New Turntable 6 Years Later

Looking at my old posts I saw that it's been 6 and 1/2 years since I purchased my turntable. And over 500 records later and it's still going strong. Here's the breakdown of how many albums I digitized since then:

2013: 10
2014: 44
2015: 13
2016: 192
2017: 164
2018: 113 (thus far)

As you can see, 2016 was the year I really started getting down to this meticulous work. I had been gathering albums from thrift stores and acquired quite a number before deciding to digitize them. At the moment I still have around 30-40 that need to be done.

This has significantly increased my music library and saved me tons of money. Sure, the quality is not the same as from a cd. But for the price it's well worth it. Well worth it indeed, considering a few of these thrift store finds I have sold for $25 each. Think about that; paying $1, sometimes $2, and reselling for $25. You could say in some cases I'm getting music absolutely free!

Since I'm not a record collector, rather a music collector, I have no desire in keeping most of these thrift store records. Thus I plan to sell these at a garage sale sometime next year. The plan was to hold this event this year but things didn't quite pan out properly. That includes the weather suddenly going from 80° to 50°.

I am starting to wonder if I should change the stylus soon. According to what I've read it should be replaced after 200 hours of play. Let's say each record is about 30 minutes. That means that after 400 records it's time for a new stylus. And as you can see from the above numbers I have played well over 500. That's not including the records I didn't digitize but just played to see if they were in good condition.

Some of the records I plan to keep because they are of my favorite artists. But most I have no interest in having. I am not a vinyl person. Once I record these things into mp3 files I will most likely never play them on a turntable again. I don't have emotional attachments to them because they're not from my childhood nor were they given to me as gifts nor are they being passed down to me. But some have nostalgic qualities and I would just like to keep them.

I will be unleashing some from my own long-time personal collection as well. A long time ago a neighbor threw out a few boxes full of records from the 1950s and 1960s. All sorts of stuff from The Beach Boys and The Beatles to Hawaiian music and traditional Mexican music. I don't know why anyone would just throw these things in the garbage. Especially The Beatles' record which was their first ever on Vee Jay records. And I know these neighbors used to hold garage sales of their own. I can't explain it. This trash treasure is where I got my first Beach Boys record from, even though I have never been a huge fan of theirs. Basically, the spoils were split up among other members of my household. I being the youngest had little say in what I wanted. Later though I would go on to inherit all of the ones which were taken, as the interest in vinyl of the other family members dwindled. So as of today I am the one with all the spoils! And now it's time for me to find a new home for them.

If records still continued to be only source of recorded music I would have run out of space years ago. Considering I now have about 500 of them along with about 2000 CDs and over 200 cassettes (before I started selling them), I don't know where I would store nearly 3000 vinyl records. Thank goodness for CDs!

New Turntable

Recently I purchased a new turntable and some software from www.dak.com. After seriously considering getting a direct drive type versus another belt drive one, I decided to go with the latter. I searched online for info and came across the DAK website where I was convinced to go with their package which included a belt-drive turntable.

I have had belt-drive turntables go bad over the years so I did not want to deal with the same problem again. The belts warped away probably from long periods of non-use. Though I have never myself attempted it, I understand that it is complicated to switch out belts. First of all, they tend to be a bit pricey--for a band-like piece of rubber. Second of all, if you do not have the proper tool to remove the special washer that locks the platter down in place you will have quite the time trying to remove it. And there is no other way around removing the platter.

Thus, I decided to buy a new turntable. This particular one came with a diamond stylus, a strobe light and adjustable speed control and a light to help you make sure you're placing the needle in exactly the right spot. Pretty good deal for the price. I'll have more to say about it and all that came with it in my next post.

For now, I mainly want to say that I can finally make mp3 files of the vinyl that I have, including the ones I have bought at thrift stores recently. I'm not a big fan of LP's. They're big and bulky and wear out a little each time you play them. And they damage easily. Ultimately I want to have them on cd's and on my computer so I will not have to deal with them anymore. I'm not one of these vinyl purists who believe that it is the best sound reproducing medium for music. I think it's psychosomatic anyway. I'm happy with cd's.

Until next time....