Buying LPs - where do you shop
I made the plunge into vinyl recently, and after some months of trial and error with setup, I'm in analog bliss now. Hence, I've switched as much of my music purchasing away CD to vinyl (naturally enough). I'm wondering where the rest of you vinyl nuts buy your LPs from. I've found a few good sites I can share, and would value any input from others on where they shop.
www.musicfringe.com.
I couldn't believe what I was able to source on vinyl from this site. It can be a little expensive, but they have stuff on vinyl I haven't found anywhere else. The site is a little quirky - you have to search by artist, and you can't filter your search for LPs only, but you get what you're looking for a lot of the time. Often they have multiple LP pressings of stuff available - often from Europe or Japan. the stuff is all brand new. Also, just to note, delivery takes anywhere from 2 to 8 weeks, which is a bit long.
www.dccblowout.com
This site has loads of vinyl - some new, some old, and the interface is a bit quirky too. Still, they have good stuff at reasonable prices. Also, the service is great. The owner, Tom, really goes the extra mile and shipping is pretty fast when the stuff is in stock, which it usually is.
www.amazon.com.
Surprisingly I've found I source a lot of stuff from Amazon - usually through third party sellers though. However, although Amazon is known for it's great user experience etc, it's very challenging to figure out how to search for vinyl. Here's how: go to the main page, click on the "music" link on the left nav, and from the music main page hit the blue "GO" button in the search menu (without entering anything into the search box). Next page will be a more detailed music search, allowing you to filter by vinyl. Select the vinyl filter and enter in your search criteria - I usually search by artist. Next page yields search results, but keep in mind the first three results will likely be CD (representing the most popular searches). The rest of the search results will be vinyl though. Try it - it works really well. I find Amazon third-party sellers offer the best value for money typically (although DCCBlowout.com can be better sometimes).
Finally, the only physical store I've sourced vinyl has been The Analog Room in San Jose, Ca. They have good stuff. Prices are pretty high, but it's worth going if you're close by. Also, there's loads of eye-candy vinyl rigs in the store. The owner, Brian, tweaked my Teres rig to get it working properly too (for free....but I did buy loads of LPs :-)
Anyway, happy shopping!! Can others share where they source their vinyl from. I'm keen to expand my vinyl horizons. Also, I need to source more brand-new Classical stuff, especially stuff I know is AAA quality recording. Help! Happy listening,
Outlier.
