2. analog
  3. 1243076608

It costs me $100 a week to listen to vinyl

I know the math is obvious, but with the price of high-end moving coil cartridges averaging $5000.00 and with me averaging 20 hours a week of vinyl listening, I was disturbed to calculate that I am paying $100.00 per week for the privilege of listening to my own records?
I realise that doesn't include the depreciation on my equipment or electricity costs etc so please don't remind me of this?
How smug those who can bare digital must feel about this?
And how much worse for those committed to valve replacements in their pre and power amps?
How can we expect younger audiophiles with mortgages to pay, families to raise and education to provide for to afford the price of entry into an analogue system with such a potential maintenance impost?
I realise there are cheaper cartridges out there and the MMs are a bargain compared to the MCs, but once 'hooked' on vinyl, the desire to 'upgrade' is encouraged by the reviewers and the audio magazines continually announcing a newly anointed 'Kingpin' cartridge which is inevitably a moving coil with a price approaching the GDP of Namibia.
There seems to be no critical challenges to the assumed supremacy of MCs over MMs except for the lone crusade of Raul on this Forum?
Well I have taken the 'Raul challenge' and switched to a 15 year old MM cartridge which cost me $300. The 'running costs' of this are obviously a 'snip' compared to my $5000 MC but the best thing is the revelation that this moving magnet cartridge (and probably many more), are not only as good as some of the vaunted MCs in the market place, but better than most and sometimes by a considerable margin.
As Raul continues to implore us.........."try it, you may be surprised?"
128x128halcro
axelwahl
788 posts
 
Hi Halcro,

re-tip an MM, ja now fine... I guess you go get a new cantilever insert --- at least in my part of the world.

Have done that to an e.g. SUMIKO Pearl and put the next better elliptical in it.
Sound? SUX, unless we are into lower Mid-Fi to really go save some bucks.

The trouble might be, that we (I, who else?) lost some know-how with these babies, and the reviews don't help much either. Just go check out those point system evaluations, AUDIO, Streo-Play, STEREO, that I know of. Top of the pops MM gets 80 out of ~110 and that's the exception!
So 80 points = 80s sound? I don't say it is so, but it sure makes folks go rather for some Mid-FI HO-MC in my experience, and a shame it may be ---- but COOL (-: ‘cause MM sux… yeah?

A sign of hope I see: Ortofon's new M2, where would that one come into it? $$$ ?

Axel
jaybo
4,478 posts
 
as a kid, i sold needles and cartridges(the days when record and music stores stocked them). our most exspensive cartridge was under 50 bucks, and yeah it was state-of-the-art. today i'll allow myself the splurge on occasion, but unless i'm going deaf, the finist mm's are still as good to me as the finest mc's, and way less costly and 'fussy'. cartridges may be the heroin of this addictive hobby.
peterayer
1,382 posts
 
When I was in my twenties, I decided to buy a twelve year old 1971 Porche 911T instead of a new 1983 VW GTI for roughly the same amount of money. After about eight years I did a "cost per mile" calculation. I was stunned to realize I was paying about $2.00 per mile to drive that marvel of German engineering. But the fond memories of the incredible fun I had are priceless.

The same can be said of many things: cost per race of a sailboat, cost per run of a ski weekend. By doing these simple calculations, are we not missing the bigger picture? Is it not also about the fun of learning the hobby, meeting others with similar interests, etc.? We also should not discount the value of simply knowing that we have the option, at any time, of going into the next room, sitting down and losing ourselves in the moment of listening to good music.

In the end, one makes his choices based on priorities and affordability. It seems to me that these are good times to learn about and find good quality and affordable gear, whether on the internet, in catalogs or at the local dealer. In time, and as funds permit, the young audiophile can pursue the next step, or not.
lewm
12,461 posts
 
Peterayer, Are you sure of your math? Lets assume the 911T was used as a second car, and you put 5000 miles on it per year. After 8 years, that's 40,000 mi. Do you mean to say that you had put $80,000 into that car over 8 years? (Of course, if you drove it more than 5K miles per year, the calculated expense goes even higher.)
I have owned over two dozen Porsches since about 1973. In the late 80's and early 90's, I did a full restoration on a 1955 550RS Spyder, including bodywork, a total engine and transmission rebuild, new interior, and a $12,000 paint job (all by top class professionals). The total cost was less than $80,000. (I did a lot of the disassembly and re-assembly myself.) You must have had a very bad car that you really loved.
buconero117
2,311 posts
 
Great to 'hear' you switched. You can now be called a value based listener.
More to discover