Nothing beats some decent tower speakers. I have a couple big ass Polk Audio ones, I had to rearrange half my home office to make them fit, but it was worth it, they sound much better than the smallish speakers I was using before.

That's for sure. And why I've been carting these 130 lb monsters around with me for many years. They're amazingly transparent and when you close your eyes you feel like you're right in front of the stage.

Revisiting the Acoustic Research AR9 4-Way Legendary Loudspeaker | Audioholics

I still need to get to replacing the foam around the woofers.

Nice.
I have ARs that date back to 1979 ("stole" them from my dad when I moved out after college in the '90s).
I replaced the 12" woofers about 10 years ago, and they do sound incredible!

Does anyone else find themselves buying vinyl they otherwise wouldn't, solely because it's pretty?
I'm trying to keep my vinyl collection limited to what I consider 9/10 or 10/10 albums, but then

OOOHHHhh, I don't have one that looks like THAT yet!

A little help here if anyone is able to provide it. I'm looking at possibly buying my daughter a record player for Christmas. I spotted this one on Amazon and was wondering if this would be a good starter one(she's 16)...

1 by ONE High Fidelity Belt Drive Turntable with Built-in Speakers

That's the one that I have! It's pretty nice for a first record player. I don't really have anything to compare it to, though, so I dunno.
The only downside I would say is that it doesn't have automatic return when it gets to the end of the record.
Oh, and the bluetooth compatibility is only to send music from your phone TO the built in speakers. You can't bluetooth the record player audio to nicer bluetooth speakers.
One thing I was worried about is some people in the amazon reviews said it didn't go loud enough, but I usually have it right about 1/2 volume, and that's REALLY load, to my ears at least.

I would recommend getting is a different record mat. The one that it comes with is felt, and at least in my house, theres enough static in the house that whenever I take a record off, the felt pad sticks to the bottom, and then I have to peel it off ... super annoying. I got a rubber one.
Also you should consider getting a brush like this:
and a needle cleaner like this:

Yes, im guilty of that and I dont care lol. If it looks cool and I like it, I'm buying it for sure.

That one looks like someone at the pressing plant spilled a Starbucks drink in the stampers.

Looks like someone dropped a load into the vinyl beforehand.

Y'all are a bunch of vinyl snobs! I think it's pretty

Nah, it's cool. I'm a bit of a purist and usually prefer standard black vinyl, but I do have a weakness for colored translucent splatter discs, this is one that I have (and it having a bonus track not on the standard version makes it cooler). When I hold it up to the light, it looks like the eye of a demon.

We're redoing our living room into a sitting room (not sure what the difference is; my wife can't really explain it, either).

And, as such, it seems like a good time to pick up a U-Turn Orbit turntable. Looking at simple set-up (probably on top of a 2x4 Kallax or similar) with powered speakers.

So I'm down to four options:


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Initially, I was going to get a White Custom since it's for a living room and most of my gear is black or gray, but then they came out with the Theory turntables (unfortunately not available in white). Looks like all current model Orbit turntables have the grooved platter and OA3 tonearm like the Theory. Not sure, but it looks like the Theory might have an improved motor over the other models in addition to the solid wood plinth.

Also thinking about the Ortofon cartridges. I can easily upgrade from a Red to a Blue when I replace the stylus, so I'm not sure which I should go with. Not really sure if the Bronze is worth an extra $260. Checked the Ortofon website, it looks like the price doubles every time you go up a color, so I'm guessing that there's a point where the cost outweighs the benefit.

Also seriously considering the Ethos speakers, though they seem sort of pricey for what seem like small speakers. I would sort of like for these to be an option since they're physically matched to the Orbit turntables. Anyone have experience with these? Worth the $500?

I recently received an email from U-Turn Audio that they've redesigned their Orbit turntables to new second generation versions. I've been thinking of upgrading my five year old Orbit for one of the new ones, with an Ortofon cartridge (I'll probably go with the Red for now, I can always upgrade the cart later if I want to, but that Bronze price sounds a bit rich for my blood!), and an electronic speed control, which is new for these (I always found that manually changing the speed on Orbit turntables to be a big PITA). Sorry, I have no experience with the powered speakers though.

Option 2 looks very enticing, because an upgrade from an Ortofon Red to a Blue will cost you $200. Here it's only $139 more.

Oh, good point!

I really wish I could do a side-by-side comparison between the Red and Blue on the turntable in my own home. I might not be able to hear the difference. I might buy the Blue (Option 2), and then buy a Red stylus to test them both out, and then keep one on and use the other as a replacement after playing 1000 hours.

The Theory has been getting rave reviews online, but I don't really trust online reviews.

I am pleased that UTurn has gone from manually switching the belt between 33/45 and given us an actual switch.

I don’t know if there’s a better thread for this but wanted to report that Vinyl Me Please has Fiona Apple’s debut back in stock. Had been selling 2nd hand for over $100 for at least the last couple years. Will be happy to pick it up and complete her catalogue on vinyl.

Speaking of red & blue, New Order's best release (their singles collection "Substance") is finally getting a reissue after 30 years!

Awesome, I'll need to pick that up for sure.

Shouldn't have taken this long, but I'm gonna visit Moldy Toes tomorrow for the first time. Got an event in Laguna Hills late afternoon, I'll leave a little early and check out the store on the way there

I wanted to get that special edition of Who's Next, with all the songs and demos intended for the abandoned Lifehouse project Pete was planning. I went to the store today, and the only thing they had was a new edition of Who's Next, but it had none of the extras, was just the original lineup of songs....and it was $48! Man, F that. I'm not paying nearly 50 bucks for basically another copy of a record I already own.

This is probably a dumb question, but here goes. Since vinyl seems to be selling more and more these days ( I read it actually outsold CDs a while back) ... is there any reason why they haven't invented a new record speed/tech that allows for a lot more amount of music per side of a record? Is there some kind of limitation that we can't make the grooves any skinnier or something? I know we'd need to record players for it, but is there any technical reason why that hasn't been done?

There are physical limitations for the lower frequencies, they take up a lot of room. Some high quality records, such as some MoFi pressings actually play at 45 RPM and what would have fit on one 33 1/3 RPM record takes up two. But that allows better fidelity due to less compression required.

https://mofi.com/collections/vinyl/p...180g-45rpm-2lp

There's no hard limit to how much music you can put on a record like there is for CD or LD.

Ideally, I think you want twenty minutes or less per side to maintain audio quality (as seen in X's link above), but that's negotiable. I think my "Operation Mindcrime" LP is about thirty minutes per side and doesn't sound bad. I'm not really a fan of 45rpm LPs because you have to get up and flip or change the record every two songs.

It might be possible to develop new technology that would require new players, new styluses, and records that wouldn't play on a conventional record player, but that's going to require a lot of investment on a technology that might not succeed in the marketplace. And it will, by nature, mean that those records will have the information packed into smaller, tighter grooves which also makes them more susceptible to skipping, damage, dirt, and manufacturing defects.

And, on top of all of that, vinyl is already quite pricey.

I’ve been interested in a laser sensor instead of the needle. Not sure if that exists, I’ll have to do some research.