I grew up with turntables… 60’s, 70’s…. 90’s. I collected albums. The biggest wow moment was when I finally got a high end turntable. I had had a Philips then a reissue of the AR sprung table that I could rap on the cover while playing a record… and no skip or sound, and a classic Shute V1 (?). It was the best sound around.
But it wasn’t until around 1990 I bought a high end turntable and cartridge that my jaw dropped in disbelief at the sound vinyl was capable. The pops and clicks virtually disappeared, surface noise was completely gone. This table was a VPI Aries and a Van der Hull Frog… a $2,500 cartridge (in 1990…. What $10K+ now).
I am currently listening to a 1972 album that I bought for a dollar. It looks like it was used as a frisbee in competition. Scraped, warn… it looks terrible. I have a record cleaner… I had cleaned it years ago when I had purchased it. I almost put it back, thinking i wanted to enjoy my listening session. But I put it on. Wow, it is beautiful, quiet and wonderful dynamics. I have always attributed the ability of high end tables ability to play really crappy disks that the stylist goes deeper in the groves than old cheap turntables. Maybe that is correct.
My real point is. If there are some people out there that have budget tables and phono-stages that sound pretty good and you are reluctant to throw a ridiculous amount of money thinking it may not be worth it… analog done well is truly amazing. You of course need good basic equipment… preamp, amp, and speakers. But the level of sound quality of vinyl is truly amazing.
