vinyl lovers

[cubik]

4 minutes ago, Vimster said:

Haha, hey it's all good info.

 

I went for a black one. Probably a nightmare to keep clean but there you go.

Black sounds better. 100% trufax.

 

Make sure you post pictures when it arrives!

[ZOK]

2 hours ago, cubik said:

Black sounds better. 100% trufax.

Except when it’s Technics. 

[cubik]

3 minutes ago, ZOK said:

Except when it’s Technics. 

Technically my 1210 is dark grey, so you could be right!

[scruffycat]

Finally after years of it sitting around gathering dust when my amp died, I sorted out my record player. Surprisingly it still worked! Bought a Teac amp from eBay, hooked up my Wharfdale err Diamond somethings and she lives. It’s an old Project Debut II I think, still sounds boss. Now to post in the what’s playing on your deck thread.
 

 

[ZOK]

Love that amp!

[Vimster]

Wasn't quite expecting it this early but my turntable has arrived. Spent a lull in work this afternoon putting the little cabinet the thing will stand on up. Roll on 5pm.

[Lovelyman]

Photos please

[Vimster]

Sorry for the crap photo but here it is. Playing some Machine Drum on it first off.  Nightmare sorting the counterweight and anti-skate but I think I have it sorted.

 

[cubik]

2 hours ago, Vimster said:

Sorry for the crap photo but here it is. Playing some Machine Drum on it first off.  Nightmare sorting the counterweight and anti-skate but I think I have it sorted.

 

Looks sweet, just need to tidy up those cables though!

 

The curse of vinyl though is that if you give it a couple of months you'll be eyeing up a 4 x 2 Kallax to store your ever expanding collection!

 

 

[Vimster]

8 minutes ago, cubik said:

Looks sweet, just need to tidy up those cables though!

 

The curse of vinyl though is that if you give it a couple of months you'll be eyeing up a 4 x 2 Kallax to store your ever expanding collection!

 

 

I've got a couple of hundred 12" records, a couple of large boxes of 7" singles and a number 10"s and am looking forward to getting that out of storage. Discogs is calling though.

[cubik]

1 minute ago, Vimster said:

I've got a couple of hundred 12" records, a couple of large boxes of 7" singles and a number 10"s and am looking forward to getting that out of storage. Discogs is calling though.

 

I was in the same boat as you, had a load of old records up in the loft & had got rid of my TT.

I eventually had enough room to start again and got a second hand SL1500 from eBay. I dug out what was left of my collection (a load of it got destroyed years ago when a ceiling collapsed in my first house) and loved listening to those old records which had so many memories attached.

I was transported back to when I bought them in shops that are long gone, with friends that are still here or long gone.

 

Record buying had changed a lot since I put them in the loft and I found myself on discogs. Within a few weeks my rediscovered collection was growing at a decent rate as I replaced 12"s that had been wrecked for a few quid a pop.

 

Are you planning on using Discogs for buying or selling?

Good luck if you're selling, god help you if you're buying. It's an addictive place.

 

[Vimster]

6 minutes ago, cubik said:

 

I was in the same boat as you, had a load of old records up in the loft & had got rid of my TT.

I eventually had enough room to start again and got a second hand SL1500 from eBay. I dug out what was left of my collection (a load of it got destroyed years ago when a ceiling collapsed in my first house) and loved listening to those old records which had so many memories attached.

I was transported back to when I bought them in shops that are long gone, with friends that are still here or long gone.

 

Record buying had changed a lot since I put them in the loft and I found myself on discogs. Within a few weeks my rediscovered collection was growing at a decent rate as I replaced 12"s that had been wrecked for a few quid a pop.

 

Are you planning on using Discogs for buying or selling?

Good luck if you're selling, god help you if you're buying. It's an addictive place.

 

Oh yes looking forward to reliving some memories.

 

Will sell eventually. Got a lot of breakcore that I loved when I was 30 but at nearly 50 it's not really doing it for me.

[GwiDan]

Are there any tips for shopping on Discogs? Any album I can actually name is usually pretty expensive, and I find it hard to casually browse for a bargain. 

[Vimster]

12 hours ago, GwiDan said:

Are there any tips for shopping on Discogs? Any album I can actually name is usually pretty expensive, and I find it hard to casually browse for a bargain. 

I don't think Discogs is the sort of place you'd find a bargain, unless your definition of bargain is an obscure record going for a few quid. As long as there are people out there who see vinyl as valuable and collectable and will price them accordingly, and there are people who are prepared to keep those prices high, yeah, no. CDs are a bit different, got tons of great CDs for next to no money, but I guess that's for a different thread.

[El Geet]

I ended up going for the Rega P1 and a ProJect amp. Also ended up ordering another Play. Oops. 
 

It’s a Xmas present to my wife and I and looking forward to setting up on the day. Shame the Play 5 won’t come till after the new year. Had to get via Sonos to get the trade up discount. 

[cubik]

13 hours ago, GwiDan said:

Are there any tips for shopping on Discogs? Any album I can actually name is usually pretty expensive, and I find it hard to casually browse for a bargain. 

With albums especially, it's often the case that the first pressing goes for silly money, but later ones can be a lot less expensive.

Make sure you're looking at all versions of an album for sale, rather than just the first in the list.

 

I've been quite fortunate in that most of the stuff I wanted was 12"s from the 80s & 90s and there's loads of them about going cheap.

 

 

 

[Vimster]

Adding stuff to my Discogs account I'm amazed at the average prices for some vinyl. Things I bought at the time for normal prices are silly money. Envane by Autechre average price is £28. GAK (Aphex) £35. If I didn't own those I am very doubtful I'd be paying that much for an EP. It's not like back in the 90s/00s where if you wanted to hear it you pretty much had to buy it, records retained some mythic status. Now it seems to be more about owning to vinyl for vinyl's sake, for being able to put it on your turntable.

[Sane]

18 hours ago, GwiDan said:

Are there any tips for shopping on Discogs? Any album I can actually name is usually pretty expensive, and I find it hard to casually browse for a bargain. 

Discogs is great if you know exactly what you want. When you know you want a particular pressing of a particular album it's easy to find it there and then find the best priced copy in a state that's acceptable for you.

 

Like ebay and other market places, if you buy from sellers with lots of positive feedback you can usually have faith in the grading description. Note though, that it's always subjective and 'good' might not be what you expected. Personally I only tend to buy mint or near mint stuff but obviously that's more expensive and outright impossible for some things though. 

 

Cubik's point about the different versions is spot on. Always start from the 'all versions' list and have a look at all the different pressings. The first ones can go for stupid prices and if you don't care about that then later ones can be a cheaper alternative. Note that it can make a difference in how it sounds though: mono or stereo pressings, different regions, different labels, remasters, everything can matter. So it can be useful to have a look at the user comments for a particular pressing. 

[Agent L]

2 hours ago, Vimster said:

Adding stuff to my Discogs account I'm amazed at the average prices for some vinyl. Things I bought at the time for normal prices are silly money. Envane by Autechre average price is £28. GAK (Aphex) £35. If I didn't own those I am very doubtful I'd be paying that much for an EP. It's not like back in the 90s/00s where if you wanted to hear it you pretty much had to buy it, records retained some mythic status. Now it seems to be more about owning to vinyl for vinyl's sake, for being able to put it on your turntable.

 

Talking of crazy EP prices, here's one I'd love to own but never will.

 

 

£72.50 per track, bargain! They're going for over 300 recently.

[Vimster]

All you need are a few dedicated people who want it and up go the prices.

[Ste_S]

It's usually ok if there's been multiple pressings of a record. The collectors will gravitate to one or two of those pressings and prices will sky rocket, leaving all the other pressings at reasonable prices. 

 

If there's something I want on Blue Note that hasn't been reissued then I'll look at early 80s French pressings for instance. They sound fine and the collectors don't buy them.

[Sane]

Yeah those kind of prices are annoying. It's the same with anything that's rare and wanted. I don't know about this kind of EP, but generally it's good to keep mind that eventually most things get reissued. 

[Vimster]

It's been that long since I last had a working turntable I had totally forgotten about inner-grove distortion. I had Squarepusher's Port Rhombus EP on and the end of this one track was all distorted and scratchy and I began to panic: oh no is my tone arm set up right? Is my downforce too much? Is my cartridge duff? But then I remembered all the old times with badly-pressed records, tightly-packed grooves, and the audio quirks.

 

We've become so accustomed to audio perfection and clean playback that a bit of grit and wobble feels like something is totally wrong.

[Ste_S]

On 13/12/2020 at 17:02, Vimster said:

It's been that long since I last had a working turntable I had totally forgotten about inner-grove distortion. I had Squarepusher's Port Rhombus EP on and the end of this one track was all distorted and scratchy and I began to panic: oh no is my tone arm set up right? Is my downforce too much? Is my cartridge duff? But then I remembered all the old times with badly-pressed records, tightly-packed grooves, and the audio quirks.

 

We've become so accustomed to audio perfection and clean playback that a bit of grit and wobble feels like something is totally wrong.

 

Have you tried cleaning the record? Most can be improved by a bit of a clean.

[Vimster]

7 minutes ago, Ste_S said:

 

Have you tried cleaning the record? Most can be improved by a bit of a clean.

Yeah, I think in this instance it was a crap record. Just having one of those days where things don't seem quite right somehow.

[Oh Danny Boy]

Can use this thread to give a shout out to some good record sellers. Had Four Tet’s New Energy on my wish list for ages and decided to finally pick it up for Xmas this year only to find out that it’s sold out at the usual suspects and is going for over £50 and even over £100+ on Discogs/eBay etc. 
 

So a desperate slog through Google results found me one place that actually had it in stock. Redeyerecords.co.uk, thought it would be one of those places that rarely update their stock but thought I had nothing to lose. Mostly expecting an email saying ‘sorry we don’t have this anymore etc etc’ I got a dispatch notice an hour later and it arrived a couple of days later. They’ve definitely won over a new customer. 
 

[RastanSaga]

[Art Vandelay]

There are absolutely bargains to be had on Discogs. The key is to add everything you'd vaguely want onto your want list and then periodically use the random release button and see if anyone has popped a copy on for a good price. Sometimes individual sellers rather than proper record sellers are flogging off their collection and undervalue for a quick sale. I've bought loads of stuff this year at great prices, presumably because people are hard up and need fast money, as sad as that is.

 

There's literally thousands and thousands of amazing records for no money at all on there. I might start a thread about it.

[GwiDan]

22 minutes ago, Art Vandelay said:

There are absolutely bargains to be had on Discogs. The key is to add everything you'd vaguely want onto your want list and then periodically use the random release button and see if anyone has popped a copy on for a good price. Sometimes individual sellers rather than proper record sellers are flogging off their collection and undervalue for a quick sale. I've bought loads of stuff this year at great prices, presumably because people are hard up and need fast money, as sad as that is.

 

There's literally thousands and thousands of amazing records for no money at all on there. I might start a thread about it.

I don’t think I’m using Discogs properly because on the iPhone app I don’t seem to be able to add the main version of an album to the watch list, it asks me to specify a particular release. 

[Art Vandelay]

12 minutes ago, GwiDan said:

I don’t think I’m using Discogs properly because on the iPhone app I don’t seem to be able to add the main version of an album to the watch list, it asks me to specify a particular release. 

 

There isn't really a master version of any release as such. Pretty much everything on a major label will be released in loads of different countries or be re-pressed or have different artwork etc. so they all have their own entry. It's an amazing community created achievement, but it can be a bewildering place to spend time. My advice would be to look for the album you want, then go straight to the marketplace and fiddle with the criteria – do you want vinyl or CD, what condition are you happy with, is it available in the UK? Then click on any releases that fulfil that criteria to add to your wish list. That way at least you know you can afford it and it's available. If you just add every version that could include cassettes, 8-tracks or Peruvian flexidisc copies which is a nightmare to unpick later.

 

I've found the more time you spend investigating the more bargains there are. I sometimes just idly browse labels and find all sorts of gold on there. It's not like a record shop, but it's still fun.