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[Noah D Mitchell]

Just curious - I've been thinking about getting a little setup in my office / studio / practice room to listen to vinyl.


Why? I have no rational reason, maybe nostalgia, just for the heck of it, or to hear something different. (Also, this morning one of my sons said to me 'you know, those big black CD's?')


I'm not looking to get into 'audiophoolery', just something I can enjoy over a nice cup of coffee in the afternoon.


So I've got two basic lines of questioning:


-Can you recommend a good setup to playback & listen on? I do have a good set of studio monitors but they're at mix position, not 'relax' position, so I'd rather get something additional. This would include a player etc...


-Any good albums to start with? Must haves, recommendations, value buys?


Thanks in advance!

[Woody Nuss]

The best source for vinyl is estate sales/yard sales/garage sales. Don't cherry pick, just buy the whole lot of vinyl available and sell off your unwanted discs to a record store later.
Used Technics 1200s are available on Craigslist. Buy a new cartridge and read up on tonearm settings.
LINKY

sit n spin!

[Stephen Kirby]

Check out http://www.needledoctor.com/ .  Everything from budget to off the charts high end.  But the budget stuff works.  Simple Project turntable with a $75 Grado cartridge will get you well into what folks rave about vinyl.
Old direct drive turntables (or the new cheap DJ ones) pulse or cog between motor poles.  Higher torque is fine for slip cueing and scratching, but sounds like crap compared to a simple belt drive table with a solid MDF base (plinth).
I've heard exotic turntables and cartridges and there is a difference.  But the cost benefit ratio is logarithmic as it is with almost all audio.  Once you get past the cheap junk, it takes factorials of more money for incremental improvements.  And mixed in with that is the snake oil looking to extract more money from folks who don't bother listening.  But the audiophile entry level is safe.  Value oriented stuff based on sound engineering principles.

[Kevin Conlon]

Just curious - I've been thinking about getting a little setup in my office / studio / practice room to listen to vinyl.


Why? I have no rational reason, maybe nostalgia, just for the heck of it, or to hear something different. (Also, this morning one of my sons said to me 'you know, those big black CD's?')


I'm not looking to get into 'audiophoolery', just something I can enjoy over a nice cup of coffee in the afternoon.


So I've got two basic lines of questioning:


-Can you recommend a good setup to playback & listen on? I do have a good set of studio monitors but they're at mix position, not 'relax' position, so I'd rather get something additional. This would include a player etc...


-Any good albums to start with? Must haves, recommendations, value buys?


Thanks in advance!

I have a pair of 1970's bose speakers that need a home. Fresh foam on the woofers. The size of end tables. If your listening to real records these would be period correct! PM me if interested, they will not be very costly. Also a nice marantz reciever would sound perfect with records.

[Cosmo]

Just curious - I've been thinking about getting a little setup in my office / studio / practice room to listen to vinyl.


Why? I have no rational reason, maybe nostalgia, just for the heck of it, or to hear something different. (Also, this morning one of my sons said to me 'you know, those big black CD's?')


I'm not looking to get into 'audiophoolery', just something I can enjoy over a nice cup of coffee in the afternoon.


So I've got two basic lines of questioning:


-Can you recommend a good setup to playback & listen on? I do have a good set of studio monitors but they're at mix position, not 'relax' position, so I'd rather get something additional. This would include a player etc...


-Any good albums to start with? Must haves, recommendations, value buys?


Thanks in advance!

In addition to all the playback equipment recommendations you will get here, I strongly recommend using some sort of record cleaning process before playing.  My personal favorite is Discwasher, but there are others that also work well.  Especially useful if you are buying used vinyl, but even new pressings can have release agents in the grooves.

[Scott Holtzman]

I have a pair of 1970's bose speakers that need a home. Fresh foam on the woofers. The size of end tables. If you're listening to real records these would be period correct! PM me if interested, they will not be very costly. Also a nice marantz receiver would sound perfect with records.

That would probably be the Bose 501, nice coffee table, great speaker if your ears are on your knees and you like two paper cone tweeters that struggle above 8k (no highs, no lows, must be Bose) Also the dual tweeters not facing each other in the corner of the speaker does a fine job of making sure you have lots of different arrivals to sort out.

One of my favorite Bose stories.  I was 16 or 17 and my current stereo was a pair of Mac mono 40 watt amps powering a divine pair of simple 8" two ways up and stands where they should be.  My Fisher 15" Mach One clones had been relegated to subwoofer duty and they were stands for the 8" (I didn't understand the clustering of the subs, shame because I only had 150W ch to the 15's with a SAE active crossover).  I also had simple belt base with an Infinity Black Widow arm and a Grado Moving coil cartridge.  The pride of the system was a Conrad Johnson original first generation preamp (no tone controls, I had built an external passive EQ, just a three way stepped attenuator).  This was quite a system for 1981 and a teenager humping 2 way radios into garbage trucks.  I had probably sold a truck load of weed to pay for it all (statute of limitations is long up).    So my Dad tells me his friend just got the most amazing "hi fi set, that's what Dad called a stereo) he had ever seen.  So off we go in the Delta 88 to this home with an amazing built in wall unit.  He had a consumer grade reel to reel (at least it had the 10" reels) spinning, some oversize receiver of the era and a set of Bose 901's with the factory fly kit of macrame rope!  Playing was disco era star Andrea True "More More More" a masterpiece of banality that sounded like it had been dubbed from vinyl with a mismatched phone input and the preamps on the R2R turned up all the way so the noise floor was about 3db down from the music and what little dynamic range existed at 7 1/2 IPS was sucked into oblivion by the poor recording technique.   

So I ask the fellow if I could tune in a radio station.  Back in the day Love 94 was run by audiophiles and had about the best analog FM you ever heard.  After a few minutes of smooth jazz favorites of the day from Earl Klugh, Al Dimeola and their contemporaries I said it sounded terrible.  Muddy, no soundstage and then explained that with all the speakers in the back it facing a friggin' book shelf that perhaps if you turned the speakers around they would sound better.  Offering the observation that if you stuck your head between the wall unit and the speaker it sounded better than the so called "no radiating" or better minimally radiating front of the 901's.

I thought I had just insulted the guy's manhood as he told me I was just not use to listening to fine equipment. 

It was actually even funnier but the story is so nuanced it would turn into a short story.

Bottom line is old Bose sounded awful. 

[Stephen Kirby]

Never heard of a Grado moving coil cartridge.  All the ones I'm familiar with and have owned are moving iron.  Very good and natural sounding, with no need for a head amp.  My favorite from back then was the Fidelity Research MC201.  Been looking at the Hana line to replace my old Benz as the new ones have really jumped in price.

[Scott Holtzman]

Never heard of a Grado moving coil cartridge.  All the ones I'm familiar with and have owned are moving iron.  Very good and natural sounding, with no need for a head amp.  My favorite from back then was the Fidelity Research MC201.  Been looking at the Hana line to replace my old Benz as the new ones have really jumped in price.

This is very interesting.  That cartridge was one of my prize posessions as a teen ager and I clearly remember it as a moving coil with the requisite preamp and noise issues.  I went looking for a quick link as the Signature should have easy to find.  What I find is one of two things:

1 - Grade made a limited series in the late 70's
2 - My memory has been distorted for almost 40 years and the Grado was MM not MC

There is one guy who will know. Lahnie Johnson, founder and proprietor of Sensuous Sounds out of Tampa.  He sold more high end hifi than anyone in the business and will know the history.  I see he now makes acoustic panels.  I haven't talked to him since I left Florida in 96 so I am just shot him a linkedin request.

I will post results.

[Kevin Conlon]

That would probably be the Bose 501, nice coffee table, great speaker if your ears are on your knees and you like two paper cone tweeters that struggle above 8k (no highs, no lows, must be Bose) Also the dual tweeters not facing each other in the corner of the speaker does a fine job of making sure you have lots of different arrivals to sort out.

One of my favorite Bose stories.  I was 16 or 17 and my current stereo was a pair of Mac mono 40 watt amps powering a divine pair of simple 8" two ways up and stands where they should be.  My Fisher 15" Mach One clones had been relegated to subwoofer duty and they were stands for the 8" (I didn't understand the clustering of the subs, shame because I only had 150W ch to the 15's with a SAE active crossover).  I also had simple belt base with an Infinity Black Widow arm and a Grado Moving coil cartridge.  The pride of the system was a Conrad Johnson original first generation preamp (no tone controls, I had built an external passive EQ, just a three way stepped attenuator).  This was quite a system for 1981 and a teenager humping 2 way radios into garbage trucks.  I had probably sold a truck load of weed to pay for it all (statute of limitations is long up).    So my Dad tells me his friend just got the most amazing "hi fi set, that's what Dad called a stereo) he had ever seen.  So off we go in the Delta 88 to this home with an amazing built in wall unit.  He had a consumer grade reel to reel (at least it had the 10" reels) spinning, some oversize receiver of the era and a set of Bose 901's with the factory fly kit of macrame rope!  Playing was disco era star Andrea True "More More More" a masterpiece of banality that sounded like it had been dubbed from vinyl with a mismatched phone input and the preamps on the R2R turned up all the way so the noise floor was about 3db down from the music and what little dynamic range existed at 7 1/2 IPS was sucked into oblivion by the poor recording technique.   

So I ask the fellow if I could tune in a radio station.  Back in the day Love 94 was run by audiophiles and had about the best analog FM you ever heard.  After a few minutes of smooth jazz favorites of the day from Earl Klugh, Al Dimeola and their contemporaries I said it sounded terrible.  Muddy, no soundstage and then explained that with all the speakers in the back it facing a friggin' book shelf that perhaps if you turned the speakers around they would sound better.  Offering the observation that if you stuck your head between the wall unit and the speaker it sounded better than the so called "no radiating" or better minimally radiating front of the 901's.

I thought I had just insulted the guy's manhood as he told me I was just not use to listening to fine equipment. 

It was actually even funnier but the story is so nuanced it would turn into a short story.

Bottom line is old Bose sounded awful.

I would have to look but they may be 501's. The knob to direct the tweeter. While not great if you are sitting in critical thinking mode they are ok if you are moving around the house. you can hear them anywhere. Bose has never been on top of my list. I do work with the ones you can change the curve on but i only send vocals through them, works well. Anyway i thought the OP was looking for input about vinyl playback and while my bose need a new home i stand by the marantz of the day. A bit pricey these days, was amazed at what mine brought on ebay. JBL had some good stuff back then too. I was never a hi-fi guy, just wanted volume and some form of clarity back then. So pay me no mind on this!!!
                      Kevin.

[Tim Hite]

Just curious - I've been thinking about getting a little setup in my office / studio / practice room to listen to vinyl.

...

-Can you recommend a good setup to playback & listen on?


-Any good albums to start with? Must haves, recommendations, value buys?


Thanks in advance!

I put a friend of mine who had acquired some vinyl but no turntable onto an Audio Technica AT-LP120 and he loves it. Breaks it out at parties and plays Neil Diamond and the Eagles. It's a nice, durable solution AND it has a built in phono preamp so you can hook it to anything. . .really durable, as well, not like a Technics, but good enough if you're not going the road with it. Has a headship and will take any P-mount cartridge.

I gifted an AT-LP60 to my sister in law a couple years ago and it's held up well. She plays Christmas albums that I gifted with the turntable every year. Also has built in phono stage.

I've Owned and used Technics SL1200's for 25 years. They're great. Only ever had one break from loaning it out. They are getting expensive and aren't really needed if you're not a DJ.

I prefer Ortofon, but that's from a DJ perspective. I've been using since the early 90's. You can get better but not as durable.

An elliptical stylus sounds better for non-DJ use. Will wreck your records if you backache with it.

Buy whatever vinyl you want. There are loads of stores coming back. Craigslist and estate sales and swap meets are good spots to hit. Don't pay more than $1 per record if buying in bulk.

If you want something in particular and in particular condition, there is only one spot worth going to. . .

https://www.discogs.com

Juno is good for new music and records can be had for a reasonable price if you buy a few items to get the overseas shipping spread around.

http://www.juno.co.uk

Amazon has an enormous amount of new vinyl for sale, and generally they provide an MP3 download so you can listen elsewhere.

[Tim Hite]

. . .and really the whole thing, for me, is the analog. No, I couldn't quantify it, but apparently I prefer it over digital formats. I can tell because once I start playing records I can still get lost for hours in music.

[Scott Holtzman]

i stand by the marantz of the day. A bit pricey these days, was amazed at what mine brought on ebay.
                      Kevin.

The Marantz receivers were works of art.  Loved the feel of the flywheel on the tuner.  I agree 100% 

I do like components personally.  I run an Integra (Onkyo's upscale line) preamp both in the family room and the home theater.  In the more music system in the family room I have a pair of mid 80's Infinity's with the emit tweeter and they work well for me.  My Carver amps were rebuilt about 20 years ago and I think they will outlive me.  I don't have an analog source anymore.  Oppo Blu Ray player has a great DAC in it and plays all formats of discs and digital media.

[Stephen Kirby]

The knob on the Bose 501s just moved a flap that was in front of the paper tweeter.  Sort of redirected the HF.

The Marantz consumer stuff of the day was one of the few companies that didn't chase multi-decimal place THD with all the other problems that came with excessive negative feedback.  They sound a little hazy next to a decent high end piece of similar vintage but a whole lot more pleasant than various Kenwood and Sansui from those days.

[John Roberts {JR}]

I used to design and sell high performance phono preamps last century when they were still practical.

JR

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