Vinyl Set Up

[Auxsender]

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This is an ancient debate. When I played the electric guitar, it was a similar discussion with guitar amps. I always favored vintage tube amps... Vox, Fender... paired with a vintage Telecaster or Rickenbacker. I am still there with vinyl equipment, but acknowledge that digital equipment is also a fantastic option. I don't want to miss an opportunity to celebrate the joy that collecting/listening to vinyl can bring. Vintage equipment or not, vinyl records have added such a positive impact to my life... I hope vinyl has been an added blessing to your life as well.

I agree with everything here. I will say however that I was responding specifically to BGB about recording in digital as it seemed to me he was inferring the reason for shitty sounding vinyl might be the recording medium.

I actually don’t really care much for vinyl. I prefer a lower noise floor and wider bandwidth; I don’t much care for RIAA equalization.

 

[agnosticpipe]

To the OP, some very nice vintage equipment there. I've had plenty of different equipment over the last 50 years, became a real "audiophile", but about 25 years ago I got tired of listening to the equipment and just wanted to listen to the music. I got my ultimate music system to play my many vinyl records and cds, but ended up selling all about 10 years later in 2000. Just had some decent stuff for the time being, but here 20 years later I finally decided to upgrade to something a little more to my liking as I started listening to music again, in spite of my hearing problems. The nice thing about diminished hearing is that you don't need real high end equipment because I can't tell the difference that much anymore. I'm not going to get into the debate about analog vs digital because like most things, it just boils down to opinion in the end. Lets just say I enjoy both. Here's my current system that will probably be the last I buy. I find it very satisfying to listen to, all genres included. I have no idea why I chose white components other than they seemed more pleasing to my eyes. Cheers guys, listen what you like and like to what you listen to, right?

 

[RustiePyles CPG]

Lovely amp and guitar - my brother made his own tele - actually I think it was supposed to be the earlier one that I've forgotten the name of! Fender made amazing amps. Here's my 1973 quad reverb:View attachment 241490

Ah man, clean for days. I bet that thing weighs a metric ton. Sweet amp! I love the Twin Reverb platform, one of Fenders greatest.

 

[AppalachianPipe92]

Lovely amp and guitar - my brother made his own tele - actually I think it was supposed to be the earlier one that I've forgotten the name of! Fender made amazing amps. Here's my 1973 quad reverb:View attachment 241490

I dream of owning an early Twin, but man - that's a damn amp!

 

[Humblepipe]

I'm a huge fan of tube gear but yes modern digital modeling has come a long way. It's now possible to get good tone with digital gear. But it wasn't always so, until the last decade or so digital amps were hot garbage. I'm a Fender and Ampeg guy myself, and I do love my tube amps but I'll no longer argue that tube is better than digital.

My homemade Tele and my 1968 Bassman with a later 2x12 cab
View attachment 241487

Sweeeeet.

 

[jaingorenard]

Ah man, clean for days. I bet that thing weighs a metric ton. Sweet amp! I love the Twin Reverb platform, one of Fenders greatest.

It is a bit of a pain in the arse, trying to load it into a van while it was determined to try and roll down a hill in Sheffield is a memory I won't forget!

 

[JackOrion]

I picked up the Onkyo TX-6500 MKii
From an old guy that repairs stereos out of his garage. He did a thorough service on it and the customer never came back to pay for it. So I grabbed it. It’s amazing sounding. Everything sounds incredibly rich with tons of clear depth. The Dual turntable is okay, maybe one day I’ll upgrade it.

 

[UB 40]

Nice. Yeah, it's hard to find good pressings of contemporary music. I remember having one record from a newer album that sounded like a 120kbps MP3 was used to make the vinyl...

I once talked to a guy, who was a sound engineer at EMI Electrola Germany in the late 60 up to the 80s. He is still in the business, and does direct metal mastering blanks on one of the few left Neumann machines to cut a copper blank.



So he gets digital recorded master tapes from artists that sound great played from the source or put on a CD.

But to put it on a record is a different pair of shoes he said, because the record is limited in its capacities to replay certain frequency mixtures of bass and treble. He said that in mastering blanks for the vinyl pressing plant, it is necessary to prepare the frequencies range in the stereo picture in such a way that they are optimally adapted to the physical conditions of the groove.

A fact some sound engineers don’t remember or never knew, because of lacking experience producing vinyl records. So very often he had to rearrange the digital master mix to the benefit and qualities of the vinyl record.

Maybe the poor sound on some of the newer pressings is a result from ignoring the physical limitations of vinyl.

Those limitations are no faults in my opinion, there are mono records from the King in the 1950/60s that are great to listen to, reproduced on the right system.

As said here already it’s not the technology that makes an impressive music experience, it depends on a lot of factors, last not least on the music you enjoy.

 

[AppalachianPipe92]

I once talked to a guy, who was a sound engineer at EMI Electrola Germany in the late 60 up to the 80s. He is still in the business, and does direct metal mastering blanks on one of the few left Neumann machines to cut a copper blank.

View attachment 241509

So he gets digital recorded master tapes from artists that sound great played from the source or put on a CD.

But to put it on a record is a different pair of shoes he said, because the record is limited in its capacities to replay certain frequency mixtures of bass and treble. He said that in mastering blanks for the vinyl pressing plant, it is necessary to prepare the frequencies range in the stereo picture in such a way that they are optimally adapted to the physical conditions of the groove.

A fact some sound engineers don’t remember or never knew, because of lacking experience producing vinyl records. So very often he had to rearrange the digital master mix to the benefit and qualities of the vinyl record.

Maybe the poor sound on some of the newer pressings is a result from ignoring the physical limitations of vinyl.

Those limitations are no faults in my opinion, there are mono records from the King in the 1950/60s that are great to listen to, reproduced on the right system.

As said here already it’s not the technology that makes an impressive music experience, it depends on a lot of factors, last not least on the music you enjoy.

View attachment 241512

I'm a vinyl guy, but you really can't beat CD/SACD (lossless, flac, etc). This is why I updated the digital aspect of my system. Lots of new music doesn't make it to LP format, or it's just not worth it. And in that case, I go for flac.

 

[UB 40]

I'm a vinyl guy, but you really can't beat CD/SACD (lossless, flac, etc). This is why I updated the digital aspect of my system. Lots of new music doesn't make it to LP format, or it's just not worth it. And in that case, I go for flac.

Yes I also am listening to digital sources, of course. I bought a Cambridge CD with a wolfson DAC, cut off the op-amp section and led the analog signal through a homemade single ended tube pre amp section, a construction kit I bought from “lampizator” Lukasz Ficus a polish guy, that has grown until today to offer really high end DAC solutions.

That one was a great player. Unfortunately a few years ago the central control unit broke down, maybe caused by the heat of the tube.

I grabbed another Sony-CD from the garbage and repaired the sledge. And A neighbour gave me a NAD CDP. But that one is easily swapped away by the Rega turntable.

 

[UB 40]

My actual Hi-Fi setting in sleeping position. I move the open baffle-speakers a little bit into the room and closer to the cabinet, while listening.

 

[huntertrw]

Sounds amazing.

I saw what you did there, Humblepipe!

 

[Humblepipe]

My actual Hi-Fi setting in sleeping position. I move the open baffle-speakers a little bit into the room and closer to the cabinet, while listening.

View attachment 241530

That's a nice looking set up.

 

[AppalachianPipe92]

My actual Hi-Fi setting in sleeping position. I move the open baffle-speakers a little bit into the room and closer to the cabinet, while listening.

View attachment 241530

Beautiful setups. I thought Magnapans at first. Those are a really interesting design

 

[AppalachianPipe92]

It ain't much, but it's mine. This is my listening room setup. Theres setups in my bedroom, den and of course a rack system for the shop.
Im slowly setting gear aside and saving up for my "end game system".

Main driver for now is a Pioneer SX-950 with a Sony PS-X7 (upgraded cart). Running that to Klipsch "Quartets", though that amp loves the Dynacos. Then a SL-1700 through a Marantz 1060, those play through the Dynaco A25's. Digital is a Sony SACD to an Emotiva A2 mostly used for digital. That goes to the JBL L96's.
It's a Frankenstein system to say the least. Also in the middle of a remodel so it's quite a mess for now.


This is my buddy's/gear dealer's setup, and my dream swtup. It's such an experience when he queues something up.

 

[bluegrassbrian]

I need to quit looking at this thread - I haven't changed my setup in about 8 years. I haven't been over to my stereo dealers house in as many.

I've got pipes to buy.. shit.

 

[Bassman65]

Sweet set ups! Couldn’t play all my Smiths and Morrisey 12 inch singles without mine.

 

[mawnansmiff]

I bought a Cambridge CD with a wolfson DAC

The beauty of the Marantz UD-8004 I just bought is that it has both analogue & digital out so I can choose between using the Marantz Anchor Bay DAC or the Yamaha ESS Sabre DAC on the Aventage 3060, or at least I can if I can figure out how to connect the 2 together.

Regards,

Jay.

 

[mikethompson]

Thought this might be an appropriate place to show off my latest find. It's an Electrohome Apollo 711. Built in Kitchener Ontario in 1971. It was only sold in Canada from 1970 -1972. I was driving home the other day and a lady was bringing it to the curb. She said no one bought it at a garage sale the week prior, and she was sick of dealing with lowballers on Facebook marketplace.

It works! I needed to get a pair of speaker wire adapters from Amazon, and to find a pair of speakers for it, and I'm debating whether to refurbish the turntable system. It has a British-made system of some sort. I thought I could sell it for a few bucks, but the Mrs. has taken a shine to it and wants to keep it downstairs.

 

[scloyd]

Thought this might be an appropriate place to show off my latest find. It's an Electrohome Apollo 711. Built in Kitchener Ontario in 1971. It was only sold in Canada from 1970 -1972. I was driving home the other day and a lady was bringing it to the curb. She said no one bought it at a garage sale the week prior, and she was sick of dealing with lowballers on Facebook marketplace.

It works! I needed to get a pair of speaker wire adapters from Amazon, and to find a pair of speakers for it, and I'm debating whether to refurbish the turntable system. It has a British-made system of some sort. I thought I could sell it for a few bucks, but the Mrs. has taken a shine to it and wants to keep it downstairs.

View attachment 243242View attachment 243243View attachment 243244View attachment 243245

That is so cool. Looks like something from The Jetson's. Nice find Mike.