Is There Any Point To Entry Level Vinyl?

I know it is not a Planar 1, a step-up to a Planar 2, and in stock at Music Direct. They are good people.
If you give them a call you may be able to negotiate a package price with a phono cartridge. They list shipping as free, hopefully it applies to Hawaii.
Best of luck on your journey!

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Exactly. I encourage exploring and finding out for yourself what is appealing.

To clarify, I like vinyl fine. I am just not in the group which reveres vinyl as uniquely special.

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In my case there is an autobiographical aspect to vinyl that makes it special. With Cds not so much. Streaming forget about it. As I said, follow the music and the format will fall into place. There times when the music is only available on one format.

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I can understand continuing to enjoy vinyl if you grew up with and enjoy the ritual. And of course, if you can only get the music you are interested in on vinyl, vinyl is king. :slight_smile:

I have heard early Caruso recordings played on a Victor Talking Machine. It is great fun listening to these old recordings on precisely the system on which they were historically played. Wonderfully satisfying.

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I like both, as each one has something the other doesn’t. I like vinyl because of the nostalgia and, as mentioned, some music isn’t on digital. Some vinyl albums sound amazing. I like digital because of the convenience and the sound too. My wife likes for me to make up a playlist of oldies for Saturday mornings and you can’t do that with vinyl, unless you prerecord it. With digital it’s a snap! Both have their merits and I’ve always tried to got the best gear I can afford for both.

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You won’t experience the kind of magic that comes with expensive rigs. But for many who might have a DAC which sounds flat in tonal colors, dry in mids, a bit sterile on top end and lean in bass, low cost vinyl rigs might deliver what they say is magic: richer sound, more body on top end and vocals, richer colors, and a more dense sound. This can especially help a little bass shy sounding vintage jazz recordings with horn/mids dominated sound or also classical and Rock in such setups which rather tend to lean sound. For many this means magic then (vinyl magic with expensive rigs means something very different). If the DAC has inferior timing, you might notice better pace from LP.

But if you already have a well balanced tonality with proper tonal colors and a good DAC, improvements will be hard to find at that price level I’d say, but downsides more obvious (dynamics, transients, imaging, transparency, bass accuracy, slight sibliance and distortion)

It’s all hard to say not knowing the DAC and character of the whole setup.

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Kind of an American Epic thing

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Welcome to my Hawaiian world :joy:

Music Direct doesn’t ship free to Hawaii. And they refuse to use priority mail. Their preferred method of FedEx or UPS 2 day can cost $300 for the turntable. Priority Mail is about 60% or so less, but they won’t use it. I was able to convince Magnepan to step out of the box and use the post office.

Crutchfield is the easiest for Hawaii. Free shipping both ways, 60 day trial. ListenUp does some free shipping to Hawaii. As does Audio Advisor. Beyond that it’s Prime or pay a fortune for shipping.

Crutchfield doesn’t sell Rega. They have Pro-ject, Music Hall, Audio Tecnica, Techniques, and a few others. Turntable Lab sells through Prime, but they are out.

Thanks again for your generosity!

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I have the Border Patrol SE-i NOS R2R DAC that appeals to vinyl folks who don’t like digital. It’s a great DAC and I’m in no way disappointed with the sound. Just curious about vinyl.

A nice sentiment…

It might sound similar to lower range vinyl rigs in tonality, transients and detail, but should sound better in other characteristics except maybe prat/flow. Just a guess.

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not sure what island you’re on…

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So I’m officially old. Grew up w vinyl. I love the process of vinyl. I would love to have my old Thorens that I emptied the bank for - 211 bucks. It’s a long story. Let’s not talk about it

The immediate difference when I heard my first cd - tea for the tillerman on a pretty nice denon CD player was - wow - no background noise at all. The differences between low and loud passages were immediate. So in came the denon.

Many years go by and this romantic allure of vinyl and how it is so much better. Well more years go by and I’m just not getting it. I get my DS and go to a local store which has a 20k rig and for the first time I think - wow now that sounds just as good as my DS.

So saying all that I’d say vinyl is a different sound. It seems on the whole to be less dynamic but the music does seem cut from the same cloth. More organic as some have said. But I don’t really think it gets you closer to the real thing as in most cases - whether it be a limited recording / pops / background noise/ a deck that isn’t top notch. I think a DS is a better option. Crap digital sounds like crap. Crap vinyl sounds like crap. Good digital sounds great. Good vinyl sounds great. But to get to DS level Sonics I think you have to spend quite a bit. Fun - yes. A cheap deck can sound good as well - but in a different way. If I was having a serious listening session would I shut down my DS? No way.

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I threw away a Lenco L75 with an Ortofon tonearm. Why? WHY???

I’m on Maui. Pearl City is Oahu. But thanks for looking out!

Underwood HiFi is on Maui. But he’s not a brick and mortar dealer, he pushes paperwork out of his residential home. Other than that, we have Target :joy:

This is the view from my neighborhood :call_me_hand:

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I’m thinking I will hand deliver those records after seeing that view, :laughing:

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Sorry, didn’t read all the replies so this may have been mentioned already. IMHO, the best fun with vinyl is to be had if there is a collector hiding inside you that is just waiting for an opportunity to jump free and take over your life.

The digital tech has came a long way. Purely sonically, a good digital system (with good recordings) does sound good - possibly even better than entry level analogue. However, that sort of ‘goodness’ is impossible to quantify so I am intentionally vague.

An alternative is that there could be a tweaker and tinkerer inside you that likes to mock about with the gear. Vinyl will give you far more opportunities for that than digital.

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My first TT was a rega RP1…it was purchased in maybe 2007 new for $250-300. Great TT that I sold to a friend and it is still working great today (2nd belt, 4th or 5th cart, 2nd cueing lever, otherwise original). It can definitely be done for under 1k.

And I sypathize with dancingsea a bit…I mean, don’t you want to have the ability to play any kind of music that finds its way into your home? I do. If I ever find that old mix tape from the pretty girl in high school…I’ll have my tape deck (currently on stand-by) ready in minutes.

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Jussipekka

40m

An alternative is that there could be a tweaker and tinkerer inside you that likes to mock about with the gear. Vinyl will give you far more opportunities for that than digital.

Similarly, If you build your own music server, you can tweak the Bios, hardware/software drivers, usb card, usb driver, power supply, computer hardware - Just to name a few of the endless list of tweaks for digital gear.

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Point taken. I guess it shows that I don’t deal with digital that much. Slapped an Ayre universal player in my system fifteen or so years ago and been living with it happily ever after [not a paid commercial].