep and cause issues.

The Record Collector or Record Collector's Guild grading scales are a good way to guage records if you buy them from eBay - if you only buy records graded as Near Mint or Excellent, then you should never end up with a scratched lemon. If you do, you can leave the seller bad feedback - and most sellers will bend over backwards to avoid that.

Reed Lover View Drop Down

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Posted: January 01 2005 at 17:30

Certif1ed wrote:

Why not put it on the walls instead, for a unique, yet practical, easy-to clean and fully water-resistent wall covering that is bound to be the talking-piece of any dinner party you might hold?

Do you seriously think a man with lino issues holds dinner parties?

LOL

hdfisch

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Posted: January 01 2005 at 17:53

redbar89 wrote:

I wouldn't recommend buying any used vinyl unless you can return it for refund or test it before you buy it; here's why. I bought an assload of progressive and jazz albums like Rush, Weather Report, Yes, King Crimson...and ALL of them skipped on at least two of the tracks. I was SO pissed that they were all defective in some way or another. I realized why they were so cheap ($2.99 a piece) and why people got rid of them. I would suggest selling your turntable or refraining from buying one, and use the money to buy the records on CD. The only two reasons I could see someone buying vinyl these days is for collecting purposes or for the album art. Album art really took it in the shorts when CDs became the main format for music.

Maybe you really had back luck. I found already a lot of good quality vinyls second hand from private through ebay from Genesis,Pink Floyd,Yes and so on. Most of them were less than 3 $ and none of them was skipping.

oliverstoned View Drop Down

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Posted: January 03 2005 at 13:48

You're both right.
it's a little complicated to get good condition vynil,
you have to learn to recognize them and even if you know, you can be disappointed, for example if the former owner had a poor cartridge...
You have to deserve it...

Certif1ed

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Posted: January 03 2005 at 16:39

An easy way to tell if it's been played a lot of times is to look at the centre of the record.

Generally, the label should still look practically new - if not, it's been mishandled or improperly stored (especially if it's peeling - that indicates damp). If the label looks suspicious, put it back, no matter how much you want the LP - there will be another one somewhere else some day!

White paper showing through the coloured label around the centre hole is an indication that the LP has been put thrown onto the turntable and snatched off a few hundred times - or generally abused (you're a bit stuck if the label is white ).

Next, you may see little spidery lines around an inch or so of the centre - look at any LP you own under bright light; compare one you've hardly played with one you've thrashed to death. There will be few and faint lines on the hardly played LP, and loads of "spiders" on the thrashed one.

Check this out for a clean spindle - note the excess plastic, indicating that this LP has probably only seen a turntable from its cover, or, if it has been played, then the owner treated it like it was made of eggshells:

This puppy'll set you back a few hundred quid at least

Garion81

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Posted: January 03 2005 at 19:43

sigod wrote:

Yeah I still buy vinyl off e-bay. You can still by 12' stuff new that's dance related but good prog? Only second hand so it seems.

BTW check out the 'currently listening to..' thread for more news and views on this subject

Hey I found a used record store here in California recently. Got a pretty good copy of Point of Know Return by Kansas and had it signed by Steve Walsh the same night. Paid $1 for it.

"What are you going to do when that damn thing rusts?"

oliverstoned View Drop Down

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Posted: January 04 2005 at 11:52

Certif1ed, which turntable do you have and with which cartridge?

Certif1ed

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Posted: January 04 2005 at 13:24

I have a serviceable Technics turntable, I really ought to know the model number and cartridge name, but don't offhand. I only play my FPs once - to transfer them directly to the computer I have sitting next to my HiFi, then burn them as 24-bit 96Khz audio onto DVD-R (the quality is incredibly faithful, but so is the equipment hum when you listen on headphones ).

One day I will upgrade it to a Rega and enjoy my collection properly - but I'll probably have to wait until my g/f returns to work, as the little one is quite expensive!

oliverstoned View Drop Down

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Posted: January 04 2005 at 16:15

Yes, you're right.
Rega planar 3 is fantastic.
Moreover,the origin cartridge (elyss or super elyss) is good. The origin arm rb300 is good also.

slipperman View Drop Down

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Posted: January 06 2005 at 18:33

Vinyl rules. I prefer it over CD. The problems Redbar89 had can happen, but can be avoided by closely inspecting the vinyl, as Certif1ed recommends...It's easy. And if you can't (if you're buying it on eBay), make sure to do a couple minutes research on the seller, making sure his grading system is trustworthy, etc. If you pay $2.99, you're probably going to get a crappy piece of wax (or you just got a killer deal! I got Eela Craig's 'Hats Of Glass' for $1.99 on vinyl and it looks/sounds superb!!!)

With a nice piece of vinyl (they're out there for sure, I've got hundreds of 'em!), a nice turntable (I'm a Rega man, cuz I can't afford anything better, but Rega is still top-notch hi-end), and of course a good amp, vinyl sounds warmer, fuller, even more dynamic than CDs, imo. That's the way I hear it. It's more high maintenance, sure, but there's nothing like the sound + the artwork to really get you into that world that deep listening can access...

...it is real...it is Rael...

oliverstoned View Drop Down

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Posted: January 08 2005 at 11:59

I see we understand each other.

You're absolutely right

Rega3 is fantastic, to have better you have to upgrade to a n old LP12 LINN, which is much expensive.

With an expensive moving coil, you can go much further.

Also good link and alimentation cables are very important, and vibration isolation accesories too.

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Posted: January 13 2005 at 10:45

Anybody know if there is anyway you can tell just by looking at used vinyl whether or not it will skip or if it's worn out? ANY advice/pointers would be much appreciated, as I plan on buying used vinyl for collecting and LISTENING purposes. Thanks.