vinyl

Vinyl (under most comparisons) sounds smoother and more natural than CD. You trade off some surface noise, detail, and distortion, but in many (or most) cases vinyl is a more pleasing sound to the ear. What's more, there's lots of good vinyl (little recent/popular music, but lots of old classical and 60-80s titles) available for very inexpensive prices (in San Francisco, there's a good selection of nice $1 records, many used record stores, and lots of good reissues out there).

On the downside, you have pay for another front end, you must put a lot more care into cleaning and storing records, and you can't pop them in the computer or car when you want to listen outside of your home system. I don't think vinyl is the right move for everybody, but I'm very happy having taken the plunge recently (I had only a few old records left over).

The best way to get into vinyl on a budget is to find a nice quality used rig and receiver. If you can afford a Rega 2, 3 or NAD 533 (about $100-500 used), I think that's a very good starting point. For somewhat less money you might find a decent Dual, Pro-ject, or Thorens rig. If you need to go new, there is a significant price bump, but I like the Music Hall MMF-5 at $500 or the Rega 3-2000 + Elys at about $700. The Creek OBM-8 is a good phono stage for $200 new (some people have reported RFI problems, but I don't have any and live in downtown SF).

Regards, RJS

once again thank you all for your input but i stated i have two preamps,both with phono stages and used gear is all i buy!thanks guys!

Having recently made the jump into vinyl, I can tell you that it is not as inexpensive as some would have you believe. Everybody keeps talking about these $1 LPs. I say BS.

There is A LOT of crap out there for $1, but expect to pay $25-$150/LP for the stuff that you really want because everybody else wants it. Who wants the standard issue of Pink Floyd "DSOTM", Muddy Waters "Folk Singer", Cowboy Junkies "Trinity Sessions", The Police "Ghost in the Machine", Miles Davis "KOB", Berlioz "Symphony Fantastique", etc. when there are either original pressings or out of print reissues from MOFI, Nautilus, DCC, and Classic. The originals and OOP reissues are RARELY found in decent condition in a record store and sell for $25-$750 on ebay. I know because I bought them all recently. That said, I find every penny spent to be worth it and I'm not fretting SACD vs DVDA right now.