Playable LPs

My focus since around 2006 has been to curate a very large collection of "standard" pressings though many are highly collectible, from the late 60s and early ’70s- the goal was to get the best sound possible from "ordinary" pressings (though many are now hard to find, small label, private label or simply in the province of record collectors). I never considered myself a "collector," more an itinerant dilettante who finds something and "surfs" it for other material I like. Very little of what I listen to these days is "audiophile" issues though I kept a lot of that stuff-- it sits in an adjacent room and includes psych, prog, blues, jazz and a ton of classical. As to %s, I could not say-- I am usually in a mood to find something I haven’t listened to in a while, and since I can go shopping at home through the stacks, can always find something to scratch the itch. I culled about 5,000 records out of around 17,000 and bought another thousand or so since, after dumping a similar amount shortly after arriving in Texas.

Any playlist of a listening session would mix acoustic jazz with roots/slide, some hard psych, a classical work and some soul. I can go from Sly Stone to an obscure psych band, it all depends on mood. Having a lot of records just means more access to more different things. To me, all of that is "justified" and it isn’t based purely on sonics. I kinda got out of the "audio spectaculars" a while ago-- and it was pretty liberating. Take a chance, try something new and different or old and different. My cleaning is quite rigorous and pretty much everything is in top playing condition (I have spares of some that are not quite up to par but haven’t parted with them yet- they have some collector value--I just have no urgency to do another purge, which will no doubt come). I don’t stream. I do have an SSD from which I can play local files digitally, but that’s mainly for stuff that isn’t on vinyl, demos, some material I was sent for work back in the day, etc. My serious listening is pretty much all vinyl. 

It’s getting harder to find clean copies of some of this stuff just like fresh old high end tubes. I suspect there will be another turn-over when my generation passes on to that great listening room in the sky. In the meantime, carpe diem!

I rarely encounter records used or reissues that I ever have issues with noise or poor sound quality. All the vendors I deal with will immediately accept a return for replacement or just send me a replacement disc with no exceptions asked. Likewise with all the brick-and-mortar establishments I deal with whether the record is new or used. New unsealed usually only require a light dusting and a pass with a silicon roller to play perfectly and maybe a new inner sleeve if the one it came in was a paper or printed one.

Used records get a pass through the Spin Clean following the manufactures instructions to the letter and using the cleaning solution with distilled water and the cotton rags that come with the product and 99% of the time that's all they need other than a dust and silicon roller before play. I also use LAST liquid stylus cleaner and their carbon fiber stylus brush before every record played.

I believe this is all compounded by the fact that I have exceptional playback equipment and use cartridges that use fine line or Microline stylus geometry and that I keep them clean. I would like to find a quieter copy of The Carpenter's A Song for You though, which I'm currently pursuing.

Hah! I posted about this about a month ago. I stated that the 7k invested in a turntable and artridge, phono pre amp was not worth the mediocre and unpredictable quality of the ever expensive records I invested another $1500 in at at least $30 per album. And now it seems vinyl’s average price is approaching $35 easily- for no reason other than a price gouge imo. If I have 50 carefully researched and purchased 180 gram supposedily "audiophile" recordings, I estimate that only 15 are truly really good and the rest range from crappy sounding to just ok. I continue to stream- endless music, instantly change songs/artists, no cleaning, prepping, changing sides, no static, no pit in my stomach after opening a new $35 album and hearing the first song and regretting the purchase. 

I have around 3k vinyl, virtually all are playable, minor surface noise has never been a bother for me. Virtually all my vinyl purchased in 1980's through early 2000's, many used from record stores, record shows others gifted to me. Mistracked vinyl is what bothers, usually this on inner tracks and due to albums having been played on inferior or misadjusted turntable setups.  Generally, speaking, I was nearly always able to get rid of much surface noise with thorough cleaning with specialty vinyl cleaning products and VPI record cleaners.

They say video killed the radio star, streams and cd rips killed the vinyl in my case.

Which brings us to today, I can't recall last time I listened to vinyl with my wonderful vinyl setup. I have probably 500 albums in my listening room, these are the albums with my favorite music or most likely to be played, the other 2.5k are stored in closets all over the house. Funny thing is my entire vinyl setup at the ready, and yet I don't play albums, seems ridiculous when I write this down!  Logic would dictate I sell off the entire collection and equipment, yet it remains. I suppose nostalgia has a large roll in my reticence to sell, I love looking at my albums and vinyl equipment, guess I'm a hoarder to some extent. Determining fair value for my albums is always an impediment as well, in  going through a small sample I've found some hot stampers, worth far more than your typical later generation stampings, how many hot stampers I have is a mystery that won't be solved till I go through entire collection. 

Wh

I've never had more than 1000 or so at a time. I cull frequently. I'd say most.