Vinyl records?

[Blackscare]

Alright, I know it's just a material fetish or what have you, but I've really been wanting to get into vinyl for a while. I'll be getting a new, fairly nice apartment with a few other people like me (drink a lot of wine, like to read, love jazz, etc) and I think it would be a great time to get started. I actually have a fairly decent selection of jazz on vinyl since my local thrift shop gets regular donations from some wonderful local person and they're priced $3 a pop, so I can't help picking them up.


I am, however, totally ignorant about the specifics of maintenance and upkeep, and I'm not quite sure what I should be looking for in terms of turntables. I'm ebaying this shit because I'm far from rich. Anyone know any good sites for vinyl records that are new? I'd imagine I'd get a lot of vinyl from ebay, I looked into it tonight, but certain things I may want new or may be unable to find used.

[Sasha]

As long as you don't want to get into serious DJing you should be o.k. with a belt drive turntable and even a good quality new one then should not set you back that far. I bought a brand new technics for 60 euro's, a few quid more and you can get one that will also be able to transfer your lp's to mp3 so you can also listen outside of your house to your records.
Amps and speakers you can get good enough second hand, I found i like the sound of 4 standard quality speakers (phillips, Sony) from the pawn shop better than 2 top quality ones. Do invest though in some new, above junk quality speaker cables, no need to go all gold plated on them but do go better than the ultra skinny cheapest.

About record keeping, just keep them in their covers, dry and on room temperature (so not in the unheated attic but also not next to the heater), do not stack them on top of each other (keep the weight of them) only clean them with a dry, soft, dusting cloth, regularly clean your needle.


And yeah, pawn shop over e-bay, both records and equipment you want to have in your hands and check for faults before you purchase.

[wunderbar]

Look around thrift stores and yard sales. I got a direct drive Technics for $4 a couple years ago.

For jazz, I've heard good things about albums on the Original Jazz Classics imprint (Fantasy, Prestige, Riverside) and they're pretty cheap new. I've only got one OJC record (Saxophone Colossus by Sonny Rollins) but I think it sounds great.

[Искра]

I have Marantz from 70's and its working like I bought its yesterday!

I like ska, reggae and Oi so I usually check local second hand stores. I can't help you with jazz, because I only like J. J. Johnson and Kai Winding :)

[Sam_b]

Not a material fetish - things genuinely sound better. I don't buy CDs. I play off a Pro-Ject turntable with manual belt drive. Life is better this way.

PS the best thing you can get for Jazz right now is the recently (ie <5 years ago) LP compilation of Mulatu Astatke 'London New York Addis'. Brilliant.