Any music with quiet passages (as you know silence is an integral part of music) on vinyl LPs should normally send you up a tree. The great pretence is that vinyl is more involving, more liquid, more musical, more detailed... the list goes on, you get my drift. The simple truth is that there is great confusion between the benefits of analogue and the reality of vinyl records. The way vinyl records work is quite simple: a more or less pointy piece of diamond applies tons of pressure to a vinyl groove more or less covered with ridges. Not a pretty sight. Every time the record is played, it is diminished in its quality. Herculean efforts have been made over the years to perfect this flawed system. The results are laudable, but appear to have reached a point, a good number of years ago, which is akin to trying to walk or, better yet, run on flippers. Just look at the ridiculous lengths to which some manufacturers have gone. Yes, turntables remain popular with a very limited number of persons for a number of reasons. Firstly, it is quite an affectation to espouse turntables and to preach that gospel. Secondly is involvement: analogue turntables are simply more fun than CD players because you almost constantly have to tinker with them. They give you some kind of pleasure from the mere mechanical aspect of it, from the tactile aspect of playing a record on it. No little drawer with everything done inside the machine, away from view. Thirdly, if you have that great thick, undamaged pressing, with just the right turntable set-up and preamp (yes, phono requires a real preamp), if the dust that normally is present in your listening room does not settle too much on the record even as it plays and if the moon is shining just so, you will swear for those few magic moments that this is way superior to any of that digital CD garbage. As a hobby, a turntable and vinyl records are great. As a source of enjoyable playback of all the music that is out there, forget it. As a tool for archival reasons, I think you should have one. But remember one thing, all the goodness that is raved about by vinyl fans will usually dissipate like the morning dew once you go against the limited number of pressings that are actually playable. However, there is pride in knowing that you will become a true audiophile, since what you will listen to will be dictated not by the music you actually enjoy, qua music, but by what you find on pressings that a) were properly made to begin with (seven out of ten are rejects), b) have been stored properly to avoid warps and c), since we are almost always talking used records, will have been played with decent enough equipment not to destroy the quite fragile grooves. The means will dictate the ends. Be certain of one thing though, the crackle, ticks and pops are always there, the best table/arm/cartridge combination will never remove these, regardless of price and set-up, so unless the kind of music you listen to always has an unrelenting instrument to hide the surface noise, you either become very selective in what you will actually put on that turntable or will invent some sorry excuse to say either that the surface noise simply does not exist or that it does not bother you in the least, unless you go all the way into the realm of magic thought and contend that you actually enjoy something less than a black background on which your music appears. What you will be forever searching for is that one elusive disc that is for oh such a brief moment perfect. The only way to prove the superiority of vinyl is to have a demo with very specific records, of very specific music, played just so, to induce a false sense that analogue is superior to digital, that turntables are better than CD players. The nicest argument I heard, is that a very expensive turntable currently available puts the surface noise of the record on a different sonic plane than the music itself so that it doesn't bother the listener. Yeah, sure. This is so strange as to be unbelievable. Trust me, there is nothing endearing about surface noise. Our analogue friends seem to want to make of necessity virtue. The best advice you have gotten so far on these pages is to limit your expenditure. There is a wide choice available at very good prices. I would recommend a Linn LP 12, with whatever decent arm is already installed on it, with as many of the Linn improvements and modifications already installed on it as you can afford for the budget limit you should impose yourself. The cartridge poses another problem, since if improperly cared for or used for a good long time, the stylus will be damaged or worn out, and every record you play will be permanently damaged by it. Re-tipping or stylus replacement will prove costly and frustrating, or both. Probably a good idea is to buy a new cartridge, there still is some choice available at reasonable prices. In closing, please don't think that a turntable will generally provide more musical enjoyment than a good quality digital front end for general listening of a wide variety of music. But, if you must, by all means go for that long road to analogue Nirvana. You will soon realise, unless you join the cult and wear your blinkers 24/7, that the journey is long and that the truly enjoyable stops along the way are few and far between, unless a steady diet of audiophile pressings by less than great musicians is enough to warm your heart. Don't give up that digital front end just yet.
