FreakMachine: Debating Vinyl

FreakMachine 09.30.23	ye, albums rule m/
budgie 09.30.23	keep putting money aside until you have $2000 to shop for something like a rega p6. if you don't have speakers/amp yet i would say forget about vinyl and just save up for a nice stereo setup for digital playback. vinyl is kind of boners unless you're putting money into it, it's not just an electrical machine like an amp which pretty much all are the same beside functionality, it's a precision mechanical instrument and below a certain threshold of quality you are going to be frustrated
FreakMachine 09.30.23	okay thanks for that :)
BAT 10.01.23	Most of the new budget ones are junk, seeking out an old vintage one is arguably more cost effective. The one I'm ideally going to upgrade to is an AT-LP120 for like 300 bucks, which is still considered an entry level option by purists. My advice for buying records though is to goto stores and look through second hand stuff for cheap, lot of those 70s and 80s records can be found for under 15bux no problem, it's a good way of discovering stuff. Buying modern records is gonna run you near 40+bux a pop and honestly the cds have matchable quality without requiring a hifi setup. I will pre-order bands I love/get reissues just to support them, but my cds get more mileage in terms of active listening. If you are willing to pay a premium for records, may as well invest in a proper turntable. The vinyl community is also very snobbish, a budget setups fine as long as your enjoying it.
Sharenge 10.01.23	when I decided to get the equipment together so that I could play records, I ordered a Sony receiver that I believe is from the 70s and and an old Technics turntable from eBay cus I'm poor
Hendoi 10.01.23	Don't bother if you aren't willing to invest in something decent like a soundwagon set up.
CamiloG 10.01.23	As BAT said, a decent entry-level turntables would be an AT-LP120, I would also recommend Klipsch R-41m speakers which sound great. The vinyl experience is an addictive and sometimes very rewarding one. There’s nothing quite like enjoying your favorite music in this format.
FreakMachine 10.01.23	@BAT thank you for this, that's really insightful actually. Thanks a lot for the advice to both you and @Camilo , I will consider these things. @CamiloG yeah I figured it would be addictive, I'm a collector at heart. I ended up with like 1500 CD's and decided I'd like to buy my favorite handful of albums on vinyl, particularly the ones listed but there are others such as Obscura and Selling England By The Pound.
arkngt 10.01.23	I'm very happy with my entry level Rega Planar 1 turntable. Returned to vinyl about 7 years ago and I love it.
CamiloG 10.01.23	Damn that’s an impressive CD collection. I remember that I started with a very narrow list of Vinyl I wanted, and now after a year collecting, I just can’t stop…
FreakMachine 10.01.23	"I'm very happy with my entry level Rega Planar One turntable. Returned to vinyl about 7 years ago and I love it." I shall also look into this one thank you. @CamiloG that's what happens when you spend 8 years in a hospital with little to do other than read, music, and video games. But yeah that's the rabbithole I'm concerned about, the overspending and not being able to stop. I'd be happy at just Sia's 1000 Forms Of Fear, jamming Chandelier and Dressed In Black would make me a very happy man.
CamiloG 10.01.23	I can see you’re a big Sia fan. I love every song she did with Zero 7, my favorite phase of her for sure.
FreakMachine 10.01.23	I adore everything she's done, I loved the Some People Have Real Problems album a lot, and 1000 Forms Of Fear and this Is Acting just absolutely slapped for me m/
Deez 10.01.23	If you like having money, don't even start
CamiloG 10.01.23	Lol, agreed hard. In the country I live in vinyl is even more expensive, basically I have to ship them every time, so yeah, it is an expensive world to dive in
FreakMachine 10.01.23	ouch :( And here's me just wanting to jam Sia and Cryptopsy on vinyl aha
budgie 10.01.23	do you have a stereo set up now at all?
FreakMachine 10.01.23	nah i'd be starting from scratch. Like i have a cd player but it's a mid range Sony one from when i was in hospital a few years back. primarily jam music through headphones either walking or on pc m/
budgie 10.01.23	the most efficient way you can use your budget for sound is speakers, everything else is 1% as impactful assuming it functions properly. but speakers don't need to be expensive (or new) to sound good, look on your local classifieds for a floorstander from the 70s from a company like jbl or pioneer. you can score (at least in my area) a pair for $100 that will sound as great as a modern pair with an MSRP of $1200. for amps, preamps, dacs, phono preamps, only pay for functionality, nobody can tell the difference between a $3000 DAC and a $150 DAC, same with amp and everything else in a solid state chain *this does not include vacuum amplification which is a whole other ballgame and probably not worth entering unless you have an extra $2000 to play around with. if your entire chain is solid state with a digital source you should spend 90% of your budget on speakers. but it gets more difficult to make smart purchases when you have to work around an analog source. unlike a $300 integrated amp and a $3000 preamp with monoblocks, an expensive turntable WILL sound better by virtue of mechanical performance than the budget variant and if you're like me you'll go crazy. look for something like a pro-ject or rega 1 locally, don't have it shipped, make sure there's a phono line amplification somewhere in your chain, could be on the turntable, could be a dedicated module, but most bigbox AV receivers should have them. keep in mind carts (the removable components on the turntable arm that house the needles) should be replaced every 6 months if you listen regularly and they matter, the one that comes with the pro-ject 3 is $100 so that's a very real expense to bear in mind, also a reasonable record cleaning kit and regular maintenance will make more of a difference in how the TT performs and how the records sound than everything in the signal chain best case scenario assuming you have no budget at all is finding a torn up pair of killer 70s floorstanders for $120 on craigslist, buying a big box av receiver with a phono amp module on amazon or used for $100, then a used or new u-turn or pro-ject or rega, but if you buy used fuck around with it for a long time before you walk away with it, turntables are fucking delicate and can hide issues if you aren't familiar with them. i get it might sound like elitist gatekeeping nonsense but going cheap on a TT you will discover problems you didnt even know exist in audio reproduction like inner-groove distortion which if you have a working set of ears will be fucking maddening
Wildcardbitchesss 10.01.23	It’s a black hole of spending. I have like 400 records and that’s definitely thousands of dollars, and that’s conservative. I’ve probably spent closer to like 15 grand on records Wouldn’t trade a single one
FreakMachine 10.01.23	fookin heck, the bird knowz his shit m/
Sharenge 10.01.23	how much money you got to spend and what is your knowledge of the equipment involved? also, do you currently own any speakers of any kind?
CamiloG 10.03.23	I began collecting records properly, a year ago, and so far I’ve spent 2.5k on records. Each time I say is going to be the last one for a while, I haven’t been able to stop.
DominionMM1 10.03.23	basically everything budgie said with the possible exception of replacing the cartidge every 6 months is right plus, records are fucking expensive. even newly pressed ones. and if you start to dive deep and start collecting original/first pressings of 80s/90s metal albums (which im assuming is your main taste), it starts getting super expensive
CamiloG 10.03.23	Not just in metal. In general, first pressings from pre-90s are expensive af
DominionMM1 10.03.23	first pressings in the 90s are even more expensive simply because of the low supply. us pressings in particular.
CamiloG 10.03.23	It makes perfect sense
DominionMM1 10.03.23	for example check the prices for an original pressing of the black album on discogs. the european pressings are pricey but holy shit the us pressing prices are insane.
CamiloG 10.03.23	Shit, I just did, it has been sold for up to 1.1k, absurd!