Help me get started with vinyl

Beer Baron said:

In reply to tuna55 :

Glad it's going well for you!

So what does your vinyl collection look like so far? Inquiring minds want to know.

Nothing big yet. The aforementioned Carole King, Jim Croce, plus Piano guys Christmas, Vince Guaraldi Christmas, Ella Fitzgerald Christmas, a collection of Wagner, and a Louis Armstrong album.

In reply to tuna55 :

Nothing wrong with that list. 'Tapestry' was one of the first albums I bought. I finally picked up a copy of 'You Don't Mess Around with Jim' after months of keeping my eyes peeled.

I've kinda gotten sucked into collecting. I'm just shy of 100 albums in less than a year. Link to my collection.

Goal achieved. Tunawife doesn't like her picture taken, so you'll have to use your imagination. Last night Tunakid 1 and I were working on dinner dishes, and Tunakid 4 was showering and Tunawife put on her new record, Sidewalk Prophets, which arrived that day (late Christmas gift). Within a few minutes she was laying in the beanbag just chilling out listening to music. She agreed that it sounded so much better than she had ever heard streaming.

Rock on. 

Homework from my guitar teacher

I crossed the hundred album mark last week...

Tuna Dad sent me dark side of the moon, and I got the racks up over the weekend. They are alder with hand bent and welded steel in the front. Tunakid 1 bent the one on the left. 

Duke said:

Speaking as a minor audiophile and major music lover who grew up with vinyl as the only viable choice in the '70s and '80s, I really don't understand the modern fascination with it.

I know folks speak of the "natural warmth" and much is made of the process of putting an LP on to play, but to me, it's just a fragile, outmoded technology with a lot of disadvantages and a large form factor for storage.

I have about 700 LPs.  In 1984 I spent the equivalent of $800 on a good turntable because CDs were still in their babyhood commercially.

In 1990 I bought my first CD player and I don't think I've played an LP since 1991.

 

I completely concur. Scratched, warped albums with no lows suck. I love correctly remastered CDs, and Live Video Concert DVDs and Blurays. If you must try LPs, get an old Technics turntable like was mentioned earlier and find an old obsolete Yamaha A/V receiver with phono preamp inputs. 120 wpc @ 0.06% thd for something like $120 (enough to run almost any speaker). Beware of White Van Speakers. :) You also can't use subwoofers with LPs with the turntable in the same room as the speakers (the needle will skip across the record) and you need a stand alone phono preamp in order to send the cartridge signal the distance it will take to put the turntable in another room. 

VolvoHeretic said:

Duke said:

Speaking as a minor audiophile and major music lover who grew up with vinyl as the only viable choice in the '70s and '80s, I really don't understand the modern fascination with it.

I completely concur. Scratched, warped albums with no lows suck. I love correctly remastered CDs, and Live Video Concert DVDs and Blurays.

Are you saying that because you want someone who enjoys vinyl to share with you what they enjoy about it? Or are you saying that to crap on other people's fun?

 

You also can't use subwoofers with LPs with the turntable in the same room as the speakers (the needle will skip across the record)...

I use a subwoofer about 3' from my turntable and have no problems.

You just need to be sure that the turntable is somehow isolated from bass vibrations coming through the floor, or flimsy furniture.

In reply to Beer Baron :

Well, my wood floor might not have helped and decades ago when I was spinning LPs, without subs, I did have 12 concrete blocks mass loading my floor under the platter, I guess when the floor is sagging under 336 lbs over 2 joists, it can't vibrate as much? I also like near concert level music volumes and use two 10" Alpine type R car subs driven with 150 wpc, but sense the amp seams to have crapped out, I am looking for a Crown XLS 2500 with some 300 wpc. That should really start things vibrating. Good thing that when I removed the carpet to put in hard pvc snap together flooring, I screwed the 70 year old plywood down after discovering that all of the nails within 10' of the speakers had vibrated out over 1/4". I also sandwiched the nails under 1/4" plywood underlayment and a million more screws (6" o.c. everywhere). So, 1/2" subfloor, 5/8" underlayment, and 1/4" underlayment, no glue.

Since you are supposed to hold LPs in one hand balanced between your thumb and middle finger, how many people here have flung their records onto the floor or was it just me? 

In reply to VolvoHeretic :

It sounds like you are an edge case whose listening practices and equipment needs are different from the typical person who is enjoying music on vinyl.

If someone lived on a rutted dirt road, I wouldn't recommend they drive an old Miata.

So... The topic was to help me get started with vinyl. Not to tell me about how much you don't like vinyl. I updated this thread to show off my new racks and to tell everyone about my new record. If you'd like to talk about that, total fair game.

In reply to tuna55 :

Those racks are sweet. They are definitely going to fill up quick. Hope you have room for more.

Also today (or yesterday) is the 49th anniversary of the release of DSotM. Great timing on that.

A "holy grail" album I preordered a year ago finally showed up a few days back. 



Killswitch Engage: The End of Heartache Deluxe Edition. One of my favorite albums that came out during some good times in my life. This pressing was a preorder-only deal, and one of the first 2500 orders on the site, so it's dubbed the "Bloody Mary Edition" with red marble vinyl and an etched "side 4". Sounds good, looks cool, and I am glad to have it. But man, waiting a YEAR on this was nuts! 

In reply to tuna55 :

Two things you may want to get:

A brush to clean dust off records. I use this one.

Plastic sleeves to protect your record covers. 3mm sleeves will fit a gatefold and keep them from sitting bowed open like they are on your shelves.

Beer Baron said:

In reply to tuna55 :

Two things you may want to get:

A brush to clean dust off records. I use this one.

Plastic sleeves to protect your record covers. 3mm sleeves will fit a gatefold and keep them from sitting bowed open like they are on your shelves.

Thanks dude! I'll see if I can pick both up.

Last night tuna wife and I sat down to play a board game after the kids went to bed. She was pretty stressed, so instead of putting the new record on I put tapestry on again and within a few minutes she was relaxed and bopping along. This is really been a great addition to the home. Thanks to everyone for all of the great advice.

In reply to tuna55 :

Nice. I was hanging out at a record store (which has since become my favorite locally) when new pressings of Tapestry were coming out for the 50th anniversary. The shop owner commented that they pretty much never put any used copies of it out on the shelves because invariably, every time they got one from someone's collection, it had always been completely worn out from being played too much.

Might I also suggest hunting down a copy of "Moondance" by Van Morrison as something calm and relaxing that's perfect for setting... the mood.

Beer Baron said:

In reply to tuna55 :

Nice. I was hanging out at a record store (which has since become my favorite locally) when new pressings of Tapestry were coming out for the 50th anniversary. The shop owner commented that they pretty much never put any used copies of it out on the shelves because invariably, every time they got one from someone's collection, it had always been completely worn out from being played too much.

Might I also suggest hunting down a copy of "Moondance" by Van Morrison as something calm and relaxing that's perfect for setting... the mood.

 

Dude that's a good call. I'll do it.

I am learning that we enjoy the background calming music in the singer/songwriter category. Jim Croce was a hit, Carole King has been amazing, and the Van Morrison tip was a good one. Yesterday, after listening to Moondance for five or six times over the past few weeks, she asked his name again. She was SINGING. I didn't go in the garage so we could put on a record and play a game. We went through those three, and she was singing along. She hasn't done that forever, and it makes me super happy. I think maybe Jackson Browne next, maybe another Bill Withers album.

TL;DR, she was SINGING!

More good ones in that category: 

Sweet Baby James, James Taylor

A1A, Jimmy Buffet

For Everyman, Jackson Browne

Blue, Joni Mitchell

Literally any Elton John Album, but bonus points for 17-11-70 and Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy

Then, getting into the grittier/country-er/less mainstream side of things...

John Prine, John Prine

Bruised Orange,  John Prine

Old No. 1, Guy Clark

Southeastern, Jason Isbell

Crossing Muddy Waters, John Hiatt (damnit, just realized, I don't think this one has ever been released on vinyl)

Anything Brandy Carlisle

I second 'Sweet Baby James' by James Taylor. One of my favorites. Listened to it last night. Fun trivia, Carole King wrote "You've Got a Friend" for James Taylor as an answer to the line "I've seen lonely times when I could not find a friend..." from "Fire and Rain". They are slotted into the same place on their respective albums.

Willie Nelson's 'Stardust' is also fantastic. I'd say the best of his great American songbook albums. 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow' and 'Always On My Mind' are great too though.

After James Taylor, that would lead me to -> Gerry Rafferty 'City to City' (has "Baker Street" and "Right Down the Line"), -> to Steely Dan 'Aja' and Dire Straits 'Dire Straits' -> to Pink Floyd 'Wish You Were Here'.

If Willie Nelson was more your speed, that would lead me to Johnny Cash, Townes Van Zandt, and Nick Drake (not in any order, like branching off different directions from Willie).

Beer Baron said:

I second 'Sweet Baby James' by James Taylor. One of my favorites. Listened to it last night. Fun trivia, Carole King wrote "You've Got a Friend" for James Taylor as an answer to the line "I've seen lonely times when I could not find a friend..." from "Fire and Rain". They are slotted into the same place on their respective albums.

Willie Nelson's 'Stardust' is also fantastic. I'd say the best of his great American songbook albums. 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow' and 'Always On My Mind' are great too though.

After James Taylor, that would lead me to -> Gerry Rafferty 'City to City' (has "Baker Street" and "Right Down the Line"), -> to Steely Dan 'Aja' and Dire Straits 'Dire Straits' -> to Pink Floyd 'Wish You Were Here'.

If Willie Nelson was more your speed, that would lead me to Johnny Cash, Townes Van Zandt, and Nick Drake (not in any order, like branching off different directions from Willie).

We saw Willie in concert and it was literally the most disappointing concert experience we had.

James Taylor is an obvious one, though personally I put him below Carole and Jim, though all are excellent. I did not know that about "you've got a friend", but it's super cool. I know he is on the Tapestry album at least once. They make a good pair. I love Aja (had the CD) and Dire Straits, but they are not her speed for sure.

mtn said:

More good ones in that category: 

Sweet Baby James, James Taylor

A1A, Jimmy Buffet

For Everyman, Jackson Browne

Blue, Joni Mitchell

Literally any Elton John Album, but bonus points for 17-11-70 and Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy

 

Then, getting into the grittier/country-er/less mainstream side of things...

John Prine, John Prine

Bruised Orange,  John Prine

Old No. 1, Guy Clark

Southeastern, Jason Isbell

Crossing Muddy Waters, John Hiatt (damnit, just realized, I don't think this one has ever been released on vinyl)

Anything Brandy Carlisle

 

 

Good suggestions there, I'll slowly pick up James Taylor and Jackson Browne for sure. I'll listen to the rest ahead of time.

Might also enjoy Simon and Garfunkel.