I need a new vinyl record player!

CD's are good but just not the same! I've been in the garden listening to Floyd and Tubular Bells II, not a patch on the vinyl!!!!

Yes, I said Floyd, Pink Floyd, and I've never taken any acid, crack, weed or anything else in my life!

 

Often thought about getting one, but all my old vinyl was lost long ago.

What are you thinking of getting or more to the point, what price band are you looking at.

What Hifi mag always seem to praise the Rega range of turntables, starting from £249 for the Planar 1.

12 of the best Rega turntables of all time | What Hi-Fi?

 

It can get a bit pricey Vince. The Rega mentioned above would be the absolute minimum AFAIC. Do allow for a decent cartridge too

 

Not sure what you have been using to listen to your CDs in the garden, but have you considered going more modern than retro by using the online streaming services etc ?

Many turntables now come ready to play, with factory fitted cartridge and phono amp stage, one of the best is the Linn LP12, if you have £20k spare ?!

 

As a vinyl enthusiast, as do many of my fellow lovers of this medium, I'd say there's a lot of cheap "crapaphones" as we call them being advertised out there.
e-Bay is a good source of unwanted turntables, they went completely out of fashion until a few years ago, so they were as "cheap as chips." But still there's some bargains to be had.

I'm still using a basic Philips 308 turntable with a Shure M75 EJ cartridge I bought in 1972. Equivalent cost now would be around £600.

I give it a "lube job" every now and again and I've changed the belt and keep a spare under the turntable.
You can get new belts for any turntable.

I posted this on e-Bay eight years ago, just to show someone on an audio board who wanted some information. Curiously it's had nearly 3000 hits!

 

I'm a big fan of streaming, having finally realised what all of the fuss is about. I'm using Tidal hi res music service which is very good.

In the garden you'll not get great sound. We noticed when we moved to this house and the room was much bigger that the speakers couldn't cope with the room size and what once sounded great now sounded awful.

I know that the people complain about digital music being too clinical and vinyl being warmer. I'm intentionally staying away from vinyl as I don't need any more rabbit holes to dive down.

Edit : I did like to read the sleeve notes when I had vinyl back in the 80's - something that isn't the same with CDs or streaming

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Must be something wrong with my ears, never understood why people prefer a 50yr old bit of plastic to a modern sound.

 

I think youre forgetting the scratches in the records @pete - difficult to put a price in that. Bad memories of ELOs Time album jumping , despite being replaced by boots several times.

 

I was going to say much the same Pete.

I heard recently on the TV that vinyl is making a comeback. Those were the days, back in the 50's. I lived in Woolwich then and the local music store, Drysdales had cubicles where you could listen to the record your wanted to buy. Most of the shoppers were youngster.....yes I was one in those days. Suddenly everyone would stop as if frozen in time. The shop manager would say. Sorry Sir, what record did you say? Er, yes. Have you got Rackmaninofs piano concert in... Happy days. Actually I have a wide range of music.

I no longer play my records. I have a hifi unit that has a turntable for al sizes, a radio, and twin cassette tapes, I added a CD player to that. Circumstances prevail. My downstairs neighbour and her kids like to emphasise when closing doors. I often wonder how much more the brickwork can stand. So, I still value my records but to play them under these living conditions, the records wouldn't just have scratches, they'd have B/great holes also. I have tucked away in a cupboard a brand new turntable. Never used.

 

So are today's vinyl discs better than they were in the old days?

 

It’s not quite that straight forward. It is possible now to get hold of vinyl albums in double album form that were once single album. The theory goes (I think) that these have wider grooves, and will therefore sound better with less distortion. These though are relatively expensive, and not widely available. I have one or two, and yes, they do sound good, but much of that is down to the recording. Ok, that said, I have old vinyls that sound superb just as I have CD’s that sound superb. So much is down to the quality of the recording and subsequent processing. So few CD’s (that I’ve heard) realise the true potential of the format, imo. A lot of folks that reflect on those ‘scratchy old vinyls’ won’t have heard what they were capable of, because most will have just had a ‘stereogram’ or some such. If you’d heard them on a good quality (expensive) system, I think you’d have been surprised. There are many aspects when it comes down to vinyl v CD (digital) and I don’t want to bore you with them, but the debate goes on in the HiFi world. Suffice to say, it’s not clear-cut.

 

Am only on the lower/mid way up the big Hifi ladder in equipment terms, but have to agree with you there that its the playback devices that set the stage, so to speak.

What would be interesting to know is how do you rate the playback quality of downloaded tracks that you purchase/keep as well as streamed tracks as @andrews mentions above?

Its not something we have properly ventured into, but would be interested if its worthwhile.

Its a shame @Vince hasn't come back in with his thoughts, not too well ?

 

TBH, I can’t comment on downloads as I like to have something physical for my £’s. I use Spotify for streaming (free version) and it’s quite good in terms of sound quality. I use it for both convenience and to discover both old and new music. I can certainly recommend it if you haven’t tried it

 

I agree with that Freddy. Although I still have all my vinyl albums I haven't had a record player for decades. They sounded fantastic on my late dad's stereo system - as it was called back in the 60's/70's. It was the best he could buy/afford at the time. I remember him driving up north from Essex just to buy a pair of Wharfedale speakers.

Vinyl has it's own special sound and I'd still rather listen to that than finely 'tuned' cd's.

 

I have an OLD garrard deck that has seen better days and the speakers are shot!

I have a large collection of albums that represent my younger years and I'm loathed to discard them and the memories associated with them.