The Vinyl Thread

[DaveInDenver]

http://cosprings.craigslist.org/ele/5019928647.html

A Technics SL-1600 mk I for sale down in the Springs. If it's working it's a good deal and if it's been refurbished it's a great deal. This is the same tone arm as the fabled SL-1200 but with an automatic mechanism.

 

[Hulk]

It'll be used in a Nitty Gritty 1.5

You have a record cleaning machine?

 

[DaveInDenver]

You have a record cleaning machine?

Brand new, haven't used it much yet. I decided to take the plunge to deep clean my teenage-me and thrift store records. Also some new records even, I've been less-than-impressed with their finishing. Besides, Crash has a much nicer one. Mine is only minimally automatic.




Yup, Kirsten wasn't terribly happy with it.



I'm charging $17.34 per record for a clean to offset the investment.

 

[DaveInDenver]

So, inner groove distortion, what is it and how is diagnosed? I'm starting to notice more harshness lately with my system when it shouldn't be doing that.

I put a different tube in my pre-amp, a NOS G.E. JAN 5670W. I have other tubes to roll in, a NOS Western Electric 396A, Raytheon JRP 5670W 'D' getter and an RCA JRC 5670W 'O' getter (both of the 5670W are used pulls that test good), so I have some more experimenting to do. Running the same Adcom GFA-535mkII and Paradigm Mini Monitor V.5. I recently added a new phono stage, a Hagerman Bugle 2, which is a triple stage LM4562 with about 40dB of gain and matches my cartridge impedance of 47K right on. I don't have great interconnects between the output of the phono amp and line input on the pre-amp, so that is something I'd like to address. The cables on the 'table are fixed and are of decent quality. Between my pre-amp and power amp I'm using short Kimber Kable PBJ, so those are probably not a problem.

It's possible the slurring of vocals (like 'Ess'-sounds) and what-not could be related to the pre-amp tube or phono stage, but I doubt it. System sounds fine on some records and generally pretty good on CDs (my DAC is based on a Crystal 4398).

My suspicion is my stylus is getting close to done or I have reached it's limit. It wasn't a particularly high end to start (Ortofon OM5e) and it's a few years old. I can't imagine the alignment has shifted but I wonder. Maybe I'm tracking heavy or something. It does seem to get worse as the arm tracks in (at least I start to notice it more and it seems correlated to inside tracks on the record), which sorta does indicate an alignment issue. But I haven't touched it since setting it up originally. Just kind of stumped. Maybe my cart was never aligned right but I'm just starting to notice (e.g. the new phono stage being a considerable improvement now highlights the issue).

 

[DaveInDenver]

Technics SL-1800 (looks like a Mk I). These are similar to the SL-1200 but have a suspension chassis whereas the 1200 does not. This one still has a lot of its original stuff, owner's manual, etc. It's also got the original (or exact replacement) Stanton 681EEE with the brush. He's asking quite a lot for it IMHO, but it's a pretty decent turntable.

http://fortcollins.craigslist.org/ele/4986874709.html


This one is a SL-1700 (also looks like a Mk I). It's a lot more reasonably priced, probably a fair price. It's also semi-automatic, unlike the 1200 and 1800.

http://denver.craigslist.org/ele/4999433980.html

 

[DaveInDenver]

Not that I would wish this on anyone, someone is selling the exact same record player I had a kid. I don't recommend spending any money on something like this...

http://denver.craigslist.org/ele/5024858556.html

Well, sort of that's true. I started with a really crappy G.E. Wildcat that I got when I was maybe like 4 that I played those silly kiddie records with, but I remember getting that BSR from a garage sale when I maybe like 10 or something. It got replaced later with a Garrard that I used up until I left for college (I left it at home), after which I mostly collected CDs. I used that Garrard very briefly when I get the itch for records again, realized that it was marginal at best and probably was ruining records as badly as the BSR, so I got my Pro-Ject in about 2008 or so.

 

[Beachboy]

Been interesting reading about the other vinyl fanatics out there in the club. Been buying/collecting records since high school, mostly 70's. Now have over 600. Play them on a B & O player with a Pioneer as a backup.

 

[DaveInDenver]

 

[Hulk]

This is pretty awesome, Dave.

 

[Crash]

Must have some out of round Swamper LTBs on the VW bus for all the warp wow you can hear. Thanks God for two minute long songs!

 

[DouglasVB]

I have about 1000 records in Golden with me, another 1000 in Oregon waiting to make the trip east, and somewhere between 2000 and 4000 in California also waiting to come out. My parents and grandparents (and my grandparents friends now!) have all been transferring their vinyl collections to me over the last few years. Some of the earliest records are from the 20s and teens. I think in the next batch from California (I'll be probably bringing some of it back with my 4runner in July) there will even be some Edison cylinders. My grandparents gave me their console stereo from the 60s with a Harmon/Kardon amp and Garrod turntable built in. No idea how I'll play the Edison cylinders

With so much vinyl flooding my tiny townhouse, I haven't even listened to 1/10th of my on-site collection. My grandfather was a music teacher in California for his career post-WWII. My grandparents friend who is giving me somewhere between 2000 and 4000 records was a librarian and did meticulous collection and preservation.

You'd think this would be a marvelous thing but I feel like I'm starting to drown in vinyl. I've been using Discogs to try and catalog my collection but at least 1 out of 6 records in my collection doesn't exist in the Discogs index.

I need a long-term plan for what I'm doing with all of this vinyl. I'm generally trying to pare down my possessions and having vinyl all over the place isn't helping. My current idea is to record it all to MP3 so that I can have a complete archive and not need to play the original copies. Eventually I would then sell off the bulk of the collection and only keep the special records (because really who needs three copies of a Richard Simmons exercise album). With so many records though, I fear that I will never have a chance to digitize it all.

What on earth am I going to do with all of these records!?

 

[Crash]

Start by getting rid of all three Richard Simmons copies! Seriously. And anything else that you feel isn't worth looking at, let alone listening too, and save your listening time to things that you are, or may be, interested in. Life's too short to hang on to crap and there is plenty of crap out there in shellac and vinyl land. What others have collected in their lifetime may have no relevance in yours and you need to let it go.
While up here on the soapbox I'll also say DON'T record anything to MP3 if you value good sound at all. Nothing will put you off of listening to things you really like quicker than compressed lossy files such as MP3. Life's too short to listen to crap, too. Spend your time listening to vinyl rather than digitizing it.
While stretching this morning (no Richard Simmons albums in this house) I listened to the Schumann Piano Concerto on the EMI label and then, for the sake of diversity, Parliament's Motor Booty Affair, both on vinyl. Not as convenient as having it digitized but both sounded awesome and enhanced the start of my day. Plus, looking at the artwork on the Parliament album made me smile with its '70's goofiness.
Don't get me wrong, if you choose to MP3 all of your collection I won't hold it against you. But if you really like having mementos of some of your family's history hang on to the stuff you like and with the older stuff, like the cylinders, consider donating some of it to a local museum that would appreciate it. Get rid of the dreck - most thrift stores like Goodwill will take it off your hands and you will have lightened your load.
Happy Listening!

 

[DouglasVB]

Start by getting rid of all three Richard Simmons copies! Seriously. And anything else that you feel isn't worth looking at, let alone listening too, and save your listening time to things that you are, or may be, interested in. Life's too short to hang on to crap and there is plenty of crap out there in shellac and vinyl land. What others have collected in their lifetime may have no relevance in yours and you need to let it go.
While up here on the soapbox I'll also say DON'T record anything to MP3 if you value good sound at all. Nothing will put you off of listening to things you really like quicker than compressed lossy files such as MP3. Life's too short to listen to crap, too. Spend your time listening to vinyl rather than digitizing it.
While stretching this morning (no Richard Simmons albums in this house) I listened to the Schumann Piano Concerto on the EMI label and then, for the sake of diversity, Parliament's Motor Booty Affair, both on vinyl. Not as convenient as having it digitized but both sounded awesome and enhanced the start of my day. Plus, looking at the artwork on the Parliament album made me smile with its '70's goofiness.
Don't get me wrong, if you choose to MP3 all of your collection I won't hold it against you. But if you really like having mementos of some of your family's history hang on to the stuff you like and with the older stuff, like the cylinders, consider donating some of it to a local museum that would appreciate it. Get rid of the dreck - most thrift stores like Goodwill will take it off your hands and you will have lightened your load.
Happy Listening!

Haha yeah I really do need to re-home those Richard Simmons albums. Two of them are still in their original shrink-wrap! I think my grandfather received them for free while he was a music teacher out in Fresno. I can really tell what was for work or came from work (lots of band music and popular tunes that high school bands could play) and what he liked (lots of big band music, lots of jazz, lots of dance music from the 20s and 30s). There are some other interesting records from his collection that I'm hanging on to for the moment such as a multi album set of remembrances from people who lived around the area he lived east of Fresno from the 1890s through the 1950s. My mother used to have records that my grandfather's best friend sent him in high school while his best friend was in a US internment camp during WWII. She made a digital copy of those records and then donated them to an appropriate organization dedicated to preserving memories from the camps (after checking with the family of the guy who made the records).

Most of the records I have here in Colorado aren't the high-end audiophile-sought-after pressings. These are all mass consumption records. That might be part of the reason that I don't hear much difference between an MP3 version and the original vinyl. I'm a classically trained cellist in remission so I do have at least somewhat of an ear for sound but I've never had much luck in really spotting a difference that changes my personal appreciation of the sound from a good record versus an MP3. Maybe I need to take my ears in to get tuned.

Is there a good vinyl shop in Denver that you can recommend where I can sell off the records that I don't routinely listen to and don't find as enjoyable? I've found a few through Googling but I want to find a store that won't throw away a bunch of the vinyl that I have. It would be nice if someone somewhere were to appreciate it again.

 

[DaveInDenver]

The argument over lossy/compressed vs lossless vs uncompressed vs analog hasn't subsided in 30 years and won't anytime soon. New music is digital and that's just the way it is. I personally welcome our digital overlords. DACs are improved over the ones we had in 1990 that there is no reason a CD has to sound poor. But what sounds good to one person can't be quantified, so if you think it sounds good or sound bad, then it does.

Even our beloved LPs are digital, very little has not been recorded in 24/96 format over the past few years. Even original analog records that have been reissued are digitized. Maybe the original masters are lost, were done poorly or the mixing and mastering studios are just better equipped to filter in the digital domain. Ultimately in my mind it's about producing a good master rather than sticking to a purely analog path.

Mastering and pressing plants started converting in the late 1980s from analog to digital stylus control. Then it was all about pushing records through the system and now it's just standard practice. The number of non-digital mastering studios is like half a dozen worldwide. It's extremely difficult to find a truly 100% analog record that was made in the past 10 or so year since almost all mastering is digital to allow a delay for their lathes. So groove shape, width and spacing is controlled from a digitized (and often filtered) version of the source. Starting with a digital source also allows the mastering engineer to run several cutting simulations to figure out the best settings for the lathe without doing test cuts.

 

[DaveInDenver]

GZ Vinyl in the Czech Republic is one of the better mastering studio around. Here's some links that show what they do.

http://www.gzvinyl.com/Manufacturing/Mastering/New-mastering-system.aspx

http://www.razorcake.org/site/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=13738

 

[DaveInDenver]

One of the larger pressing plants in the USA:

http://www.recordtech.com/

 

[Hulk]

Dave, do you understand all of this?

1950s Eico Tube Amplifier And Preamplifier - $350 (Lubbock)

I am selling a matched pair of vintage 1956 American made Eico tube audio components in flawless working condition. The high power audiophile quality tube power amp is a Model HF-50 which features a massive ultra-linear potted Chicago output transformer for the push pull class AB1 circuitry and effortlessly produces 60+ watts RMS output into 4 8 or 16 ohm loads with low noise lab grade 60 khz response and the finest square wave linearity I have ever measured from a classic HiFi amp. This design has provision for easy external wide range adjustment of both grid bias and balance allowing use of any quality standard base octal pentode output tubes such as European EL-34s British EL-37s KT-66s KT-88s and of course American types ranging from high voltage rated 6L6s to 6550s. The supplied tube compliment is premium grade from the German 6267 dual element input gain to the matched Valve Arts 6550A pentodes. The rectifier is classic British Mullard GZ34 5AR4 to supply the well filtered 525 volts B+ to the plates. Refinements include precision metal film resistors in the bias circuit and Sprague orange drop coupling caps also used extensively in the preamp. The matching HF-65 preamp utilizes 6X5 tube rectification and classic tested low hour American 12AX7 dual triodes for all stages of the pure class A point to point wired circuitry. This unit provides three separate line inputs and a high gain microphone input perfect for guitar blues harp or live and recording mic use. The unique phono stage has four position playback selection of any of the traditional pre-emphasis response curves used in vintage 78 and early 45 record production as well as RIAA EQ for later industry standard vinyl. These phonograph stages have been meticulously calibrated and are suitable for lab grade transcription with superb accuracy. These sections as well as the NAB tape head input have rear panel input attenuation allowing use of any cartridge stylus combination from high output cheap ceramics to the finest Ortophon moving coil design. Both pre and post bass and treble equalization, cathode follower outputs are provided and these as well as all input and output jacks are American professional 1/4 inch phone types. I'm an old retired studio calibration tech and can assure that these units can blow away even the most modified Dynaco Mark IIIs based on any measurable or sonic parameter and can make the devout Mac MC-60 owner question his investment. Out of respect I never (except for touch up) tampered with the original owner's 50s Tu-Tone tan and brown color scheme and although the finish is not perfect these units are still very presentable spotlessly clean and very very cool. For the Glass audio purest, working studio or stage musician, or the professional music archivist, I am offering these units as a pair for local sale at $350 CASH. This price is cash only and firm. Please be patient and I'll try to answer email as quickly as possible. Thank you. If this ad is still listed then it is still available.

I feel like this must be some kind of voodoo magic.

 

[DaveInDenver]

 

[rover67]

Watching that gives me no hope that we could hear voices from old clay pots that ancient pottery wheels left behind as recordings from brushes used on them.

very cool though.

 

[DaveInDenver]

http://cosprings.craigslist.org/ele/5081896453.html

Pretty decent price on a Technics SL-1200Mk5. This is one of the best versions of this turntable.