I'm not sure how many Vinyl guys/gals lurk the halls here, but I've been kicking around the idea of going vinyl for awhile so I figured I'd post some questions. I understand the difference between Vinyl and Digital from a sound recording and reproduction standpoint and the pros/cons of it, but I guess real world opinion specific to my situation is what I seek.

I was born in '79 so by the time I got into music, Digital had already taken over. As such, I was never exposed to Vinyl as a child and have been raised on the digital "sound". At this point, I have a fairly substantial collection of SACD and DVD-Audio which serve as my primary listening material. Genre's are very dispersed including just about everything.

If I decided to venture into Vinyl, I would want to do so with a minimal investment up front (for the hardware)...perhaps around $500-$600. I also see that one can spend over $30k on a turntable with tonearm and cartridge, so that's a little intimidating to me. I don't want to waste even my measly $500 on getting into vinyl if I need to spend substantially more to get sound that exceeds that of my current all-digital setup.

Here is my current setup, so the only addition would be that of the turntable itself, played through these components. I suppose I'm just looking for opinions from anyone who has one regarding whether a ~$500 turntable on this system can yield sonic results that equal or exceed my current capabilities (realizing that the recording itself plays a tremendous role in the reproduction).

SACD/CD Player: Music Hall Maverick (stock)
DVD-A Player: Denon 3910 (stock)
PreAmp: Outlaw Audio 950
Amplifier: Outlaw Audio 750
Fronts: Axiom M80 v2 (Bi-Wired)
Center: Axiom VP150 v2
Rears: Axiom QS8 v2
Sub: Axiom EP500 v2
Interconnects: Outlaw Audio
Speaker Wire: Monster M1.4s BiWire

I should also mention that a nice, wide and open soundstage is the most important characteristic I look for in listening. The more "real" it all sounds, the happier I am.

Any opinions or feedback would be greatly appreciated. Turntable recommendations would also be greatly appreciated!

I think that if you serisouly wanted to get into vinyl you would have to spend in the area of 1500 or so. Not only do you need toget a turntable, cartridge, and perhaps a preamp. But you also need to get things like record brushes, stylus force gauge, maybe even a record cleaning machine.

In my limited experience with vinyl, it doesnt really seem like a good way to go unless your going to dedicate yourself to it. Especially considering you would be buying music on an entirely new format.

Sonically my vinyl setup doesnt trump my cd player. And I didnt expect it to. I have one of the cheapest carts you can buy and although I do have a pretty nice turntable i'm sure its not setup 100% properly even though I have tried.

Not to mention that it is of utmost importance to keep the records clean. At least for me it is. The sound can be quite good but to me at least its not worth the hassle for anything more than playing some records on a special occasion.

For me, vinyl is an interesting sideline hobby, primarily because I AM old enough to have owned a TT in the 70s so I enjoy the nostalgia of it.

My personal opinion is that if you DON'T have that nostalgia for it, you're better off putting your money elsewhere. A click or pop on an LP can go a long ways towards ruining the experience unless you can just brush it off.

For me, I like finding used records for $2, which I promptly put on CD and MP3 with noise reduction and audio editing!

FG, don't worry; you're not missing anything. I have(mostly)fond memories of playing LPs, and it's remarkable that such a grungy technology was able to even do as well as it did, but the technology is obsolescent. Modern digital sources reproduce the analog waveforms that make up music with an accuracy that an LP record can't match, even when it's brand new and undamaged. A collecting interest, similar to that in antique cars, is fine, but it shouldn't be imagined that sound quality can match modern discs.

I'm thinking of getting a turntable for a 2 channel tube set up. I'm thinking of the Technics SL 1210 MK2

or the Funk machine

Don't know about the necessary discipline of cleaning the records and putting them away, but I love the sound.

I grew up listening to records and still play them today. While I only have a couple hundred albums, I can't ignore my small investment. And ironically, much of the music I have is still very difficult to find in digital format today. My turntable is just a basic but fairly stable Hitachi model I bought new about 25 years ago. While it's nothing fancy it still works great today. It does however need to be somewhat isolated from my system's base output, our I can get some feedback. I did however invest in a decent cartridge/stylus. That is where the rubber meets the road, so to speak. I purchased a Shure M111HE (Hyper-Elliptical) similar to this one . . .

. . . and it has given me years of good performance. Technics makes a pretty decent turntable that will get your vinyl playing off the ground. And be sure to invest almost as much (or possibly more) for a good cartridge.
Here is a good intro website . . . Turntable Basics
And most importantly . . . have fun.

Hey 80's man.

I had to isolate a tube amp from bass vibrations. I got a couple of cheap layered (cork-like layer, rubber-like layer, etc. etc.) wrist pads from Staples, cut them up and put them under the amp's feet. Worked great for me.

I think it's the needle doctor who was running a special on the Funk machine (Vector model) with a Blue Oyster cartridge. Still thinking, thinking ... waiting for the dollar to strengthen. Waiting ... waiting...

If only you had voted for Kerry....


(that's a big joke)

Funny this should come up, then a few days later I see this on the CBS Evening News.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/06/10/entertainment/main4169507.shtml

I still have a whole closet full of old vinyl. Unfortunatly, most of it is in pretty bad shape now. I'm afraid it would be very hard to listen to. Forget about trying to replace this stuff, most of it is at least forty years old.

My first record was the 45 YMCA by the Village People in 1977; I was 7 years old.

The first thing you need to decide on a turntable is wether to go direct drive or belt drive. Direct drive is usually for DJ's and rap artists (Technics 1200 is one of the most popular). This allows the user to rotate the plater forwards and backwards by hand and que up a song very easily. Most audiofiles will tell you that a belt dirve is better, because the vibration from the motor will be absorbed by the belt. Vibration is a vinyl killer. As others have mentioned here it is vital to isolate the turntable from vibration, including the bass from you speakers and subwoofer. This is not an easy thing to do. As you turn the volume up that vibration will want to seep in.

I own a Thorens turntable with a Stanton EEE cartridge. I have about 100 albums and I play them about 3 times a year. I find the sound isn't better or worse, just different. Vinyl doesn't have the frequency response or dynamic range of digital, and you will find it is a bit noisy, not to mention the odd pop, very annoying during quiet passages.

The real advantage of vinyl is that it can force you to listen to the entire album. Lets say you want to hear tracks one, three and five on side one. As with a TT there is no skip button, you usually end up llist all the tracks on the album. This is going back to a time when most artists knew this and made the entire album worth listening too. Unlike today where most of the album is filler (only my opinion, feel free to dissagree). I seldom listen to an entire album when using digital, it's too tempting to hit the skip button on the remote.

I would highly doubt that any vinyl system, at any price will compete with a good SACD or DVD Audio. Vinyl takes up more than 4 times the space than digital, you have to be oh so careful with vinyl, one scratch, and ouch, you can't play them in your car or take them with you jogging. And here is something to think about. Vinyl wears. There is physical contact between the stylus and the record. Your album will sound best the first time you play it, and it's all down hill from there. Digital will sound the same no matter how many times you play it.

I have been hooked on CD since 1985, and yes back then it wasn't as musical and was a little harsher than vinyl, but I really enjoyed the lack of noise, snaps and pops, and simple convience of the new media.

I have never had the heart to sell my TT and vinyl collection, however it's one of the best dust collectors in my house.

pn

Maybe its because I grew up with vinyl, but when I put something on, I listen to it front to back.

I have a direct-drive Technics 1200 that plays seamlessly in either direction, so I always listen to all my records back to front.

I will hunt each of you down and kill you in the near future.