The Vinyl Thread

The Lounge Other Gear
#1

We have a great cassette thread, so I figured we could do with a thread for lovers of vinyl, record players and turntables vintage and modern, etc.

I just got back into vinyl after decades in CDs, iPods, then using my phone with Apple Music. I went vinyl shopping last week for the first time since probably the 80s, and loved it.

In my town, there are two main neighborhoods with a concentration of record stores, and I spent an afternoon in one area, visiting 5-6 places. It was so much better than browsing Apple Music, or even the (excellent) Albums app.

I picked up a few old classic that I used to own (Remain in Light, Kind of Blue), and some newer stuff, and the relationship with the music is totally different.

Anyway, off we go. Technical talk, new purchases, advice, anything to do with vinyl goes. And no haters! This is a a safe space for vinyl lovers of any kind.

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#2

I was worried Covid would kill my favorite local record shops, but they hung on and made it through. When they first opened back up, and only so many people were allowed inside at a time, a line to get in stretched down the block.
I love my records, but the thought of moving them again… eeesh…

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#4

Ha, yeah. I just did it last year, a couple of thousand of them. The insurance aspect kind of stresses me out these days as well, I love them but at the same time they’re essentially like my pension or something so it gets to a point where it feels weird thinking about a house fire or a roof leak or whatever. I think they’re insured but had a really hard time getting straight answers from all the insurers I tried about how they deal with large collections of things rather than individual valuable items.

I started buying records at pretty much their lowest point (late 90s/turn of the century) and it’s mad seeing the used prices of some of the things you used to commonly see around at like £3 a pop or whatever.

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#5

No kidding about the used prices. I saw used copies of Dark Side of the Moon going for $45 bucks at some silly shop in Philly. Oh! Also Rumors! Every single record shop in the world has a copy or five of Rumors hanging out in the used bins… and these people were charging like $30 for a beat up copy. Madness!

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#6

Yeah, something like Violator I used to see really cheap all the time. My UK copy has a median of over £50 on Discogs now. Substance by New Order, similar thing but £70 a pop. It’s mental.

#7

I never stopped buying vinyl but my rate slowed down considerably when I stopped DJing. Also, often your choices were so limited sometimes when trying to buy in your own genre. This was the time when downloads were king.

My daughter is 11 and she had discovered records. We went shopping today to a secondhand record shop and I was absolutely astounded at the prices of some of the old records. £180 for Depeche Mode single of Question of Time and £500 for a signed copy of Nirvana’s Nevermind . Crazy prices indeed. At these prices I’ve probably got enough original vinyl to buy a new car.

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#8

I’m going slowly, and just buying albums that I prefer to have on vinyl. I can always stream anything else.

Does anyone here bother with plastic sleeves for their records?

#9

I’ve plastic sleeves on a lot of my older records. I’ve owned some of them for almost 30 years and has certainly kept them in good condition

I sell chunks of my collection every few years. At my most had over 10,000 but probably down to my last 5-600 now

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#10

As soon as you get a new record you should resleeve it in an ant static sleeve and toss the crap paper one in the bin… anti static sleeves in boxes of 25 aren’t too expensive in comparison to the cost of the record it’s going to protect.

I don’t put every record in a plastic sleeve though. Makes handing them no fun.

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#11

I don’t think people usually buy the offending type in bulk when they’re buying plastic sleeves but be careful of the thick, gloopy plastic ones like those often seen with picture discs. Over time chemicals in them can leech onto records - even through card sleeves and inners. Environment probably plays some sort of role in how quickly it’ll happen.

I kind of thought this was some weird alarmist myth when I first read about it but I went to check and sure enough, I could see the cloudy rash on a lot of mine. I had to get rid of a load of Bjork albums because they’d become basically unlistenable due to the sibilant distortion caused by it. Made me glad I couldn’t justify keeping the fancy DMM double LP versions because they came in them too and would’ve ended up the same.

The thinner polythene ones should be fine, but avoid the PVC.

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#12

yes. It makes for a pain in the ass to get the record out, but i do it. keeps em fresh.
Im talkin outer sleeve, not inner ones though…

#13

What started as an after-hours hang for the local gigging elite, has since become a monthly meeting of the musicologists…

By invite only. We go deep. :wink:

Cheers!

image

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#14

I’ve used all brands of outers and inners. These ones are the best middle ground for me. Inners that are easy to handle, slip well into an outer and are good quality 12″ Black Polylined Paper pack of 50

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#15

I’ve been using these for a long time and they are perfect for modular storage and can be stacked in various ways which also make moving easy as you just carry the individual cube with the records in! Also really solid - the ones I bought 25+ years back (from the same maker) are as good as new.

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#16

After putting it off for many many years I’ve started adding my vinyl to my discogs collection.

Tried it before though I think the app was in its early years and adding was a pain. Barcode scanner now is excellent and only a couple so far haven’t been in their database. Really impressed with how quick this was

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#18

I didn’t know they added a barcode scanner!

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#19

I also did this recently over a few afternoons. I have a decent sized jazz collection and was curious to see which pressings I had for lots of older stuff I was unsure about.
Pretty much went cross-eyed from staring at matrix etchings for a week!

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#20

I would like to seek a recommendation of a budget vinyl player (that won’t scratch up the LP) just to try things out. Hopefully it has a bluetooth (out) feature to send audio playback to a bigger speaker too.

#21

It’s not budget budget, but personally I’m a big fan of the Yamaha Musiccast Vinyl 500.

It’s a belt driven turntable with a built in phono preamp (which can be switched off). Pretty sure you can swap the cartridge if you’re into that sort of thing.

But it’s also network enabled, so you can use it as a wifi/lan player for streaming services, internet radio etc, bluetooth audio, music on a network drive etc.

I’m 95% sure it can connect to a bluetooth speaker, I’ve just never tried it.

#22

I owned a couple of Sony’s basic automatic turntable at various points and they seem to make one with Bluetooth now. They were totally fine for my mix of old school dollar bin specials and newer stuff. I haven’t tried the base model Audio Technica ones but they’re probably OK. At that price point as long as you avoid the Crosleys you’ll probably be fine.

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