Request for new Forum - Vinyl

[Norton]

Yep, seems an obvious addition to an audiophile site run as a business, both on content and traffic grounds.

 

Perhaps though broaden out to “Vinyl & Analogue Sources” to include those who really do want to discuss  tape, wax and power supplies.

 

Looking forward to the inevitable “What  is the most digital sounding turntable” thread, but maybe not as a troll this time....

 

 

[Norton]

11 hours ago, Samuel T Cogley said:

Threads titled "show us your turntable"

 

Good idea for the introductory thread on the new sub-forum, but only pics taken with a film camera, obviously.

[Norton]

8 hours ago, robocop said:

Gosh some are obviously bored with computer audio

 

Well now we know that all DACs sound the same, bits are bits as far as sources are concerned and HiRes is unnecessary when we have RBCD, there’s not much digital left to talk about anymore.  Analogue on the other hand...

[Norton]

12 hours ago, Ralf11 said:

I'd prefer one on cassettes

 

Very on trend. We will be expecting pics of your Nakamichi Dragon in the new forum (unless, of course,  you were not being entirely serious...)

[Norton]

15 minutes ago, AudioDoctor said:

I really don't see how we can compete with the knowledge base of a place like Vinyl Engine though?  Why bother, it's not our niche.

 

Same could be said in relation to Head Fi, yet we have a Headphone sub forum, plus plenty of other sites to go to for DAC, iTunes and Music discussion.  The oft mentioned observation that you don’t have to read a particular sub forum  or thread holds good here, or for the particularly self-righteous, the ignore  function will reassure.

[Norton]

7 hours ago, wgscott said:

If there is to be a vinyl forum, it is essential that the forum itself be run entirely as analogue.  This means, no computer display, but instead manual typewriters, paper, and postage stamps.  Send a self-addressed stamp envelope, and Chris, in his infinite spare time, will mimiograph the latest updates to each thread and send them out to subscribers.

 

I like your thinking ( I’m imagining an early 1980’s parish newsletter vibe here) and will fire up my Lubitel TLR once I’ve bought some 120 roll film. Allowing time for film processing, postage, reprographics etc, Chris should be in a position to share some (blurry) pics of my system with you in about 6 months time.  Do Gestetners do photos?

 

PS  any of you stateside born again vinylphobes  who happen to have an extensive collection of mint first pressing Mercury Living Presence LPs, I’ll take them off your hands for  $1  a piece if you pay shipping to UK. Can’t say fairer than that, worthless really, what with all the added distortion and euphonics...

[Norton]

Re. the proposed new sub forum and respectful of the heritage of this site, I’ve put together a sticky for those new to vinyl and looking for an experience as close as possible to their digital system:

 

Being up and running playing music really quickly with vinyl may be an unfamiliar experience for the digital fan.  Switch your turntable off and on again waiting a few minutes each time, replicating how long it takes to boot your power supplies, server, endpoint, decrapifier, clock, DDC, DAC etc each day

 

Rub some dirt into your LPs’ lead in grooves.  The resulting loud pop through your speakers will remind you of when your DAC’s relays trigger when changing tracks or formats.  For added authenticity get a cheap clicker to press every time this happens.

 

Get a friend to secretly replace one of your favourite LPs with a white noise test disc.  The resulting sound will replicate your DAC randomly failing to lock onto a signal.  You were planning on replacing those speakers anyway, weren’t you?

 

Missing the sound of jitter or a fan of the latest DAC chips?  Use VTA adjustment to raise your tonearm really high to get that familiar thin, bright sound.  Alternatively  set  it really low to get a muddy sound with no separation of instruments or discernible soundstage to remind you of pretty much every 20th century CD player you’ve ever owned.

 

Wait a while before lowering the stylus onto  an LP - replicating how long it takes to load local files into RAM or for your streaming service to start playing music.  For added authenticity, while doing so also stare intently at a piece of card on which  you have written the word “buffering...”.  Alternatively, don’t lower the stylus at all, to remind you of  those times when your digital system just stops working for no apparent reason.  

 

Used to a digital system that won’t play gapless? Raise the arm and wait a while between tracks. Maybe then  lower the stylus just a little bit into the music, missing the first couple of secs or so.

 

Deliberately set your cartridge tracking weight too low, the resulting skips and dropouts will be a comforting reminder of when your network couldn’t cope with that HiRes file or when you tried that up sampling software.

 

Too quick and easy to find  music in your neatly ordered LP collection?  Pull out two thirds of them at random and mix them up on an “unknown album” shelf to emulate importing files into you favourite library management software.  Classical fans will feel particularly at home here.

[Norton]

5 hours ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

I'd have a hard time creating a vinyl sub-forum

 

The only rational reason for not creating a “vinyl” forum would be that it wouldn’t get that many posts on this site.  That may prove to be the case, although I can easily imagine it equalling the post count of the “DSP” forum for example.  

 

However, not doing something simply because you’d “have a hard time” (from whom?) is a poor rationale in any setting and in this case  poor from both inclusive  content and business perspectives.   Looking around the dealers, stock suggests that a reasonable  and increasing share of audiophile spend has been going into vinyl recently, it’s not just cheap usb turntables for school kids and LPs as hipster wall art.  There may thus also  be advertising and sponsorship opportunities.

 

My suggestion - trial a “Vinyl and Analogue sources” sub-forum, perhaps inviting a credible and knowledgeable figure as “guest moderator” and see how it goes.

 

Nothing to do with vinyl per se and I haven’t actually done the sums, but it looks to me that, within the Equipment section, the General forum (even minus all MQA threads...) is around the size of all the other forums put together by post count, suggesting that the current structure isn’t that good a match for what people want to post about.

[Norton]

6 hours ago, tmtomh said:

as @Sal1950 notes above

 

???