Vinyls

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Vinyls

Postby Watashig » 10 Apr 2013 23:30

Hi!

I'm looking to start listening to music on vinyls, but I have no idea where to start! I want to grab a vinyl player of sorts, pretty much just for listening. How much is this going to cost me? I don't want to state a budget because I want to get a feel for how much things will cost me. Maybe I should organize some questions down into a list of sorts:

  1. What kind of costs should I expect at a starting range?
  2. What should I know about parts to a turntable, like the cartridge?
  3. What kind of pre-amp would I need? Can I just hook it up to my audio interface (the 2i2)? It looks like I can, with just an XLR cable or something along those lines.
  4. What else should I know about getting into vinyls?

Thank you in advance!
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Re: Vinyls

Postby Freewave » 11 Apr 2013 11:24

Actually we really need to know more about what YOU want to get out of one and what type of sound system you'd want to add it TO.

Almost all turntables really need to be amplified as they are one of the lowest signals in volume and require a ground to the amp as well. Most current amps do NOT have a turntable rca connection (red and white standard audio cable) these days and they would need boosting (or a mixer if you have that option). If you can get one with a usb connection that would be a new and modern way of doing it.

Also for dj'ing of ANY sort you need a direct drive so you can change the speed and can scratch. Most turntables do not have that and you would break them quickly trying to do anything of that sort. Vinyl is quite popular so you have an avenue to get records to play. May want to ask a music shop what they have and recommend as you'd likely want to get one there.
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Re: Vinyls

Postby Watashig » 12 Apr 2013 00:19

I already stated that I'm looking for one primarily for listening. I was looking at the AT-LP60 as a starting point, and it seems to have a preamp built in. Would this be okay to start with?

Yes, I'm aware that this is much less oriented on producing; rather, it's focused on just listening, but this is the only place I'm comfortable to ask questions like this. Should I try somewhere else to learn about vinyls?
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Re: Vinyls

Postby bartekko » 12 Apr 2013 05:57

Why do you want to listen to music on vinyls in the first place? If it's for the warm distortion that vinyls produce, it's obviously the place to go, but if you're looking for a crystal clean sound because you heard that vinyls sound better than CDs then you should look for uncompressed versions of whatever you want to listen to, because brickwall limiting is the only thing that makes CDs worse than vinyls
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Re: Vinyls

Postby Freewave » 12 Apr 2013 07:41

Watashig wrote:I already stated that I'm looking for one primarily for listening. I was looking at the AT-LP60 as a starting point, and it seems to have a preamp built in. Would this be okay to start with?


Well that turntable looks like its a good pick and has both the standard rca with the pre-amp and a minijack for audio input. Since you didn't say any more additional info about the amp or pc you'd be plugging it into i assume your have inputs to allow either of those options. It's a belt drive but there's no point upgrading to a direct drive if you're not adjusting bpm or scratching (and just listening). Looks ok to me.
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Re: Vinyls

Postby Paianni » 13 Apr 2013 07:02

Well, if you want the daddy of tables you can get a Technics SL-1200 (either Mk2 or Mk5 will do), which though expensive can handle anything pretty much anyone would want to through at it, DJ or High-Fidelity wise. They're pretty easy to come by and have been in production for decades. Just don't forget to add a decent phono pre-amp/phono stage which will counteract the RIAA curve which emphasizes the higher frequencies. Also, many of them have had a hard life DJing and will probably need a new cartridge/stylus, recalibrated etc. At worse the turntables' mech may need re-lubricating.

As for the whole format war thing, yes out of all the analog mediums vinyl is horrible to deal with but much older music used better masters for the LPs than they did for the subsequent CD releases or remasters. While many of the problems associated with bad Analog-Digital converters were sorted out by the 1990s, new problems were introduced such as limiting and compression which 'sucked the life out' of older recordings. The band ABBA is a classic example as there has never been a consistent remaster batch where both good mastering and good tapes were used. Even today vinyl can be a better deal sound quality wise, because due to the format's limitations the levels cannot be pushed as hard as they can with other analog and digital formats.
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