I’m coming into this area as a practical and philosophical result of:
- me wanting to own my music
- CDs are barely being made
2.1. If they are - they’re not being shipped to my corner of the world - Torrenting often failed me in terms of variety.
However - I am absolutely ignorant about equipment, maintainance, and know-hows of the audiophile world.
Avoid all and any modern day record players. They simply are built cheaply, they don’t really know how to do it right and they’re just ruined by modern crappy design.
You’re best off thrifting for an actual record player.
I’m pretty happy with my Fluance RT82. Zero complaints.
Though, to be clear: it’s the only one I’ve owned, so far.
Vinyls are, to me at least, more a way of having something to directly support the artist and gaining a piece of musical art.
My record player has been out of commission after being stupid enough to hit the play button without a record or deck protector and chunking off the tip of the diamond. (Since it’s a vintage record player a new stylus is about 300)
In terms of gear, a good amp, and a good DAC (Digital Audio Converter) with a solid pair of headphones can turn your digital music into brand new songs.
Even my cheap DAC and headphone amp can output enough quality to hear the difference between FLAC and every other format (the realisation that music having ‘texture’ wasn’t just audiophiles being pretentious and was more like ‘being able to hear ALL the instruments’ ruined my bank account) :')
Don’t buy a crappy all in one suitcase player and you’re good.
Are you in Canada? Fluance is a great local company
I love my fluance
I have a Fluance RT-82. It’s perfect for my needs.
I recently got into records but I wouldn’t consider myself an audiophile. I have a AT-SB727 “Sound Burger” and I usually connect it to a SoundCore Mini. The whole setup was under $200 on sale.
The main advantage for me is that it’s somewhat portable. I have 0 wires to mess with, not even a power cord. I’m sure the audio quality isn’t great but I like watching the record spin and listening to albums from start to finish.
I do have a different old record player (Sansui P1000) but it needs to be connected to AC then that has RCA connectors that need to go to a stereo which then has copper wire speakers. It sounds a lot better but also it’s a lot less portable
The sound burger does come with a line level RCA output so maybe it does sound as good when connected to an actual stereo. I want to get an elliptical stylus upgrade in the future which is supposed to help with sound quality
Audiophile rabbit hole is deep. Start with used equipment and second hand vinyl stores. It’s a fun pastime to browse.
Otherwise bandcamp is a fun place to acquire FLAC and vinyl as well.
Essentially this. You don’t need fancy or expensive equipment to start, and you can replace parts as you go about. However, do avoid the all-in-one mobile players from brands like Lenco and Denver. They put really poor quality parts in there that can hurt your records. But anything above that is already good enough
I bought a used super-oem player years ago for €100. They’re more for DJ’s I think, but the quality and maintainability is great and spare parts are abundant.
The model of record player you choose will have a direct impact on your experience.
At the bottom you have the cheap suitcase players with built-in speakers. These will play your records but the speakers aren’t great. People often find that many records won’t play well (or at all) on these cheap players. A record players is a machine and the cheap ones aren’t very tunable and have very low tolerances for scratched or imperfect records.
A nice player with a full size platter, anti-skate, and a counter weight will happily play the same records that won’t play on the cheap suitcase players. These more expensive players will not have built-in speakers so you also need amplified speakers or an amp+speakers. The sound quality will depend on what speakers you buy but will certainly be better than a suitcase player.
Then you have the high end luxury models. These can cost more than some cars! Are they worth it, well that’s up to you and your budget!
I know this isn’t the answer, but you mentioned torrents. Try soulseek, it’s modern day Napster. Nicotine+ is a great gui over soulseek app.
Those red cartridge style needles that cheap turntables use will destroy your records. If at all possible, buy an old player. Or, buy new but don’t cheap out on it. Your collection will inevitably contain rare and unreplaceable records. If you want to preserve them for the next generation don’t skimp on your gear.
Replacement cartridges (needles) get expensive quick when you aim for quality, choose your table wisely. And, when you do replace your cartridge, rebalance your tone arm.
If you’re looking to “own” your music, another path is something like Zotify. You can actually download tracks from the service with the similar name. Philosophical issues aside, I have no issues using them for a bit to build out my collection.
There’s also the revived Deemix-GUI project on github, which does the same for Deezer and supports 320kbit mp3 or 1411kbit FLAC downloads.
Don’t use a CD with your record player. Watch the record spin, it’s hypnotizing. There may be a button like a wheel to tweak the speed slightly.
That’s all I remember.
Records (LPs, anyway) really demand you listen to 20/40 minutes at a time. That can be quite useful for setting aside some time in the day, but it also requires… setting aside some time in the day.
The used CD market is an order of magnitude cheaper than vinyl.
My personal setup is amp, speakers, cd, tape, bluetooth and turntable, and to give you an idea of how valuable they are to me, I play records on it usually once every day or two, CDs or bluetooth (Bandcamp or somafm or something) a couple of times a week, and tapes less than once a month. If I didn’t sit at my computer all day for work with headphones and navidrome I’d probably listen to records a lot more though :)
If you get a new turntable, either get one with a built-in preamp and buy some good powered speakers or go the old school way (my preference) of a turntable with no pre-amp, a separate amp with a phono stage, and passive speakers. It’s generally more expandable and easier to replace individual parts when you upgrade or a capacitor explodes or something. You can get those components relatively cheap on ebay too. But basically keep the record player as simple as possible. No built-in speakers, no bluetooth, no bells and whistles. The money should go into the turntable and stylus themselves. For example I got a Fluance RT82 which I’m very happy with. Make sure you put it on a sturdy flat surface, too, not a table with spindly legs or anything. Especially not if you have a cat.
I mainly buy used albums, because I like older music. I have two record players, one Pro-Ject and 40 years old Beogram, both have a good sound. I also listen to CD’s, if I have to buy new music. CD’s are much cheaper than vinyls. Besides that, I have started to buy old C-cassettes that I play with an old Beocord player.
Starting with vinyls is not as difficult as it sounds. Just pick up some reasonable priced player, used ones are usually great too. Just make sure the needle is in a good condition. The heavier the player is the better it usually is, tone arm’s shape is obsolete both are good, regardless if it’s a straight or S shaped.
You also need amplifier and speakers. Many of newer ones don’t have build in RIAA connections, which you need with an older turntables, some newer models might have RIAA build in the player itself so you can plug them into any amplifier.
