It costs me $100 a week to listen to vinyl


I know the math is obvious, but with the price of high-end moving coil cartridges averaging $5000.00 and with me averaging 20 hours a week of vinyl listening, I was disturbed to calculate that I am paying $100.00 per week for the privilege of listening to my own records?
I realise that doesn't include the depreciation on my equipment or electricity costs etc so please don't remind me of this?
How smug those who can bare digital must feel about this?
And how much worse for those committed to valve replacements in their pre and power amps?
How can we expect younger audiophiles with mortgages to pay, families to raise and education to provide for to afford the price of entry into an analogue system with such a potential maintenance impost?
I realise there are cheaper cartridges out there and the MMs are a bargain compared to the MCs, but once 'hooked' on vinyl, the desire to 'upgrade' is encouraged by the reviewers and the audio magazines continually announcing a newly anointed 'Kingpin' cartridge which is inevitably a moving coil with a price approaching the GDP of Namibia.
There seems to be no critical challenges to the assumed supremacy of MCs over MMs except for the lone crusade of Raul on this Forum?
Well I have taken the 'Raul challenge' and switched to a 15 year old MM cartridge which cost me $300. The 'running costs' of this are obviously a 'snip' compared to my $5000 MC but the best thing is the revelation that this moving magnet cartridge (and probably many more), are not only as good as some of the vaunted MCs in the market place, but better than most and sometimes by a considerable margin.
As Raul continues to implore us.........."try it, you may be surprised?"
128x128halcro
Dear Mingles: Here you can read about:
http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?eanlg&1236947666&openflup&49&4#49

Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.
Hi Raul,
thanks for continued encouragement :-)
But now seriously >>>no plug&play<<< I'm fiddling my socks off with MCs as it is!
Are you telling me this is getting worse to get an MM right? Eish!
Next, 70*500=35'000$ phew, so let's make that 200$ 14'000$ are we talking expensive MC now, or what?
I can only listen to ONE at a time (-: You buy such a load, their got to be good ones in there for sure. I think the whole of SA has not more left then 70 good ones, if that many. EBay......... me no like, sorry. Scared of crooks and thieving Post Office workers. So it is a bit tricky, but I keep my eyes pealed.

Axel
Dear Paulfolbretch: +++++ " Get a 103 or 103R (with a suitable arm!) if you don't want a high "hourly rate" with your vinyl " +++++

with all respect to Denon ( I own those models and other Denon's along. ), the MM alternative of what Halcro are speaking and that I support is a higher quality performance step ( way higher ) than what the 103 family can/could dream and for almost the same 103 prices.

Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.
I would say this is the difference between a hobby and a business. Still cheaper than being married to a trophy wife!
Dear Axel,
I watched Brian Garrot remove and glue a new stylus to the end of the removable magnet of my Garrot P77 which took him about 15 minutes. And he was indeed a craftsman. There was no necessity to go inside the cartridge body and no need to replace the magnet assembly....just a bit of extra blu-tak (if required to ensure a snug fit to the body itself. I believe any decent re-tipping company would do a good job. It is not rocket science like re-tipping moving coils seems to be?
The Garrot Company still produce MM cartridges although have recently discontinued the P77 ( there still must be tens of thousands of these still around) after more than 20 years continually in production.
I don't think that the P77s produced without John and Brian Garrot would be quite as good, but at even 80%, they are really something.
Raul might know how the rest of their current range measures up? Good luck.