Getting Back into Vinyl. What Amazing Albums to Buy?

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mr drinky

mr drinky

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So after taking care of kids for several years, I am really enjoying music again. For the longest time I couldn't put on the headphones, crank up the volume, or just zone out because I always had to have an ear out for the errant cry, stumble, or waking-up munchkin. But now things are changing.

I have been ordering vinyl for a little while, and I am just about to pull the trigger on a new turntable kit. But recreating a digital collection in vinyl is impossible and not advisable, so I am really taking stock of what I like in terms of whole albums and carefully buying my music. It is sort of fun and essentially a treasure hunt with some groups.

Some of my vinyl is from new groups (relatively) and others not. But sometimes it is also disappointing to realize that you will never get that favorite album of yours on vinyl. Oh well, I guess that is what DACs are for...

So with that said, give me your favorite albums you think would sound amazing on vinyl. Frankly, I am probably not going to buy much of the suggestions -- I have a budget, but then i again, I will probably some of it. It has been kind of fun rethinking my music taste in terms of albums instead of songs.

Cheers,
k.
 
Traffic: John Barleycorn Must Die
Dead: Live Dead
Steely Dan: Aja
Miles Davis: Kind of Blue
Beatles: Sergeant Pepper

in no particular order:)

...and then a whole lot more

Cheers
 
No CD ever sounded as good as the scratched vinyl albums of my youth, sigh...

i have a quirky taste, so I won't recommend much. But I do second any one of the classic Miles Davis albums, Sketches of Spain is one of my favorites. I love female standard jazz singers of the 50s, so any good recording by Ella Fitzgerald (e.g. Gershwin songbook or Ella and Louis singing Porgy and Bess), Sarah Vaughan (in HiFi) Nancy Wilson (with Cannonball Adderly), Carmen McRae etc. make me happy - wish I had them on vinyl but I sold my trusty old Thorens turntable before I came to the US.

Stefan
 
Amazon (at least in Europe) is not the best place to buy vinyl. Look for specialized mailorder shops or simple go to a local recirdstore, they are happy to order for you!
A lot of the new stuff is available on vinyl, usually with a free mp3 download included (which is nice if u wanna take your music with you too work etc.).
If you like to buy used vinyl go to discogs.org, thats the place to be!
 
discos.org ? pretty little response there...
 
Any of the Steely Dan albums, Roxy Music, Mobile Fidelity, Supertramp, Tom Petty, and Talking Heads. The new Beatles records are supposed to be good too.

I buy/sell a lot of stereo stuff on Audiogon.com. It's where I picked up my current TT - a Rega P5:doublethumbsup I highly recommend the site for picking up quality audio gear. Rega's RP1 is a great "budget" TT.
 
Bill13 said:
Any of the Steely Dan albums, Roxy Music, Mobile Fidelity, Supertramp, Tom Petty, and Talking Heads. The new Beatles records are supposed to be good too.

I buy/sell a lot of stereo stuff on Audiogon.com. It's where I picked up my current TT - a Rega P5:doublethumbsup I highly recommend the site for picking up quality audio gear. Rega's RP1 is a great "budget" TT.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I have written about some turntables on Audiogon and waiting to see about a Rega P3. I may go the Pro-ject Debut Carbon Esprit SB package. I'll see how it shakes out. I am also looking at the Rega Fono for my phono amp.

As for music, Miles and Ella are definitely going to be part of my collection. The wife also wants some Nina Simone and Beatles. I've looked at the mono and stereo box sets a bit, but they get up there in price.

k.
 
bill, i have a p5 also, but it is highly modified and sounds nothing like it did when new. i call it the frankenrega. funny thing though of all things i did to it, the cheapest item provided the biggest upgrade in sound to me (the rega white belt). what i really wanted was a roksan radius but this will tide me over for a long while.

mr drinky, for a starting out deck, you can't go wrong with a technics sl1200 (that hasn't been used by any non audio enthusiasts if you know what i mean). with an ortofon 2m red, and cambridge 540p for some serious bang/buck.

one more music suggestion: amy winehouse - back to black
 
@OP, just curious, are you getting into vinyl just for the nostalgia of an analog source or do you really believe that vinyl sounds better like some audiophiles do?
 
WingKKF said:
@OP, just curious, are you getting into vinyl just for the nostalgia of an analog source or do you really believe that vinyl sounds better like some audiophiles do?
Click to expand...

Not so much nostalgia. My father was an early convert to cassettes (skipped 8-track), so I was more likely to have cassettes growing up than LPs, but of course we did have a turntable and a bunch of LPs, but after he cashed everything in for Jesus, the rock albums simply disappeared, never to be seen again.

I have heard vinyl on a number of occasions and found it to be truly satisfying to listen to in terms of sound quality, but the main reason is that I feel the digital music age is getting so ADD with all the genius mix, shuffle, playlist management, streaming etc and ultimately it takes away from the relaxing enjoyment of music IMO. I just wanted to slow down and listen, and analog seemed the best route to go.

k.
 
panda said:
bill, i have a p5 also, but it is highly modified and sounds nothing like it did when new. i call it the frankenrega. funny thing though of all things i did to it, the cheapest item provided the biggest upgrade in sound to me (the rega white belt). what i really wanted was a roksan radius but this will tide me over for a long while.

mr drinky, for a starting out deck, you can't go wrong with a technics sl1200 (that hasn't been used by any non audio enthusiasts if you know what i mean). with an ortofon 2m red, and cambridge 540p for some serious bang/buck.

one more music suggestion: amy winehouse - back to black
Click to expand...

Well, I pulled the trigger on the Pro-ject Debut Carbon Esprit SB turntable. I wish I could have gone for a Rega, but I think that will be my upgrade down the line. The unit comes with an Ortofon 2m red and acrylic platter. I read that up north the basic Pro-ject kit had a lot of static issues up north during the winter.

I also got a Peachtree integrated amp/DAC (Nova65SE) with BT1 for bluetooth capability and my digital music. I already have some PSB synchrony bookshelf speakers that I am going to use. The only thing left is to get some good cords (RCA cables and speaker cables) and my phono stage. Right now I am leaning towards the Rega fono MM for my phono amp, but a couple of people have suggested the Cambridge units.

And, yes, Amy Winehouse would be a very good album to get.

k.
 
Metallica-Master of Puppets
The Roots-Do you want more?!?!?!
Beastie Boys-Paul's Boutique
Can't go wrong with Steeley Dan I agree.
Zeppelin......
....so much stuff!
 
mr drinky said:
Not so much nostalgia. My father was an early convert to cassettes (skipped 8-track), so I was more likely to have cassettes growing up than LPs, but of course we did have a turntable and a bunch of LPs, but after he cashed everything in for Jesus, the rock albums simply disappeared, never to be seen again.

I have heard vinyl on a number of occasions and found it to be truly satisfying to listen to in terms of sound quality, but the main reason is that I feel the digital music age is getting so ADD with all the genius mix, shuffle, playlist management, streaming etc and ultimately it takes away from the relaxing enjoyment of music IMO. I just wanted to slow down and listen, and analog seemed the best route to go.

k.
Click to expand...

An old university friend in Germany has a small high end company and a listening room with optimal sound conditions. We tried the CD versus vinyl comparison there a few times and always came out thinking that - under these conditions - the vinyl does sound better (although it was not a blind test...). However, if you listen while the kids are crying, the traffic noise is coming through the window, and the dishwasher is rumbling, I don't think you should bother ;)

Stefan
 
I take great pleasure in getting up to flip the album every twenty minutes or so :)
 
Van Morrison - astral weeks and moondance
Talking heads 77
Joni Mitchell blue
Dire straights first album
Greatful dead uncle johns band
 
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mr drinky said:
That mobile fidelity site is dangerous. I think I am going to have to get the Priscilla Ahn, some Patricia Barber, and Miles.

k.
Click to expand...

Interesting, gotta look up P, Ahn. Never really warmed up to P. Barber, like her piano more than her singing. Of the contemp singers, I really like Tierney Sutton and Madeleine Peyroux. Also enjoy Stacey Kent a lot, she sometimes reminds me of the old Blossom Dearie tunes. - Just thought about Eva Cassidy, She would definitely be on my list of voices.

Stefan
 
mr drinky said:
Well, I pulled the trigger on the Pro-ject Debut Carbon Esprit SB turntable. I wish I could have gone for a Rega, but I think that will be my upgrade down the line. The unit comes with an Ortofon 2m red and acrylic platter. I read that up north the basic Pro-ject kit had a lot of static issues up north during the winter.

I also got a Peachtree integrated amp/DAC (Nova65SE) with BT1 for bluetooth capability and my digital music. I already have some PSB synchrony bookshelf speakers that I am going to use. The only thing left is to get some good cords (RCA cables and speaker cables) and my phono stage. Right now I am leaning towards the Rega fono MM for my phono amp, but a couple of people have suggested the Cambridge units.

And, yes, Amy Winehouse would be a very good album to get.


k.
Click to expand...

Check out Tara Labs,
http://taralabs.com/products/2-interconnects

I've been using their stuff for about 15 yrs. They will build to order if you need custom lengths.
 
Yeah, P. Barber is more for my wife but I still like her. But the wife REALLY likes her and we have seen her at the Green Mill in Chicago before. I'll have to check out those other artists -- though own music from Peyroux and Cassidy already.

Here is a cool video of Priscilla Ahn.

[video=vimeo;9873263]http://vimeo.com/9873263[/video]
 
DSChief said:
Check out Tara Labs,
http://taralabs.com/products/2-interconnects

I've been using their stuff for about 15 yrs. They will build to order if you need custom lengths.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I will check them out.

I also saw that Blue Jeans Cables got a lot of good plugs on Audiogon and was looking at them a bit. I have to admit that this cable thing is a bit confounding to me. Dropping the coin on cables that some do just seems bizarre. I guess the whole audiophile thing can be a bit frustrating as opinions run wild and all over the place and there are always very strong opinions on which part of your system should be prioritized (i.e., speakers, amps, cables, components, phono cartridges, etc.). At the end of the day I just see these people trying to move from the 90th percentile of sound quality to the 99th percentile -- and that's when the big bucks come into play. For me, I am happy residing in the 80th percentile for a fraction of the cost.

Knives on the other hand is a different issue ;)

k.
 
Many schools of thought, my preference is take 50% of your budget for the speakers, 20% for the power Amp. Then fill in everything else with whats left.

Prices have gotten super crazy, the cables i had made to feed my DQ-20's back in 1990, would probably be 3 or 4 K now.
 
don't waste your coin on fancy cables, there is no benefit, if anything they sound worse than the sensible properly made ones. blue jeans is fine, i prefer what the pro audio guys use (mogami).
 
Been trying to get my rig back up and running, and getting a 35 yo B&O TT back in operation is on my wish list. Gotta sort why the amp keeps blowing fuses, too. Hope to get our little boy exposed to vinyl/ analog.

Lots of great quality vinyl out there these days. Acoustic Sounds and Music Direct have a ton.

New Zeppelin sets are out. Can't go wrong exposing your kids to Page, Plant, et al :)
 
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