Following a recent attic clearout, I found all my old LPs and 45s. For a bit of fun with one of my sons, I hooked up an old Project Debut and bought a cheap phono stage from eBay. The sound wasn’t ground breaking versus my ripped CD through the 272, but there was the familiar analogue warmth to the sound.
Possibly bitten by the same new toy bug that the OP has, I decided to purchase a second hand LP12 and I was blown away by the sound. I can’t say its better than my streamed music, its just different. The clarity and stereo separation was incredible versus by old Debut and the act of putting an LP made listening more of an event than just clicking on a screen.
The next revelation was the amazing quality of modern record pressings, often on heavierweight vinyl and remastered from analogue originals.
There is something very magical and musical about listening to vinyl. It won’t replace my streaming setup, rather it is an addition to it, when I fancy something different.
Not sure I’d ever entertain vinyl as a primary source or only source for that matter. I think it’s been hit upon and even established with the majority here in the thread that it’ll do nicely as a ‘side-listening’ source for something different, even though I’ve seen many setups here and their cost is more in line with being primary for most mortals. I only bring it up because it gives me pause as to the veracity of this being a once in a while listening endeavor for those who own vinyl rigs.
For myself, I’ll be honest, there is virtually zero nostalgia being attached to why I got into vinyl. I’m old, but not that old. Maybe I’m somewhat fortunate that my early youth existed almost directly between the height of analog and the dawn of digital mediums. Seems to have translated to this stage, the back nine of life’s course, on putting me in the same predicament in owning both. How one interacts with them isn’t the only thing that couldn’t be more different, it’s also how they sound and is quite possibly why it’s worth owning both. That, to me, outweighs any possible nostalgia—albeit an expensive way of reliving something—in the greater scheme of things.
With the pace rhythm and timing thing rock/blues etc often sounds more groovy on vinyl (wasn’t that hilarious!!).
On vinyl Classical music is almost unlistenable, IMHO of course.
If money’s not problem I would say every rock fan needs a turntable but I wouldn’t recommend it on a budget as vinyl is very expensive and also inconsistent.
Classic rock/pop doesn’t need to be expensive on vinyl. Depends what you listen to and whether or not you want to spend more on original releases. All modern reissues are musically crap in my experience.
If mostly buying new music then I’d stick to a digital source if the OP doesn’t already have a vinyl collection.
You’re right as buying second hand is lot less expensive than new but probably still more cost than second hand CD’s or a subscription.
@n-lot I suppose music choice is always going to be personal. For classical, the silent backgrounds help but I still prefer Joni Mitchell on vinyl even with the pops.
At the Naim level we are lucky we can demo set ups so many decisions come down to our own choices which is as it should be. UK anyway.
There is no doubt starting from scratch is not a small matter. I am not sure I would, but let me give another perspective from a lifetime vinyl collector. Over the years I have gathered around 8000 LP’s, my LP12 bought new in 1983 has been upgraded to current top specs. I am 100% Naim for electronics and speakers (active) including an NDX2/XPS for streaming, and I have a NAS store of around 18,000 CD’s, many replicate the vinyl.
So to my point. The sound quality of streamed music from the NAS is better than streamed music externaly such as Tidal, but there is not much in it, I am spoilt for choice of source and material but recently I have found myself going back to vinyl more often.
Why? Sound is different but 'better 'is hard to say, parhaps it is fairer to say that all sources sound fabulous through £40k of hardware!
So why vinyl? For me it is tactile, I love the ritual of selecting, cleaning and playing, I am very much an album man, meaning 22 minutes each side, get up and flip the album or find something else to play when the B side is weak. I find this apeal drives me to long listening sessions and late nights.
As I age I do not always recall the name of an artist or album, and with such a large collecetion of my own and almost unlimited choice online it is easier to revert to what I know. My vinyl is well organised, it is in my listening room/study and I can put my hand on pretty much anything I want by memory, colour or location in the shelves. Often the choice is random and impulsive and I read the cover notes as I have not done for 50 years!
But that is after 58 years of collecting and listening, each album has a story of where and when I bought it, who I was with and what we got up to which is not something that you can buy.
On balance I would advise you to concentrate your investment on the best of current sources, but find a way to catalogue what you love now, as in 20, 30, or 40 years time you will want to listen to a modern day Trees, or Terance Martin album and you will not be able to find it!
I personallyreturned to records two years ago with only a handfull of old LP’s and a few 12" singles so I dipped my toe in and bought a Marrantz TT15-S1 (actually a Clearaudio) for £1200 only because it had a decent cartridge, a Clear Audio Virtuoso wood which retails at around £750 on it’s own, I aslo had a half decent phono stage in my Yamaha AS2100 amp that wasn’t being used so it was more out of curiosity to try vinyl again. Two years later I have about 250 Lp’s many of which I bought second hand for around £8-10 each and I’ve not looked back! I still use Qubuz Sublime and CD’s every day for my main source and in other rooms but when I go into my music room to play records it’s a real escape and to me the sound of records, even on this inexpensive set up is fantastic so my advice is absolutely start from scratch you won’t (or I didn’t) regret it!
@Airdavid - have you come to a decision yet? Curious.
Would be interesting to read how you are getting along - tumbling headlong into the delights of Discogs perhaps, or the lure of High Res downloads I wonder…
Similar story to me but I bought a P10 and about 250 new records. It stops there for me with vinyl as it’s a strong link with nostalgia (the records of my formative years). Yes I could have put the money towards a better streaming source but I love the whole vinyl experience and highly rate the Nova as it comes close to the P10 in terms of SQ. I also relish the choice and use both sources to satisfy different needs. Both better my old CD based system so I’m happy…
The thing about vinyl I found is that the SQ can be very varied based upon the quality of the pressing, half speed, etc. Streamed music seems to me to be much more of a leveller (Ie CDs that sounded crap with the CDS3 at least sound reasonable ripped and streamed). The best recorded vinyl easily outperforms streamed ripped CDs to me (ie much more organic). This tends to push me to pick the best recordings from my meagre collection above the style of music I might prefer in any one listening session…
Not certain if the OP is even interested anymore at this point, but I wholeheartedly agree with all you’ve said here. However, I think this is true no matter what medium one chooses. I’ve always thought it important to temper expectations with regard to SQ from digital or vinyl. What I mean by that is everything is so dependent upon the true original source, which is the recording itself, and all the upgrades in boxes, PSUs, cartridges, arms, cables, conditioning and so forth isn’t going to miraculously alter anything for the better. If the recording is bad, it’s bad. It’ll just sound exponentially worse with a more resolving system, IMO. What you state about SQ being varied upon X, Y and Z holds true across the board, no doubt.
In general and as an aside, though, I cannot help but fall in line with what @Clive brings up with the ND555 link. Now, I’ve never had the pleasure of having that kind of Naim set up in my room, but some of the high-quality vinyl combos I’ve had nearly always trounced the highest-end CD/DAC I’ve had in my space(s). It would stand to reason, to some degree, that this would be true if I had the means at the time to put it up against truly high-end streaming—in general. At the end of the day, to me cost considerations make this kind of shootout favor vinyl, all things being equal or on the same SQ playing field. I somewhat agree with the statement that digital can be a bit hollow and cold, whereas the same recordings on vinyl just have more ‘weight’ and ‘presence’ overall. The gap is closing or about equal (to me) with better DACs, scalers, LPSs, isolation techniques and a myriad of other tweaks, but again all of that takes some serious adding up of components and even trial-and-error. I’m really generalizing here, as there are way too many factors and configurations that could negate my personal findings and feelings on the matter, but my original contribution to the thread still stands that it is entirely worth it to start fresh with vinyl.
This reply sums up exactly why I ditched vinyl in the late ‘80’s as an early convert to CD. While the latter took a while to improve, streaming 192khz tracks for me makes cd and vinyl obsolete. Why put yourself through the mill of worrying whether your new acquisition is scratched or warped or whether you will scratch it. And you can’t take it anywhere. Sorry, think it’s a nice idea as I did enjoy my Dual 505 (never quite getting to a Rega Planar 3) but these days I’m happy with my NDX2.
If you never got any further than a Dual 505 then you were never a vinyl fan from the start! I went from Dual 505 (1978) to Rega 2 (1985), Rega 3 (1988) to Linn Sondek / Ekos (1992). In that time I was probably buying an LP or two a month, amassing around 300. I bought the original Arcam Alpha CD player around the time I bought the Linn - having not been impressed with CD before that point. I carried on buying LPs usually in store sales as they gradually disappeared from the shelves ending up with about 500 or so before being forced to buy CDs, which I have never liked as an object even though to my ears the sound quality was better than the Linn. In 1999 I got married and had kids. I stopped buying music altogether for about 10 years before ripping my CDs to NAS, buying a Squeezebox and getting on Spotify as a very early adopter. I am getting back into LPs now because I do miss the ritual of “playing a record”. A bit like the Japanese Tea Ceremony!
Maybe I’m somewhat fortunate that my early youth existed almost directly between the height of analog and the dawn of digital mediums. Seems to have translated to this stage, the back nine of life’s course, on putting me in the same predicament in owning both. How one interacts with them isn’t the only thing that couldn’t be more different, it’s also how they sound and is quite possibly why it’s worth owning both. That, to me, outweighs any possible nostalgia—albeit an expensive way of reliving something—in the greater scheme of things.
