Anyone listening to vinyl?
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You folks are going to hate me for this one about 10 years ago a friends kids was a music major at U of F. The university sold off all there vinyl starting at fifty cents each and after a week of poor sells twenty five cents each. Gave friends kid 200 dollars and told her to buy buy buy!! Many of the albums were still sealed with cello cover. I have played less than 20 percent. Picked up a program around 2005-06 called Cakewalk I can play vinyl on my old stereo system using a patch cord connected to my lap top to covert to digital. For really old stuff I have a 1927 Victor talking machine for playing big 78 use either a steel needle or bamboo needle hand crank, no electronics.
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(01-19-2015, 09:35 AM)David Wrote: You folks are going to hate me for this one about 10 years ago a friends kids was a music major at U of F. The university sold off all there vinyl starting at fifty cents each and after a week of poor sells twenty five cents each. Gave friends kid 200 dollars and told her to buy buy buy!! Many of the albums were still sealed with cello cover. I have played less than 20 percent. Picked up a program around 2005-06 called Cakewalk I can play vinyl on my old stereo system using a patch cord connected to my lap top to covert to digital. For really old stuff I have a 1927 Victor talking machine for playing big 78 use either a steel needle or bamboo needle hand crank, no electronics.
Great buy on the vinyl! Hard to find anything vintage/sealed like you did.
I know a couple people who record their vinyl digitally so they don't have to play them. I take good care of my albums and they seem to be holding up well so I haven't been recording anything as of yet 
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I have a 14 tube (matched EL-84 P-P output) 1959 Fisher C-810 console with the original Garrard RC/121 MkII turntable for 78s and a Kenwood KD-2000 (Grado Prestige Pickup) running through an ART DJPre II pre-amp for LPs. I recently weaned my LP collection down to about 200 focusing mainly on early vocalists like Dinah Washington, Sarah Vaughn, and Julie London; classicals like Swan Lake, and the 1812 Overture; instrumentals like Benny Goodman, Jack Teagarden, and Eddie Duchin; and some specific cast albums like South Pacific with Ezio Pinza & Mary Martin. If your only exposure to South Pacific is the movie with Mitzi Gaynor then you really need to hear Pinza, he'll blow your socks off.
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Still have my pre-cd collection and my Onkyo TT with a BO cartridge. I put a new belt in the TT about 2 years ago, hooked it up to my Sherwood 7800, tube type receiver, setting the TT on a concrete floor. I guess my system has been tweaked for CDs (build my own speakers - many) but, the performance just didn't justify the hassle and it was just sitting there on the floor. So it is back in the closet.
BTW, I used to buy vinyl, copy it to a cassette and listen to the cassette, mostly in my car. So the records have been played very little.
P.S. and somewhat unrelated, I just discovered the amazing dynamic range available using digital/optical connectivity. Not that the source material is better and the amp with the optical input certainly isn't, but loud is LOUD and soft is very soft. I wonder if there is a way to take advantage of this in my tube type amps. My OLD Sony CD player has a "digital out". Owners manual says "for future use". Hum - - -
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(This post was last modified: 04-19-2015, 10:57 AM by Phlogiston.)
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Yep, just bought 3 more on National Record Store Day, this past Saturday 4/18/15.
Willie Dixon, Chess Box Set, 3LP
Rolling Stones, Live @ LA Forum, 1975, 3LP/1DVD
Gov't Mule, Sco-Mule Live, 1999, 3LP
Keep 'em spinning.
Mike
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(04-20-2015, 01:14 PM)PhilcoMike Wrote: Yep, just bought 3 more on National Record Store Day, this past Saturday 4/18/15.
Willie Dixon, Chess Box Set, 3LP
Rolling Stones, Live @ LA Forum, 1975, 3LP/1DVD
Gov't Mule, Sco-Mule Live, 1999, 3LP
Keep 'em spinning.
Mike
Very nice Mike!
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I've almost given up on records in favor of eight tracks, and reel to reel, believe it or not. Between the dust, the constant problems I have with record players, and the fact that LPs are only 20 minutes per side then need to be flipped or changed, I've relegated records to a backup format for things I can't find on tape. One the eight track carts are fixed I can listen for up to an hour or more without changing the cartridge, and even if I don't it just cycles through again. What's more I don't have to worry about cleaning the tape before playing a cart, only the playback head on occasion. Oh, and the fidelity is comparable to FM radio, with no popping or crackling. As far as digital is concerned you can keep it, for the old stuff recorded on analog equipment analog is the way to go.
Regards
Arran
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Eight tracks? Are you kidding, Arran? Eight freakin' tracks??
Oh well, to each his own...
I use CDs (which has already been declared a "dead" format) in my Excursion for the sake of convenience. I agree that analog records sound better than the digitized versions. But MP3 tunes (digitized 1950s music) stored in a computer and played through my SSTRAN sound pretty good on an AM radio.
Oh - Back on the subject of vinyl...
I recently picked up Jackie Gleason Presents Music, Martinis and Memories. It's a stereo re-recording of the original 1954 mono album, and not quite as good as the original. I should have held out for an original mono copy. But it's still a prime example of Mid Century mood music. 
(Did you know The Great One was not only a comedian, but also had his own orchestra?)
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Some companies, according to recent scuttlebutt, including those that used to be in the business, started making turntables again . It's about time.
As for tape, I have Nakamichi ZX9, and hope at some point to score AKAI 747.
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I have been listening to a promotional 78 rpm mini that features Arlene Francis selling Bendix Washing Machines, over and over, and over.......................on an Admiral Phono/Radio.
Paul
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(06-27-2015, 08:26 AM)Ron Ramirez Wrote: Eight tracks? Are you kidding, Arran? Eight freakin' tracks??
Oh well, to each his own...
I use CDs (which has already been declared a "dead" format) in my Excursion for the sake of convenience. I agree that analog records sound better than the digitized versions. But MP3 tunes (digitized 1950s music) stored in a computer and played through my SSTRAN sound pretty good on an AM radio.
Oh - Back on the subject of vinyl...
I recently picked up Jackie Gleason Presents Music, Martinis and Memories. It's a stereo re-recording of the original 1954 mono album, and not quite as good as the original. I should have held out for an original mono copy. But it's still a prime example of Mid Century mood music.
(Did you know The Great One was not only a comedian, but also had his own orchestra?)
Yes Ron, eight tracks. For one thing I can play eight tracks in the dash stereo of my 1975 Chrysler Newport, as well as the portable players I have on batteries, I can't really do that with records. Also since people found out that I collect, repair, and listen to eight tracks people have been giving me boxes of the things since they didn't know what else to do with them, others I bought very cheaply. There were some very good eight track machines out there actually, I have a Rheem-Roberts unit someone gave me that is an Akai in disguise, the thing weighs like 30 pounds and uses the same motor that they used in their reel to reel machines.
Regards
Arran
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Arran
Well, I'm impressed...especially the 1975 Newport... You should start a new topic in the Bar & Grill and post some photos of it.
How well are your 8-tracks holding up? I remember "back in the day" the foam pressure pads behind the tape in the cartridge would wear out quickly...and this was when the cartridges were merely months old. Plus the occasional tape breaking...now that they are decades old, how are they doing?
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Ron Ramirez
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Ron it seems to me back in the old days I had problems with the rubber roller in the cassette getting "gummy" with time and sticking on the tape resulting in disaster for it. I'm surprised that the cassette 8 track tapes are still working well.
Jerry
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The rubber roller required periodic wash with alcohol.
Those foam pressure pads went bad. Sometimes it was not foam, sometimes it was a think copper leaf spring with a piece of velvet.
People who do not drink, do not smoke, do not eat red meat will one day feel really stupid lying there and dying from nothing.
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Cassettes and 8-track tapes are two distinct formats...not the same.
Although both did use rubber pinch rollers.
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Ron Ramirez
Ferdinand IN
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