do you still spin your vinyl?

[Al from Brooks]

Gang,

If you didn't understand what the title ment, your too young.

Through the hey days of the 70's and 80's I collected an enormous amount of LP's. I still listen to them and, frankly, I believe the sound to be superior to digitally recorded sound. Perhaps it's my dated ears that give me that impression.

Anyway, my old stereo amp has kicked the bucket. I am in the market for a high quality analog amplifier or receiver of the same 70's or 80's era.

Anybody have one they would like to part with?

Thanks,

Al

[Gene45]

I have one, not sure it it is 'high quality'. Can't you use a modern ghetto blaster with aux input? I also have a USB turntable to turn the vinyl into MP3 files. It fits much easier in the pocket.

[stevem]

i would like to, we have a relatively new surround sound system but it doesnt have the lp input, it needs a phono preamp for the old turntable

[hoss10]

To my ears (years spent in a loud shop), vinyl records do not sound nearly as good as digital stuff. Back in the day I had some pretty high end Audio equipment, Yamaha receiver, Connisuier turntable, Mission speakers, and it sounded good. But compared to the sounds which come out of a good digital set up (I just heard a very good Bose) there is no comparison. And you don't have to tiptoe across the room when you have a record on and your turntable is tracking at .0000000001 grams! Just my opinion.

[Brian @ Muir]

Al.... I am going to be staying in Brooks for today and Sunday at the Ramada. Grandson has a hockey tourament in Bossano. Can you give the name of a good restaurant in either place for a good homecooked meal. Bit of a conflict with restaurant and home cooked but I am sure you know what I mean. TIA

Brian

[WCraig]

... my old stereo amp has kicked the bucket. I am in the market for a high quality analog amplifier or receiver of the same 70's or 80's era.

Any reason you want a vintage amp? All the major manufacturers still make stereo receivers and amps and a few of them have phono inputs. Or you can buy a separate phono pre-amp and feed that into any standard line-level input.

OTOH, if you're determined to go vintage, check out Craigslist (no affiliation ;-), Kijiji, junk stores, etc. You might even get one for free on the Freecycle list.

Craig

[Al from Brooks]

To my ears (years spent in a loud shop), vinyl records do not sound nearly as good as digital stuff. Back in the day I had some pretty high end Audio equipment, Yamaha receiver, Connisuier turntable, Mission speakers, and it sounded good. But compared to the sounds which come out of a good digital set up (I just heard a very good Bose) there is no comparison. And you don't have to tiptoe across the room when you have a record on and your turntable is tracking at .0000000001 grams! Just my opinion.

I suppose the Yamaha receiver is no longer around??? I find the analog sound different, in a likeable way.

[Al from Brooks]

Any reason you want a vintage amp? All the major manufacturers still make stereo receivers and amps and a few of them have phono inputs. Or you can buy a separate phono pre-amp and feed that into any standard line-level input.

OTOH, if you're determined to go vintage, check out Craigslist (no affiliation ;-), Kijiji, junk stores, etc. You might even get one for free on the Freecycle list.

Craig,

Craig

I think you pretty much nailed it. Aside from the sound, recycling some of this stuff is a good thing. It's cheap and it works well. I use recycled amps in my shop with a satellite radio tied to it. It frequently gives my guests something to talk about when I get the Hi Fi going during dinner. Even my boy is buying vynl for his own use. It works for me.

Al

[Steve in Ayr]

I still prefer the sound of vinyl over digital, but to be fair, I never spent the amount on a CD transport that I spent on my vinyl setup. Turntable is modest by audiophile standards, but in my mind it fits the sweet spot of price/sound. Linn Sondek table. I'm just in the process of transferring all my vinyl to digital (FLAC) for convenience. But for me, nothing compares to sitting in a chair in the sweet spot and listening to a high quality vinyl pressing

[MAWarner]

I have alotta old vinyl also and I am very interested in transferring it to the computer or sd cards. What is a good cheap and easy way to do this. I have a turnable that can connect to my componant stereo system. Can I "Y" cable this to my computer on the in line of my sound card and then what do I do to record? I also have many cassettes I would like to transfer.

[Lost in the Woods]

I've waltzed into my local Cash Converters three times since they've been there in the last 8 years. On two of those occasions they had sister model receivers of my late 70's Marantz receiver for sale. So you might want to try a place like that, which are basically pawn shops.

I still love my Marantz receiver, and it produces a far richer sound than most of the junk on the market today. Even though I haven't hooked it up in years, I still have a Marantz and Kenwood turntable and all 500 or so of my 33's which I would NEVER sell.

[Aylmer Tom]

I've getting some of the old receivers at yard sales. In the shop at home I have a Marantz 50watt and at work I have a Hitachi 5o watt. That was as big as they got in their day. I still have a turntable connected to my system in the house but it needs a needle for about a year now due to an accident from one of the kids. I have a stack of vinyl much of which was played once while being taped and then put away untill the tape went missing or screwed up. Quite a few of these have been played only a few times and as I say some only once. Vinyl sounds great if it is in good shape.
Mp3 files and cds sound great on these same old systems. At work I have an old cd player connected to the Hitachi and I can also plug my laptop into it. Oddly enough cds burnt on the laptop sound better than the same files fed directly from the laptop.
I checked the properties on my music files and found nearly 12.000 files most of which are Blues. That's a heap of music and much of it by artists who are long gone.Recordings by the likes of Robert Johnson (went down to the crossroads and sold his soul to the Devil) who passed away in 1938 and Lead Belly in 1949 and even Jimi in 1970 just aren't available other than as mp3s any more. LOL some of the digitized stuff may well sound better than the vynl from 1930's

[mrpedersen]

HI, been to Brooks many times, Sister lives there.
I like my vinyl but like all of us we seem to need a new rec/amp. Mine is a Harmon Kardon, their top line model in '78 , and a Dual top line model. Both fell to abuse when you let others handle the equipment.. My vinyl is all in great shape, the collection goes back to the early 50's , a few 40's. Had an original collection of 50's Elvis LP's, left them at my mom's but they disappeared when I moved to AZ for a few years - but I know who has them - .

Was given several boxes of vinyl from a friend, all jazz and blues and I know they are in great shape and old. I'll have to get my equipment up to shape and give them at least one spin.

Other stuff, I have a 1931 Thorens portable phonograph - all mechanical of course - needs a little TLC for the handle, spring and box cover but it stills puts out a good sound thru the 3" speaker when turned by hand, and the 78's with it are in good shape.

to MAWarner: you can get a kit on the Net, need the software to convert the analog to digital, sorry but I cant remember the makers / brand, but its out there. I want to do the same.

[billh]

I have alotta old vinyl also and I am very interested in transferring it to the computer or sd cards. What is a good cheap and easy way to do this. I have a turnable that can connect to my componant stereo system. Can I "Y" cable this to my computer on the in line of my sound card and then what do I do to record? I also have many cassettes I would like to transfer.

I'll give you my method:
I connect the turntable to an amplifier that will accept a magnetic input. I plug a stereo cable using the appropriate adapters if necessary into the headphone jack. I then feed this signal into the input of the sound card. This provides the equalization for the cartridge and a means of setting the level with the amplifier.

There are various programs available for capturing the audio and converting it to a file. I use a freebie called Audacity, I think version 1.3 Beta (their beta versions tend to be around a long time and generally work well).

I put the record on the turntable and get it spinning, start Audacity recording and drop the needle. I let it record the entire side. I find it handy to setup a timed record with Audacity this way I can put it on and go do something else and not have to worry about recording several hours of nothing if I forget about it. I ensure the time is long enough for the record side plus a bit more. It is very easy to trim the garbage from the beginning and end. You can then export the file as a .wav which you can burn to CD or you can download the Lame MP3 encoder for Audacity (free) and save the file as an MP3. I generally save it as a .wav file and convert it to MP3 later if desired since the .wav is higher fidelity.

You will need to experiment a bit to get the levels correct and to catch onto the operation of the program. If you want you can split the recorded "side" of the record into individual tracks.

There are lots of other programs around which you may or may not find easier to use. Audacity is actually quite full featured for audio editing but the documentation is not great although you can usually find help with some Googling if necessary.

billh

[Gene45]

Audacity will also let you adjust the speed by any amount you choose or you can use their presets. For example, My USB turntable (ION) only runs at 33 RPM, but if I want to play a 45 or 78, the preset speed adjustments get it get it right.

My turntable also has an input so I can hook up the earphone plug from ghetto blaster and re-record cassettes.

I have had some issues with few old tapes slipping in spots, and with a little patience you can change the speed of a few minutes or seconds of any piece.

I use Audacity 1.2.6, which is supposed to be the stable version. No opinion on 1.3. There are numerous edit functions that let you remove noise or clicks and pops that might be on old records. If you want to do it by hand, you could expand the time theoretically remove a single note from a symphony.

There is also a forum that will help set it up and train if you want..........
I always need help.

[MAWarner]

I do thank Bill, Gene, and Mr Pederson for this information. I will certainly give this a try the next time I can dedicate a morning or afternoon toward it.

[matt.mackinnon]

take a look at http://www.canuckaudiomart.com/classifieds/amplifiers/2

there are many people who like the old tube amps as they sound way warmer than most junk that is sold today.

Another option is to buy a decent current technology stereo. Sadly they are not cheep, as you pay for the large transformers and the high current that makes them sound more alive. It's the IC $200 junk that has no depth as its running at very high voltage but little to no current. gives you the amps but lacks in depth.

jmo

[Glenn from Winnipeg]

For Al: you should only need to add an inexpensive preamp between your turntable and your surround system - the same for recording to computer if the output from your turntable is too low. That's what my research told me - unfortunately I never got around to trying it.

Since this thread has gone sideways - I've got an old Marantz 2270 but all the pots are staticky. Does anyone have a way to clean these or restore them???

Thanks

[Lost in the Woods]

Since this thread has gone sideways - I've got an old Marantz 2270 but all the pots are staticky. Does anyone have a way to clean these or restore them???

Thanks

I use a 30 year old can I still have half of left of TF Solvent, which is no longer available as it has been banned by the EPA and such as it is essentially 100% Virgin Freon. I believe there is a product called Deoxit that The Source (formerly Radio Shack) carries, although I've never tried it myself.

EDIT: Let's go sideways even further on this thread. I came accross info somewhere on the internet a few years ago about repairing old Marantz receivers that ultimately develop what is a power supply problem (I think). So if your unit suddenly stops working, don't trash it, get it fixed instead, which I recall was something someone who is handy with electronics can even do themselves I seem to recall.

[billh]

You can probably find spray cans of contact cleaner. However there are 2 issues:

1. You have to be able to get the spray inside the pot which typically means taking at least the cover off. Even then it can be difficult to find an opening to spray into especially if they are soldered to a circuit board. Other method is to spray into a container and then get a hypodermic needle if that can get the solution into the pot better. You could probably use alcohol with a couple drops of oil in it too. What you want to do is clean the wiper contact and flush any carbon grit out of it.

2. It may not be a long-term fix but there is only one way to find out.

billh