Anyone else into vinyl?

Added a cue lever, really a must have but was a $40 addition. Really happy with it.

And look what I'm listening to!!

@haloruler64

That cracks me up!  How fun is that!

I don't have a turntable however this is now going to be a permanent fixture. 

 Also if UM wanted to know what I did with the engraved mirror he made for me here it is.  

This is so much fun for me.  Finally the notoriety in 2019 that I had hoped for 40 years ago.   You know when you hit the big time.   This is almost as good as getting air play on the Doctor Demento Show for a comedy song I did back then!  Only played once, but contributed greatly to being a legend in my own mind. 

That is hilarious. Mush is a legend now. 

Got my Dire Straits self titled vinyl, and Brothers in Arms has been delayed... lost? USPS no longer shows a date when it was originally yesterday. 

Posted by: @haloruler64

That is hilarious. Mush is a legend now. 

Got my Dire Straits self titled vinyl, and Brothers in Arms has been delayed... lost? USPS no longer shows a date when it was originally yesterday. 

I have the 24 bit version. It has always been a good audiophile recording especially the B side which most never hear. 

Another really nice audiophile recording is Fleetwood Mac Rumors.  They were relentless on getting the sound arrangements just right. Haunting sound effects.  

Received two records today. Kiss Land was a total bust. Might be a fake? Disc 1 had the same "side B' sticker on both sides, and the first song has a major skip in it. And it's super crackly, whereas my only new record (Mush) is crystal clear. I did clean the stylus. Returning it. 

I also received Brothers in Arms. It plays well but is very crackly and noisy. Surface is quite dirty. Record brush didn't help. Thinking of getting this? Trying not to drop crazy money and fall down the rabbit hole. https://www.amazon.com/Boundless-Audio-Record-Cleaning-Solution/dp/B07RRM3QWS

I just wanted to show you this from the previous discussions on this thread. I did not get my information from this video obviously because it was posted yesterday but he basically touched upon everything I was writing about.  As I mentioned it goes against most audiophiles convention but it does have the maximum bang for the buck.  A few hundred dollar investment in China parts ends up making a cheap system sound like an expensive one.  

Posted by: @dev

I just wanted to show you this from the previous discussions on this thread. I did not get my information from this video obviously because it was posted yesterday but he basically touched upon everything I was writing about.  As I mentioned it goes against most audiophiles convention but it does have the maximum bang for the buck.  A few hundred dollar investment in China parts ends up making a cheap system sound like an expensive one.  

I watched that, I listened intently... and I got very little out of it. He basically talked up his own two products which cost $6k a piece. I think the lesson is, don't use a preamp with a quality DAC unless the pramp is equally quality? At my price point, literally 1-2% (my phono pramp was $80, my PC's DAC was around $150), I don't think this really applies? Maybe I'm missing something. 

Also got another copy of Kiss Land, this one's legit. Really pleased. 

Posted by: @haloruler64

Posted by: @dev

I just wanted to show you this from the previous discussions on this thread. I did not get my information from this video obviously because it was posted yesterday but he basically touched upon everything I was writing about.  As I mentioned it goes against most audiophiles convention but it does have the maximum bang for the buck.  A few hundred dollar investment in China parts ends up making a cheap system sound like an expensive one.  

I watched that, I listened intently... and I got very little out of it. He basically talked up his own two products which cost $6k a piece. I think the lesson is, don't use a preamp with a quality DAC unless the pramp is equally quality? At my price point, literally 1-2% (my phono pramp was $80, my PC's DAC was around $150), I don't think this really applies? Maybe I'm missing something. 

Not exactly.   It has not much to do with the cost of his equipment however in certain circumstances cost can play a roll when you don't have any cheaper options but that is not true anymore.  He is only touching on the point that he was proven wrong with his ideas of having no preamp what so ever by the founder of Infinity when he used a tube preamp. 

What he was talking about is most peoples ingrained  conventional thinking that adding more stages of  amplification is counterintuitive to sound quality because you are degrading the audio signal. For the most part this is true and what most people believe including I until about two years ago.  More components in the chain can decrease the sound quality from the original source. The guy pointed this out by hooking up one of their transistor preamps which made things sound worse. 

Their company makes a direct stream DAC that I assume has a digital volume control like many of the newer DAC chips out there that you find in a smart phones.  I also have owned a high resolution player that uses a DAC with native amplification on the chip and no external amp circuit.  If I were to add an additional external amp to the circuit it would amplify the signal but at the same time it might degrade it.   

 What is poorly understood however is when you add a good tube amp preamplifier in the path it changes everything.  The music comes to life even though on paper the signal has been degraded but who cares because it sounds much better. It is believed that the tubes add even order harmonics and microphonic feedback that colors the sound but in a good way that the ears like.   

For the last two days I have been researching a DSP headphone amp that just came out that is going to blow the industry to the ground because its only $50.  This little headphone amp  has an actual full featured paramedic EQ and one of the many features they incorporated is adding even order distortion for SQ.  I do doubt that just adding even order distortions will make it sound like tube amplification but they know this as well.  Other manufactures have tried to mimic the tube like sounds from a transistor and it fails to bring the magic so its still poorly understood. 

Not everything in high fi needs to be expensive if you know where to look and can apply the knowledge of what is needed rather than throwing money at something when most of the time it's the room acoustics or mismatched components.   

The copy of Brothers in Arms I got is bad. I cleaned it 3 times, applied GruvGlide, and it still crackles and pops like mad. Louder than the music, super annoying. Very disappointed. Gonna have to return it. I need to pick up a clean original WB pressing somehow, but buying vinyl on eBay sucks. The S/T sounds great but has a seam split that was not advertised. 

Put the Master & Dynamic MA770 on the same shelf as the turntable. it's advertised as being able to play full blast without making the record skip due to its 35 lb concrete construction, and they weren't lying! 

Back in my radio days,  the engineers would build a particle board "box" that was filled with a couple hundred pounds of sand for the turntable to mount to.  That whole contraption was then inserted into the counter top of the turntable area (we had 3 direct drive turntables, each with remote starts) and each individual  turntable box was isolated from the counter top.   You could kick the box and the needle would not skip and no noticable sound wave rumble was mechanically transmitted to the turntables when the monitors were cranked up.  Two of the stations I worked for were in a high rise building.  I experienced a couple of earthquakes at those stations.   I don't remember needle skip even then . . . but that was 40 years ago.   Shoot,  I can't remember what I had for lunch yesterday. 

That's pretty amazing! 

Just some updates! Expanding the collection. Haven't picked up any more Dire Straits or Pink Floyd yet, real shame. But did pick up some interesting stuff! I love this album.

This is a very special one. One of 150, total of 300 in two colors. Regular black run at album release was super limited too. Autographed by Serj Tankian. And the 4th side is engraved with a pattern. 

My buddies album

And my Black Friday haul that was lost in shipping for a month. AM is fantastic, Toxicity is a total classic, and Torches is special to me.