I never got into vinyl seriously, thinking it was going to be an easy road. I invested in equipment for cleaning/flattening etc..
I think I was clear-eyed and forward thinking ....at the time. I think the investment has paid off.
Why I don't think I'll ever return to vinyl - brief rant
I am not a vinyl guy. I have a half decent turntable and a half decent cartridge and a mid-fi at best phono preamp.
But I do get the bug every now and again and will buy a vinyl album. These are mostly from new-ish artists. I buy them from their websites hoping to support them. Sometimes I am rewarded. Mac Saturn’s only album sounds really good. The Tesky Brother’s album Run Home Slow sounds amazing and is better than the CD and streaming options. I suspect it is less compressed.
Well, the bug bit again recently and I bought the Red Clay Stray’s double live album recorded at Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. It was $45 on their website. There is no CD for this album. The vinyl is thin. The edges are rough. They had some type of dusty residue on them. At then end of one of the album sides there was a spot that looked like some sort of stain or smudge. I cleaned the records and got all the residue off of them. But the one side with the stain on it, that produces an audible pop, would not come clean. The pop persists. It is at the very end of a song, mostly in the crowd noise but it still sucks.
I contacted ’support’ on their website but never got a reply. No big deal. Its $45 and it supports a band that I like.
But that sure puts me off from buying more vinyl.
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”Frankly, I don’t find streaming or CD’s so bad sounding that the audio character of vinyl is worth the rabbit hole. To each his own, but to me it’s a complicated, troublesome.” I agree entirely and completely. Except that I feel the same way about streaming: it is a dark rabbit hole I refuse to go down. Streaming is way too complicated and troublesome. I don’t need a Mesh Router, Music Server, Network Streamer, Network Interface, Network Server, Ethernet Switch, Network Switch, Ethernet Cable, Ethernet Filter, Word Clock, clock cables, USB Cable.
In truth, I don’t know what any of these are—and I don’t want to. Give me a needle to put on a record, just like Emil Berliner wanted me to. |
I get it. You prefer vinyl. But there’s not need to make it seem like streaming is more complicated. It’s not. Perhaps I have it wrong, but my experience is that vinyl requires more trouble. Supposedly, vinyl is straightforward—drop the needle and listen. But that’s backwards. A turntable and phono stage capable of good sound run $1,500–$5,000, and that’s just the beginning. High-fidelity turntables require precision engineering with air or magnetic bearings and optical speed control systems to manage mechanical complexity that never goes away. You’re calibrating tracking force, anti-skate, VTA, cartridge alignment. You’re dealing with vibration isolation, footfall sensitivity, acoustic feedback. The cartridge wears out every 500–1000 hours and costs hundreds to replace. Setup requires technical knowledge or professional calibration. On the other hand, a streaming endpoint and DAC at comparable performance—$600–$4,300 for the hardware—solves a completely different problem: digital-to-analog conversion. Once installed, it works. No calibration. No wear consumables. No sensitivity to room vibrations or footsteps. Turntable design solves mechanical problems that are perpetually present—wow and flutter, needle wear, tracking force drift. Streamer design solves an informational problem once, then stays solved. Vinyl ownership demands constant maintenance and technical attention. Streaming ownership means buying it, plugging it in, and forgetting about it. A $10k turntable requires you to stay engaged. A $10k (way too much to spend IMO) streamer just plays music. |
I applaud OP for supporting artists by buying direct; I do the same. Vinyl occasionally can have problems, yet by and large things have been fine with my new purchases. Split seams and tear in inner sleeves are much more common than vinyl defects. Re cleaning new vinyl, yes an absolute necessity, and nothing new under the sun. OP can also purchase digital files. Supports the artist likely even more than with physical media, because digital files have very little cost associated with them; maybe some server cost, and that's about it. As the saying goes: "I got into vinyl because of the inconvenience and the expenses." Vinyl is not for everybody. Enjoy the music you own in any format. |
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