Turntables and Vinyl Records - I'm Back

[The Burgomaster]

I sold my 2 turntables and all my records about 40 years ago. I moved on to CDs and then iTunes. Last year I got an itch to return to the world of vinyl. In December I bought a turntable, pre-amp, receiver, speakers, subwoofer and since then I bought about 100 albums. The experience of not just listening to one-off songs but listening to entire albums (with the record jacket and inserts in front of me - liner notes, photos, lyrics, etc.) is so immersive. It's great to be back.

[claws]

I sold most of my vinyl collection in the 1990s.

Do I miss vinyl? Not really. Many of my favorite albums were plagued by crackles, pops, and hiss. Some even skipped. When I repurchased them on CD, it was a revelation! Pristine, crystal-clear audio without the wear and tear, plus I could skip to favorite songs, play in random order or program to play specific songs.

Storage was another issue. The moment I cleared out my records, my room suddenly felt massive (and way less dusty).

It's fascinating how vinyl has made a comeback. What started as a hipster trend has grown into a full resurgence.

[Rev. Powell]

I sold all my vinyl too, back in the day. I imagine some of it would have fetched a nice price today if I'd held on to them.

I understand the appeal, but it's not for me. My preferred method of music listening is mp3, since I like to make my own mixes for different moods, times of day, etc., and I like the randomness of shuffle. Listening to albums all the way through has its pleasures, of course, but I pull out a CD or queue it up on Amazon if that's what I want. The one thing that I do miss is having those big album covers (some were works of art).

[zombie no.one]

although I agree about the whole physical 'experience' aspect, I've never got on well with vinyl. too fiddly. as a kid I always had tapes, and then moved to CDs...

new vinyl seems crazy expensive now as well? literally 10x the price of an equivalent CD sometimes?

[claws]

new vinyl seems crazy expensive now as well? literally 10x the price of an equivalent CD sometimes?

Which would explain why vinyl is outselling CDs, I guess, if you go by $$$ numbers.

[zombie no.one]

yeah if it's done by amount of money generated.... but I believe they do it per unit sold, which would make the price irrelevant? (it would definitely make more sense to do it that way)

[Trevor]

new vinyl seems crazy expensive now as well? literally 10x the price of an equivalent CD sometimes?

My older sis paid somewhere around ZAR 10 (about $2) for the album COLD FACT back in the day. I found it online on vinyl  for ZAR 400! 😳😳😳

[The Burgomaster]

although I agree about the whole physical 'experience' aspect, I've never got on well with vinyl. too fiddly. as a kid I always had tapes, and then moved to CDs...

new vinyl seems crazy expensive now as well? literally 10x the price of an equivalent CD sometimes?

Most new vinyl I've been buying is in the $20 - $30 range, but some goes up to $40 or higher. I took advantage of December sales from The Sound of Vinyl and uDiscover (50% off), so I grabbed a bunch of albums for around $10 - $15 each.

I also discovered a FaceBook page (which is also on YouTube) called Collect.com. They have cool sales Monday - Saturday nights via live stream. Some items are fixed price and some are auctions. It's mostly new and used vinyl, but they also sell CDs, cassette tapes, autographs, posters and other stuff. The live streams go for about 7 - 8 hours every night. I bought 6 albums so far and I'm just waiting for them to be shipped.

[RCMerchant]

I had lotsa vinyl back in the day. I got about 20 albums - all scratched up and ancient. No record player.
But I keep 'em. In one of those wire record stands. Jimi Hendrix, Zep, Sabbath- nothing like the cool rare, punk rock ones I had. (My Ma burned those after I left NY. Devil music!)