New turntable set up

Larry: Yes, that much I already knew. I have had my eyes on products from Audio-Technica for some time.

Since I posted I have found a lengthy survey article that seems very well researched.

Seth: Per that article, this device appears to be a well-made instance of what you describe.

I seem to recall that Keith L has done a lot of digital recording and spoken at some length about it. If possible, though, I'd like to avoid having to spend a semester learning about loss-less vs loss-y formats and just get to 1 or 2 that are the most useful.

BJ: Might just.
 
originally posted by BJ:
originally posted by Jeff Grossman:
I still have 400 or so vinyl but only mediocre equipment (...hence, I almost never play them). I want to rip/burn about half of them and then get out. What is the best and easiest way to do that?
Click to expand...

And when you're done, you send the LP's to Brian C and me.
Click to expand...
in that order...
 
originally posted by BJ:


I agree with you on imports, generally, particularly those from Germany.

Now you have scavengers like me eeking together your old scraps.

Late last night, I was enjoying the wind harps on Dis.
Click to expand...

Buying imports. Those were the days. Back when imports meant LP's, before imports meant beer. Possibly the only thing that was more desirable than finding the imported pressing of released recordings were getting your hands on a bootleg recording.

No trouble getting poor sounding bootleg recordings now. Finding a descent quality recording, that's the treasure now.
 
originally posted by Arnt Egil Nordlien:
originally posted by BJ:
Regardless of how they sound, how often can you buy something made in Sweden, other than a Saab? That's cool.
Click to expand...

B&O is danish.
Click to expand...

Even better! There's NOTHING else that you can buy that's Danish!
 
I still listen to 2-3 vinyl recordings per week (mostly classical/mostly European pressings)on my Linn table. I listen to a lot of music and it is nice to give my ears a relaxing analog session from time to time. I'm a slow adapter for audio stuff: my first SACD player is showing up this afternoon, along with some new Beyerdynamic cans.

If you still spin LPs, what do you use to clean them? I've been looking at the Nitty Gritty Record Doctor.
 
originally posted by Larry Stein:
I used to have a Thorens TD160. Bought that in 1972. Last cartridge I had on it was a Dynavector MC. Gave it to Rob Adler in 2003(?). He kindly gave me a bottle of '91 Chave which drank superbly on my 50th birthday in '04.

I sold my 700+ collection of vinyl a year or so earlier. The only thing I regret was my timing. Never figured that there would be a vinyl renaissance. I was way into imported and 1/2 speed pressings. Whenever possible, I'd purchase the British or Japanese pressings of albums that one could normally purchase on US pressings. The foreign pressings, simply put, were sonically superior. It wasn't just groups that were British. I had imports of the Airplane, Dead, Allman Bros, Quicksilver, Talking Heads, Police, Pretenders, Miles...well you get the idea. I never owned a US-pressed Beatles or Stones album.

Also, from a previous discussion, I'd say at least 90% of my ECM albums were German pressings.

In vinyl's hey-day, Berkeley was import central. Tower, Leopold's, Rasputin's and Rather Ripped Records all carried a ton of imports. Tower in SF and Discount Records in San Jose were great for that, too.
Click to expand...

Larry,
You bring back so many memories with that post. Yes, to scrounging in the bins of Rasputins and Rather Ripped looking for that odd LP that I just had to have. Yes also to imports and that proto-Disorderist Europhilic stance (with the added source of Japan) that the quality was vastly superior for versions coming from Germany, the UK and Japan. Yes also to half speed mastered LPs, though budget at the time limited my indulgence (much of this shopping was done in an era when I was living on a weekly food budget of $10). I never amassed more than 300-400 LPs and they now reside in sealed waterproof bins in the basement as I gradually convert the essential albums to digital with my USB turntable (the process would be much faster were I to vacate this locale for a year -- hiatus??)

Thanks!
Mark Lipton
 
About this ripping some or essential records to digital, is it because they weren't ever released digitally?
Or an attempt to capture the analog sound? Just wondering, because fairly few of my lps didn't ever appear
on CDs and eventually in extended and superbly mastered versions. And digitizing a record is kind of missing the point, is it not?

JasonA, about ROIOs, (Recordings of Independent Origin, as live tapes and bootlegs have been renamed) while there is a lot crap out there, it's actually a golden era of ludicrous abundance these days. Bit torrent sites like etree and Dimeadozen see a constant stream of great stuff. Classic old boots digitized from the original source in quality that was not obtainable in the analog tape trading days have been posted for some years now and great sounding portable gear has meant all kinds of recent stuff is getting recorded
better than in the past (on average). Dime has an unparalleled amount of diversity music-wise. There is way more interesting cool stuff than I can keep up with.
 
originally posted by Ned Hoey:

JasonA, about ROIOs, (Recordings of Independent Origin, as live tapes and bootlegs have been renamed) while there is a lot crap out there, it's actually a golden era of ludicrous abundance these days. Bit torrent sites like etree and Dimeadozen see a constant stream of great stuff. Classic old boots digitized from the original source in quality that was not obtainable in the analog tape trading days have been posted for some years now and great sounding portable gear has meant all kinds of recent stuff is getting recorded
better than in the past (on average). Dime has an unparalleled amount of diversity music-wise. There is way more interesting cool stuff than I can keep up with.
Click to expand...

Jason, Ned is quite right. The only reason I don't torrent is because I don't have a spare PC to use solely as a dedicated torrent machine (torrenting is a resource hog). I still have more music than I know what to do with.
 
So a related question: where do I get cartridges for my late '70s vintage B&O turntable, and where do I get connectors for my late '70s B&O speakers?
 
originally posted by Ned Hoey:
About this ripping some or essential records to digital, is it because they weren't ever released digitally?
Or an attempt to capture the analog sound? Just wondering, because fairly few of my lps didn't ever appear
on CDs and eventually in extended and superbly mastered versions. And digitizing a record is kind of missing the point, is it not?

JasonA, about ROIOs, (Recordings of Independent Origin, as live tapes and bootlegs have been renamed) while there is a lot crap out there, it's actually a golden era of ludicrous abundance these days. Bit torrent sites like etree and Dimeadozen see a constant stream of great stuff. Classic old boots digitized from the original source in quality that was not obtainable in the analog tape trading days have been posted for some years now and great sounding portable gear has meant all kinds of recent stuff is getting recorded
better than in the past (on average). Dime has an unparalleled amount of diversity music-wise. There is way more interesting cool stuff than I can keep up with.
Click to expand...

Sorry to be so obtuse - a problem I have - what I meant to communicate is that there is no dearth of bootlegs/ROIo's or whatever they may be called. In fact we are living in the golden age of access to UGC (User Generated Content - my definition). My point is that with the default of digital delivery, quantity has trumped quality. Let's get serious here, four and five figure "systems" that use an iPod as the front end? WTF?

Which take us to Jeff's question. He needs to hump is vinyl collection to one of you guys with the Linn/Rega/Thorens front ends and find someone with a four figure ADC (Analog to Digital Converter) to properly sample and digitize the (insert laws of physics) infinite resolution that analog can deliver.

Thanks to the links for the torrent sites - looking forward to checking them out (I miss the old Napster Days). For the system resource issue with Bit Torrent - just run your torrents at night - though I swear my ISP is throttling my bandwidth when I do run bit torrent clients.
 
originally posted by Ned Hoey:
About this ripping some or essential records to digital, is it because they weren't ever released digitally?
Click to expand...

Well, you raise a good point. I should really inventory the lot, draw up the list of what's to be saved, and then see what isn't available.

Or an attempt to capture the analog sound?
Click to expand...

This was not my goal. However, I can tell a slightly amusing tale regarding this: One of the things that frustrates me is that Nonesuch took the three Joshua Rifkin albums of Scott Joplin rags and reissued them on CD but they omitted several tracks (probably due to the time constraint of the format).

I hunted high and low for those un-re-released tracks. I eventually found myself on a site that was dedicated to preserving "the analog experience", and they offered a slightly hissy pair of .rm files: side 1 and side 2 of the second album. Mission semi-accomplished?

Just wondering, because fairly few of my lps didn't ever appear on CDs and eventually in extended and superbly mastered versions. And digitizing a record is kind of missing the point, is it not?
Click to expand...

I know of a few but, per your first point, I should take stock and then figure out what to do.

As to whether digitizing a record misses the point: As things stand, I don't hear my vinyl at all. Digital music is convenient, portable, shareable. My actions are meant to be more practical than exacting.
 
JasonA You're right about the digital revolution degrading the quality of source material and how pervasive that has become. Unfortunately digital capacity started small, which was coped with by mp3, which got installed as a standard and a generation accepted it as normal. Now digital capacity is at the point where mp3 is no longer "necessary" but it seems too late, most people think mp3 is just fine.

If your ISP is comcast they just might be limiting you, but you run some speed tests to see what your
up/down speeds typically are normally. When you run a torrent (a well seeded one) your client should show your speeds and they should be consistent with your speed test averages. I'm not sure what can do if you're right though.
 
originally posted by BJ:
I meant to add as well, that finding an old nice Philips 312 would be akin to finding a nice old Domaine St. Anne St. Gervais in the cellar, or perhaps even an old Trollat or Grippat St. Joseph. Just so you geeks understand.
Click to expand...
Aahh, I get it now. I have an old Onkyo turntable that's been gathering dust. Is that like a KJ VR Chardonnay?
 
originally posted by BJ:
No no, not that bad. That would be a negoce Burgundy of some kind.
Click to expand...

Had a beautiful old Thorens I inherited from my Dad years ago when he gave up on records. I used it for couple of years and eventually pawned it off in college to pay for god knows what...DOH!
 
If you still spin LPs, what do you use to clean them? I've been looking at the Nitty Gritty Record Doctor.
Click to expand...

I have the same question, especially if you're going to invest the time and money to transfer to digital. Any responses from our LP-spinning community?
 
originally posted by Scott Kraft:
For vinyl geekiness nothing beats a Linn Sondek LP12 with an Armageddon and the latest plinth.
Click to expand...

And we haven't evened touched tonearms, cartridges or interconnects!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top