2. amps-preamps
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How a turntable is like a gym membership

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I was a member of the YMCA for years. I was there every night five days a week working out and playing basketball. I got married and started having children, but I kept my membership, I just wasn't using it. I wouldn't drop my membership because I liked playing basketball so much, I just wasn't going to the gym. Once a year, I'd go to the gym to justify my keeping it. I had to go to the front desk to get the combination to my locker, I had been there so seldom, I forgot the combination. After about five years reality set in and I finally dropped the membership. So I bought a full-fledged home gym that I now don't use, I go walking with my iPod instead.

I own two turntables, a record-cleaning machine and over 3,000 jazz LP's. Over the last five years I may have played a total of three or four LP's. I bought both of my turntables because they are both beautiful and thought that it would force me to play my vinyl. Wrong! I have an excellent CD player and I also own a SqueezeBox. Sorry, but digital is just too doggone convenient. It was nice owning two beautiful turntables so my guests could oooh and ahhh when thay saw them. It was cool to say "yeah, I still spin vinyl" when the fellas saw my system. But the truth was, I rarely came near the turntables. They served as not much more than Audio Sculpture or Audio Eye-Candy. Both of them sound beautiful, but I'll be doggone if I'm willing to go through ritual of cleaning the LP, cueing it, and be standing nearby to remove the arm when the last song is finished on one side. I kind of always felt that there was an unwritten rule somewhere that to be considered a "true audiophile" that you had to have analog playback included in your system. Sorry, but I've given in to 21st Century technology and I'm moving on. There, I've said it, I've been faking it as an analog lover for the past few years. Well, I do actually love analog, I just don't have time for it.

So, I put on an album tonight and DAMN that vinyl sounded good! But, after about 30 minutes, I realized that I have been spoiled by the convenience of digital and I'm just not willing to go through the gyrations to play an LP any longer.

So, the turntables have to go, but I'm keeping my LP's just in case. Hopefully my 13 year-old son will take them when he graduates from college.
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128x128mitch4t
koegz
317 posts
 
Quit the YMCA and build a gym in the house. If possible near your vinyl set up. Work out to vinyl. I do. Nothing like it. I am now getting into digital as well. I have no intention of abandening vinyl. Digital is easy, Vinyl is a Hobby and way of life! Sell your jazz vinyl. Your kids will be listening to rock and roll!
elizabeth
6,726 posts
 
Yeah, I chuckle at all the folks buying intro TTs and all. The fad is big now. Give it a bit of time and cobwebs, 90% of those new to vinyl will sell off the stuff from lack of use... eventually.
I got back into vinyl about nine years ago, before it caught back on big time... So I bought mountains of Lps dirt cheap. Where the starters now have a much harder time finding good used, cheap LPs worth having. (used, cheap LPs are everywhere... it's the 'good' and 'worth having' part that is the problem with cheap LPs now!!!)
Anyway, I too usually park 5 CDs in the changer.. and let it play for a day or so... Swapping out a few while it is playing another...
The turntables sit.. and get used a few times here and there when i want to hear something not in my Cd collection.
I like vinyl, but am too too lazy. Though I still go Lp hunting... every week.
Confession is good.
soldersplatter
16 posts
 
I'm 53. Obviously I started with vinyl. In the early '90s I gave away or sold off my vinyl gear and records. A friend convinced me to get back into it two years ago, and while turntables, MM/MC cartridges, phono pres, etc., have their charms, I found any "audio nervosa" was more than compensated for by the parallel need to worry about disc cleaning (had a Nitty Gritty), stylus cleaning, worrying about record wear, being annoyed by not being able to purchase exactly what I wanted to listen to, being annoyed by the bad quality of much of my used and new vinyl, etc., etc. From my perspective, there were a lot of negative factors.

After getting a Squeezebox Touch and a VALAB DAC, I listen to music more than ever and enjoy the hell out of it. (I don't own a TV.) Sometimes "nervosa" sets in and I get impatient and FF to other songs, but that's because I'm craving (usually unconsciously) a certain sound/music. And more often than not I end up being very satisfied and just go with the musical flow. I went to bed two hours later than normal last night because I was so captivated by what I was hearing. I can't wait for the RCA Living Stereo 60 CD collection to show up in the mail so I can hear much of what I used to hear via old vinyl through my analog-ish non-oversampling DAC.

My friend will always love his vinyl, and I understand why--but it's not for me. I'll never denigrate another music lover just because of the equipment they use to listen (or make!) music. But as far as turntables and vinyl are concerned, in my case the third time wouldn't be a charm.

I run five days a week.
tvad
9,467 posts
 
Soldersplatter, change the number 53 to 49 in your first paragraph, and it could be describing my experience re-discovering vinyl word for word.

I cycle 3-4 times a week (90-120 miles).
soldersplatter
16 posts
 
I'm 53. Obviously I started with vinyl. In the early '90s I gave away or sold off my vinyl gear and records. A friend convinced me to get back into it two years ago, and while turntables, MM/MC cartridges, phono pres, etc., have their charms, I found any "audio nervosa" was more than compensated for by the parallel need to worry about disc cleaning (had a Nitty Gritty), stylus cleaning, worrying about record wear, being annoyed by not being able to purchase exactly what I wanted to listen to, being annoyed by the bad quality of much of my used and new vinyl, etc., etc. From my perspective, there were a lot of negative factors.

After getting a Squeezebox Touch and a VALAB DAC, I listen to music more than ever and enjoy the hell out of it. (I don't own a TV.) Sometimes "nervosa" sets in and I get impatient and FF to other songs, but that's because I'm craving (usually unconsciously) a certain sound/music. And more often than not I end up being very satisfied and just go with the musical flow. I went to bed two hours later than normal last night because I was so captivated by what I was hearing. I can't wait for the RCA Living Stereo 60 CD collection to show up in the mail so I can hear much of what I used to hear via old vinyl through my analog-ish non-oversampling DAC.

My friend will always love his vinyl, and I understand why--but it's not for me. I'll never denigrate another music lover just because of the equipment they use to listen (or make!) music. But as far as turntables and vinyl are concerned, in my case the third time wouldn't be a charm.

I run five days a week.
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