Sound quality of new vinyl recordings.

@mapman … “A good digital recording these days can easily reproduce what’s in most older analog recordings.”

 

+1 if you put the money you might have spent on an analog end you can upgrade your digital end… and over time have a better sounding system.

 

On the other hand, if you like fiddling… scouring record stores for gems (getting a good record cleaning machine)… vinyl can be fun. 

To dip your toe into Vinyl, to see IF you will stick with it:

This TT is my recommendation:

 

 

It has a built-in optional phono eq stage, so it can go into any line level input.

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As soon as you decide vinyl is pretty good, then you buy a cartridge with advanced stylus, improved imaging via wide channel separation 28db and tighter center balance 1db

You will hear a noticeable improvement

 

 

now you have two headshells with two cartridges.

Hooked? Then better TT, better Tonearm (with removable headshell), you can start with the VM540ML cartridge you bought, and move up from there. Newer TT, more than likely now need a separate Phono Stage. Move up to MC cartridge, now need either a SUT (step-up-transformer) or a phono stage that works for both MM and MC cartridges. Bit by Bit, if hooked, if moving up, you will get lots of advice/help here. Point is, this AT120 TT is an easy and inexpensive way to determine IF you will stick with Vinyl.

If vinyl is not for you, then you haven't spent too much money to find that out.

There are some great comments here for and against starting a vinyl collection...and some not so much.

• IF your decision to explore vinyl is from an audiophile’s perspective (vs. whether or not you like fussing with records), then don’t start at entry-level as suggested above - you will be bitterly disappointed
• The cost of a good analogue source that will exceed digital is exponentially more expensive. I just upgraded my digital system and it is starting to sound really good, but will not replace my TT for deep listening sessions. My ratio is $3,200 : $14,000 (details in my profile). Not saying you need to / should spend anything near that much to get started, but $345 wont cut it (pun intended)
• There are a TON of great new recordings out there, great sources have already been mentioned. The converse is also true. The poor recordings won’t get played much.
• I just picked up Janis Ian, Breaking Silence and Nora Jones Come Away With Me (both re-releases) - they sound fantastic

I am constantly amazed by the fact that I’m listening to a 100 yo medium picked up by a vibrating needle generating a magnetic field that a couple of magnets send downstream. I embrace that rather than criticize it.

Lastly, disregard the naysayers about vinyl from digital sources. They can sound great. No DAC required to enjoy. So the question becomes: Is your DAC better than MOFI’s? If yes, maybe skip the vinyl journey.

IMHO Acoustic Sounds gets a 10/10 and MoFi gets an 8-9/10. You also need to look for whoever did the mastering and the engineering on that particular record. I have found that Bernie Grundman, Doug Sax, Stan Ricker, Kevin Grey, Steve Hoffman, Jack Hunt, Sterling Sound ( can't remember the engineers) are all excellent. ANY album they have mastered sound great. Anything that Bill Schnee and Al Schmitt worked on also sounds great. You have to read the fine print on the album sleeve - wikipedia has most of that information. Most stuff < about 1980 was all analogue (tape and tubes). After that it went solid state and digital. Other labels I have found to be pretty good are ORG and ORG music - 2 separate labels, apparently some legal issues - DCC, Nautilus, Reference Recordings, Sheffield Lab and M&K realtime. A lot of these are out of print and you have to search for them. ANY D2D will sound good, assuming its been taken care of. If you can find them, Umbrella Records did some great D2D of Rob McConnell and the Boss Brass - Canadian Label and band. Incredible sound and music. Anyway, have fun and enjoy it. If it sounds good to you, then its fine!!

If I decide to get a TT it will not be entry level. I do not want it to be the weak point of my system. I think I can get something good in the 2 to 5k range. For those who were wondering my system is mcintosh mc462, marantz av7705(only using in 2 channel not part of theater system). And tekton moab.. let the tekton and mcintosh bashing begin. LOL.