So Cmalak, have you actually gotten into vinyl?
My two cents, from personal experience:
I started listening to a great deal of music at a very early age, some years before the Compact Disc playback system broke into the scene. While all my school mates were still listening to some childish dribble, I was pestering my folks for Queen, Kiss and Rolling Stones LPs. My mom even got me one of those portable suitcases with an integrated turntable and folding speakers, so I could spin my own records.
When I was fifteen, while visiting family in NY, I had some money in my pocket, so I went down to Canal St. and got myself a Technics SL-1200 MKII turntable, the very same unit that is now spinning Let It Bleed atop my equipment rack as I type this post, some 22 years later. I could go on and on about the table, its technology and its history, but the point is that I paid $400.00 for it, surely the best money I ever spent during my lifelong musical journey. My baby still sounds great tonight, has aged gracefully, it never missed a bit, its built like a tank and it will go on forever. If I had to choose between my table and my Wife, Id be stuck between a rock and a hard place!
Along with my turntable Ive managed to preserve a decent collection of LPs, some purchased by myself as a kid, some inherited from others. Whenever someone was switching to CDs, my home was the destination for their old records. I currently own some 3,000 pressings of all sorts of genres and artists. A few are in great condition, but most of them have either been moved too much, stored and handled poorly, played with shabby needles, or all of the above. You can say that Ive kept all these records throughout the years mainly because I had enough space. One day I ought to filter them out, but for me those records represent a great, free source for musical discovery.
So, although I always had a vinyl rig, the quality of my LP collection never justified a hefty investment in equipment. Also, the limited availability of fresh LPs in my area makes it unviable for me to consider a costly rig. Whatever records come my way these days, they are usually second-hand copies which I snatch at flea markets for less than three bucks a pop.
In any case, I grew up during the proliferation of digital playback. My CD collection is far larger than my vinyl and it is more representative of my own musical preferences. Being the avid audiophile junkie that I am, I spin those silver discs in a high end CD player that retails for over $6,000.00.
You may think that a current $6,000.00 high end CD player with great associated equipment and cables would just smoke the old $400.00 table with its cheap Stanton needle
And youd be right! Still, every time a mint LP goes for a spin on that old turntable, even through that rubbish cartridge I can absolutely hear why so many people defend vinyl as the best, more musically satisfying format.
I will go as far as to get a better cartridge at some point in order to enhance my systems definition, but I wont go beyond a reasonably-priced option.
This is a hobby, after all. So finally- my two cents are:
- If you live in an area where fresh vinyl is readily available,
- If you are willing to spend considerable resources in analogue hardware, software and isolation, as well as all the cleaning, demagnetizing and calibration accessories de rigueur,
- If you have enough dust-free space to properly store LP records
Then vinyl will probably provide you with the best possible musical reproduction experience.
However, if like most people you are likely to just get your hands on a few old records here and there, which may not all be in the best of shapes, then settle for an inexpensive vinyl rig which will still give you plenty satisfaction, and devote more resources to consolidate your digital front ends.
