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urgent question
i was thinking about getting an old record player. from what i hear vinyl sounds better than CD. and i don't know anything about vinyl or records or anything. whats a nice record player out there?
For a brand new deck, it's only going be worth it if you spend a few hundred dollars and up. The Project Audio decks are pretty good price wise, but then again I don't know your budget. The Linn decks are some of the best around at the higher end of the scale, but you're looking at some serious cash. Alternatively, you could aim for second hand gear, maybe DJ decks, or suchlike. Most come with pitch control and other useful toys, some with USB outs enabling you to fill up yer PC. Other than that, shop around, check the classified ads/ deals in papers, etc, it beats paying $250,000 dollars for a Goldmund Reference II (I shit you not). I also have to tell you that an average CD from today will sound better than a 70's vinyl pressing. It's all down to the engineering, nothing to do with the medium. Most CD's suffer through too much compression as a result of poor engineering, but they are a far more versatile medium than vinyl with better channel seperation, lower distortion, doesn't lose quality after every play, etc etc. CD's can sound excellent when produced with the same care that todays 180g vinyl are produced with. For the most part, the CD consumer just doesn't seem to care. The sound quality on the PMI box set is awful, so are a couple of the Epic remasters that are brickwalled ,ie, every LED on yer EQ hitting the roof, a piss poor job if you ask me. Good luck, I haven't intended to put you off ;-)
I've been hitting a local record/antique shop. The owner is a huge vinyl guy and has a number of old players in the shop for sale. A buddy of mine that I work with got a decent one for around $125. He's been very happy with it, so you might be able to snag a good one at a 2nd hand shop.
IMO, vinyl are not better than CDs. For starters, vinyl records are more sensitve and they are way too big. You scratch that record - say goodnight to the quality of that record. Also vinyl records don't hold much information - the max you can get out of it is about 25 mins. or so on each side. Compared to a compact disc, you can almost get 4xs that amount! I can understand this if you want to get a record player to check out "out of print" vinyls that have certain songs that you can only get in that media. However, just to say Vinyls are better than CDs... I beg to differ.