(02-09-2018, 02:08 PM)hb1148 Wrote:

(02-09-2018, 11:52 AM)The Real Marty Wrote: So, my friend has all my old vinyl records, and all my brother's old vinyl records, and all my father's old vinyl records, and all his own old vinyl records, hundreds of vinyl records, and he's too cheap to get his old turntable repaired, or buy a new one, so...  should I invest in a new turntable and get all my old vinyl back?  (...and his and my brother's and my father's.)

It's mainly late 60s and early 70s rock and roll, and lots of classical, most of it in mint condition.  We used to take really good care of our vinyl records.  Not a scratch on most of them.  

I think the answer is yes.   I need to make a trip to Best Buy and say goodbye to a few hundred bucks.

I'd agree the answer is yes. How much you want to invest in a new turntable will really dictate what kind of sound you get out of them (and also the rest of the components in your system) but they will still sound great if you enjoy the music.

So yesterday, I went down to Best Buy and bought an Audio-Technica turntable for $300.   Some assembly required, but the instructions were very easy to follow.  So I hooked everything up, and WOW.   I had forgotten how good vinyl records sound.  It's incredible.   I don't even care about the occasional pop and crackle from the scratches on the records, the sound is amazing. 

I think when CDs came out, and I figured vinyl was a thing of the past, we all started buying CDs, then I imported CDs to MP3 files, and then I started streaming from Pandora, and so forth, there was a slow degradation in sound quality every step of the way, but it took place over a period of many years, so I hardly noticed. 

All these hundreds of vinyl records, which USED to be in mint condition, were just sitting on a shelf or in a closet for a couple of decades, so they are surprisingly dirty.   I've ordered some vinyl record cleaning stuff.   We'll see how they clean up.  But even in their current condition, they are so far superior to a digital source, it's amazing.

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