Turntable got absolutely crushed by CD

Not a very fair fight IMO. Better cart and phono stage + proper setup will make all the difference. Not saying CDs don’t sound good, don’t want to go down that fat hole but I would not expect a CD to “crush” a quality vinyl recording played on a properly setup turntable with quality components (cart and phono stage).

Tired of this thread clogging my email with useless back and forth banter.....buhbye....:-D

I'm afraid a musical performance in Milan would not be worthy of what you would find in a recording from decades ago. The live ambience is nice but the artistry is lost to the ages and not coming back.

Now baroque opera in Paris might be another thing as I have witnessed at BAM.

@chrisoshea,

With this 'logic' one should probably not buy used records either. One never known how it has been handled, how often it was played and with what stylus, does one? Glad it isn't my logic, or else I wouldn't have any records.......

It has been said before, but bears repeating: what cartridges do you think those vintage records from the '50's and'60's were played with? We are debating on this forum whether sapphire is an acceptable cantilever material, but back in the day most people used a sapphire stylus! When the sound deteriorated it was worn and you simply flipped the stylus over to wear out the opposite one........

Yet most of these records have survived such crude devices, except in obvious cases of mishandling which are easy enough to see. The best of these are still considered the benchmark for sonic quality and many of them are worth more to collectors than the MC cartridges discussed here.

So why should you be so 'sensitive' about the condition of previously owned modern cartridges with a sophisticated diamond stylus? 

@glupson

Re: record storage.

That certainly is an issue. I’ve dived deep in to vinyl in the past couple of years and I find it completely energizing in terms of my passion for music and for listening to my system. 

Yet I also don’t want to end up featured on the TV show “Hoarders.” I absolutely love the physical aspect of LPs, but also don’t want to be overrun with them. So it’s definitely a battle - the desire for buying new LPs and having a place to store them. I’m not remotely close to the situation many are in here who have thousands of LPs. I think I’m probably around 400 or so at most.
But even then, I had my albums stored and displayed looking nice, neat and aesthetically pleasing. But now they are starting to overflow to look a bit more intrusive. So...on to new storage units.

I think something that naturally restrains me is that I’m not what I’d think of as a “record collector.” The distinction I make there is that a “collector” denotes for me one who collects for the sake of “collecting.” (Not necessarily purely, but that is a significant component). So a collector, to me, is someone who may for instance be a “completist” where if they like a band, they are driven to get every album available, or every pressing available of an album or whatever “for completion sake” to complete a set. Whereas I’m driven to buying an LP strictly on the basis I want to listen to that album. I’m not saying this is some more benighted motivation than the collector at all. Only denoting my approach from what I often see in folks who seem to like the “collecting” aspect as much or more than the music.

I was a comic collector for many years. So for instance, it was important for me to have “Spiderman 1 - 100” as a completed portion of that collection, whether I cared for every comic in that collection or not. I just don’t have that inclination anymore.