@ghdprentice Your first post +1. OP should stay digital. He has limited resources and knowledge of record players. His record player is poor and probably not well set up. No wonder his present system can't match Amazon Music, although not being interested, I don't know the SQ of that. He should check out the parameters of the Amazon offering and perhaps move to a better quality digital source.
New user phono question. Comes with free story.
So once upon a time I saved a record player from the trash. It don’t think it was anything special as those things go, but it was much beloved by me. It was the first, and until recently, the only “system” I had ever heard that made me understand why people sit and spend hours just listening to music.. And did I ever put in the hours. I was in school then, and time was a luxury I had. That little record player spun so much that it eventually started spinning faster and faster until I couldn’t listen to it. Without the knowhow to repair it, or the money to replace, it went into the trash with the intention to replace it.. Someday... Then came wife, then came kids.
Fast forward 15 years, and it occurred to me one morning that I had the time to listen to music again. To me the choice of media was obvious. I had fallen in love with vinyl, and it was time to rekindle the love afair. That was about two months ago. It all started innocently enough, borrowing dusty components from be basements of friends and family to cobble something together that would reproduce sound. It was okay, but the first attempt didn’t come close to the sound I remembered. From there I started shopping for better components and things spiraled out of hand rather quickly.
So far, I’ve bought an old Sony PS-X6 turntable with a Sure M95-ED cartridge, a Technics SU-V6 amp, and a set of Vaughn Triode speakers. I wanted to encourage my kids to use the stereo too, so to make it more convenient, I decided to add a digital source. That wound up being Amazon music, a Lavaudio blue-tooth adapter, and a Denifrips Ares II. And this brings me to the problem.
The digital source sounds better, as in WAY better. On digital, listening gives me that first date butterflies feeling every time, and I just want to turn it up, and up some more. On vinyl there is just less, less of everything. Now I am at a cross roads. I have to decide weather to put more money into the vinyl or just abandon a few hundred pounds of records which I have recently discovered are all available in very nice quality digital anyway. This finally brings me to the question. Budget is a concern for me and I’m wondering if I have just fluked into some equipment that under-performs on records, or dollar for dollar, is it just harder to get performance from vinyl? Do you think it would be realistic to get to the performance of the digital side of the system for say, a $1000 investment, or is that just a pipe dream? I already have an integrated MC phono stage, so maybe I should try another cartridge?
If you’ve read this far. Thanks!
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Unless you already have a substantial vinyl collection you are way better off sticking to digital sources. Building a vinyl system that will compete with digital is expensive and time consuming. Vinyl is a PITA. Why so many of us love it (includes me) is a mystery. But with thousands of records I have little choice. My vinyl rig alone will cost all told $70,000. That is ridiculous. |
That's a big investment, and certainly nothing I will ever come near. The kids and I spent a few hours going through the collection last night, and discovered that we had quite a bit of unusual stuff. I have some stuff from local and Newfoundland musicians that I will never find on digital. Also, it's a great way to spend time with the kids. Those reasons are enough to decide that the vinyl has to stay. I'm not going to aim for a super-duper system, but just try to get it to a point where it is reasonably competent and enjoyable. The best route, I would think, would be to get my Sony singing as well as possible. The table however, seems to be drawing a bit of hate on here and I'm not exactly sure why. It is a heavy built mid-fi table, that was at the top of Sony's middle tier products in the late 70s. It gets glowing user reviews online. Here is a link to the description: http://www.thevintageknob.org/sony-PS-X6.html I'm not looking to jump up and defend something that I know very little about. I'm just trying to understand why the recommendations to throw it away and replace it with a newer - also mid-fi table. I bought it because I reasoned that a good unit, built during the hayday of phono should still be good today. Has the technology advanced so much? |
I think the "bit of hate" for the Sony comes from your experience swapping it out for the Rega. Something is wrong with the cartridge, tonearm or table setup with the Sony. But I agree with the OP that getting the Sony up to spec is a good first approach. Concentrate on the cartridge. It would probably be super easy to find a new cantilever/stylus for the Shure M95 cart. LP Gear is a great source if you want to avoid Ebay. Shure may not make the stylus anymore but I bet someone else makes something that works. |
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