Be Excellent To Each Other

Thought I'd kick off a record thread, as WTB is a cunt I know some fellow BeeXers love vinyl too.

Can't quite believe how much I've fallen back in love with it lately, it's certainly taken all of my spare cash to buy a new turntable, amp and albums (sorry photography budget) but I don't regret a single penny I've spent. Even when I consider that for the same cash I could be sat with an iPad and a PS3 I'm still more than happy with what I've done.

I find myself listening more intently to stuff, and most importantly, to albums as a whole rather than what I normally do which is skip like fuck through my iPod play lists.

It's been a big nostalgia trip playing all my old stuff, and excellently I've found myself doing more drawing and painting (and building model airplanes ) while I'm sat in my den listening. This is all good as I'd much rather be using my brain than be sat passively in front of the gogglebox.

So what's this thread for then? Well, I want everyone of you with records that you no longer play to send them to me. Or just talk about stuff to look out to snarf on eBay (some Acid/Electro suggestions from Bear or Bust would be lovely), and as a place to offer advice to any potential vinyl junkies or whatever really, it'll die on it's arse more than likely.

Currently I have a Rega PR1 Turntable going through a Marantz PM6003 Amp to my trusty old (but probably soon to be replaced) Celestion Impact 10 speakers connected with 10 bob cables

Interesting* record facts -
- I've only owned one record - Sepultura's Chaos AD. Bought when I didn't even have a player. Another of my 'buying something because it's cheap' moments. I don't even like Sepultura.
- The first record my brother bought was the Fraggle Rock single.





* Ok, not interesting

The first record I bought was Iron Maiden - Can I play with Madness? It had a free sticker that I stuck to my skateboard.

When I moved to Spain 5 years ago I ditched a Rotel amp and a Thorens turntable, since they were getting old and useless anyway and certainly not worth bringing across Europe. I have a stack of more than 100 vinyl albums that I haven't heard in all that time, lot's of great music there. I did bring my System Audio speakers, since they are pretty rare and were great value for money, but they have also just been gathering dust. I don't even know if they still work.

So I have been looking to get back into hi-fi, since I now have a bit of money lying around and don't seem to be going anywhere anytime soon.

So what sort of turntables are around these days? Is Rotel still a good amp choice for cheap but good hi-fi? I never cared about surround sound before, should I start now?

I've been playing DJ Hero recently, if that helps.

I've got a fair amount of vinyl (mainly L@@K R@R3 Tool albums), but no player since I moved out of my parents house... in 2002.

I sometimes go to record fairs to buy the gatefold covers in case I want to display them on the wall.

Can't praise my Rega RP1 enough, brilliant for the price (£229) its very basic, right down to manual speed changing. The cost has gone into the quality of the components.


Very much so, there was a Rotel that was my second choice.


Not for listening to records no, but for DVD/Games/BluRay Defo.

Can I have your records please?

Yeah, can't beat the format for artwork. I should track down some square clip frames for some of my swapsies.

I have been wondering how much money you'd need to spend to get a surround amp that would provide the same stereo quality level as, say, a €500 Rotel stereo amp. "Back in the day" it would have had to be something like a €2500 Yamaha amp or something. I don't know what to look for these days.

*pumps shotgun*

I'd love to get another turntable one day as I've still got some vinyl records at home. I've already got a decent amp and speakers (admittedly for surround sound purposes), does the actual turntable itself make that much difference?

As for my records, I've only got Beatles and Pink Floyd albums on vinyl really. A colleague of mine at a previous employer had never really got out of early 90's dance music and was once given a 12" single of Bomb The Bass's Megablast as a Secret Santa present from a fellow colleague. I was most jealous.

Sweet Jesus, yes. There's records in my collection that I've had for years and played them on multiple turntables of increasing cost / quality over the years. I can honestly say I've never heard them sound as good as this before.

Strong possibility it won't have a phono stage then. You can get a phono pre-amp though.

It's got RCA stereo inputs (white and red analogue inputs), is that what you mean by a phono stage? I'm not entirely clued up with all this. It's a Sony STR-DH810 amplifier.

I've been seriously considering getting a turntable myself recently. When I find an album that is worth buying I'm finding myself purchasing the vinyl and ("importing") a flac copy. Otherwise what is the point of ripping a CD once and never looking at it again?

I've been checking out the Rega turntable you've been mentioning Zardoz. Is the upgrade pack (that brings it to £299-ish) worth the bother? How does it compare to the similarly priced Project Debut III ?

I have a Cambridge Audio A5 amp (as recommend a few years ago by fellow Beexes) so I'll need a pre-amp. And some leads. Any pre-amp recommendations? All this begins to add up though - is it really going to be a set-up that starts to out pace playing flacs?

Don't know about the upgrade pack, only got the bog standard. By all accounts it's supposed to be worth the cash though, so maybe I'll do it some day. Like I say though the sound quality for now is excellent, and any more money is going towards new speakers.

I think Throughsilver has a Project Turntable, not sure which model though.

You'd need a pre-amp, sorry, other wise you'd only get a tiny signal from the turntable if you connected to your receiver.

So can you recommend a pre-amp? And what leads - just any that that work?

Records - you can really never have enough! much as i love having weeks worth of music on my ipod, you cant beat listening to the vinyl. As i work from home mostly you can get a bit carried away:





Obvious suggestion Mr Zardoz, but have you looked at discogs.com yet? an easy way to spend a load of cash...

Sorry no, Craig, I just splurged out on a brand new amp purely for record playing purposes.

As for leads, the Rega RP1 has integrated phono leads, so the only cables I've bought (well, already had) are the speaker cables.

My God Markh....

if anyone else has any advice on a pre-amp then please give it. I need some idea of a price range before I can make a decision. Will a £20 one not be too crap?

personal opinion, but the size of the room you put it in can make an effect. in a smallish room, a cheapish one is OK. my mate bought some really expensive, superb gear, then put it in a room about as big as a box with the speakers a foot apart....

On seconds thoughts I bet Markh has just taken a picture of the same shelf three times after moving everything about on it. The Cad.

How my wife wishes that were true....

What turntable do you have Mh?

My main one is a rega thats about 15 years old - has lasted really well, although it's been through a fair few cartridges.i also have an old Sony one downstairs which was cheap but decent enough, and replacement cartridges are dirt cheap. Also have a sound lab one ( you can see it in one of those piccy) which I bought to transfer vinyl to mp3 with (it has a USB) although I never really got on that well with it, although as a standalone deck it's quite good, but a bit bulky. Ooh and I have one of these


Although I wouldn't dare use it on anything I want to listen to again.....the name vinyl killer is justified.....

That's....fantastic.

I wonder if there's a CD version with a laser.

And what would keep it on track?

The zeros

Saving throws.

People need to start posting pictures of records and that.

That's weird. I clicked on 'new posts', and it took me to the end of the thread. And I'd not seen the start yet! Oh well. Records, eh? I hate myp. Pro-Ject Debut III is indeed lovely, so feel free to buy it. I haven't heard the Rega, though I know they generally make nice ones. When I get the new place, I might get a posh Rega to go in it.

Phono stage recommendations? I'd go with the Cambridge Audio pretty cheap one that I got in 2007. It's the 640P, and I am very happy with it.

People are starting too many threads, man... The forum can't take it - it's gonna blow!

Latest addition of Julian Cope's - Peggy Suicide sounds fucking fantastic. Only ever had it originally on tape back in the day. Brilliant album if anyone's interested in indie/psych rock.

Not sure this is the most relevant thread, but...

Loads of old Jazz recording found - but you can't listen to them. Really quite sad, hopefully they can overcome the issue:

http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/arti ... _you_cant/

Got the Beastie Boys album 'Licence to Ill' yesterday from eBay, saw it going cheap so thought I'd have it. Not played it yet but the cover is like new, even got the original Woolworths sticker on it from 87

Tempted to frame the sleeve, might get another copy

Used the voucher I got from work to buy The XX and Arcade Fire's The Suburbs from Amazon. Think they will be the first new records I've bought since I was at University, everything else has been 2nd hand.

Nice! How much?

£3.99 plus £2.40 for postage.

I should be getting Bummed anytime now.

Just frame it, so you don't have to listen to it.

I also bought a D.E.P. album too. I've heated it up over the oven and moulded it into a bowl. It's absolutely perfect for heaps of fly blown dog shit.

I know you are, but what am I?

I'd say you were the love child of Stretch Armstrong and Noel Gallagher.

But anyway, back on topic, I've just won two more Siouxsie & The Banshees albums: Kaleidoscope & A kiss in the Dreamhouse. Only a couple more (which I'm bidding on) for the complete set.

I finally got Bummed for £5.19 after two unsuccessful attempts.

And now it looks like I might be getting Bummed again as it's bundled with Pills 'n Thrills which I'm still bidding on.

More lube.

Got Arcade Fire's 'The Suburbs' yesterday and was not only pleasantly surprised by the design and artwork of the gatefold sleeve but also the way they engineered my favourite track of the album, We used to wait, to have a never ending piano outro as it plays repeatedly at the end of side 3.

Nice.

Ooh, that is nice.

Aye, Mars Volta's Amputechture does that too.

Just playing 'Pills 'n Thrills and Bellyaches' by the Happy Mondays. It's much better than I remembered and as an added bonus, the copy I won on eBay has the original sweet wrapper cover that was banned by the US.

Nice.