Newbie on board

[macca63]

Hi all

I love my music and am a bit of a vinyl junkie with around 2,000 records (stored by genre then alphabetically!). Most are funk from the late '70's / early '80's (if there's a big afro and flares on the cover I've probably got it!)

I'm also in indie - old and new (what used to be called 'new wave back in the '70's), like a bit of deep house and drum & bass now and again, along with early dub and roots reggae.

Where possible I always buy the vinyl of new releases - even though it tends to be £15 and upwards (bought one today for £23! At least it came with an MP3 download).

My gear is a Rega RP1 turntable / Sony TA-FB940R amp / Philips double CD recording deck (not a great player but a good recorder) / Rega Radio Mk 1 / Wharfedale Emerald 95 floorstanders / Paradigm PD R-8 sub (not enough bass from the Wharfdales!)

I no longer use my Sony MDS-JB940 minidisc player as it's been replaced by iTunes (as minidiscs in turn replaced all my cassettes!). I have also disconnected my Technics SH-8058 Graphic Equalizer to try and return to a purer sound.

I still love the sound of vinyl over any other format - there's something about knowing that there is no compression (other than at the studio) so the frequencies have freedom. Even music created digitally - like most drum & bass - sounds better.

So I find myself spending a lot of time recording in real time from vinyl to CD (or straight to MP4) so I can listen on my iPhone when I'm out and about.

I'm am looking to get some new gear as my amp is 10 years old and my Wharfdales are looking tatty and have never had enough bass. It's probably about time I got a decent CD player too, even though I mainly play vinyl. I was thinking of a Marantz pairing of PM6003 amp / CD 6003 cd player and B&W 685 speakers on a set of decent stands - my stuff has to look good too!

Any else running something similar or care to comment on my choices?

All the best

Tony

[Barry]

Welcome to AoS Tony

Perfect introduction! I can just imagine you, behind closed doors, wearing your flares and platform heels!

Most of your gear is unfamiliar to me, but we have an enormous breadth and depth of experience here of all kinds of gear amongst our members, so I'm sure someone will be along soon to help you decide.

Welcome again

Regards

[The Grand Wazoo]

Hi Tony,
Welcome to AoS from me too.
Great introduction, thanks for that.
Cheers

[John]

Great intro Tony
Welcome to AOS feel free to post your questions. Give us idea of your budget room size and what you ar hoping to get, you probarly get overwhelmed by answers. Instead of getting a CD player why not consider a DAC and just store your music on your hard drive, you have to spend a lot of money to beat something like a Caiman or if you want to spend a bit the Rega would prove a very good option

[macca63]

Good idea on the DAC front John - I'd forgotten about those!

If I'm honest, I'm increasingly guilty of plugging the laptop into the hi-fi for the convenience of playlists and so I'm not continually hopping to the turntable and back, so it makes sense to improve the sound quality here (especially as sample rates are increasingly CD quality anyway).

I quite like the look of the Cambridge DACMAGIC (Richer Sounds have it on their w/s for £200). I know it's at the cheaper end of the market but my gear isn't top end anyway. I was thinking of getting an Apple TV box - again for convenience, but would guess the sound quality wouldn't be improved much.

(I'm also aware this is no longer a welcome thread and should be moved ..!)

Cheers

Tony

[ikaruga]

Welcome. Not selling the MD player are you? ;)

Good to see another d&b liker. Having come obsessively from d&b for nigh on 18 years now (and have the vinyl and worldwide DJ gigs to show for it :lol:), it's always good to find more with a common interest. I can also point you in the direction of a lot of analogue d&b producers these days, although they will eventually mixdown digitally.

[Reid Malenfant]

Hi Tony, welcome to AoS :) All sorts get discussed in welcome threads so no need to move it imo, what you can do is start a thread with your questions elsewhere ;)

However, i think if you mainly listen to vinyl & already happen to often plug your lappy into the hifi, some kind of file based system definately looks to be the way to go :eyebrows:

All the best & i hope you enjoy your stay :cool:


Good to see another d&b liker.
Don't forget me, got loads myself ;)

[ikaruga]

Absolutely, remember pointing you towards a vinyl you were after some time ago. Great to see such wide ranging tastes on a forum. :)

[Puffin]

Where is Wandsworth are you? I lived in Battersea until 1976 and had some mates in Wandsworth. I went to Wandsworth School, but that was of course in Southfields!

[John]

I have both a vinyl and laptop based system I admit most of my music I listen to via the laptop as not possible to get on vinyl