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Vinyl LP and Turntable Discussion


RussTCB

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How do you folks store your vinyl? Shelved and in plastic sleeves, or without the sleeve?

I used to have all mine sleeved, but found it just plain annoying trying to get records in and out from the shelves and the plastic just getting in the way (and just another step involved when putting on a record/putting one back).

Haven't noticed any issues yet, bar of course a bit more wear n' tear on the covers (which doesn't bother me too much, even with the more pricey ones my collection is there to be listened to).

What do you guys do?

Also, how to you organise your collection? Mine is just alphabetically regardless of genre, with Compilations at the end. I don't bother going further with the ordering of albums by release date and stuff.

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1 hour ago, hudsonsaul said:

How do you folks store your vinyl? Shelved and in plastic sleeves, or without the sleeve?

I used to have all mine sleeved, but found it just plain annoying trying to get records in and out from the shelves and the plastic just getting in the way (and just another step involved when putting on a record/putting one back).

Haven't noticed any issues yet, bar of course a bit more wear n' tear on the covers (which doesn't bother me too much, even with the more pricey ones my collection is there to be listened to).

What do you guys do?

Also, how to you organise your collection? Mine is just alphabetically regardless of genre, with Compilations at the end. I don't bother going further with the ordering of albums by release date and stuff.

I probably go overboard but I keep all of mine in outer plastic sleeves. I replace all my inner sleeves with Mobile Fidelity inner sleeves too. 

I don't spine my records though, I built tables to I can dig through my collection. You can see what I'm talking about below. That's a link to the Facebook page I made for the music area in my house. Since I have my records on tables like I do, I sleeve them so the opening is on the right. That way I don't have to take the outer sleeve off for every play. Most people that spine their albums choose to put the outer sleeves on so the opening is at the top. 

As far as organizating, I do similar to you: alphabetical by artist, then I have a Various Artists section at the end. Only difference is that I do organize them by release date after band. It just helps me grab what I'm looking for faster if I want a certain album.

https://m.facebook.com/profile.php?id=268541933280963&ref=content_filter

There should be a link with pics on that page so you can see what I mean about how I have them stored. 

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3 hours ago, hudsonsaul said:

How do you folks store your vinyl? Shelved and in plastic sleeves, or without the sleeve?

I used to have all mine sleeved, but found it just plain annoying trying to get records in and out from the shelves and the plastic just getting in the way (and just another step involved when putting on a record/putting one back).

Haven't noticed any issues yet, bar of course a bit more wear n' tear on the covers (which doesn't bother me too much, even with the more pricey ones my collection is there to be listened to).

What do you guys do?

Also, how to you organise your collection? Mine is just alphabetically regardless of genre, with Compilations at the end. I don't bother going further with the ordering of albums by release date and stuff.

I use the ikea kallax shelves, so the spines are out. Everything is in sleeves.

 I organize alphabetically (bands and then soundtracks in another area) and try as much as possible to go chronologically within each band but that gets messed up pretty easily. With some bands I will also include related projects. For example The Beatles has all the member’s solo albums as well as Sean Lennon and things like that and Faith No More has any other Patton projects (bungle, fantomas, dead cross. Etc)

I store 7” in small crates on top of the kallax shelves.

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2 hours ago, RussTCB said:

I probably go overboard but I keep all of mine in outer plastic sleeves. I replace all my inner sleeves with Mobile Fidelity inner sleeves too. 

I don't spine my records though, I built tables to I can dig through my collection. You can see what I'm talking about below. That's a link to the Facebook page I made for the music area in my house. Since I have my records on tables like I do, I sleeve them so the opening is on the right. That way I don't have to take the outer sleeve off for every play. Most people that spine their albums choose to put the outer sleeves on so the opening is at the top. 

As far as organizating, I do similar to you: alphabetical by artist, then I have a Various Artists section at the end. Only difference is that I do organize them by release date after band. It just helps me grab what I'm looking for faster if I want a certain album.

https://m.facebook.com/profile.php?id=268541933280963&ref=content_filter

There should be a link with pics on that page so you can see what I mean about how I have them stored. 

Wow, that's unreal. Is that your business, hobby, or both? I'm intrigued and jealous at the same time, what a great idea. 

49 minutes ago, Stiff Competition said:

I use the ikea kallax shelves, so the spines are out. Everything is in sleeves.

 I organize alphabetically (bands and then soundtracks in another area) and try as much as possible to go chronologically within each band but that gets messed up pretty easily. With some bands I will also include related projects. For example The Beatles has all the member’s solo albums as well as Sean Lennon and things like that and Faith No More has any other Patton projects (bungle, fantomas, dead cross. Etc)

I store 7” in small crates on top of the kallax shelves.

The Kallax shelves are great, I'm about to order some more they're just ideal.

@RussTCB and @Stiff Competition - am I doing any particular damage to the actual vinyl if I'm not storing in plastic sleeves? What are your thoughts? (environmentally the room they're isn't exposed to the elements or overly hot, cold, and certainly not humid.

@RussTCB - the replacement of inner sleeves is something i've been meaning to do - the standard paper ones that seem to be the norm are a mess. Will take a look at the Mobile Fidelity ones, appreciate the tip.

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20 minutes ago, hudsonsaul said:

Wow, that's unreal. Is that your business, hobby, or both? I'm intrigued and jealous at the same time, what a great idea. 

The Kallax shelves are great, I'm about to order some more they're just ideal.

@RussTCB and @Stiff Competition - am I doing any particular damage to the actual vinyl if I'm not storing in plastic sleeves? What are your thoughts? (environmentally the room they're isn't exposed to the elements or overly hot, cold, and certainly not humid.

@RussTCB - the replacement of inner sleeves is something i've been meaning to do - the standard paper ones that seem to be the norm are a mess. Will take a look at the Mobile Fidelity ones, appreciate the tip.

I use the plastic sleeves to keep the outer sleeves protected but I suppose if you don’t care it doesn’t make a difference.

and yeah kallax is great, I use them at different heights too. This is pretty much what my setup looks like at the moment...

 

 

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9 hours ago, hudsonsaul said:

Wow, that's unreal. Is that your business, hobby, or both? I'm intrigued and jealous at the same time, what a great idea. 

@RussTCB and @Stiff Competition - am I doing any particular damage to the actual vinyl if I'm not storing in plastic sleeves? What are your thoughts? (environmentally the room they're isn't exposed to the elements or overly hot, cold, and certainly not humid.

@RussTCB - the replacement of inner sleeves is something i've been meaning to do - the standard paper ones that seem to be the norm are a mess. Will take a look at the Mobile Fidelity ones, appreciate the tip.

It's just a hobby for me. I probably could go into business but it would take too much time and energy lol. Plus, I'm one of those people that will feel the need to listen to a record the moment I sell it haha. 

As it stands, we put the area (the basement) to good use every Friday. My local group of friends come by for drinks and records. People have brought a lot of records by artists I've never heard before and I always play stuff for them they've never heard. 

I've actually had a lot of forum members over there through the years and a couple of fairly big music artists too. There's a couple of forum members who live near me and they make it over on a regular basis, which is cool. I hosted a big, all day party there when GNR kicked off the tour in Detroit in 2016. Throughout the day, I think something like 20 forum members stopped by. If you're ever anywhere near Detroit, hit me up. I've had forum members from at least two other continents over, which is awesome :)

As for outer sleeves, you're not really doing any damage to the record itself without having them unless you're in a particularly dusty environment, which most people aren't. You're mostly just looking at cover damage (shelf and ring wear). I've always said "you don't listen to the cover!" but then I still sleeve all of mine lol. 

The outer sleeves sometimes help with the inner sleeve thing though. If I buy a new record and it's got plain white inner sleeves, I just throw those away but if it's got printed inner sleeves, I usually put them in the back of the outer sleeve just so I have all the original artwork.

Inner sleeves can be expensive to put on every record, but they're an absolute must have for me. I have a ton of common records but I also have a lot of very rare records. I want to take care of both the best I can because I'm not interested in re-buying any of them. I've already dumped enough money into my collection as it is without re-buying even a common record because it's too scratched up or whatever lol. 

The thing that costs me the most money is my varied taste in music. I listen to so much different stuff that I end up buying a ton. I get use out of all of them on a regular basis though, so that's good. I don't buy just to buy or collect just to collect. If I buy a record, it's because I absolutely love at least one song on the record. Usually when I buy a record for just one song, I find others that I love too by spinning it straight through every so often. 

In any case, feel free to continue to hit us up with any / all questions you have! The vinyl community can get really snobby really quick, which is sad. @Stiff Competitionis one of the few people I've come across that doesn't have that snobby attitude, so we're both a good resource for honest answers without feeling the need to act like we're better than anyone else. That kind of attitude is rampant through the vinyl community for some reason and I just don't get it. 

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On 10/19/2019 at 8:58 AM, RussTCB said:

I bought the latest Magpie Salute album (High Water II) yesterday.

Swing and a miss.....not very good overall :/

I'm right with you. I Loved High Water I but this new one seems a bit bland. I will say I do like a couple tunes on it though. 

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My 3 Garth Brooks sets arrived while I was away on vacation this week. I'm about to get home to them in a few minutes and I'm pretty excited about it. 

In other news, I hit for a big jackpot on a penny slot fucking around on a slot machine the other day, so the first thing I did was took 1/3 of the jackpot and ordered the new Ozzy - See You On The Other Side vinyl set. 

I would have never spent that much on a boxed set, but the free money from the slot machine made it to where I couldn't pass it up lol. 

It won't be here til the end of the month, but I'm really excited about it. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

On vacation in Germany, I was perusing a place called Second Hand Records in Stuttgart and stumbled across a copy of Its Five O’Clock Somewhere for about $165 USD, so of course I had to pick it up. The record is near mint with absolutely no markings (only played once) and the sleeve is in very good condition I would say. So stoked to give this a spin when I get home! :slash:

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You guys are amazing - I would love your home set-up, gear and albums!

Im about to buy a cheap n’ nasty turntable to give my few remaining records a listen (sold them all off years ago), hopefully to buy some more regularly and get back into it. I just bought a Rainbow record, have you fellas got any of their stuff? I bought ‘Difficult to cure”, but I want to get “Rising”. I like to explore old stuff and check out the origins of some genres. 

Im only going to spend around $500 for a basic player and speakers. So hopefully it’s not going to be too horrible 😊

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50 minutes ago, DownUnderScott said:

You guys are amazing - I would love your home set-up, gear and albums!

Im about to buy a cheap n’ nasty turntable to give my few remaining records a listen (sold them all off years ago), hopefully to buy some more regularly and get back into it. I just bought a Rainbow record, have you fellas got any of their stuff? I bought ‘Difficult to cure”, but I want to get “Rising”. I like to explore old stuff and check out the origins of some genres. 

Im only going to spend around $500 for a basic player and speakers. So hopefully it’s not going to be too horrible 😊

Get an audio technica ATLP120 for $250 and some powered audio engine a2 speakers or something similar and you’ll have a pretty decent setup for under 500.

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13 hours ago, DownUnderScott said:

You guys are amazing - I would love your home set-up, gear and albums!

Im about to buy a cheap n’ nasty turntable to give my few remaining records a listen (sold them all off years ago), hopefully to buy some more regularly and get back into it. I just bought a Rainbow record, have you fellas got any of their stuff? I bought ‘Difficult to cure”, but I want to get “Rising”. I like to explore old stuff and check out the origins of some genres. 

Im only going to spend around $500 for a basic player and speakers. So hopefully it’s not going to be too horrible 😊

 

12 hours ago, Stiff Competition said:

Get an audio technica ATLP120 for $250 and some powered audio engine a2 speakers or something similar and you’ll have a pretty decent setup for under 500.

That's a very solid recommendation. I really like the ATLP120. I recommend it all the time to people looking for a decent turntable that won't break the bank. 

It comes with a decent stylus, which is nice. If you ever decide you want to upgrade it, it's extremely easy. You certainly won't need to but if you decided to in a couple of years, you can breathe a whole lot of new life into the same deck. 

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Thanks Stiff Competition, Russ TCB & Coma16 !

 That is the one I have thought about considering the most after a good month or two of research. So it is actually great to hear you guys speak highly of it instead of internet reviews. I’ve seen it at a local JB HiFi store for $599 here in Australia (AUD) but sounds like it’s worth the money.

Cheers fellas 😊

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40 minutes ago, Stiff Competition said:

Anyone have an eye on any thing for RSDBF?

I have to look at the list again but the only thing I remember wanting was the 7" of cheap trick covering John Lennon's Gimme Some Truth and that will be very easy to get.

I took a look the day the list was released. The only thing I'm interested in is Pearl Jam Unplugged 

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9 hours ago, RussTCB said:

I took a look the day the list was released. The only thing I'm interested in is Pearl Jam Unplugged 

I was interested in this too, really interested. But a small bit of research i did on it suggested that the source can't be anything but the average one currently available. So have some doubts now, but could be wrong and in was a random post on the internet.

Pearl Jam generally don't cut corners, so imagine the quality would be top notch?

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2 hours ago, hudsonsaul said:

I was interested in this too, really interested. But a small bit of research i did on it suggested that the source can't be anything but the average one currently available. So have some doubts now, but could be wrong and in was a random post on the internet.

Pearl Jam generally don't cut corners, so imagine the quality would be top notch?

It's the show they did for MTV, so I would have to assume MTV has very high quality sources. I didn't do any research on the source, which is unlike me lol. I'm just gonna grab this one and hope for the best. 

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On 18/11/2019 at 5:44 PM, Stiff Competition said:

Get an audio technica ATLP120 for $250 and some powered audio engine a2 speakers or something similar and you’ll have a pretty decent setup for under 500.

Is there a difference in the model you have suggested and the ATLP120 with USB function ?  Is the ability to record your vinyl onto a USB a good feature or is the audio quality sub-optimal?  Just wasn’t sure if it was a worthwhile feature that I should try to get. 

Also, is there a difference in sound quality with wireless speakers like the audio engine a2 speakers you’ve suggested, compared to speakers you plug into the back of the turntable?  I feel like connecting up with wired speakers should be superior in terms of providing the sound from the vinyl out the way it should be?  

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Nope, it’s the same turntable.

And the a2 plus you plug in to the back and the good thing is that the 120LP has a built in preamp and those speakers are powered so that’s literally your whole setup. It’s super simple. Actually, when my girlfriend lived up in norther California for a whole, that’s the exact setup I set her up with and it was perfect.

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Fairly big week coming up for me:

My Ozzy boxed set should be here by Friday or Saturday. I'll also be picking up the one BF RSD release I want (Pearl Jam Unplugged), and there's also a Floyd compilation being released on Friday. It's not part of BF RSD, it's just being released on the same day. 

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