Vinyl foibles

@larsman on being curious

and @speedthrills  on what sucks…

The two different observations:-

Venting anger on an analogue discussion could be a knee jerk reaction after wasting a lot of money….. on analogue.

What would make anyone who had used vinyl before, “l stuck a toe back in” (if it sucks) do the same thing again?  Wouldn’t that simply be a self administered sucker punch?

I really tried to troll, but @speedthrills got much better responses. I will remember next time: criticizing you is ok, criticizing vinyl is outrageous

On getting carried away (as above)

Inflation can take its toll…… As Richard IV says….. “A horse a horse, my kingdom for two horses”

I had a friend, who passed away several years ago, who received a large inheritance about twenty-five years ago and asked me to help him spend a lot of money (from my perspective) on a stereo. It was fun. We drove all over L.A. and even Santa Barbara listening to various gear. He finally bought the new Wilson Shashas (I think) which had just come out and were half the price of the Watt Puppys. (I must say, I found them a bit dry but did not say so. It was his fantasy. My job was just as a guide)

He purchased the latest ARC Reference preamp and a Hovland Radia amp. It was over $30K which was much more than it is today. 

He'd grown up a poor kid from the Bronx and was very proud of himself, now a Harvard professor with a high-end stereo. But I absolutely could not get him to invest in a turntable. I brought him to my house a number of times to listen to the difference between records and CDs. Perhaps part of the problem was that my system cost a fraction of his and was not super revealing. Still, I heard the difference.

He said he did not want to get up all the time and change records. He did not like the idea of purchasing media that would wear out every time he played it. All rational reasons, I guess. Except records sound so far superior to my ears over digital music (if only I could purchase that quarter of a million dollar Dcs dac!) that I happily get up and turn over the record. It's kind of like breathing.

The irony was that he spent all of his time in his office at Harvard and listened to music on his computer. His wife who did listen to his system, and who gave me the amp and preamp and Moon CD player, did not like it at all. She gave the heavy speakrs away to the guy next door in Cambridge.

I took her to a dealer who sold Golden Ear speakers and NAD Swiss Army Knife streamer, integrated amp, and whatever else. She liked that so much more than the expensive stereo.

Do I have a point? I think so.

@mylogic 

The mystery is that I do take good care of my records. I have floor to ceiling record shelves. A degritter. Brushes and anti-static guns. I learned to hold records by their edges when I was a kid. If I lower the stylus too quickly and it jumps when it lands, which I hardly ever do, I will remember that for the rest of my life. That's why I cannot figure out why my records do get ticks or even a few scratches that the Degritter cannot remove.

I have records from he early seventies that sound fine. I talked to a high-end dealer years ago and asked him about this phenomenom. He said it happened to others too. His theory was that vinyl is much softer now than it used to be. Who knows? I have read a study by a guy who said there is no one vinyl recipe. Different companies mix their vinyl differently.