Analogue - Yes or No ?

[Haselsh1]

Pack al your analogue gear and I will came and pick it up for recycling free of charge

[Haselsh1]

I'd say that unless you need the cash your analogue stuff could sell for and/or it is cluttering up the place then just keep it and be happy with your digital stuff and add to it. Enjoy the music.

I had a similar feeling with my analogue photo stuff (about 8 cameras including lots of Mamiya MF stuff) - I kept the lot. Not used it for ages - but I still can if I want to.

Yes Edward, point taken.

[Pete The Cat]

There's room for white and red (and even rose). Each has its own moment.

Pete

[Pharos]

I think that Shaun's position must be something we all have or are experiencing to an extent at some time.

The early days in Hi-Fi were for me very exciting because of many factors previously alluded to, and to examine the changes in one's life can be instructive I think.

As a young man I was fortunate in that Hi-Fi was relatively in its infancy, and it was easy to hear something better at a store which was of course exciting to young ears, especially in a period of great musical and political creativity.

I remember many stages in my 20s of buying new equipment and revelling in the new insights into the music, but as I had more money available to use, these improvements lessened, and at that time the whole non objectivist and often fooey period evolved, making progress rather hit and miss.

When CD appeared it was obviously better in many respects, but did not sound really great for several years to me, but certainly FR had been flattened, and noise virtually eliminated, as well as all that faffing around with records.

But the aging process lessened the excitement which youth confers on new experiences, and the artistic creativity declined a little, and it all was less precious because it was more available.

I would, and do argue that we are in a starkly pallid period of artistic creativity, though I am relatively isolated from cultural hothouses, another thing which tends to happen with aging.

Currently I am in the blues because I have conflicting results from recent changes to my system; I hear more from tracks I am familiar with, but I more often find that I do not like the sound aesthetically, much sounds unpleasant.
This of course raises the question of whether or not my system is better or not; is it revealing bad recordings and artistic flaws which I now do not like to hear? If so why do I hear more on material that does sound good? This is an apparent contradiction in performance.

Maybe this is a little of thread, and not very helpful, and if so I apologise in advance.

These factors must surely apply to us all to an extent, but I now am sure that I would not want to spend £ks of money on a very high end record deck, which may just about seem to match the performance of a competent CD player.

Maybe this is a little off thread, and I apologise if it does not contribute positively.

[dave2010]

I think a lot depends on how big your garage, loft or spare rooms are. Also, if you only have around 250 LPs how many of them are really that worth keeping? You probably ought to think about a form of triage strategy. If they are also available on CD, then buy CD copies. Some of the 250 you'll probably not want to hear again anyway, while there may be some out of the batch which you would like to keep or hear again, and which are not available (yet, or ever have been) on CD or digital media.

Consider digitising those you think you'd like to keep which are otherwise unavailable on digital media. Then make the decision to get rid of your turntable.

Another factor is age and time. I always thought I'd retire (I now have) and have time and space to play around, but in fact I don't. I know I've got some LPs which I could play or digitise, but I have not go round to that so far. I also have some which have been digitised and made commercially available, but even though that's the case I suspect that the quality is not as good as I used to have from my turntable - in particular I think of Keilberth's version of the Flying Dutchman, which was originally issued in mono, but there are stereo LPs. These have been remastered by a well respected company, but I still feel the LPs sound better. Is it worth hanging on to those just in case? I still don't know - but the crunch hasn't come yet, but may if we we move house. If you decide to get rid of media and kit, offer these to others before going for the dump option.

I wouldn't hold your breath expecting to get any money out of disposing your old kit though - you may get a little something for it, or may decide it's easier to just give it all away. Depends if you value your time. If you want to open up a second hand kit or record business that's up to you - but many of us have spent a working life doing things which now we don't want to do any more. For each Leonid Kogan Tchaikovsky LP which sells for £000s there are many which will not sell at anything like a worthwhile price. Also, it's possible to get the same recording on CD typically for about £5. There must be some sort of message there.

If you think you'll never get round to playing any of your LPs or indulging in a project later in life, then perhaps you had just better save your space and get rid of your kit. I know several older people who have effectively just binned their kit and their analogue media - and some did try to sell or give them away, but found it very difficult. I know that as a consequence a whole bunch of LPs in very good condition were just dumped out with the refuse - sad - but people have to move on.

[jandl100]

You can see from the listing of my sound system that it involves an analogue front end as well as a digital one. I am currently assessing things and am wondering why bother with vinyl...? There is quite a bit of financial asset sat there most of the time not being used so why bother...? I still find myself being drawn to compact disc sound reproduction in preference to LP so why not just sell the turntable, arm, cartridge and phono stage...?

I truly do not know what to do.

Been there, done that.
Sell it.
I finally built up the courage to totally de-vinyl myself a few months ago (after several failed attempts over the years!).
The nemesis for my vinyl days was digital streaming - it made my vinyl collection seem irrelevant.
I couldn't be happier - it's a real weight off my mind, strange but true. Should have gone for it years ago.
Just do it.

[Pharos]

Don't ignore the fact that some LPs have gained in worth substantially by becoming collectors items.

[Macca]

. I know several older people who have effectively just binned their kit and their analogue media - and some did try to sell or give them away, but found it very difficult. I know that as a consequence a whole bunch of LPs in very good condition were just dumped out with the refuse - sad - but people have to move on.

May be true of classical records, but not popular music. I could pay the rest of my mortgage off with what I could raise if I sold some of my vinyl. It is tempting but I can't do it. And I don't understand this 'freeing up the space' or 'it's a real weight off my mind'. One alcove in one room, shelved off, would store at least 3000 records. How often do you go and stand in your empty alcoves saying 'Look at all this space I have.'

I reckon the trend for 'De-cluttering one's life' is a psychological balm being applied to mask other pathologies.

[jandl100]

I know that as a consequence a whole bunch of LPs in very good condition were just dumped out with the refuse - sad - but people have to move on.

Well, that was ****ing selfish.
I gave all my LPs to an Oxfam specialist music&books charity shop, and they were very pleased to receive them.

[Joe]

I reckon the trend for 'De-cluttering one's life' is a psychological balm being applied to mask other pathologies.

That's my excuse for hoarding, anyway.