As many of you know, I am not a huge fan of the sound of turntables over a well produced CD. I believe that comes from the fact I was exposed to high quality two track reel to reel masters running at 15ips or 30ips at the ripe young age of 15 and most of my learning about listening to music came from working in studios where that was the common source, not an LP. I owned a decent turntable/cartridge which I used in my bedroom while growing up, but LP sound never compared to a quality reel to reel. I did my best to make my turntable sound good, but it never held up to what I had learned to be the standard. Then CDs came out and offered a way to hear almost what was on those half-track reel to reel tapes, and I was hooked.
However, my transition to CD left about 100 LPs in my collection which I have either never found on CD or other digital formats OR which I didn't love enough to replace with a CD. I have held on to those LPs for 30 years, or so, and haven't heard any of them until this past weekend.
What happened this past weekend?
Two things happened. 1) I finally pulled out the free turntable my uncle gave me, and old Sansui direct drive beast with an S-shaped tonearm, and cleaned it up, lubricated where I could, and installed a brand new AT cartridge which cost WAY more than I should have spent on it. AND 2) I stumbled across a guy here in Austin selling a near mint Rega Planer 3 turntable with a glass platter and a Shure cartridge at a giveaway price (without a dust cover) and bought it.
So, after spending several hundred dollars getting the old Sansui up and running, then bringing home a newer Rega monster, I have been auditioning some of my better old recordings. It is great to hear music I haven't listened to in nearly 30 years. I also like how cool the turntables look on my media stand in my nearly redecorated living room playing through my Parasound stereo preamp (purchased through a forum member) and my Parasound mono amps (Purchased from another forum member) to a pair of SVS high end bookshelf speakers (used in the great SVS shootout GTG at my home several years ago where apparently I was the only one who preferred this model over the newer model with a lousy "upgraded" crossover).
Now I have LP action in my bachelor pad. The chicks are gonna dig it and I can retire my weird pick-up line, "do you want to come up and see my etchings," (which I always have to explain, which ruins the dry antique sexual humor) and start saying, "how's about we spin some wax at my place, baby?" - which will surely get my some fine young tail.
However, my transition to CD left about 100 LPs in my collection which I have either never found on CD or other digital formats OR which I didn't love enough to replace with a CD. I have held on to those LPs for 30 years, or so, and haven't heard any of them until this past weekend.
What happened this past weekend?
Two things happened. 1) I finally pulled out the free turntable my uncle gave me, and old Sansui direct drive beast with an S-shaped tonearm, and cleaned it up, lubricated where I could, and installed a brand new AT cartridge which cost WAY more than I should have spent on it. AND 2) I stumbled across a guy here in Austin selling a near mint Rega Planer 3 turntable with a glass platter and a Shure cartridge at a giveaway price (without a dust cover) and bought it.
So, after spending several hundred dollars getting the old Sansui up and running, then bringing home a newer Rega monster, I have been auditioning some of my better old recordings. It is great to hear music I haven't listened to in nearly 30 years. I also like how cool the turntables look on my media stand in my nearly redecorated living room playing through my Parasound stereo preamp (purchased through a forum member) and my Parasound mono amps (Purchased from another forum member) to a pair of SVS high end bookshelf speakers (used in the great SVS shootout GTG at my home several years ago where apparently I was the only one who preferred this model over the newer model with a lousy "upgraded" crossover).
Now I have LP action in my bachelor pad. The chicks are gonna dig it and I can retire my weird pick-up line, "do you want to come up and see my etchings," (which I always have to explain, which ruins the dry antique sexual humor) and start saying, "how's about we spin some wax at my place, baby?" - which will surely get my some fine young tail.
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