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How did you get into vinyl?

I’ll start with my story:
The roots probably go back to the mid to late 90's when I got into the retro cocktail thing. I started throwing old fashioned cocktail parties with Martinis and Hi Balls and Manhattans and spinning those Retro Lounge cocktail mix CDs with Luis Prima and Martin Denny and Si Zetner, etc.

I've always been a classic jazz fan (Coltrane, Davis, Rollins, etc.) and been into the music of the Rat Pack, so this just became an extension of that. I then started collecting CDs of the artists that were featured in the Retro Lounge collections, along with classic jazz, blues and vocalists. It was very rare for me to purchase, or listen to anything recorded since the 1970s, though I do have a pretty good collection of 80s and 90s rock, it’s just I haven’t been adding to it.
A few years ago my live-in girlfriend and I split up and I gave her the furniture and took the opportunity to completely redecorate the place the way I wanted to- mid century modern or, as I called it, space age bachelor pad. I bought a bubble chair, Naguchi tables, ball clocks, Eames era stuff, etc., etc.- I even got an old pinball machine and bar. I was truly living in the 50’s-60’s.

Last June, I was poking around a flea market in Hell’s Kitchen looking for retro stuff, and I saw a Voice of Music HiFi console from 1957 for $45. I bought it, not sure if it was working, but knew it would look cool in my place. When I got it home it worked perfectly. I had picked up some 50’s/60’s lounge type albums from a tag sale for a buck apiece, just for decorations, and when I got the record player home, I found that it worked and the records sounded very cool. Now the VOM was definitely not audiophile, but it was all tube and these records sounded very appropriately retro on it. That was it- I was hooked on vinyl!

I started collecting vinyl in thrift shops and on Ebay. I noticed the VOM lacked bass, mainly due to the small single speaker that it had. I then saw a bigger VOM console on Ebay that had a 12”, two 8” and two 4” speakers. I got it for $250, and it sounded much better. I have an audiophile digital system that includes an Audio Aero Prima SE CD and top of the line Paradigm speakers, so I knew the limitations of the VOM unit, but I found it was all I was listening to because of the things that many of us love vinyl for- the covers, the ritual of playing the albums, the warmth and musicality of vinyl and tubes. I then got to thinking how great it would be if I built a truly audiophile vinyl system with a good quality TT and tube phono stage and amp. I also want to dig into the VOM and upgrade some components, like the caps, and check the resisters (I already done tube rolling with Mullards and Telefunkens).

Fast forward to a few weeks ago when I got a VPI Aries 3, a BAT PK-5P phono stage, a Hagerman SUT, and a NOS Dynavector Karat 23R MC cart. I also got a VPI 16.5 RCM. In the meantime, I have accumulated several hundred LPs and remembered that I had a few hundred more albums that I had stashed away over 25 years ago! I plan to get a second tonearm wand for the 10.5i so I can put a mono cartridge on it.

I have now fully entered the insane world of vinyl, and could not be happier! Obviously, my taste in music (and all things retro) is perfect for vinyl. Besides the “Lounge” (sounds better than Easy Listening) LPs, I have purchased some essential 180-200 gram reissues- Kind of Blue, Time Out, Steely Dan’s Aja, etc., and have just subscribed to the Music Matters Blue Note 45 reissues. What I love about vinyl (in no particular order):
The ritual that goes with the playing (cleaning, turntable setup, constant tweaking)
-The covers
-The nostalgia factor
-The fact that I can play albums that I owned when I was in high school
-Shopping for LPs at used record stores, thrift shops, tag sales, and Ebay
-And most important- the sound!

Long live vinyl!
raylinds
idiotec
13 posts
 
I am in my thirties and just within a year or so really got into vinyl. I was reared on it growing up, and always had great memories of listening to those albums as a kid. By the time I was a teenager, CD’s were taking over. I built a decent but not enormous CD collection.

It was about a year and half ago that my parents gave me their old turntable and albums. The system was nothing remotely close to anything someone would consider hifi, but when I spun those old records I grew up on, something about it just clicked.

My first step from there was a $20 purchase on craiglist which included a technics turntable and about 50 albums (at the time I really didn’t even know how good of deal I got!).

Since then I have upgraded my front end and acquired more than 300 albums. I am listening to more music than ever before. There are specifics about the sound quality that I could go into, but on a general note I will just say that there is an aspect to it that just sounds “right” to me.

The other intangible is just the hobby of it. Digging for records on a Saturday morning, tweaking the rig, cleaning the records, and discussing the hobby with like minded people *cough*. It might not have been a practical choice for me, but I have had a blast with it so far, so I can’t complain.
stltrains
845 posts
 
It goes like this for me, my parents had a Fisher console this was back in 66. I still have luckily my high school band lp of our spring concert. my very first table was a duel 1218. like a lot of folks i retired lps in the late 80s. i have been back and still wondering why i retired my lps since 04.
oilmanmojo
472 posts
 
I grew up in a home that played music via records and tapes all the time. My father had a zenith hi fi with fifteen inch speakers that was fantastic. I eventually gained access to those speakers and built a set of home made speaker cabinents and put those babies in. I then went out and brought a BSR table(all i could afford back then) and brought my first three albums (dsotm,jjcale naturally, and moodyblues days of future past) that was 1974. I graduated from college in 76 and brought my first quality table (dual 701) that served me for almost 20 years. It had the shure cartridge(v111 i think). I am now up to over 1200 albums and sport a maplenoll ariadne table and universe cartridge. My dad is surely smiling as I play some of his favorites like chet atkins!
les_creative_edge
174 posts
 
For me I was at an age when vinyl was still the rule for best consumer audio playback (early 1980's). I got for my 15th. birthday a nice little component stereo, a JVC RS-11 receiver, JVC LA-11 belt drive turntable and Shure M75 cartridge. The speakers were JVC SK-101, 3 way bass reflex. All very modest stuff but to a 15 year old who was becoming a hifi and music lover it was way cool.

On my meager teenage income I amassed a few new LP's every so often and enjoyed playing them an learning about hifi. When I became 16 and got my car soon after I put a cassette stereo in it and the desire to record my LP's onto cassette became big. I added a Kenwood KX-40 cassette deck to my system an enjoyed making tapes trying different brands of tapes etc.

Over time I swapped for different run of the mill Japan Inc. components, mostly JVC stuff but also Cerwin Vega D-3 speakers and a used Hitachi PS-38 DD turntable(which is still in my dads system today) That PS38 is a pretty good manual direct drive TT with a pretty nice S shape tone arm, no noticeable slop in the bearings and a wood veneer finish which I restored with a multilayer clear coat high gloss finish this past summer. Later I moved onto a linear tracking JVC LA-101 model for something different.

But things changed for me in the summer of 1984. I bought my first CD player a Philips CD-101 top loader. The "Perfect Sound Forever" bit me and like many I was told how great it was because of what I could not hear and I bought into it hook line a sinker. By the winter of 1986 I sold my JVC LA-101 and used money from it to pick up a few CD's. From there for over 16 years it was only CD's and mostly run of the mill Japan inc. CD players.

Just after Christmas 2002 I became curious of vinyl again and found my old LA-11 tt that my sister was given and had boxed for years, she dug it out and gave it back to me. I had about 30 LPs in a box too. The mat had vulcanised and the belt stretched but I was able to get it to play. I put on Alan Parsons Stereotomy and now having a better system with Paradigm speakers and a Denon receiver I noticed something, it sounded pretty good even with an old ill running TT.

I then because reeducating myself on current state of vinyl. I soon bought a Music Hall mmf2.1. IT was a nice new TT and I was pleased by its performance. From there as time has past I then built my first DIY TT with a Rega RB250 arm and only revised it a few times with improvements. Finally I built my first DIY tone arm and it blew me away.

Now that I have made a DIY TT and a DIY tone arm to the best of my abilities and to the limit of expenses I wanted to spend (about $200 over the last 2.5 years not including the original RB250) I have come back to finally just wanting to settle down on what I from reading a lot about lately is seeing as a good turntable. I want to get a turntable that I believe will punch above its weight and will deliver years of solid, reliable performance based on a tried and true past history. This TT is a Technics SL-1200mk2 which will starting with will have a KAB Cardas rewired arm. Later I will, add the fluid damper and maybe the outboard power supply. I have messed around for 2.5 years with DIYing and revising my DIY TT's and now just want to enjoy what I think will be a good to great turntable and enjoy listening to records rather than thinking and rethinking my DIY builds. Don't get me wrong. I am very proud of my DIY TT and will not get rid of it. I will box it up and put it away as a keepsake and a good memory because I built it and also had my father help with building parts of it as a father and son project. But I just need to stop thinking about DIY's and start enjoying the spinning vinyl again. The Technics SL-1200mk2 I will soon get will hopefully get me there.

eweedhome
227 posts
 
Same as DCStep, almost down to the timing. Got into (semi-) high end in the 80's, but by 1990, burned out on tubes, cartridges, step-ups, etc., went whole-hog into CD's (figuring they'd get them right soon enough)...yet last fall something came over me and I pulled out the LP12, fixed it up, listened to it, and was amazed that all the things I was finding annoying (as I got back into tubes and etc.) almost vanished when the stylus slipped into the groove. Last week replaced my 20+ year old Koetsu Black with a new one and -Whoa!- THIS is LIVING! A Rhea is on the way...
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