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Get LPs or Die Tryin: Donovan’s version!

Get LPs or Die Tryin: Donovan’s version!

I bought a record player a couple weeks ago. Let’s do this.
Pharaoh721

I was sitting around a couple weeks ago, and I got to thinking. I don’t own ANY music. Like, any. I’ve got a couple albums I’ve bought on iTunes, and of course my streaming library, but that’s it. If I woke up tomorrow and Apple Music, Spotify, and YouTube ceased to exist, I wouldn’t have anything to listen to. I decided it was time to start physically collecting some of my favorite music, the stuff that meant the most to me. I quickly decided that vinyls were the coolest way to do so, and off I was.

I bought an Audio Technica LP60X record player based on several recommendations from friends. Of course, I also reached out and consulted with Crabs Jarrard, our resident LP enthusiast here at Shacknews. I paid my local record store a visit and picked up a couple records, Positions by Ariana Grande and Astroworld by Travis Scott. A couple of (relatively) recent projects from artists I really like, something to test my new player with.

I also grabbed some Logitech Z323 speakers from Best Buy. Setup was pretty simple, and before I knew it, I was spinning records. I was so happy with the purchase. I’m not an audiophile, so this next part is hard to explain, but there’s something so crisp and clean about the way the music sounded coming from the record player. More so than what I’m used to when listening in the car or even on my iPhone. 

Knowing that my purchase was a good one, I ran out to Target to pick up a couple more records. I bought Queen’s Greatest Hits, as well as Eminem’s Curtain Call (Greatest Hits). There were a few more records I wanted that weren’t in stores, so I ordered online. I picked up Under Pressure, Logic’s debut album, which remains one of my favorite albums of all time. I also ordered the High School Musical Limited Edition Gold Colored vinyl. Before y’all start coming for me, I love High School Musical, those movies were my childhood. Let me live please. Lastly, I pre-ordered SOUR, Olivia Rodrigo’s debut album, which is currently my favorite album of the year (unlikely to change). That vinyl doesn’t drop until August 20, but I need it on day one.

There are many more vinyls that I want to pick up, but they’re kinda expensive, so I’m gonna have to give myself some sort of monthly limit. My birthday is coming up (July 21), so feel free to pull the trigger on one of the records I’ve got on my Amazon Wishlist :). Also, if you’ve got any advice on building and maintaining a collection, I’m all ears!

From The Chatty
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  • Pharaoh721
    reply
    July 7, 2021 9:03 PM

    Get LPs or Die Tryin: Donovan’s version!

    Read more: Get LPs or Die Tryin: Donovan’s version!

    • [deleted] 92559685 legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
      reply
      July 7, 2021 9:58 PM

      [deleted]

    • ryuuseki legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
      reply
      July 8, 2021 3:33 AM

      New vinyl is expensive. Old vinyl, is cheap with the exception of "rare" releases. Used bookstores can be a surprisingly good source. I toy with the idea of going vinyl but the whole needing to flip the record/skipping tracks potentially damaging thing stops me from going that way.

      • OutlawSundown legacy 10 years
        reply
        July 8, 2021 5:17 AM

        Always worth getting a turntable that has a cueing lever so you’re not trying to rely on a steady hand.

    • AxeMan808 moderator legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
      reply
      July 8, 2021 3:45 AM

      We welcome new blood into the Confederacy Of DJs.

    • OutlawSundown legacy 10 years
      reply
      July 8, 2021 5:25 AM

      Next find a good local record store. There’s nothing better than crate diving and coming up with gold.

      • barichnikov legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
        reply
        July 8, 2021 5:33 AM

        Discovered the band Babe Ruth in a local vinyl store. amazing, my album of the year for 2020 was their first, "First Base" released in the 70s.

    • Schnapple legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
      reply
      July 8, 2021 7:17 AM

      At first I thought this was another Crabs post so the "my first turntable" thing had me all o_O

      Yeah the LP60 and its variants are good first turntables, they're not too expensive but they have things like a prebalanced tonearm that are important. The problem with those $50 Crosley suitcase turntables is they all feature these cheap mass produced tonearms with no counterweights and they put like 3x the pressure necessary with a needle that's not that great to begin with.

      Something nice about the hobby is that you don't have to do everything perfectly all at once. Like, if you can't afford the best speakers no worries, you can get better ones later. If you want a better turntable later you can just buy one later. It's not like a phone where you can/want to only have one, you can expand your hobby later.

      And here's a repost on some advice I once gave out on here:

      People like myself and probably a fair number of other people probably were into vinyl or at least interested in it many years ago and are now buying turntables and so forth to get back into it for fun and so forth... but when you start exploring the vinyl community online you're going to run into a while bunch of people who never left. Even during the bad old days when a lot of albums would be released on CD only and vinyl was thin on the ground they were still into it, just more collecting old stuff.

      Consequently there's rabbit holes that have their own rabbit holes that have their own rabbit holes once you start getting to this. You'll see people obsessing over platter wobble and the perfect cartridges (I frequently see people recommend needle cartridges that cost more than the turntables they pair with) and the perfect amount of anti-skate and how you're better off hunting down an old Technics than buying anything from herpa derp derp fart. And no matter what turntable you buy, they'll act like those are child's toys that will destroy your records in no time flat.

      The reality is that the world moved to digital for a lot of reasons, key of which is convenience and price. Maybe a vinyl record sounds better in some circumstances but most people who get into it are just doing it for fun. Theoretically every time you play a record you're wearing it down a bit more, in practice unless you have perfectly trained ears it doesn't matter.

      Basically figure out what you want to do and stick with that. Don't worry too much about what you read online in vinyl communities because a lot of people there never left, and they're crazy.

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