I have recently gotten the vinyl bug, and I have no actual stereo equipment.
I have one friend telling me to cobble together a garage sale type set up, (turntable, house speakers, receiver with a phono pre amp).
Then there's the "go new" approach.
I have my entire cd collection backed up to external hard drives but I just wanted to be able to drop a needle on something more organic.
Money is an issue, as the vinyl records I want are <$20.

PS - is that there big a difference with 180g vinyl?

thanks guys.

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Just chillin' like Garret Quillin.

180g vinyl is one of the biggest scams going. You can buy a used copy of almost any album from the 60's-80's for a couple bucks, but these 180g re-issues are priced at $20+, and the difference in sound is negligible.

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Thanks for the thoughts, DB.

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Just chillin' like Garret Quillin.

I don't know about a couple bucks .... for pedestrian shit, sure, but you're not going to go get, say, Who's Next or Sgt Peppers or Aja or even Zenyatta Mondatta for a couple bucks, not a good one anyway.

But yes, the 180g is mostly marketing .... unless you're the type of chap who special orders ruby-tipped needles .... which is too rich even for Dr. Ken's blood, or what's left of it.

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Power is always in the hands of the masses of men. What oppresses the masses is their own ignorance, their own short-sighted selfishness.
- Henry George

Agree.

And for my money, the best turntable you can get is one of the old ARs. You can find decent ones on ebay but they can get expensive in good shape.

As far as speakers are concerned, taste comes into play of course, but if you've got a big budget, nothing beats a Klipsch folded horn. The old Heil Air Motion system is a killer too. I don't believe anyone has built a better tweeter than the ribbon.

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Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

Reckless has a couple copies of Zenyatta Mondatta for $4.99/each.

http://www.reckless.com/index.php?keywords=Zenyatta+Mondatta&format=LP&cond=&store=&is_search=true&srch=Search

and also a couple copies of Aja for $4.99-$7.99.

http://www.reckless.com/index.php?keywords=aja&format=LP&cond=&store=&is_search=true&srch=Search

They don't have any copies of Who's next right now, but almost everything in their catalog you can buy for under $10.

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I have a used telegraph you can have for cheap.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Well ..... go read your sig, dick.

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Power is always in the hands of the masses of men. What oppresses the masses is their own ignorance, their own short-sighted selfishness.
- Henry George

I have Aja, Who's Next and Zenyatta Mondatta on vinyl down in my storage unit. Would have given all my vinyl away a few years ago, but now the nostalgic part of me wants to revisit.

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Sex isn't dirty, sex isn't a crime. It's a loving act between two or more consenting adults.

-Hank Kingsley

also agree re: 180g vinyl

I have a copy of Todd Rundgren's Something/Anything that feels like its paper thin....sounds awesome

conversely i've had 180g vinyl that's been off-pressed, sounds like shit, etc.

there's a store in my neighborhood that sells audiophile stuff for thousands and thousands of dollars. it must be nice to have $$$ to throw around like that.

for me, i just like owning stuff on vinyl... then dumping the audio from a 1980s home stereo system through a $5 cable into my anonymous HP OEM speaker port to sound forge, tweaking the volume, and having a shitty 128kbps mp3 rip. there's something authentic about it, even tho it sounds like shit on proper systems like the ones from the neighborhood audiophile store.

however, when i see someone on soulseek downloading stuff from my personal vinyldumps, i smile knowing i have done my part to lower the overall fidelity of the giant mp3 pool. it's my antietam.

also, yeah, rah rah rah 180g vinyl is pointless unless you're getting something like the limited 180g edition of aphex twin's drukqs on vinyl... then the resale value is prolly like $125-150 versus the ~$75-100 you could prolly work yourself for a normal vinyl copy.

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I don't really know if there is an audible difference between 180g and not.

I have heard that you run the risk of purchasing a shitty end-of-the-plate pressing if the 180g album comes from the EMI/Capitol plant. There were issues with Dark Side of the Moon reissue, Mellon Collie reissue, and the original pressing of Oceania. I lucked out on Mellon Collie and Oceania as my versions are flawless.

I just got the "Audio-Technica AT-LP60-USB LP-to-Digital Record/CD Turntable" for Christmas, and the last time I listened to an album prior to a month ago was likely 1987. So...I don't have much to add.

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@audioidkid

i would say about 90% of new vinyl has mp3 coupons, which really is what they should all do

then you can have the mp3's for on the go, vinyl for home

Rhino has done a lot of reissues and their vinyl is generally bad
Had some issues with 4 Men With Bears stuff too

You're talking about Quintessence for sure. That guy has been there forever. Frankly, I don't know how he stays in business.

The high end audio business is a funny thing. There was a guy from California, I can't remember his name, who used to have a "catalog"- it was really just some stapled sheets of paper- with various high end components. I mean, he had heavy gauge silver wire that supposedly conducted better than standard copper. It went for some ridiculous amount per foot. My question would be, what normal person can hear the difference? Sure, a heavier wire carries signal better and it's definitely better for a long run, but how much do you want to invest for such incremental improvement?

And I've heard lots of different theories on bass. I don't think Cerwin-Vega ever made a cabinet that could go below 45 Hz. The engineering standpoint being that that is about as low as a human ear can hear. Of course, if you ask Tom Danley he'd give you an entirely different perspective and so he designed servo-drive subs capable of bass that would rattle the floor. You might not hear it, but you could damn sure feel it.

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Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

indeed that would be the store. he's got a van or two that are all logoed up, so i'd be willing to guess that he's got enough of a customer base who he does home/custom installs for that he's profitable enough to have the storefront for the ~4-5hrs/day 4-5 days a week it's open or whatever.

i've only been in there once, with a friend of mine who also has a few records and the token juno-106/707/727 setup to go with his software sequencer. i was amazed that the guy wasn't a dick cuz we were obviously two loser drug-addict semi-musicians-on-a-good-day (the best kind, really) and even tho it was flagrantly obvious that we didn't have $8k to blow on a "low end system" he didn't seem to mind us ogling at his wares because i think he could detect a genuine deference to his audio godhood.

like you pointed out re: technical issues, i really don't understand the whole audiophile thing. a little bit of it has crept into the mainstream in that doctor dre, of all people, has gotten people to buy into $200 headphones THAT REQUIRE AAA BATTERIES, as some sort of a norm.... for me, if you can't hear what you need to hear on those standarized sony "studio monitor style" headphones with the long cord for $15-20, then i think you're irrevocably on a path to where you're talking about your college degree/s as a backdrop to tell me why this song is amazing when i'd rather hear a beat up $2 2 live crew single.

but then again, some of my favorite musical moments were having realaudio (.ra file) dumps of an australian live bootleg of an aphex twin show because it previewed the remixes i was gonna hear when i saw him in sept 97.... it's all a crock of shit really. if i had all the money in the world i'd still want to have a genuinely shit 80s record player just because paying $$$ for "fidelity" is nebulous as paying $$$ for "security" which benjamin franklin has a good quote about. that said, gas up the popemobile i have to go to the store!

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