Hi all,

I'm amassing a list of budget christmas ideas for vinyl lovers. Especially those with extended families who need great gift ideas on sensible budgets. Here are a few on my short list. Add or critique as necessary!

Prices quoted are ballpark and not the lowest I'm sure, just what I happened upon.

Ideas so far:

Crosley Record Cleaning Kit (AC20) ~20$
Mobile Fidelity Inner sleeves- pkg 50 ~20$
Music Hall Cork platter Mat ~50$
Audio Technica AT95E Phono Cartridge ~70$
Audio Technica AT120E Phono Cartridge ~120$
Shure M97xe Phono Cartridge ~90$
Spin-Clean Record Washer MKII ~90$
Tracking force guage - prices vary greatly. ~20-150$
Quality interconnects/cables- prices vary greatly. ~20-50$ (or much more if inclined)
Bannana Plugs- ~2-4$ each
Swiffer duster or similar (really mandatory for us all with gear)

And finally for the DIY people:

Led strip lighting with a pantry switch for your LP storage cabinet or accent lighting. Prices vary. ~50-200$

So far so good, but we can do better eh?

No socks this year!

Ironically the one thing missing from a gift list for vinyl lovers seems to be the records themselves.

The list given is actually pretty complete, but someone who still loves vinyl technology might also appreciate a gift of this technology .

Damn, John.... I was expecting your link to go to a CD player.....

Snicker

Hi,

No vinyl enthusiast's kit of record-care devices is complete without the Discwasher Zerostat anti-static gun. You can find used ones on ebay for $50 or so; new ones seem to be wildly overpriced, around $100. It uses a piezo-electric crystal which, when you squeeze the trigger, produces a static-canceling charge. No batteries are required.

I still have mine and it works well to eliminate the annoying ticks and pops due to static electicity that build up on vinyl records. Even withdrawing one from a sleeve imparts a static charge, especially in dry winter air.

Alan

Couldn't you just hold the record, scuff your feet on the carpet, then sneak up and touch someone with it. Charge is trasnfered and you get some fun out of it.

Ha! I think a certain amount of the appeal of vinyl playback (not for me anymore, thankfully) draws on an O/C component. I used to like the ritual of cleaning LPs with the Discwasher brush and fluid, then destaticizing with the Zerostat gun, then (finally!), placing the disc on the turntable for playback. Of course this was all before the appearance of digital recording and CD playback, when LPs were the only major source of recordings.

All of those rituals were lost with the CD player and CDs. Frankly, I found it liberating to be freed from those vinyl rituals, not to mention the painstaking calibration of tonearm tracking angles.

Regards,
Alan

I had the same rituals and equipment, Alan.

Ninety-five percent of me doesn't miss all that, but five-percent does. There was a bit of a ritual to listen to good music then, and that preparation helped set that time aside as something special.

Very true, Mark. Setting aside the time and going through the rituals meant you were going to sit down and enjoy the playback. And I admit I have a certain nostalgia for those times.