Thinking About Selling and Replacing My Pop/Rock Vinyl Collection


I have to say that my digital sounds so nice that it has made a large portion of my vinyl library obsolete. Somewhere in 2000 I sold off all vinyl and went straight digital. In about 2010 I decided to return to vinyl and most titles were bought off the used market from local stores or a collector friend I have in California. 

 

Today digital sounds so good that I cannot tolerate the low level noise of many records I have. I did a purge of artists I no longer listen to awhile back, but still have about 1000 rock and pop albums left. I also find that I am not a collector of a bands library. I like several albums from AC/DC but do not need to own all of them. yet I like everything from Dire Straits so I will own them. 

 

I am strongly considering making a short list of artists I want. And then buying sealed only copies off Discogs, Amazon, or Ebay if I cannot find current releases from Acoustic Sounds. I know this will cost real money, so I don't plan on getting back to that 1000 title mark. I find i love jazz, folk, blues, and Irish or world music as much if not more these days. So I will buy in those genres also. 

 

Been thinking about this awhile since this is not a small decision. But the more I ponder, the more it seems right for me. 

 

Anyone ever gone through this? 

neonknight

@bdp24

The way I've overcome the limitation of the Nitty Gritty machine you mention is that I clean the LP by having it rest on a rubber turntable mat inside the mat's cardboard retail box.  Place it on the NG, then remove it to clean the other side.  I find 2 rotations with the vacuum on and 1 more after the vacuum is turned off suffice.  A problem that's developed lately, though, is that the record turner doesn't grip the label well enough anymore to rotate the record during the vacuuming.  I've tried to rough up the bottom of the turner with sandpaper, but haven't been successful.  I may try using my heavier SOTA record clamp.

I'm still using my Zerostat and am learning to pull the trigger slowly.  Do you know the static test method of using a small piece of styrofoam taped to a piece of thread?  Works great!

I prefer rice paper sleeves for my LPs, but with classical LPs that originally came with poly-lined sleeves I just use those.  I used to slit two sides of the sleeves so the sleeve opens like a book--that helps to reduce static charge.

I've looked at the Antin manual and that's going too far for me.  Have you found that ultrasonic cleaning works any better than your VPI machine?

Nice to communicate with another LP fanatic.  I wasn't listening to LPs for a while after discovering hi-res streaming; but I recently got a new vintage cartridge (Benz Ruby 2) that has revived my interest in playing my old LPs.  Most of mine, like yours, are in great shape, especially those that I bought after stopping use of the Disc Preener.  If I bought them new (and didn't use the Preener on them), I don't find noise to be a problem on most of my LPs.  I use an Oracle carbon-fiber brush to clean each LP under a bright light before play, and play them with the dust cover closed on my SOTA Star Sapphire.  Most of my LPs are free of ticks because of this kind of diligence.

As strange a reason to keep material from performers early years at hand, as many are now no longer with us or quite aged and near end of life. The earliest mediums storing recorded Material is always going to appreciate in Value.

A work colleague in the last week went to see AC/DC Live, he thinks that this is the last chance, to see them with the health to endure a typical time allocated for a concert.

Probably makes sense to experiment with the PAVCR Manual Cleaning Method, to see what can be done for the replay quality.

Also makes sense to exchange the Inner Sleeves for Anti-Static Sleeves or another suitable type of sleeve, but do keep the original inner sleeve for the resale when it occurs, a collector of Vinyl might be purchaser and such things matter.

I have told the story about my 40ish years owned AC/DC Album on the Gon, where today following the PAVCR Manual Cleaning method, I would use this Album on any Vinyl Source of using a Cartridge of any Value. Not bad for a Album put into the must keep, but can't use any more Section on the Storage Shelves.

The Manual Cleaning Method has been to date has been very SUCCESSFUL at reducing Albums stored in the no longer to be replayed section in the Storage Shelving.  

50+ years ago I started to buy music, and as a kind of distinction from my brother I chose to buy it on cassette. Well, we all make mistakes!

Much of it was bought over again on vinyl, then on CD, then again as SACD, and now I'm back to vinyl as medium of choice, but accepting CD when vinyl is not available or too expensive.

The thought of dumping any of the mediums I own, just to buy it over again in another format is simply exhausting. Don't do it.