Speaking of vinyl...
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I was never high-end like you guys. My receiver was MCS, which was a Technics-made brand for J.C. Penney back in the day. When it died, I replaced it with an Onkyo. Speakers were Pioneer. Turntable was a Radioschlock Lab-395.
We're kind of doing some cleaning and pitching today and I ran across the old turntable. Still have my old records (under the bed). Aqua may have flung a craving on me...Haven't listened to those things for almost twenty years.
Should I spring for a receiver and a set of speakers?
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I was never high-end like you guys. My receiver was MCS, which was a Technics-made brand for J.C. Penney back in the day. When it died, I replaced it with an Onkyo. Speakers were Pioneer. Turntable was a Radioschlock Lab-395.
We're kind of doing some cleaning and pitching today and I ran across the old turntable. Still have my old records (under the bed). Aqua may have flung a craving on me...Haven't listened to those things for almost twenty years.
Should I spring for a receiver and a set of speakers?
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Guys, I don't want to spend a fortune. I just want something good enough. Don't need floor towers, a decent bookshelf is enough for me. And I know the power stuff has changed on the receivers with the years.
What can I get by for? Any suggestions?
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Guys, I don't want to spend a fortune. I just want something good enough. Don't need floor towers, a decent bookshelf is enough for me. And I know the power stuff has changed on the receivers with the years.
What can I get by for? Any suggestions?
@Jolly said in Speaking of vinyl...:
Guys, I don't want to spend a fortune. I just want something good enough. Don't need floor towers, a decent bookshelf is enough for me. And I know the power stuff has changed on the receivers with the years.
What can I get by for? Any suggestions?
I still have my dad's old turntable. But I went with a new one just so I could go the bluetooth route and bypass preamps, receivers and passive speakers. Ended up being significantly cheaper, and what I picked up is still pretty damn good.
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OK, I don't get it.
One of the attractions of vinyl is that is supposedly "sounds better" and preserves the actual dynamics of the original recording.
But, when you start throwing in things like bluetooth, etc., aren't you really just listening to compressed audio? You know, like an MP3?
I say that as a guy who's been wearing hearing aids for the last 6 months, by the way.
"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08
The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.
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OK, I don't get it.
One of the attractions of vinyl is that is supposedly "sounds better" and preserves the actual dynamics of the original recording.
But, when you start throwing in things like bluetooth, etc., aren't you really just listening to compressed audio? You know, like an MP3?
I say that as a guy who's been wearing hearing aids for the last 6 months, by the way.
@George-K said in Speaking of vinyl...:
OK, I don't get it.
One of the attractions of vinyl is that is supposedly "sounds better" and preserves the actual dynamics of the original recording.
But, when you start throwing in things like bluetooth, etc., aren't you really just listening to compressed audio? You know, like an MP3?
I say that as a guy who's been wearing hearing aids for the last 6 months, by the way.
Pretty much. There is a DAC built in to the turntable essentially digitizing the signal.
Working right now, but will be back to this thread...
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OK, I don't get it.
One of the attractions of vinyl is that is supposedly "sounds better" and preserves the actual dynamics of the original recording.
But, when you start throwing in things like bluetooth, etc., aren't you really just listening to compressed audio? You know, like an MP3?
I say that as a guy who's been wearing hearing aids for the last 6 months, by the way.
@George-K said in Speaking of vinyl...:
OK, I don't get it.
One of the attractions of vinyl is that is supposedly "sounds better" and preserves the actual dynamics of the original recording.
But, when you start throwing in things like bluetooth, etc., aren't you really just listening to compressed audio? You know, like an MP3?
I looked into this a LOT, because I had the same concerns.
Your turntable has to take the vinyl analog "signal" and convert it to a digital signal via Bluetooth in ways your speakers can understand. So yes, the signal has to be converted and yes, some compression is probably happening. So technically, yeah, it's "worse."
How much worse is extremely variable, and MP3 is not the only music format game in town.
I won't get too in the weeds with it, but I looked at what kind of output my turntable provides, and it seemed good enough.
And for me, it is. I know for a fact I wouldn't be able to tell the difference between a fully analog rig and what I have, other than if I had more speakers and I heard "more."
But I did audio comparisons with my bluetooth speakers. Compared the record to the exact same song on Spotify and Apple Music. Vinyl's far better, even with the bluetooth compression. (I don't mean it sounds warmer or more crackly, I mean you can hear individual instruments more clearly, even when the dynamics are different.)
So, good enough for me. Maybe not so for someone like Mark or Larry.
Please love yourself.
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Also, to add to the frustration, there's vinyl, and then there's vinyl.
Some record labels actually take the compressed files from the digital version and use that to make their vinyl albums.
Gotta be careful with what you pick up if you're buying new records.
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Jolly - depends on what you want to do. Up here, with just a little patience - one can find decent receivers for $20-$50 that sold for $300-$500 new a while back. Same thing with speakers.
I think I told the story of a very devout woman who asked me to put together a system for her. I asked her budget. She said "$100." A day or so later, she said she'd changed her mind. In any event I found a receiver for $15 at a garage sale - nice one. I got a CD player for free - and speakers were found next to the garbage at a high rise. So for $15 which I didn't charge her for, she had a "system." She's used it for the past 25 years.
Now, if you want to connect your phone to the receiver, there's some added expense - or if you want to convert your albums to digital, you'd need either a turntable with an A/D converter or a separate one. Frankly, I've not converted my phonograph albums to digital and don't plan to . Separate worlds for me.
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@George-K said in Speaking of vinyl...:
OK, I don't get it.
One of the attractions of vinyl is that is supposedly "sounds better" and preserves the actual dynamics of the original recording.
But, when you start throwing in things like bluetooth, etc., aren't you really just listening to compressed audio? You know, like an MP3?
I looked into this a LOT, because I had the same concerns.
Your turntable has to take the vinyl analog "signal" and convert it to a digital signal via Bluetooth in ways your speakers can understand. So yes, the signal has to be converted and yes, some compression is probably happening. So technically, yeah, it's "worse."
How much worse is extremely variable, and MP3 is not the only music format game in town.
I won't get too in the weeds with it, but I looked at what kind of output my turntable provides, and it seemed good enough.
And for me, it is. I know for a fact I wouldn't be able to tell the difference between a fully analog rig and what I have, other than if I had more speakers and I heard "more."
But I did audio comparisons with my bluetooth speakers. Compared the record to the exact same song on Spotify and Apple Music. Vinyl's far better, even with the bluetooth compression. (I don't mean it sounds warmer or more crackly, I mean you can hear individual instruments more clearly, even when the dynamics are different.)
So, good enough for me. Maybe not so for someone like Mark or Larry.
@Aqua-Letifer said in Speaking of vinyl...:
it seemed good enough.
And that, my friend, is exactly my point.
For most people it is good enough. I had a long conversation with a surgeon friend about this, and though he agreed that there is some signal degradation, the convenience of MP3 is "good enough."
And yeah, there are lossless formats that you can use.
And no, they're not the same as a vibrating piece of steel (or whatever) tracking a bumpy groove in a piece of vinyl. They're different.
But they're good enough.
De gustibus, man.
Just ask @kluurs , whose basement, with its literally thousands of CD's I've seen. And I use the term "literally" literally, not as in "wow."
Compared the record to the exact same song on Spotify and Apple Music. Vinyl's far better, even with the bluetooth compression.
Interesting. I wonder if you could compare CD to those other two formats.
I think streaming is a whole 'nother thing, though I may be wrong.
"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08
The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.
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I'd guess what you end up buying and spending will depend on how you feel about those records. Do you remember if you loved them madly, or what?
@Catseye3 said in Speaking of vinyl...:
I'd guess what you end up buying and spending will depend on how you feel about those records.
Sometimes, not always. Some I'm listening to now I've not heard much before, spent nothing on them, and they're still a hell of a lot more fun than a CD or playlist.
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@Aqua-Letifer said in Speaking of vinyl...:
it seemed good enough.
And that, my friend, is exactly my point.
For most people it is good enough. I had a long conversation with a surgeon friend about this, and though he agreed that there is some signal degradation, the convenience of MP3 is "good enough."
And yeah, there are lossless formats that you can use.
And no, they're not the same as a vibrating piece of steel (or whatever) tracking a bumpy groove in a piece of vinyl. They're different.
But they're good enough.
De gustibus, man.
Just ask @kluurs , whose basement, with its literally thousands of CD's I've seen. And I use the term "literally" literally, not as in "wow."
Compared the record to the exact same song on Spotify and Apple Music. Vinyl's far better, even with the bluetooth compression.
Interesting. I wonder if you could compare CD to those other two formats.
I think streaming is a whole 'nother thing, though I may be wrong.
@George-K said in Speaking of vinyl...:
@Aqua-Letifer said in Speaking of vinyl...:
De gustibus, man.
🤙
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There is a difference but it isn't always the medium. I have recording of a piano concerto on LP and CD. The LP is clearly superior - but as to why? When they went back to the master tapes to produce the CD, the person doing the mastering has likely a different person doing the mastering with a different intention.
I have some recordings where I have master quality recording - but yeah - can one really hear the difference. I can when listening through high end headphones. On the other hand, I listen to a lot of music in our kitchen using an Amazon Echo 8. It's wonderful as I can ask Alexa to play anything - and she does. Sounds great - no fuss.
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There is a difference but it isn't always the medium. I have recording of a piano concerto on LP and CD. The LP is clearly superior - but as to why? When they went back to the master tapes to produce the CD, the person doing the mastering has likely a different person doing the mastering with a different intention.
I have some recordings where I have master quality recording - but yeah - can one really hear the difference. I can when listening through high end headphones. On the other hand, I listen to a lot of music in our kitchen using an Amazon Echo 8. It's wonderful as I can ask Alexa to play anything - and she does. Sounds great - no fuss.
@kluurs said in Speaking of vinyl...:
the person doing the mastering has likely a different person doing the mastering with a different intention.
Interesting.
So...it's a crapshoot, and you probably won't know what you get.
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@kluurs said in Speaking of vinyl...:
the person doing the mastering has likely a different person doing the mastering with a different intention.
Interesting.
So...it's a crapshoot, and you probably won't know what you get.
@George-K said in Speaking of vinyl...:
@kluurs said in Speaking of vinyl...:
the person doing the mastering has likely a different person doing the mastering with a different intention.
Interesting.
So...it's a crapshoot, and you probably won't know what you get.
Not until you listen to it. Even then, sometimes it's obvious, sometimes it's slight, sometimes it's 🤷♂️
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Jolly - depends on what you want to do. Up here, with just a little patience - one can find decent receivers for $20-$50 that sold for $300-$500 new a while back. Same thing with speakers.
I think I told the story of a very devout woman who asked me to put together a system for her. I asked her budget. She said "$100." A day or so later, she said she'd changed her mind. In any event I found a receiver for $15 at a garage sale - nice one. I got a CD player for free - and speakers were found next to the garbage at a high rise. So for $15 which I didn't charge her for, she had a "system." She's used it for the past 25 years.
Now, if you want to connect your phone to the receiver, there's some added expense - or if you want to convert your albums to digital, you'd need either a turntable with an A/D converter or a separate one. Frankly, I've not converted my phonograph albums to digital and don't plan to . Separate worlds for me.
@kluurs said in Speaking of vinyl...:
Jolly - depends on what you want to do. Up here, with just a little patience - one can find decent receivers for $20-$50 that sold for $300-$500 new a while back. Same thing with speakers.
I think I told the story of a very devout woman who asked me to put together a system for her. I asked her budget. She said "$100." A day or so later, she said she'd changed her mind. In any event I found a receiver for $15 at a garage sale - nice one. I got a CD player for free - and speakers were found next to the garbage at a high rise. So for $15 which I didn't charge her for, she had a "system." She's used it for the past 25 years.
Now, if you want to connect your phone to the receiver, there's some added expense - or if you want to convert your albums to digital, you'd need either a turntable with an A/D converter or a separate one. Frankly, I've not converted my phonograph albums to digital and don't plan to . Separate worlds for me.
Sam Bennett once told me I lived in a piano desert. There's more used pianos here than used audio equipment.😆
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What Kluurs wrote.
Depends on your listening habits. Vinyl’s great so long as you have a system that brings out its best.
I prefer digital. I don’t listen to music, I play music . Quality over speakers is not a big deal for me although the thirty some year old system I have is not at all shabby. I still keep my old Rega Planar 3 turntable in storage downstairs in case I want hook it up again someday. Hopefully the kid hasn’t shanked the needle and cartridge - although am sure the magnets in the cartridge are well beyond their best before date.
