[Music] Vinyl records

[Weststander]

My kind of kit. Yamaha stuff is awesome even at the affordable end of market - some of their vintage gear is legendary and although going up in price is still cheap in comparison to people making things out of pieces of the one true cross...

Obviously I love low end bargains, recently I picked up a near legendary Hitachi HA-250 1970s amp for £20 from eBay, cleaned it up and sold it for £200... it sounds (like) coffee with cream tastes... brilliant and at £200 is bloody cheap in comparison to so many of today’s audiophile rivals.

For me vintage is best if like me, you love original pressings of heavy rock etc. They said my lovely low end system blew me away when I stuck on Radiohead’s Amnesiac recently.

Oh the clarity.

All the way back to the late 70’s I did use HIFI magazines, but never being wealthy, I bought new with a moderate budget.

If the top 5* rated deck in their test results charts retailed at £2,000, whilst rated at 4.5* you could buy a new Technics at £125, I bought the latter.

 

[Kosh]

All the way back to the late 70’s I did use HIFI magazines, but never being wealthy, I bought new with a moderate budget.

If the top 5* rated deck in their test results charts retailed at £2,000, whilst rated at 4.5* you could buy a new Technics at £125, I bought the latter.

Exactly. I was reading What HiFi? Recently and they reviewed a new budget Yamaha amp, retailing at around £100. I laughed out loud that their major gripe was: “although playback was, at this price bracket, accomplished we just felt it didn’t really catch us off guard... we’d feel comfortable having a conservation over this amp...” 4 stars out if 5. I mean FFS, it’s £100 and bloody good value for it too according to the review, but they didn’t think it was exciting enough... ha! Doubtless they weren’t listening to Fire by Arthur Brown...

I’m suspicious of a press that generates significant advertising revenue from high end retailers... highly so.

Nah; for £100 i’d be pretty excited about getting a good amp to start my musical odyssey off with a solid basis, and one I could love for years to come.

 

[zefarelly]

Cool stuff, and I agree to a greater extent re your balanced and knowledgable views on Hi-Fi... moving on...

I have an ultra rare Hawk (non Gibson, pre lawsuit) British made guitar amp (valves) which is as clean as they come and my US strat sounds magnificent through it. That said, I recently acquired a Gibson copy (again pre lawsuit) for £60 - unmarked but made in Japan. I could not believe the sustain etc. From this guitar - it is jaw dropping in the Peter Green stakes and I mean utterly astonishing... to compare with the strat is a little bit daft, but the strat should be vastly superior and i’d say they’re even.

Brings me round again to the misconception re money spent equates to guaranteed sound quality... nicely summed up by Clint:

“When a man with a 45 meets a man with a rifle, you said the man with the 45 is a dead man...”

“Let’s see if that’s true...”

pre law suit Jap guitars and basses are generally speaking better copies of the American crap which costs a fortune . . . . there are some great US GIbson and Fenders, but the quality control was all over the place. I do not own a Fender, don't like them, have kept one good vintage gibson bass and sold the rest . . . . the Jap stuff is cheaper, better and far more usable. our album was recorded live and mastered for vinyl, it was produced by a reputable company on 180g and sounds much nicer than on anything digital.

 

[zefarelly]

I’ve updated my hifi set up over the decades, first owning separates whilst in the sixth form. I currently have Rega Planar, Yamaha amp and CD player, as Akai cassette deck!!!!!, Sony pre-DAB tuner and Acoustic Energy speakers.

I had a Technics deck from 1982 which finally gave up the ghost about 4 years back, hence the Rega Planar, which only cost about £230 new (not the £600 mentioned earlier in this thread).

A great sound, listening to original vinyls I’ve looked after since childhood and beyond - Joy Division, Roxy, New Order, dance music including trance, The Doors, etc.

I have AE 109 floorstanders, bought new in '95 . . . . still superb, but need space . . . . . I still have my grandfathers 1975 B&W's in the workshop, they still sound great!

 

[blue'n'white]

I always found vynl full of hiss, splutter, jumping needles and scratches. In which case I am out. Back to the sound purity of CDs.

I agree - personally I think the current "back to vinyl" trend is a massive can. People are being encouraged to buy music for sometimes the sixth time having bought it first on vinyl, then cassette, then CD, then minidisc, MP3 and now vinyl again.IMHO I think it's just a big marketing exercise by the record companies who are making loads of money. Give me CD all the time - less storage space and more music on a disc.

 

[Is it PotG?]

No idea how or why, but apparently the best of both worlds can still be had. I've heard it's possible to enjoy the portability of a high resolution, rich vinyl rip done on top notch gear but in a lossless download format for your digital music platforms.

All a mystery to me.

 

[Norman Potting]

Can I just say that "Spotify" is the greatest technological gift to mankind, even when listened to via my £9.99 Lidl speakers plugged in to my PC whilst I WFH

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

I agree - personally I think the current "back to vinyl" trend is a massive can. People are being encouraged to buy music for sometimes the sixth time having bought it first on vinyl, then cassette, then CD, then minidisc, MP3 and now vinyl again.IMHO I think it's just a big marketing exercise by the record companies who are making loads of money. Give me CD all the time - less storage space and more music on a disc.

But you’re overlooking the fact a lot of new releases are on vinyl. I buy the vast majority of my music on vinyl these days-sometimes from the artist at the gig. I don’t feel anyone is being conned. And some of the releases I get are just gorgeous to look at let alone play.

 

[OzMike]

I have a massive collection of 45s and albums in my shed, I have a working Phillips music centre as well which i bought with me.
Haven't set up yet, but will one day.

 

[Weststander]

I have AE 109 floorstanders, bought new in '95 . . . . still superb, but need space . . . . . I still have my grandfathers 1975 B&W's in the workshop, they still sound great!

My AE speakers are smaller, they fit on strong shelves. I might have bought them in about 2000. I’ve always bought quality speaker cables, I understood this was a good move.

 

[Weststander]

I have a massive collection of 45s and albums in my shed, I have a working Phillips music centre as well which i bought with me.
Haven't set up yet, but will one day.

Drier climate there in Oz?

In damp Sussex, they’d get wrecked.

 

[OzMike]

Drier climate there in Oz?

In damp Sussex, they’d get wrecked.

Probably melted knowing my luck.

 

[blue'n'white]

But you’re overlooking the fact a lot of new releases are on vinyl. I buy the vast majority of my music on vinyl these days-sometimes from the artist at the gig. I don’t feel anyone is being conned. And some of the releases I get are just gorgeous to look at let alone play.

I take your point that record sleeves are a lot easier to decipher than the tiny print that fits on to the CD information that we get. Personally I am unlikely to buy music that's only available on vinyl - the sort of bands/artists I listen to are unlikely to only issue stuff on vinyl !

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

I take your point that record sleeves are a lot easier to decipher than the tiny print that fits on to the CD information that we get. Personally I am unlikely to buy music that's only available on vinyl - the sort of bands/artists I listen to are unlikely to only issue stuff on vinyl !

Being nosey, what sort of bands etc do you listen to? No agenda...just curious.

 

[Cian]

Our album was recorded live and mastered for vinyl, it was produced by a reputable company on 180g and sounds much nicer than on anything digital.

What was it recorded live on?

I've seen a similar claim for a live album recorded using a Zoom H6, in the same PCM bitstream that CDs use...

 

[Norman Potting]

https://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/lifestyle/six-ways-to-be-superior-when-showing-people-your-vinyl-collection-20190524185933

I will just post this and then leave

 

[Kosh]

pre law suit Jap guitars and basses are generally speaking better copies of the American crap which costs a fortune . . . . there are some great US GIbson and Fenders, but the quality control was all over the place. I do not own a Fender, don't like them, have kept one good vintage gibson bass and sold the rest . . . . the Jap stuff is cheaper, better and far more usable. our album was recorded live and mastered for vinyl, it was produced by a reputable company on 180g and sounds much nicer than on anything digital.

Awesome stuff... love the idea of recording live in the studio, always seems to capture a band far better than piecing together bit parts... doubtless the pressing captured the sound just as you imagined...

Just one Q, which band are you or were you in? ...

 

[Honky Tonx]

I have got that track unnamed, who is it? Music is obsolete?

Coloured music by The Piranhas

 

[loz]

Just got the latest Johnny moped LP... half red half blue ��

 

[zefarelly]

Www.Thedials.co.uk


Just supping a coffee then heading to Devon to play at a festival later today, unfortunately no turntable in the car!

Awesome stuff... love the idea of recording live in the studio, always seems to capture a band far better than piecing together bit parts... doubtless the pressing captured the sound just as you imagined...

Just one Q, which band are you or were you in? ...