Do You Regret Selling Your Turntable and Albums ?

**Smodking1,  so very sorry to hear about your misfortune. I hope that you and your family are happily settled in your new home and wish you the best of health and happiness there.  😊

I haven’t owned many turntables in the 50+ years that I’ve enjoyed this hobby and I’ve sold all but one. A mid 1980’s SYSTEMDEK IIX that I’ve had for about 20 years. 

And that’s in the process of getting a new tonearm ( Jelco SA-370h) installed. 

I hadn’t purchased any new gear for my two channel speaker system in the past few decades so this year I decided to purchase some new electronics. 

I recently bought a new Audio By Van Alstine Vision RB preamplifier and an NP-1 power amplifier for this system, which also includes a vintage Nakamichi ZX7 cassette deck, Onkyo C7030 CD player (being used as a transport with a 20 year old AVA Insight Mulitbit dac), an iFi Zen Dac Signature V1 for streaming, and a pair of vintage Qysonic TAD II’s from 1979. 

The system sounds quite nice for its very modest price. 

Since I added new electronics, I thought that it might be nice to have an inexpensive belt drive turntable for the occasional record album that I still enjoy playing. I know that this type of antiquated system is inconvenient to use in comparison to streaming, but there’s something about cueing up a record and sitting down to give it a listen, that leaves one with a sense of urgency and that seems to make one listen more intently.

After all, once the record begins, it’s only a matter of 15 to 20 minutes before we’ll have to get up and change sides.  When I think about how this was common practice for audio enthusiasts back when I was getting into the hobby in the mid 1970’s, I realize how fast time passes and how a technology that was once contemporary at the time, is now largely considered to be an antique. 

In spite of this, I decided to do some research on new entry level Hi-End turntables and found quite a bit to like in regard to Fluance Audio’s current line up.

I decided on their RT83 model which includes an Ortofon 2M Red mm phono cartridge. This turntable was easy to set up, is nicely made,  and actually sounds surprisingly good for the money. I also like the fact that the 2M series of phono cartridges have interchangeable styli, that can be used to upgrade the cartridge without having to purchase a brand new phono cartridge. 

What’s not to like? 👍

I never sold any of my records which I started collecting about age 14 in 1969. I purchased a handful of CD's and at one point had quite a few cassette tapes that I listened to, mostly in my car on Pioneer Super Tuner with those 6X9 Jensen coaxial speakers. After the mid-80's I hardly listened to my records at all. I had about 500 at the time. About 15 years ago I went to listen and found that my Dual turntable no longer worked. A friend of mine gave me his recently deceased father's Yamaha turntable. He's younger and was a CD guy. I started listening again, and I was hooked. I forgot how much I enjoyed vinyl records, even though cleaning, setting up the cartridge, etc. can be a pain. After ignoring my records for several years I now have about 800 records. We too moved into a smaller space. A 150 year old row house. I moved everything here and have the records I mostly listen to in a Ikea Kallax in my listening space. The rest are stored in another Kallax set up in a closet in that room.

My point is similar to what others wrote. Give a few of your favorite albums a listen and see how you like it as opposed to streaming. You may want to downsize some of your collection and sell the rest. I'm glad I never sold mine off because I'm sure I would have regretted it. I plan to add a streamer as well as I'll also run out of space and like the flexibility of listening to different artists without purchasing an entire LP. It's nice to have options these days!

I very regrettably sold most of my vinyl collection years ago, and it was a big mistake, and am thankful that there is a subset of my original album collection that I still have. I am of the opinion that very good vinyl set-up is superior to most digital unless the digital system is at the very top of the high-end including a state-of-the-art streamer and DAC, and a high resolution source. I also think that having the option to listen to a physical analog representation of the music is worth having, not to mention the album artwork and notes.  However, for those who have space limitations and the means to buy a top digital system, that is a good strategy that will produce great results. You could also argue to not spend on a vinyl system if it means the only way to afford a very good digital streaming set up. The no man’s land is an iffy low cost vinyl set-up up and ineffective digital system.

I never sold my turntable or albums.   I purchased an expensive turntable (Dual 721) in college, and I recently got it out and it needs to be re-capped.   So I judged it worth spending $60 for a kit to repair it.  I'll try when I get it fixed properly. 

I don't really look fondly on the days of records, with all the fussing you needed to do to handle them correctly.   

I like the convenience of digital music.

I moved from Anchorage, AK to Spokane, WA about 2 years ago. I ended up having a series of medical issues that prevented me from setting up my stereo systems. I wasn't able to set up my turntable, etc, and had been listening to CDs and streaming music. I finally was able to get my health in order and setup my VPI turntable with its newly rebuilt Soundsmith phono cartridge. Also was able to setup my new Degritter record cleaning machine. I have been having late night listening sessions with my Focal Utopia headphones and it has been amazing. Last night listening to Sandy Denny was incredible. My advice is to keep your records! Records are worth the fuss when you want to seriously meld with the music.