I’m coming into this area as a practical and philosophical result of:
- me wanting to own my music
- CDs are barely being made
2.1. If they are - they’re not being shipped to my corner of the world - Torrenting often failed me in terms of variety.
However - I am absolutely ignorant about equipment, maintainance, and know-hows of the audiophile world.
I know this isn’t the answer, but you mentioned torrents. Try soulseek, it’s modern day Napster. Nicotine+ is a great gui over soulseek app.
i second soulseeketter, can find all but the absolute newest music on there easily. digital is superior to vinyl entirely (assuming of proper quality), all that going for it is nostalgia
Another perspective:
- You can own your own music in many more formats than just vinyl.
- CDs are still being made, and cheap. Second hand CD trade is huge, and they are always cheaper than vinyl to buy and ship. Digital ownership is even cheaper (eg Bandcamp), and the same or higher quality.
- RuTracker has an enormous collection of FLAC well-seeded, as do other sites (but they require invites). Soulseek has an enormous collection and requires no account.
Regarding equipment just get some good speakers and an amp, you’ll need that regardless of what format you end up getting your music in.
Vinyl is often a trap. Expensive, fragile, degrades, difficult to resell unless you live in a big city (postage & packing), and the quality is ultra subjective and varies wildly between pressings. Just look up a couple of popular albums you know on Discogs or rateyourmusic and browse the comments see what they cost and how many people bring up complaints on pressings.
I’m all CD and FLAC and loving it. Bandcamp is my first port of call, then CD (new or second-hand), torrent if rare or OOP or unavailable anywhere I frequent.
Something else that may help - if you really think vinyl will sound better, enormous FLAC rips (2GB+) of popular high quality pressings in 192kHz/24-48bit rips are not uncommon on torrent and Slsk - vinyl enthusiasts often make a high quality digital capture of their purchases while the vinyl is new, so that they have a near-new copy in case their vinyl ever degrades with wear - or simply so they can use digital for convenience, but keep the analog hiss and increased frequency range of vinyl pressings. Best of both worlds.
(Edit: rutracker, not rutorrent)
Thank you for the soulseek tip, never heard of it, will try.
So far, DDGing RuTorrent tell me it just another torrenting client. Do people mean the russian site called rutracker when they say RuTorrent?
Oh yeah my bad, i meant rutorrent. The site is in Russian but easy enough to navigate as it uses the same forum template as a lot of sites, band names are all in original language so searching is simple enough. I sometimes use a translation browser extension to help.
As someone who is flirting with the idea of attempting to own my media, I have a question for you. If I couldn’t find a torrent for some song I wanted, is there a recommended tool or path for “collecting” my own version of a song? I don’t see myself getting into such a situation where I want some super obscure song, but knowing I have a path for getting a version from one of the major streaming services to bridge any gap I come across would be nice. Where would one go to learn how to safely collect rare/difficult to torrent music files?
Vinyl isn’t a cheap hobby.
- You need a decent record player.
- Used is fine.
- It should feel heavy.
- The arm should not be designed straight unless you’re a scratch dj.
- It should use a standard head shell so that replacing the needle is simple.
- “Direct drive” motors are nice but not essential.
- Automatic stylus return is essential.
- Technics brsnd “1200” series players will be overpriced but a lot of others are out there. I have a pair but use a Gemini brand player for listening.
- Pitch control isn’t essential.
- You should calibrate the counter weights and other settings to avoid excessive wear on your records.
- You need to place the player on a solid surface that is not near speakers.
- You need a line level converter and you must attach the ground.
- You need a record cleaning brush.
- You need space for the records. Lots of space.
- Don’t leave records in a car or somewhere that gets hot or they will warp.
Many respectable (even high end) turntables have a straight tone arm.
It causes additional wear. Looks modern though.
You need to place the player on a solid surface that is not near speakers.
What’s this about?
Speakers vibrate. You don’t want vibrations getting to the needle or you get feedback.
You also don’t want the player moving around as it can cause the needle to jump.
Ok, thanks. I thought it was something else.
Most likely so that the vibrations from the speakers does not interfere with the records playback. As the needle should touch the LP as lightly a possible.
Oh okay. I grew up with vinyls. I never noticed anything of that sort, though I admit that the turntable wasn’t too close to the speakers. I’ve my clumsy 10-year-old ass did bump a few times into the player, causing it to skip. It was just part of life back then.
vibrations from the speakers can cause unpleasant noise and distortion or even cause the record to skip.
What do you think about audio technica AT-LP70X model? It looks fine for audiophile beginners.
yeah that’s probably fine, i don’t have any experience with it myself though. AT is known to be decent and deserves credit for staying in vinyl business even when everyone else was exiting it.
I personally would check out the local 2nd-hand stores, pawn shops, and estate sales for a week or two 1st to see if there’s anything laying around though. I paid $75 for my old gemini from a vintage/antique shop 5 years ago and I think all it needed was a new cart and soldering of some new line-out leads. Anything Technics will be overpriced but i regularly come across gear from the 70’s and 80’s that probably work great. I suppose i should buy them up, fix them, and get them into people’s homes.
Yeah it’s fine. I started out with an LP60 and I had no complaints.
Audiophile rabbit hole is deep. Start with used equipment and second hand vinyl stores. It’s a fun pastime to browse.
Otherwise bandcamp is a fun place to acquire FLAC and vinyl as well.
Are you in Canada? Fluance is a great local company
I love my fluance
I have a Fluance RT-82. It’s perfect for my needs.
Don’t buy a crappy all in one suitcase player and you’re good.
Don’t use a CD with your record player. Watch the record spin, it’s hypnotizing. There may be a button like a wheel to tweak the speed slightly.
That’s all I remember.
I recently got into records but I wouldn’t consider myself an audiophile. I have a AT-SB727 “Sound Burger” and I usually connect it to a SoundCore Mini. The whole setup was under $200 on sale.
The main advantage for me is that it’s somewhat portable. I have 0 wires to mess with, not even a power cord. I’m sure the audio quality isn’t great but I like watching the record spin and listening to albums from start to finish.
I do have a different old record player (Sansui P1000) but it needs to be connected to AC then that has RCA connectors that need to go to a stereo which then has copper wire speakers. It sounds a lot better but also it’s a lot less portable
The sound burger does come with a line level RCA output so maybe it does sound as good when connected to an actual stereo. I want to get an elliptical stylus upgrade in the future which is supposed to help with sound quality
Those red cartridge style needles that cheap turntables use will destroy your records. If at all possible, buy an old player. Or, buy new but don’t cheap out on it. Your collection will inevitably contain rare and unreplaceable records. If you want to preserve them for the next generation don’t skimp on your gear.
Records (LPs, anyway) really demand you listen to 20/40 minutes at a time. That can be quite useful for setting aside some time in the day, but it also requires… setting aside some time in the day.
The used CD market is an order of magnitude cheaper than vinyl.
My personal setup is amp, speakers, cd, tape, bluetooth and turntable, and to give you an idea of how valuable they are to me, I play records on it usually once every day or two, CDs or bluetooth (Bandcamp or somafm or something) a couple of times a week, and tapes less than once a month. If I didn’t sit at my computer all day for work with headphones and navidrome I’d probably listen to records a lot more though :)
If you get a new turntable, either get one with a built-in preamp and buy some good powered speakers or go the old school way (my preference) of a turntable with no pre-amp, a separate amp with a phono stage, and passive speakers. It’s generally more expandable and easier to replace individual parts when you upgrade or a capacitor explodes or something. You can get those components relatively cheap on ebay too. But basically keep the record player as simple as possible. No built-in speakers, no bluetooth, no bells and whistles. The money should go into the turntable and stylus themselves. For example I got a Fluance RT82 which I’m very happy with. Make sure you put it on a sturdy flat surface, too, not a table with spindly legs or anything. Especially not if you have a cat.
