Considering analog...but nervous

In general, IMO, I can't see putting much money into a transport these days. Very few are anything special since most manufacturers have gone. Many times the mechanism are no different from what you find in a PC. I found a good performing CDP and it usually does sound better than music played from a file server. I think this is because the CDPs are a mature product and the transport-less options are still developing.

You have to take each LP on its own merits regarding playback. Yes, you can get guidance on specific releases, but each LP can be as different as people. I find the forums work best for me as far as trusting the input I get from others regarding an LP release. If you get into collecting $1K copies of old jazz then you'll need much more professional input, but you'll know that if you do get into that craziness.

Get your feet back on the ground if you are serious about vinyl playback. Be prepared for frustration, anger, set backs. There are many more mechanical interactions than you are accustom to, not to mention the importance of electrical components in the chain. I'm not trying to scare you off, just give you a dose of reality of what living with vinyl can be like. Especially when you are a complete novice. I strongly urge you to seek out someone with vinyl experience close to where you live that can give you hands-on, face to face help and guidance.

Have you thought about whether or not you will use a suspended turntable or a non-suspended one?

01-26-11: Raquel
... I'm listening to a performance of Liszt's 1st Piano Concerto on a Musical Heritage Society LP that I picked up at Tower's used classical bins many years ago that I doubt I paid a buck for, and it's sublime.

MHS editions have pretty much always been good in my experience as well. The performances are well-played, recorded, mastered, and pressed. And it seems that former owners on average took good care of them.

Here's another tip: Box sets from subscriptions (e.g., Time-Life) often arrive at the thrift shops unplayed. Many of the Time-Life classical box sets are culled from RCA Living Stereo vaults, a few later ones are EMI. I once picked up 16 4-LP Time-Life box sets of their "Great Men of Music" series, at $1 each. Performances are by Rubinstein, Heifetz, Julian Bream, Boston Symphony w/Charles Munch, Van Cliburn, Cleveland w/George Szell, etc., and are in excellent to unplayed condition.

Dan_ed: My listening room is in a basement so I'm assuming non-suspended would be just fine. Would you concur?

-gh0st

I started to type out a post in this thread a few days ago about suspended versus mass-loaded tables, and then bagged it because I feared it would scare people off. Tables tend to come in two varieties, suspended or mass-loaded, whereby the designer attempts to address airborne and physical vibrations via suspensions or mass-loading. Tables with suspensions deal with vibration by suspending part or all of the plinth and platter with springs, rubber grommets or rubber bands, etc. Examples are the Linn LP12 and the Basis tables. Mass-loaded tables address vibration by using engineered materials (something that's typically heavy or dense or otherwise structured to affect vibration, like carbon fiber) to evacuate vibration or convert it into something less harmful to playback. Examples are the Walker, the Galibier, and the Verdier La Platine. Some table designs are hybrids, like the SME's and some VPI tables. Every table needs to be on a good platform, but this is particularly important for mass-loaded tables, as they are quite susceptible to foot fall if not placed on an isolated surface.

I would strongly recommend that a beginner stay away from the suspended tables, particularly the Linn, which is capable of high performance, but a real handful to keep set up properly. It's a shame, as the Linn's are great for rock - they boogie.

Regarding LP quality, the above poster is correct - it's very much an album-by-album thing. A particular album release or particular artist may get a rep for good pressings (White Stripes releases, for example), but if you're talking about a classic rock album from the 70's, there may be fifteen different pressings and it's impossible to know what you've got until you clean it and spin it. Also and very importantly, you can't completely judge a used album by its face - many seemingly perfect looking LP's have serious groove damage and sound like shit because they were played with bad styli, while albums that look somewhat scratched up sound great because the scratches are surface-level and the grooves were not penetrated. Obviously ragged LP's are obviously ragged, but don't be surprised if you get a "mint"-rated LP that looks less than mint but sounds flawless.

Finally, I disagree with the posts that portray vinyl as being some kind of gigantic science project that will have you running around with a protractor, never knowing if your going to be able to play a record. It's simple - get a mass-loaded table, have it set up properly (and then resist the temptation to fuck around with the set up), vacuum clean every LP that comes into your possession before you play it, and thereafter, before and after you play a side, remove surface dust with a brush. Finally, pay your set-up guy $150 every year to eighteen months to come out and check your set-up. That's it - the only thing that's remotely inconvenient is the four or five minutes it takes to vacuum clean an LP - if you come home from the bargain bins with fifty LP's that need cleaning, pay your kid or some kid in the neighborhood a few bucks to do it for you.

Well-said, Raquel. For all the dire warnings in threads like this, as though several blocks of your city will explode if your cartridge alignment is off by a nanometer, let's remember that LPs have been the quality consumer musical medium of choice for 62 years. All through my childhood, teen years, and on into middle adulthood, people of all ages played LPs and ate dinner, danced, partied, and made love to the music they provided. True, you get better results with better turntable, arm & cart and closer tolerances in the setup, but it's still just geometry, not rocket science, and the worst that can happen is less-than-optimal sound, not a manmade disaster.