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How many LPs is enough?

Right-- the answer is "Just a few more..." However, here is where I am and what I'm thinking: The last three times I was in my local used/thrift shops, I came across a few that I was not quite sure if I already had, or whether I had that pressing. I wondered if I need to carry a Blackberry (anathema to my analog way of life) with my collection downloaded so that I could avoid this kind of dilemma.
I only own about 700 or so titles, spanning classical box sets to recent limited-release albums. I realize that this is nothing compared to most of you, but I donate what I upgrade and I sell what I do not enjoy listening to. I maintain an Excel database of what I have, and enter each upon cleaning and test-listening; I don't just buy 'em and throw 'em in a bin. While it is rather engaging to compare, say, six versions of Bolero or Beethoven's symphonies 1-9 to determine which sounds best, am I really going to listen to the other five once this is determined? Likewise, while I own a stereo and mono version, and often an audiophile reissue, of most of my favorite late '50's through '60's jazz, surf, folk, and psych, it usually turns out that one or the other sounds significantly better. My overriding rationale is that I don't really need more than a one-year supply of one title per day. While building my collection, I have enjoyed making the comparisons or searching out the missing performance when it comes to classical, but nobody who I expose to this stuff is interested in making these comparisons-- they want to hear the vinyl magic, so I always pull the superior recording.
Maybe I only need about 300-400 titles of what I consider best of the best. Even when and if I retire and have more free time, I'm not sure that I would listen to more than one LP per day, and this gives me a year of no-repeats. Of course, my husk can still haunt the local thrifts and resale shops for that fifty-cent, mint six-eye Kind of Blue, so long as I immediately sell my two-eye... Has anyone else come to this conclusion? Am I to be immediately and henceforth banished from the Brotherhood of Crusty Vinyl Seekers after having my stylus bent?
morgenholz
emailists
607 posts
 
I think it's different for every person. You mentioned you only listen to about 1 lp per day. I consider myself a moderate listener and easily listen to 3-4 a day. I bet there are plenty of people here that listen for 5-6 hours or more.

Also I think it depends what genre's of music one is interested in, and how and if thier tastes are developing. I had amassed probably 2500 or more rock LP's and then became more interested in Jazz. It was as if I had to start collecting all over again. I have a small collection of classical, but who knows, I may someday feel the need to fill that out as well.

At this point I probably have 4000 LP's. I am out of room to store them though, or I would be buying considerably more. Looking at the catalogs of new pressings and releases, my mouth simply waters. We are clearly living through the LP's renaissance. The pressings (new releases and some rereleases), cartridges, tuntables and phono stages are the best they have ever been, even when the LP was a mainstream format.

LP playback is simply so good, I hardly ever listen to digital anymore, and can often get new releases on LP rather than CD. I probably should follow your lead and pair down my collection from duplicates, and LP's I won't listen to anymore. That would give me the space for new acquisitions.
morgenholz OP
61 posts
 
Yes, finding them and cleaning them is at least half the fun. I have attempted to harness this energy in accumulating LPs "worth having," regardless of musical genre. This way, when I hear a Schoenberg piece on public radio, or a Johnny Mathis Christmas tune in a store, or a Klaatu tune on late-night car ride, I can go back and further explore that artist through the LP release or set. Since I am into avant-garde or "free" jazz, I have no alternative but to find the originals or reissues if I want to hear it! An Emailists, I agree that I don't really bother with CDs any more-- as mentioned in another post, I have a few excellent CD players, but none are even connected at the moment.
elizabeth
6,726 posts
 
I bought 14,000 in about 2 years...
Mostly at $0.10 or so.
Then I sorted them out and tossed about 4,000.
Then I had to move and discarded another 4,000 LPs.
So now I have a nice collection of 6,000 or so.
david12
1,398 posts
 
The answer is, when my current rack is full. I have had clear guidance from my wife, that the system has encroached enough. It makes it simple really, no more aquisitive pressure.
There was a recent link on Pink Fish to a report from Robert Harley on the king of audiophiles, a Chines gent with a 5 story warehouse full of kit, new and old. It included top of the range amps speakers, turntables. What the point is, escapes me. A last remark was that he had just bought a collection of 200,000 LPs, yes thats not a typo. Someone worked out, it would take 28years to listen to them once.
shiprepair
16 posts
 
I'm a classical buff and when CDs were fist introduced I decided that I did not like the sound. My friends were switching to CDs and discarding their Lps, stores were selling LPs at give away prices so I just sucked them up and added to my collection. What I had saved in paying for CDs I upgraded my hard ware. One of the best decisions I ever made.

It got to the point where I was picking up stuff and couldn't remember which Haydn string quartet I had or if I had a particular Corelli concerto grosso so I did what Rushton did. I set up a database file in Microsoft works 3.0 DOS. It was a labour of love at the beginning and I still do it now up to 5,600 entries. Whenever I go "shopping" I print out the works of the composers I am interested in purchasing recordings of and consult it when I see something I am interested in.

The data base is also useful in being able to manipulate the data and I can arrange my collection by when the music was written and then listen to a development of the composers work.

Given that I(we) live in a technology time capsule I have had to purchase a back up hard drive to protect my DOS data base. But I have to say that we have to thank the hard ware technology of today as perhaps 25 years after the cessation of whole scale production of vinyl, it has never sounded better.

But to the answer to how many is enough? I think every body is right. As you pick up esoteric or rare recordings you go chasing down another composer, style,era and it all begins again. I tell my wife that this collection thing is a male passion not totally removed from the hunt. I'm lucky enough to work out of my home so I will probably listen to about 3 to 4 records a day.

I hope I made acontribution, thanks for reading.

Martyn
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