The vinyl spin-all

My RSD haul was pretty small, just two items. I had a list, but this is all that was left when I arrived. Apparently a lot of the stuff they ordered was back ordered, so I may have a chance to go back and pick it up later, though.

IMAGE(http://imageshack.us/a/img836/2602/rsdl.jpg)

The Toadies/Sarah Jaffe 7" is a cover of the PJ Harvey song, I really like it a lot. The Garbage/Screaming Femmes 10" has a cover of "Because the Night" as the A side, Patti Smith or 10,000 Maniacs depending on your frame of reference. :D. I dig the coke bottle green.

In conjunction with the RSD releases, my local store had a deal that for every new release you bought at full price, you could get 10% off any used records, up to 50% off. I really wanted to go through and grab some used stuff with that 20% off I would have gotten, but my wife is preparing to quit her job and the budget is soon going into lockdown mode and I'm trying to be the responsible vinyl consumer.

fleabagmatt wrote:

but my wife is preparing to quit her job and the budget is soon going into lockdown mode and I'm trying to be the responsible vinyl consumer.

Responsible, I am not. Those are pretty!

I looked into Sigur Rós: Agaetis Byrjun. Apparently it was limited to 1000 copies.

If any of you are in a record store looking for stuff please check and see if they have a copy! I would pay $50-60 via PayPal for it (that would hopefully include shipping). There's no way I'm gonna find it in Portland. I refuse to buy anything off of eBay though. Flipping stuff on eBay for crazy prices just aint cool.

Edit: This is what the cover looks like in case you aren't familiar.

IMAGE(http://unclee.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/sigur_ros-agaetis_byrjun-frontal.jpg)

I'll take a look this week and see if it made it here to my neck of the woods.

As I was checking out on saturday they had this on the counter:

IMAGE(http://piratespressrecords.com/rancid/images/box-view1.jpeg)

45 7" records all in one nifty box set. :O The $299 price tag was a little steep for me, though.

Whoaaaaaa, that's carazy.

fleabagmatt wrote:

I'll take a look this week and see if it made it here to my neck of the woods.

As I was checking out on saturday they had this on the counter:

IMAGE(http://piratespressrecords.com/rancid/images/box-view1.jpeg)

45 7" records all in one nifty box set. :O The $299 price tag was a little steep for me, though.

Oh man that is sweet!

fleabagmatt wrote:

45 7" records all in one nifty box set. :O The $299 price tag was a little steep for me, though.

Wait, so you're saying that's 45 45s?

And this movie came up in the IRC today, so I figured I'd cross post:

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/e7CSW2J.jpg?1)

nel e nel wrote:

Wait, so you're saying that's 45 45s?

Yassir. I kind of agree with the store employee's comment, though, when he said "The only way I'd consider buying that is if I had a jukebox to put them in. I have no interest in sitting at a turntable swapping records all day."

Mr. Buffalo, I went looking for that record you wanted today. No dice, sorry.

Against my better judgement I flipped through the new arrivals bin just to see what they'd gotten in recently. What I found was a nice stack of old punk records that I'd love to get my grubby mits on. Angry Samoans, Sex Pistols, The Clash, and Dead Kennedys were in there. I had to grit my teeth and walk out without them.

Stoopit budgets.

fleabagmatt wrote:

Mr. Buffalo, I went looking for that record you wanted today. No dice, sorry.

Hey, thanks for checking! There were no expectations of actually getting it, but I figured I would throw it out there just in case. I can easily live without it. They'll probably do a regular old re-release of it eventually.

I may have bought a couple 78 rpm records cheap off of eBay. I did check to see what I'm looking at in terms of getting an acceptable turntable and cartridge, and I can do that for under $300, fortunately. There is an Audio Technica DJ one that does 78 rpm and you can get a Sure 78 stylus for $50. That being said, it's not something I'm going to invest in anytime soon. I just wanted to get the records to hold on to. It's a very specific song that I want to hear via a record. More on this story and pictures next week.

Well I am loving having a turntable again. Pulled my stack of wax up from the basement, and am leafing through it with much delight. Turns out I have some gems in there, as well as some trash that I should probably get rid of.

Question - record brush - fru-fru audiophile nonsense or why haven't I got one already?

Question the second - washing records?

Word.

That Rega turntable that I got recently said that people generally clean records too often and it's not actually good for it. Also, it mentioned that the stylus is designed to brush away and collect dust particles. So, I usually don't use a brush unless there is quite a bit. It's really hard for me not to use the brush if I can see quite a bit. I don't think a dust brush is going to do too much damage. You can get pretty good at getting most all of the dust off. I have the one that is most often purchased on Amazon. It's actually fairly cheap, so if I were to buy one again, I would get this one which is actually only $5 more at $30. If you have animals, it's probably essential to get one of these.

Actually using an isopropyl alcohol solution with a cleaning "brush" or machine is where you probably want to limit yourself. I imagine that does cause some wear and tear. I try to only use that on records that are visibly grimy. I have noticed that paper sleeves tend to scratch the surface of the record from pulling it out. The poly lined paper sleeves don't do this. When you see records with the very light surface scratching perpendicular to the grooves, you can't clean that. I don't think it actually affects the audio quality, but it is obnoxious. The poly-lined paper sleeves are great for this, also, I think they tend to statically grab the dust as you pull the record out, so that's nice, too. You can buy those for relatively cheap. I bought some awhile back and replaced some sleeves.

My conclusion is that it's best to use as much moderation as you can with dusting and cleaning. The only way to really get a truly clean, dust-free record is to get a brand new one and then be very careful with it. Also, when you get to a record with light pops and hisses, it helps the picky (like me), to take a deep breath and realize that all that light hissing and popping is the history of the record and is making it a one-of-a-kind listening experience just for you.

Edit: I just looked at that Hunt brush and realized it has a felt pad in between. The Audioquest one just has bristles, so that might be better for light brushing of dust which is what you probably only want to do most of the time. A felt pad is actually gonna get in the grooves, so that might be better for using with isopropyl alcohol only once in awhile. You probably don't need that full on cleaning station thing. The felt-ish padded things do a pretty good job, especially with a bit of practice. The only thing is, you have to apply quite a bit of pressure to the platter of your turntable which probably isn't good for it. I set up a cheapo turntable that I'm not worried about that I can use for cleaning. Also, after cleaning with isopropyl alcohol, you need to give it quite a few minutes to fully dry. If you go play it right away, the record will have a lot of pops.

I would like to get a brush, mostly because a lot of my records come from the thrift store. I haven't been too worried about it, though. Maybe one day when I have a nice turntable I'll make it a priority, but for now I just give them a light brush with my hand or a cloth if I see a bunch of dust on em.

Jonman, photos, descriptions, youtube links and whatever of your records/turntable are required in this thread. Get busy!

fleabagmatt wrote:

Jonman, photos, descriptions, youtube links and whatever of your records/turntable are required in this thread. Get busy! :D

Picture of my deck in it's temporary accommodation (i.e. on the floor) is on the previous page. Side table is on-order, and it'll live there once it arrives.

Deck was a used low end MCS 6603 (which is a re-badged Technics SL-D2). Payed $160 for it. Cartridge is brand new, and I'm pretty pleased with it. A nicer turntable may be in my future, but this'll do nicely for now.

Had to pick up a phono amp, which I'm a little miffed at. I bought my receiver only a few months ago, and made damn sure that it had phono inputs. Turns out that models sold outside of the US do in fact have a phono stage, but the US-model doesn't. Stupid America! Also, dammit for basing my purchase off a review on a UK hifi site, which specifically mentioned the phono stage.

My RSD haul was a mixed bag - none of them were RSD-specific

  • Clark's latest LP Iradelphic. Been a long-time fan of his. Smart, rich electronica.
  • Joy Division LP (forget which one). I'm trying to be a grown up and listen to actual music played on instruments from time to time, instead of the tortured noises one man wrings from a laptop.
  • Jonsi's (vocalist for Sigur Ros) solo LP Go. It's good, if you like Sigur Ros. Which I do
  • A Duke Ellington and Charlie Parker record, because jazz played off vinyl just feels correct, you know?
  • Plug's Back On Time, because jungle is still massive, despite what you might have heard to the contrary.
  • A Theivery Corporation LP (again, can't remember which one) - I used to listen to a lot of down-tempo stuff like this, and again, vinyl feels like a natural fit for lush synth-ey music.

One thing that's super nice is that several of the more recent records came with download codes for the mp3s, saving me the hassle of digitizing them myself.

Jonman wrote:

[*]Jonsi's (vocalist for Sigur Ros) solo LP Go. It's good, if you like Sigur Ros. Which I do :)

I have that! It's great.

My setup isn't quite so living room-friendly. Once I unpack everything I suspect it will be relegated to the garage unless I get really creative with our office area. These are the decks I have:
IMAGE(http://i1044.photobucket.com/albums/b449/raridadeaudio/pdt5000ft003.jpg)

with these carts:
IMAGE(http://www.soundscapeav.com/ortofon/nc-2.jpg)

Kinda oldschool I suppose, but they do the trick. I guess I need to join the club and post some record porn.

That's cool! What does the lever thing do on the lower right side? Does it adjust the speed if you aren't using the quartz lock? I noticed that being there on the Audio Technica one that will do 78 RPMs. Also, what is that input output thing on the bottom to the left of the pitch gauge?

tuffalobuffalo wrote:

What does the lever thing do on the lower right side?

Are you talking about the pitch control slider?

fleabagmatt wrote:
tuffalobuffalo wrote:

What does the lever thing do on the lower right side?

Are you talking about the pitch control slider?

Yup. That's what I figured it was for.

Standard issue on any DJ turntable for beat matching.

fleabagmatt wrote:

Standard issue on any DJ turntable for beat matching.

Oh weird, so that's how they keep everything going at the same beat with electronic music. They just change the pitch. I never really thought about that.

Oonsa Oonsa Oonsa Oonsa.

The lever at the base of the tonerarm raises the tonerarm, dropping the lever will make the tonearm drop slowly. All the other knobs back there are for adjusting tonearm tracking and such. The quartz lock button disables the pitch slider, so regardless of where the slider is at the pitch adjust will zero when you hit that button. Overall the PDT-5000 is a better deck than the Technics SL-1200--more torque, better pitch control, etc. The platter doesn't feel quite as well secured to the base though, so it's not ideal for scratching. That's since been fixed as Vestax moved pretty decisively towards the battle market, but I never bothered to upgrade.

These days I really don't know what brand of deck I'd choose. There are a lot of really nice options out there now. It's strange that in the almost 20 years since I got my decks, support for playing vinyl records has actually improved despite overall production of vinyl records dropping. I think the DJ space has largely moved towards digital media, for example, with some notable holdouts.

[edit]

Oh, you did mean the pitch slider. Yeah, it adjusts the rotation speed. That deck will do +/- 10%, which is really more than you'd ever want to use. With pretty much any melody at all, you can't get past about 6% before the record starts to sound like maybe you're playing that 33 record at 45 by mistake

The first time I put on that new Garbage record I just got I didn't realize it was a 45. Shirley Manson sounded like Barry White.

complexmath wrote:

With pretty much any melody at all, you can't get past about 6% before the record starts to sound like maybe you're playing that 33 record at 45 by mistake :-)

No such thing. I'm firmly of the opinion that there is no "wrong" speed, just two available speeds that you can choose from.

It depends. Some records do sound good pitched way up or down and others don't. Also, even though it's possible to mix anything with anything doesn't mean you should. There. Just had to get that out of my system.

OK, so just had a moment of genius. Realized that my receiver has a "Zone 2" function, basically a second set of speaker or line-level outputs.

What does this mean? It means that while the missus is using the main speakers for TV/gaming/music, with the addition of a cheap headphone amp, I can sit there playing records into a big pair of cans at the same time.

I'm listening to my SP: Mellon Collie box set at the moment which is awesome. It sounds so good and brings back so many memories. I was browsing around on eBay and mournfully looked up Sigur Rós to see what the Agaetis Byrjun situation was. I came across this listing. I instantly bought it. The total with international shipping came to $42.00. All the other bastards selling theirs for $100 can go screw themselves.

I may have just scored this record without having to get screwed. Feel free to inspect the listing and let me know if I missed something.