Budding audiophile/vinyl questions

[SvilleKid]

hmmm Let's see.... I'm from the "vinyl" generation. Then the reel to reel gen, next the 8-track gen, then cassettes, then cd's, then........ Who the hell knows anymore!

But, being that I started with vinyl, I still have probably 1000 LPs. I used to have a decent (but not great) Pioneer turntable, but that was "borrowed" from me when Ninja moved away. I still see it occasionally, plus the hundred or so LPs that ran away with the turntable when I visit him!

The turntable was only considered "good", not great because it is a belt drive, NOT a direct drive. However, mine has after market head and needle, which made up for the belt drive. I currently have a USB turntable that I'm using to convert many of my LPs to digital, and have replaced the head and needle that came with it for a much better unit (pulled from my 1970's stock).

I don't really know what is out there these days, but in the 1970's and 80's, you needed to have a turntable that is (preferably) direct drive, with strobe light based speed adjustment to verify you are turning the exact proper RPM. the tone arm question that raged was "straight arm" verses "s-shaped" arm. I always went with an S-arm. The counterweight needed to be adjustable, with a secondary micro-adjustment weight. I had special "anti-vibration" feet that I replaced the original feet with, to minimize counter vibrations in the room from people walking, and any other actions that would transmit back to the turntable. I used standard RCA patch cords, but I used the bulky after market ones, not the tiny ones that came with the turntable. My roommate used patch cords with gold-plated connectors. I couldn't tell the difference between the cables we used.

Any LP I purchased new goes immediately into an anti-static plastic sleeve instead of the paper one in the album (used to buy them 25 at a time from radio shack). If the album liner was anything other than an unprinted sleeve, I kept it with the record. There's plenty room in the album for the plastic lined and the original sleeve. Any used albums are NOT purchased if they have significant scratching, unless it is an album I really really want (I don't have many of those). Those LP's also then go into plastic sleeves.

To extend the life of my LPs, even using the high quality needle and light-weight head, if it was an album I planned on listening to a lot, I usually copied the LP to a tape, then listened to the tapes. Once the tapes started to lose quality, I would copy another one off the LP. I used a disk-wash system that included a "zero-stat"??? (think that was what it was called) gun that reduced/eliminated the static charge in the records. Sounds like hype, but it really did

As to the other components, I never used high watt amps, I used efficient speakers that did not suck up watts just sitting there. Jeremy still uses the same 22 watt per channel (4 channel) amp that I used (purchased in 1977), and it produces sound as clear as the 250 watt amp I use with my home system.

I guess, in summary, get a reasonable quality, direct drive turntable with goods adjustment capabilities, but make sure NOT to skimp on the needle and the head. A good cleaning system helps. Most importantly, you will have to spend some serious time looking over any potential LPs you wish to purchase. Take along a good pair of headphones and listen before you buy. The surface may look to be scratch free, but the LP could have been played hundreds of times on some kid's $5 player with a big-old fat needle, and the grooves could be nothing but canyons! You can tell this immediately. Without listening, I purchased an original Floyd Cramer LP with "Last Date", specifically for that song. When I got it home and on the turntable, that song, and only that song was nothing but mush.

I imagine any amp/speaker system you buy that gives you a sound you like will suffice for the turntable, since that sound tends to be individualized anyway.

Good luck!