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Enjoying vinyl more than ever.........

I've been going through a "vinyl renaissance," and want to share some feelings. My set-up is simple, and extremely enjoyable. I'm not sure of the proper "audiophile terms" to describe my system, other than saying that everything seems to work incredibly well together, and it all sounds wonderful. I'm driving Vandersteen 1C speakers with a Rogue Audio Cronus (EL-34 tubes) integrated amplifier and an NAD 533 turntable with a new stylus on the pre-mounted Goldring Elektra cartridge. Audioquest type 6+ cables connect the speakers, and I have a very warm and rich sounding Rotel RCD-1072 CD player (with an AQ King Cobra interconnect). Upgraded power cords for the Rogue and Rotel are SignalCable.

I am enjoying my record collection more than ever before, since replacing the stylus. I never realized that the original stylus (eight years old) was missing so much of the "deep groove" detail. All my records sound so great again, that I'm rarely listening to my CD's. All my old jazz and classic rock albums sound fantastic, and my evening listening sessions are extending later into the night each time I sit in my "sweet spot" chair.

I've been buying a lot of new albums from a website called "Dustygroove.com", and I'm quite impressed with their collection of new jazz albums (mostly Blue Note re-issues). For $8.99 each, I'm quickly buying uo a lot of jazz classics, and the LP's are wonderful.

Now, I certainly won't be giving up on my CD collection any time soon......but it's a pleasure to be enjoying vinyl again. There's something about it that "just sounds right," and to my humble ears, sounds "more musical" than CD's. I'll stop rambling now. I just wanted to share my excitement about vinyl LP's, and see if anyone has a similar system as mine, and can recommended an upgraded analog front end. Thanks a lot.
adam18
seasoned's avatar
seasoned
181 posts
 
Your vinyl renaissance experience makes me smile. You know, it's funny...every single non-audiophile person that listens to my system has the same reaction to my vinyl rig - it usually goes like this:

"Wow! I can't believe how much better the turntable sounds than the CD player. I have heard that vinyl sounds better than CD...this is incredible!" Me: Yup.

"Gosh...vinyl is so much more dynamic and real sounding" Me: Yup.

"Play another CD for me" Me: OK

"Wow! that is so 2-dimensional and electronic sounding. Let's play some more vinyl" Me: Yup, OK.

Note that my CD player is no slouch - Resolution Audio Opus 21.

I recommend a VPI scoutmaster (or superscoutmaster if you can spring for it) really nice.

Keep that analog flame burning Adam18!
elinor's avatar
elinor
275 posts
 
Your system may be modest in cost, but not in quality. I have no doubt that your Rogue driving those Vandys must be very sweet indeed. I agree with what some others have said already. A good record cleaning machine will buy you a lot of good sound and needle life as well for relatively low dollars. You may want to experiment with some good used turntable shelves under your turntable. The results from a correctly matched shelf can be dramatic, also had inexpensively.
pbb
1,140 posts
 
Everybody and his uncle remotely related to audio is in a "vinyl renaissance".

Have you checked the price of vintage tts lately?
wwshull
157 posts
 
i am going through the same revolation. my dad recently gave me his old linn lp-12. just to make sure i enjoyed it i started out with a sumiko bluebird evo 3 special and the parasound z-phono pre amp. this week i changed to a pbn audio mini olympia phono pre and a gas sleeping beauty catridge. i also upgraded the phono interconnects to nordost hemidal. next step is a record cleaning machine. i love the sound.
adam18 OP
670 posts
 
Thanks for the nice responses so far. It's great to hear this kind of stuff from everybody. Ya' know, it's really funny.....back when I first started getting into good music (mid-1970's), vinyl was the only quality way to go. Yeah, sure, cassettes and 8-tracks were good in the car, but LP's was "IT" for good listening. Then, we all got so used to CD's, that we forgot how great vinyl LP's sound. Well, my friends, it's geat to "re-discover" analog playback once again. Let's keep spinning those albums on our turntables, and enjoying our favorite tunes.
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