Any vinyl enthustiasts?

[Bucksstudent]

Honestly, I'll take some good vinyl over new guitars any day. I'm sure if I sold my collection, I could get a really nice guitar, but like guitars, I didn't buy these as an investment. I've been lucky to get some good, rare stuff, as well as classic albums. I'm not always keen on new 180 vinyl, because there are duds out there. They just don't make them like they used to.

Conversely, I have some old albums, like the original Steely Dan pressings, that are pretty bad. Some albums aren't even better than their CDs. However, I'd rather have the media files on my computer with vinyl to listen to on the stereo than just a CD.

 

Obviously, I want to see your collections too!

 

[Pine Apple Slim]

I've got a stack about 5 ft long, and my wife has just as many. But we are both old as dirt. We still have 2 turntables in the house. In the last few yrs we've started buying them again. Just about all the music we actually purchase is vinyl. We hit the closest independent record store about 2 x a yr and load up on mostly used, but some new vinyl.

[kayd_mon]

I have an ok collection, a bookshelf about 5 feet tall and maybe 2.5 feet wide from Ikea holds all of it, except for my 45s, of which I have 20-30.

 

About two thirds of my collection is vintage, from mostly the 60s and 70s. I also have a few from the 80s and 90s, and I have a decent amount of modern vinyl. My parents passed some records down to me from their collections, but not all of it was well-preserved, unfortunately. All of my dad's Beach Boys records, for example, were played to death.

 

My favorite record I have is probably my pretty clean British copy of Revolver. I have a mono Sgt. Pepper, and though it has no scratches, it was played too much and has lost a lot of quality. Another favorite is a very clean copy of Live at Leeds, with all the inserts and what not.

 

There is a local record shop that almost specializes in prog, so I have lots of King Crimson, Gentle Giant, Yes, Genesis, Floyd, etc. The big local shop (called Radio-Active Records) has a guy there that knew I was a prog fan, and he helped me find a squeaky-clean copy of Crimson's Starless and Bible Black. That was a happy day, since that record had eluded me for a while.

 

I have often flipped through garage sale bins, thrift store bins, used book shop shelves, and personal collections of people selling stuff on craigslist. For me, it's mostly a fun hobby tracking down vinyl, though I do like the experience of playing the records. Some sound a good bit different than the currently available CDs, which is cool. Also, the whole side-at-a-time thing changes how you listen to an album.

 

[knotty]

Still got my vinyl but it has almost all been carted from party to party. It all plays better than it ought to.The scratches and pops heard by other people are all memories to me.

[Special J]

The vast majority of my albums (over 1000) are in Rubbermaid bins in my basement. I've got maybe 50-100, mostly more recent stuff, or at least more recently purchased, on a bookshelf for current listening, but don't get to listen as much as I used to.

[PurpleTrails]

I've got about 14 feet worth, most of it pretty vintage, just like me.  About half of it is classical stuff I got when my father-in-law moved out of his house into an apartment.  I like listening to it, but generally aggravate someone in the house when I do. 

FWIW, I recently picked up a high-end sony turntable off the bay for around $100.  Paired it up with an ortofon cartridge that ran around $400 when new, and that setup really opened things up.  Really musical with great depth and imaging.

[gardo]

My records don't get out much these days but I love to listen when time permits.

The boxes stored above the records are filled with cassettes ,remember those?

The turntables are on a floating shelf mounted directly to the wall studs to reduce the transfer of vibration from the speakers.

 

[kayd_mon]

Hmmmm... My vinyl or a guitar I really want... I don't know which I'd rather.

[kayd_mon]

Killer. Always hoped that when I recorded an album, it could be released on vinyl.

[black blade]

[kayd_mon]

I just bought a copy of Hard Day's Night (complete with instrumental soundtrack versions of a few songs) yesterday. I believe that it was pressed in the 70s, based on the inner sleeve, and the record is super shiny and sounds great. Still missing a few Beatles records for my collection (hard to find affordable, playable copies if the early albums), and that elusive The Who Sell Out. I have never seen Sell Out at a used record shop, garage sale, or whatever. I have every other Who album, even some compilations with not-on-CD tracks (or at least I've never seen them on CD).

 

Yes, I collect vinyl, but my collecting has slowed considerably. Before yesterday, I had only bought a few Sinatra records at a yard sale about two months ago, and that's all the vinyl I've bought this year.

[grungehack]

I haven't bought any this whole year.  Kind of have to be in the mood for it, sometimes I'll go months without touching things I consider hobbies.  Have a couple LP's I got last year for x-mas that have yet to be played.

I'm not a collector, just have several crates worth of stuff I liked or wanted to have on both cd + vinyl. 

[jtr654]

I have 2000 + records. I work for a used record store in the 70's .

[Gitter]

The craziest thing about vinyl has to be how "vinyl mania" hit so **** hard and fast over the past few years. As recently as 2009/2010 there were a handful of guys at my regular few flea markets scouting the albums (including myself).

Now, in-thje-wild albums are the surest way to get a group of shoulder-to-shoulder buyers and *everything* is pummeled down to the Pete Fountain and Johnny Mathis. Like, not 10 years ago you could've stood vinyl in the trash and it would've been a coinflip if anyone would bother to stop and look through it. Now? Insanity.

I beat my collection down to three rows of 5' (about half) since there was just a lot I wasn't listening to, couldn't forsee myself ever putting in the rotation and frankly, after a growth period in my life, came to realize just how hoarder'ish 'collecting' can become if it goes unchecked and you start acquiring for acquisitions sake. A lot of it was stuff from bulk-purcahses and collection buys, back when you could get a collection of 200-400 unpicked albums from the 60's-80's for $20, $30, $40 a load.

 

The bad news, the good old days of in-the-wild vinyl are completely over; another cool interest {censored}ted up by hipsters, dbags and trendistas.

[Grant Harding]

Wow, I had no idea vinyl was trendy again. I prefer digital, but I have fond memories of records from when I was a kid.

[Gitter]

It's completely, completely insane (at least in So Cal, Chicago and certain parts of Florida I frequent).

As noted, as recently as 3-4 years back it was kinda-sorta starting to pick up a bit but you could still go to any given garage sale or flea market, find vinyl and good chance you would be the only one there that day who gave two **** about it. Now? You'd better show up early and expect to have competition. Want customers at your next garage sale? Advertise vinyl and see what happens (seriously, when my aunt wanted to have a garage sale, I gave her a box of crappy $1/ea vinyl just so she could advertise she had it because it's such a draw around here... and 3/4 of it sold)

Apparently, every hipster and mid-life crisis moron decided at once to collect vinyl sometime in 2010 and the dam completely broke.

 

[Grant Harding]

Ahhh - I thought it might be a hipster thing. My neighbour has a hipster DJ friend that thinks selecting a record to play is the musical equivalent to performing a song live. I'm not kidding - he calls himself a musician.

[Gitter]

Hipsters seem to be the center of the market but don't under-estimate the sheer number of "people over 50" who apparently decided all at once to pile on the 'go out and look for old vinyl' train.

I swear to god, it was like a giant hive-mind had been activated. Vinyl was once limited to collectors and oddball enthusiasts and hard-hardcore music afficianados, it then became a 'cultural' thing with hipsters and a nostalgia thing with old timers. The only thing that I can't figure out is how sudden it was. I've seen plenty of 'collector manias' brew, blow-up then die in years past but this one was probably more abrupt than any I've seen in my relatively brief years in this planet.

[Grant Harding]

I think the book "The Tipping Point" describes how this sort of thing happens if you're interested.

[kayd_mon]

How sudden was it? I started collecting vinyl in '99, when I received a few Who records as a gift. At that time, you could find a lot of things cheap, "in the wild" as you say. By about 2006, more and more new music was available on vinyl, and people started wanting more for their collections. It's not insane where I am, though. You can still find vinyl at used book stores, garage sales, and the local record shops, and it's not always outrageously priced.

[Bucksstudent]

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Gitter wrote:

Hipsters seem to be the center of the market but don't under-estimate the sheer number of "people over 50" who apparently decided all at once to pile on the 'go out and look for old vinyl' train.

I swear to god, it was like a giant hive-mind had been activated. Vinyl was once limited to collectors and oddball enthusiasts and hard-hardcore music afficianados, it then became a 'cultural' thing with hipsters and a nostalgia thing with old timers. The only thing that I can't figure out is how sudden it was. I've seen plenty of 'collector manias' brew, blow-up then die in years past but this one was probably more abrupt than any I've seen in my relatively brief years in this planet.

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Please get out of my thread. If you don't collect vinyl, you have no place here.

[kayd_mon]

Personally, I like that it has newfound popularity. I own the entire Decemberists discography on vinyl (I have some on CD, but not all). Most new albums that come out, I can get on vinyl, which I like.

 

Both the Arctic Monkeys and Pearl Jam have new records out, and I'll be picking up the vinyl copies. I haven't heard either record yet - I'm waiting to pop them on my turntable. It's a fun experience.

[Skyforger]

My collection isn't huge, but it's basically just bands I like from that era.(60s-90s). Got a few valuable ones that I picked up purely by chance on markets and local shops. And recently I came into a plethora of vinyl since my grandfather passed. Took out everything I liked (War of the Worlds, some Beatles 7" and a load of Shadows) and sold the rest. Collection consists mainly of Alice Cooper, Rush, Ozzy, Scorpions, Floyd, Maiden, Dio/Rainbow and a bit of Saxon. Plus a few other one offs like Skid Row.

[Skyforger]

Oh, and as a point of curiosity/consumer advice, I don't actually own a record player. Anyone recommend a reasonable system to play them on? Would quite like a stand-alone unit since all my cassettes are rubbish and a CD player would be redundant.

[PurpleTrails]

---

Gitter wrote:

Hipsters seem to be the center of the market but don't under-estimate the sheer number of "people over 50" who apparently decided all at once to pile on the 'go out and look for old vinyl' train.

I swear to god, it was like a giant hive-mind had been activated. Vinyl was once limited to collectors and oddball enthusiasts and hard-hardcore music afficianados, it then became a 'cultural' thing with hipsters and a nostalgia thing with old timers. The only thing that I can't figure out is how sudden it was. I've seen plenty of 'collector manias' brew, blow-up then die in years past but this one was probably more abrupt than any I've seen in my relatively brief years in this planet.

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Funny, my hipster daughter (though she hates when I call her that) triggered me getting back into buying vinyl.  She wanted to get the most recent Vampire Weekend album on vinyl for her birthday last spring, which meant getting a used turntable and receiver and breaking some old speakers out of the garage for her.  Vinyl shopping gives us something to do together when she's in town.  I've found some pretty cheap gems, though I think I paid $20 for a copy of Chet Atkins Hometown Guitar in really good shape toward the end of summer.

FWIW, I picked up quite a bit cheap back in the '90s when CDs became all the rage.  I have no idea how many I have, but I think my collection is in the 8'-10' range, mostly up in closets so not really amenable to taking pictures of it.  Probably the most valuable "collector" piece I have is an original copy of the Monkees' Head soundtrack, a movie that featured both Annette Funicello and Frank Zappa, and which was at least partially written by Jack Nicholson.  It's very strange.

BTW, the Vampire Weekend album sounds really great on vinyl.