How did you get into vinyl?

Vinyl was the way to listen to the music you wanted to hear. There was no digital, our choices were the radio or LP's. Radio you were at the mercy of the DJ's as to what music was playing. With LP's you could play whatever you wanted...
I was laughing the other night recalling the days when placing a nickel on top of the headshell for better tracking. LOL.

Adjustable VTF makes things so much easier nowadays....

Cheers,
John

As a soon to be 6 year old in 1964, I requested Let It Be for my birthday. In '71 I bought the Concert for Bangadesh at the local Korvettes for something like $13 - my older brother and father thought I was nuts for having bought such an expensive 3LP set.

Cut to the late 80's living on my own in NYC. I got my first high end stereo - Quad ESL63's with the full Crosby mod. I had heard the ESL 63USA in a computer/stereo store and had never heard such realistic playback.

I was heavily into CD's at that time, especially those marked "DDD," of course not realizing the era's flawed digital masters and numerous analog to digital and back steps required at that pre digital mixer era.

I got the Quads set up with some great Spectral gear (all bought used through Audiomart - anyone remember that?) Just for fun I fired up my old $100 technics turntable I got in junior high and my jaw dropped. I couldn't believe that such a cheap and old table sounded better than my close to $750 highly rated Phillips 880 CD player.

At that point I found a used Well Tempered table from a dealer and bought a used Spectral MCR - it was out of alignment and was able to get my money back and got the then brand new Lyra Clavis. I put the table on Goldmund cones, which made it so much faster sounding, and tweeked everything with blue tak.

At that time I was living in NY's east village and passed great stores like St. Marks Sounds (and half a dozen other record shops) every day on my way home from work.

At that time in NY, everyone was getting rid of their vinyl. By the milk crate load, people would bring in promo pressings, japanese, german, MoFi, CBS half speed and some original pressings into these stores. The clerks knew me by face and what I was looking for, and would go into the back to drop off a stack of LP's in front of me that had not yet been put out for sale. This was almost all rock.

I did overbuy a bit - sometimes getting doubles of mofi and japanese titles, simply because they were there. Most LP were in the $4 - $13 range ($10-13 for 1/2 speeds and imports) I got a few excellent white label promos as well.

Then I started getting curious about jazz. I had bought a few suggested audiophile jazz lp's and really liked what I heard. I then discovered Mercer St. Books and a guy by the name of Brian Singer. He had an amazing mental catalog of great sounding/performance jazz LP's, and I proceeded to buy tons of stuff from the store at usually reasonable prices. (This guy had a separate apartment just for his huge collection of LP's) I even bought a small collection of classical.

All in all I bought approximately 3500 LP's over a few year period, and have added to that mostly Blue Note era, Pablo's and some great reissues as well as new LP releases from that time forward.

Last year I finally upgraded the table to a top quality rig (Raven One and Phantom arm) I am finally hearing what was really on those LP's after all these years, thanks to this amazing front end.

I really like the break needed to change LP's during listening. The sound is so overwhelming and so high in drama when played back at realistic volumes, that I need those few minutes to reflect on how amazing the recreation of these masterpiece records are. I also have a pretty good (though innexpensive) digital playback rig consisting of a PS Audio DLIII fed via USB.

I just find that digital, though it can be excellent sounding, doesn't move me nearly to the extent that vinyl playback does. Hence my listening these days tends to be over 90% LP.

I am now thinking of getting a state of the cart, which should expand on my vinyl enjoyment even more. Even if someday a better quality playback medium surfaces, I won't be able to amass such a great collection of music.

And now with vinyl achieving hipster status, we no longer have to defend our choice in playback formats. Add to that the fact that 10-15 years from now, the CD will be obsolete, but the LP will still stand as a vital, viable format.

My mom was into music and had 78's. I enjoyed the music she had and for Christmas 1964, Santa brought me portable 45 player. My paper route money went into 45's at the local Five & Dime. A few years later, my parents bought a Grundig stereo console (AM/FM/TT). By this time, 33's were in and 45's were begining to loose ground. For me, with the Grundig, that was like jumping from Bose 901 speakers to Intuitive Design Denali's. The music was teriffic & sounded great & it could go LOUD too. At 18, I saved up enough to buy a Fisher 400 AM/FM Receiver (which I still have), AR speakers and a Garrard SL-95B TT w/Pickering V15 cartridge. I was amazed/happy/proud of my system then. My 33 collection was expanding (still have all) and within a year, went into the military and had my first taste of PX stereo gear after I had been in-country a few months (Vietnam). At that time, when I could visit the large Saigon PX; it was audio heaven. Akai, Teac Reel-to Reels, hudge Sansui 5500 speakers (200+ pounds), you name it, the PX had it or could get it. Within a few years, I was assigned to Okinawa -- the Japanese were flourishing in their talents with Sansui, Teac, TASCAM, Akai, Pioneer, Marantz, Technics, etc. Bought a Dual 1229 TT, Bose 901's (still have), Bose 1801 amp, Teac 3340 R-R, Akai GX-400D R-R (still have). Continued to buy 33's and some albums on R-R tapes (still have about 30). Assignment to the Philippines just when CD's were coming out, I transformed into that format as it was the new wave in audio. Bought a Nakamichi OMS-7 CD player in the PX & stayed with that format for 15 years; playing vinyl now and then, but the CD was convenient and sounded better than my Dual 1229 that I had at the time. Fast forward for 2004, sent the Dual off to Joel at the TT Factory for refurbishing and bought a better Shure cartridge. Sounded darn good and better than the Nakamichi. At that point, it started my latest quest into where I am today --. I wish I had stayed with vinyl during the late 80's. I feel I missed out on owning some darn good albums (but I have them on CD). Now, if I want one of those era albums, in great shape, is costly.
I've enjoyed my audio travels and hope they, like yours, contain vinyl & continue.

Sit back, relax, and enjoy.

I went to a couple of local used record stores with a buddy and saw what was available CHEAP and thought it would be fun and wouldn't cost an arm and a leg to get started. I was correct on both counts. Of course as I look for better vinyl the 'cheap' part diminishes a bit, but I still buy a lot of stuff for $4-5 and that beats buying CDs by a long shot.

I have to say, I haven't enjoyed my system so much in years. Good stuff!

Vinyl got into me when I started pressing records at the world's first audiophile pressing plant way back in 1973, while in high school (btw they are STILL in business). I got so into my job I became the Quality Manager and was very fortunate to deal with the likes of Stan Ricker, Doug Sax, Dave Wilson, Tam Henderson, American Grammaphone, Sheffield Lab, Windham Hill, etc. My TT is a vintage Philips GA312, as was the one I used at work to approve test pressings of many of what are considered to be audiophile classics. I simply cannot stand to listen to CD's, let alone mp3's or anything digital. Once you have heard the truth, is apparent how sadly lacking the compromised digital format is. Really.