Converting to Analog

By "work" I mean mostly cleaning vinyl,jackets and getting the original sleeves in better condition.I save all the original sleeves for possible re-sale.Many need to be taped or glued.I clean the original sleeves also.It is lots of work getting vinyl and jackets clean.I hate to do 1 LP at a time so I wait til I have several to clean.
To me thats work.I'd rather be spinning than cleaning.
When I got my Nitty Gritty wet-vac I cleaned my whole collection in a 2 day period.At the time that was 400 LPs including applying groove-glide and cleaning the jackets and sleeves and putting the vinyl in rice paper sleeves and the finished product in a jacket cover.I also put a label on the back of each jacket with the date of the cleaning for future reference.
400 LPs in 2 days,NOW THATS WORK and maybe obsessive :~).I still have a buzz from the groove-glide!

David- Geez, you're even more obsessive than me!! Yes, I'd concur that cleaning jackets is real work- certainly alot more work than I'm willing to put in! You're going to give us vinyl junkies a bad rep. ;) (Yeah, like we don't already deserve it.... hehehe!)

A couple questions for you, David- 1)What process do you use to clean jackets and 2) what is your personal long-term experience w/Gruv Glide?

Regards
Jim

I recently rejoined the analog parade as well and I share with you my decisions. For your information:

I purchased a VPI MK IV with SME 309 and currently use the Clearaudio Beta Aurum cartridge. I am considering upgrades to the Grado Reference, Clearaudio Virtuoso, or other next year.

I purchased 500 rice sleeves and a VPI 16.5 wet vac.

I use Stylast products for cartridge maintenance and a Zerostat for static pops.

I opted for a Shure stylus gauge and fine tune slightly by ear.

My phono pre-amp is MM in a Cary SLP98P. I have thought of
upgrading to a separate but I am currently content with the sound.

I use the High-Fi News test record to evaluate the set-up. The turntable sits on an Atlantis rack with point suspension. Very stable, level, very low vibration and wide enough to support the size of the TT.

This set-up is relatively modestly priced and versatile.

I am biased to favor warmth over high-end shimmer, which can sound too analytical to me.

I hope this helps.

Is there VPI or Nitty Gritty or...or...or jacket cleaner????:^) Ho the hell is it possible to clean an inner sleaves?? I doubdt that vacume cleaner will be much of a help.

In fact I always have a couple of hundreds new inner sleaves and would never put the dirty record into the new.

Tonyp54:

Hello Tony. Guess what??? I am also becoming an analog convert myself. But only, not to the extent that you are becoming one. While I am getting ready to add analog to my audio system, there will always be a place for digital in my life, if not for the simple reason that I have invested hundreds (if not thousands) of dollars in a CD collection that has taken me twenty years to build. And this is coming from someone who is getting ready to spend up to $1,500.00 on a new digital front-end in the upcoming months (I am looking at a SACD Player. I am considering both, a Marantz SA8260 and a Sony DVP-S9000ES, and at the moment, I am leaning more toward the Sony)(which is when it is all said and done, my analog front-end will cost about as much as my new digital front-end. But more than likely, it will be superior to my digital front-end, go figure ($125.00 for a used Thorens TD-147, plus a Grado Prestige Gold (and later on, maybe a Grado Reference Sonata), plus a Monolithic PS-1/HC-1, plus another pair of MIT Terminator 2 Interconnects, plus yet still, a record cleaning machine (a Nitty Gritty Mini-Pro 1))). And, I intend to keep on enjoying my digital collection now, and continue to do so years from now, while watching it continue to grow while I am watching my vinyl collection grow too.

But that's just me though.

But surely, you can get very good analog sound without spending anywhere close to $10K for it. I am getting into analog also, and I think that altogether, mines is going to be aproaching in the $1,500.00 to about $2,000.00 (and that's for the whole setup...... the turntable, a couple of phono cartridges (may start out with a Grado Prestige Gold, but will later upgrade to a Grado Reference Sonata), a phono stage, and a record cleaning machine). And while my analog setup may not be in the same league as a "state-of-the-art" $10K analog setup, it will be compatable to my setup, it rocks my boat, and I am saying that it will beat the hell out of my digital setup. What I am going to be looking for from my analog setup will be naturalness of tone, warmth, and a palpabilty factor (something that will draw me into the performance, making me become part of the event. That will either involve me singing along with the artist, tapping my toes to the beat, or getting up and actually start dancing right in the middle of my living room).

And my analog setup will consist of the following:

(01). A used Thorens TD-147 that I have recently purchased (I bought it used off of "e-bay" for $125.00 including shipping and handling. It was a $550.00 turntable a little more than a decade ago).

(02). I am going to use a Grado Prestige Gold cartridge with it for the time being. But depending on how good the Thorens is, if it turns out to be better than what I will expect, then it will have a much longer tenure in my system, and then I will upgrade the cartridge to a Grado Reference Sonata next year.

(03). A Monolithic PS-1/HC-1 MM/MC Phono Stage will be arriving in late August.

(04). I am also going to purchase a Nitty Gritty Mini-Pro 1 Record Cleaning Machine.

(05). And I am going to pile up on the accessories as well (some rice sleeves for my vinyl, an alignment protractor, a stylus gauge contraption to keep track of what's going on with my stylus, and to make sure that my arm and cartridge are tracking properly, a record clamp, and some spare belts for the Thorens as well).

(06). My Turntable is going to be placed on a marble top that is going to be placed on my DIY Salamander Synergy 40 "Look-A-Like" Audio Stand.

That's what my analog setup is going to look like when it is all said and done.

And all of this is going to be connected to the following system:

KEF Reference 102 Speaker System with KUBE Equalizer.
Adcom GFA-545 MkII Power Amplifier.
Adcom GFP-750 Active/Passive Remote Control Line Stage.
Magnum Dynalab FT-101 FM Tuner.
Pioneer Elite DV-37 Progressive Scan DVD/CD Player (soon to be replaced by a SACD Player. Probably, a Sony DVP-S9000ES).

JVC XL-M509TN CD Player/Changer (it sounds dreadful compared to my Pioneer Elite DV-37, but the JVC has something the Pioneer Elite doesn't have....... convenience).

Nakamichi BX-300 Cassette Deck.
MIT Terminator 2 & 3 Interconnects.
MIT Terminator 2 Speaker Cables.

Hope this helps you out some.

Best regards, and good luck in your pursuit of "converting to analog".

--Charles--