End of a (Personal) Era

[boom3]

I gave my turntable away last night to a friend who needs to digitize a lot of European albums he can't find in digital form here. It sat on my shelf for over 5 years after I digitized the last of my 12 inch 45 rpm disco records.

I connected it to my study system to ensure it all still worked and played a few tracks off Neil Young's "Everybody's Rockin" LP from 1984. Faint sense of nostalgia in cuing the tone arm up and then watching it gently sit down on the lead groove. I remembered enough to mute the preamp until the stylus sat down. I've kept a few LPs just for the jackets (like the Dead's "Europe 72") and of course the 12 inch 45s. Except at the dawn of the CD era, I never got into the LP vs. digital sound debate. The first CDs were pretty shrill by comparison with LPs. After the industry got used to the format, that issue went away, for me at least. A pal still has his first Magnavox CD player (made by Phillips) that has a seperate set of outputs having a gentle HF roll off.

I don't miss the cleaning, the sighs as LPs developed pops and tics (sometimes from gas bubbles in the vinyl popping during the first few plays), the astounding warps of the late 60s RCA Dynagroove cheapies, the fretting over styli wearing out or going out of production, and moving albums around freqeuntly as a much younger man. Hearing only decreases with age, but experience and hard-won wisdom should increase.[]

[Daddy Dee]

end of an era indeed!

it's a good thing that you could digitize your vinyl before giving your TT away.

[Boxx]

A sad day indeed....

[Islander]

So how did Neil sound when you played him after all that time? If you tried a recently-made cartridge, you might have been in for a surprise.

I hated noticing how more surface noise appeared with each play back in the Seventies, so I'd just play each LP once, to record it to cassette, and played the cassettes from then on.

However, in 2005 I got a Technics SL-1400 Mk 2 turntable and had it fitted with a Shure M-97xE cartridge. I pulled my played-once-only 30-year-old LPs out and they sounded better than I ever remembered. Now I understood what the hi-fi magazines had been talking about. The old M95ED cartridge was not even in the same league as the new M97.

As well, it didn't take long to notice that the LPs were not getting noisier. The M97 claims on the box to have very low record wear, and that's been my experience with it. The records are quiet and stay quiet. Some are actually silent between cuts, and guests have thought I was playing CDs. I did replace a number of the scratchy LPs that came through the party years. We have a number of used music shops here in town, and I've been able to find quite a few near-new LPs at good prices.

I also listen to CDs and DVDs, and even YouTube, but I'm not getting rid of my turntable and records anytime soon. In 2010, I bought one of the last Technics SL-1210M5G decks, and it really brings out the best in my records.

[CECAA850]

Can't say that I blame you. I made the switch years ago and haven't looked back. I never thought I'd be a fan of streaming media though, that was up untill I got MOG.

[boom3]

The NY album, "Everybody's Rockin" was released in 1984 or late 83 and a little note on the back mentions "Digitube" I have no idea what that meant, except that I seem to recall that Neil was/is a fan of tubes in the mastering chain. The overall sound was meant to be jukeboxey, and it was. I noticed that the stereo image was kinda narrow. This is the only LP I played before I gave the TT away, so i suspect it's the album.This album meant something to me when I bought it, due to the MTV vid of "Wondering". The album was very quiet between music passages.

My last turntable was a 1990 Dual CS450, with a Shure M95HE cart. Most of my albums held up very well due to use of mag carts only and carefull cleaning with the Watts Dust Bug. I was very sorry when that went of production since I never thought the Discwasher brush was even close in capability. I had a few records (Atlantic label, mainly) that seemed to have poor QA and developed pops and tics more than others.

My carts, in order: Shure M44, Empire green, Empire blue, B&O SP12A, and the Shure M95HE. I was heartbroken when B&O stopped making styli for the SP12A. That was the best cart I've ever heard, and the slight roll-off at the top could be touched up by a tiny increase in the treble control if necessary.

[Islander]

The NY album, "Everybody's Rockin" was released in 1984 or late 83 and a little note on the back mentions "Digitube" I have no idea what that meant, except that I seem to recall that Neil was/is a fan of tubes in the mastering chain. The overall sound was meant to be jukeboxey, and it was. I noticed that the stereo image was kinda narrow. This is the only LP I played before I gave the TT away, so i suspect it's the album.This album meant something to me when I bought it, due to the MTV vid of "Wondering". The album was very quiet between music passages.

My last turntable was a 1990 Dual CS450, with a Shure M95HE cart. Most of my albums held up very well due to use of mag carts only and carefull cleaning with the Watts Dust Bug. I was very sorry when that went of production since I never thought the Discwasher brush was even close in capability. I had a few records (Atlantic label, mainly) that seemed to have poor QA and developed pops and tics more than others.

My carts, in order: Shure M44, Empire green, Empire blue, B&O SP12A, and the Shure M95HE. I was heartbroken when B&O stopped making styli for the SP12A. That was the best cart I've ever heard, and the slight roll-off at the top could be touched up by a tiny increase in the treble control if necessary.

Neil Young is famous for being very concerned about everything in the signal path. When higher-res recording becomes available, he's ready to upgrade his entire body of work.

For record cleaning, you can now get the Spin-Clean: http://www.spincleanrecordwasher.com/

With a Spin-Clean and a carbon fibre record cleaning brush (http://www.ebay.com/sch/sis.html?_kw=Anti+Static+Brush+for+Cleaning+Vinyl+Records), you're good to go. You could add a Zerodust (http://www.musicdirect.com/p-7737-zerodust-stylus-cleaner.aspx) to clean your stylus if you like.

You can even add a Zerostat gun. That should take care of all your record and stylus cleaning needs.

As for cartridges, I think you would be very pleasantly surprised if you tried an M97xE. It's a real improvement over earlier Shure cartridges, other than the V15, which is no longer available.

[Mallette]

If one's tastes are limited...which is fine and most people, including audiphiles, are limited...one can do that. However, I remain totally psyched on finding things that aren't otherwise available and the bulk of that remains the millions of LPs that remain to be mined for new thrills. Same for reel to reel, 78s, whatever.

I cannot stand the thought of finding some intriguing blues, organ, barbershop...whatever record and not being able to hear it.

Dave

[seti]

I cannot stand the thought of finding some intriguing blues, organ, barbershop...whatever record and not being able to hear it.

Dave

AMEN

How man 78's never made it to lp? How many lp never made it cd? More than people can imagine.