What stereo / record player do you have?

[jgrabham]

Well, I have an evening of doing nothing but browsing and listening to music ahead, and it got me wondering, what do you lot listen to your music on?

Personally I use a little Sanyo micro-system thingy for CDs, but my real listning is done over an old Sony XO-D101; it's not the greatest record player in the world, but it's great especially when you consider I got it for free (less the cost of one rubber band, as it had snapped) and it sounds better than the £50 record - plug via RCA into your CD player type thing that my parents have in the living room; not that they can use it since I nicked all their records ;) I reckon it will be even better when I fork out for some better speakers as well :)


BTW, I was born in 1992, and prefer LPs over CDs, as, IMO, they just sound better, and let's face it, there's only one true way to listen to Led Zeppelin IV :guitar:

EDIT: oh, and I can get most good albums for a couple of quid on Vinyl; they'd be around £6-8 on CD, for (what is IMO) an inferior product...

[nowin4me]

BTW, I was born in 1992, and prefer LPs over CDs, as, IMO, they just sound better, and let's face it, there's only one true way to listen to Led Zeppelin IV

What is an LPs? I may be older than you but when it comes to music I am rubbish.

I listen to my music From the PC using Creative speakers. I would listen to music on my stereo/DVD thingy........ But it's broken and collecting dust...... I will open up the case and try and fix it one day........

:lolflag:

[SuperSonic4]

An LP is essentially Vinyl, they have a bigger diameter and sound is made my a needle rotating around different parts of the circle IIRC. They need a special player which needs the user to set it at correct speed (specified on the album)

They are more prone to damage but are widely considered to have better fidelity

As for me I use a generic 5.1 system and Amarok/iPod connected via a 3.5mm to 2RCA lead. For the radio I have a Pure Evoke 1-XT DAB

[DougieFresh4U]

I run my music from PC to an old old Pioneer receiver (has glass tubes) and out 4 huge old Kenwood speakers.
And it sounds awesome :guitar:

[lisati]

What is an LPs?

It's an old technology, older than the CD. Unless I'm mistaken, the original version dates from some time around the 1950s. These days I've only ever seen them used by so-called "DJs" who do things with them that I would have gotten my beans for in my younger days because it's hard on the disk, and hard on the player."Scratching" is one term they use, for me it has a different meaning.

I have a ten-year-old Goldstar stereo system that I haven't used for a while (serious continual cockroach damage in the last place I lived) that I've only kept because it has a turntable for the the small vinyl collection I have. These days my main machine is a medium-sized Panasonic system with surround sound. We also have a larger machine by Sony (no surround sound, but with a boom box, useful for annoying the neighbours) which can play mp3 disks.

[wolfen69]

It's an old technology, older than the CD. Unless I'm mistaken, the original version dates from some time around the 1950s.

actually, the original phonograph goes back to 1877 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gramophone_record). it is now 131 year old technology.

i used to have a ton of records, but they all got damaged/lost/thrown out along with my 8 Track tapes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/8_track_player). cd's and mp3's suit me just fine now though.

but one thing is true, it is the oldest surviving media format.

[t0p]

I play my music on my computers. I've got a big mp3 collection. I've also got a fair few CDs and audio cassettes, but my stereo died and I've never got round to getting a replacement.

I also own a few LPs. Quadrophenia - great album. But I haven't played them in a very very long time.

I also listen to the radio quite a bit - a cheapo Amstrad receiver. Though I don't listen to music stations that often. My favourite radio station is Radio 4 - a BBC station that is mostly spoken word... news, documentaries, quiz shows, drama, comedy, short stories, poetry, serialized novels... great!!

[Northsider]

Not sure, my turntable is from the '70s. I have a lot fo good LPs though: Black Sabbath, Led Zep, Iron Maiden, Beatles, Jethro Tull, Elton John, Mifsits, etc...

I used to buy records in high school for like 75c.

[toupeiro]

I have a Technics SL-D202. Gotta love Direct Drive! :)

[gn2]

In my living room, a Dell Optiplex GX110 SFF PC with a small monitor, connected via an Audiotrak Optoplay USB sound card to a Rotel amp driving a pair of Mordaunt Short floorstanders.

In another room my main C2D desktop has an Audigy SE soundcard driving a pair of Creative Gigaworks T20 speakers.

In my car I have a CD player that has an SD card slot and a USB socket, it will play direct from a flash drive or memory card or phone in USB data transfer mode.

I don't have a standalone portable mp3 player, my mobile phone has one built-in.

All my CD's are in storage in the loft, I never use them and am too lazy to list them all on eBay. Many of them would never sell anyway.
I sold all my LP's years ago to a record dealer for £1 each.

[seeker5528]

If I want to listen to music while I'm at work, it's Last FM (http://www.last.fm), at home I have all my CD's ripped to the computer, any CD I have bought in the last 2 years I have never listened to, goes directly into the computer, then I listen to the .ogg files in Amarok. All but but about a half dozen or so of my cassettes have been recored and converted, gotta start in on the albums one of these days.

Gramofile (http://www.opensourcepartners.nl/~costar/gramofile/)

Digitizing records and tapes with Audacity (http://www.linux.com/feature/119550?theme=print)

Ripping Vinyl Records to FLAC (http://filesharefreak.com/tutorials/ripping-vinyl-records-to-flac-digital-audio/)

Later, Seeker

[cariboo]

I have an Aiwa 5.1 system in my living room, in the den a Technics SA-GX500, that I occasionally hook up to my computer. In my shop I have a dedicated computer to play mp3's through an old Hardon-Karmon receiver that I picked up at the Sally Ann for $20, all it needed was 3 light bulbs. It is the only receiver I own that still has a turntable preamp built in, the turntable is a Mitsubishi direct drive, I have 3 brand need Empire cartridges in boxes just in case.

Jim

[nick09]

My parents still got records from the 70's to the 80's. Plus we still have the sound system we had years ago but its in my brother's room.

[lisati]

actually, the original phonograph goes back to 1877 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gramophone_record). it is now 131 year old technology.

i used to have a ton of records, but they all got damaged/lost/thrown out along with my 8 Track tapes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/8_track_player). cd's and mp3's suit me just fine now though.

but one thing is true, it is the oldest surviving media format.

Good point. I was thinking specifically of LPs.

I remember my parents being upset by me breaking a "78" (one of the LP's predecessors) of Ravel's Bolero in my younger days, my local museum has some examples of the gear used to play them, many of them ran by clockwork instead of electric motors which is handy if there's a power cut. And there's also the cylinders as well...

I've seen one or two 8-track systems, but I've never actually used one. The only one I remember listening to was in a Ford Mustang that a schoolmate's parents had in the early 1970s

[markbuntu]

I got a little tiny Onkyo reciever and some really nice high efficiency Klipsch kg1.2 speakers that I have my computer plugged into. The speakers are about 14 years old and still sound better than any "computer" speakers I have heard and better than most audiophile speakers for sale these days. I think I paid about $500 for the pair.

If you buy really good speakers, you will never have to upgrade them.

[starcannon]

Most times I listen to music on my 5.1 surround using Audacious.
When in my car it's Alpine and Eclipse.

Format is CD's, MP3's, and OGG, I haven't owned an LP since around 1991, not that I don't like them, but I prefer the low maintenance of the formats I use now.

Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, and Rush are a few of my current favorites.

[fredbird67]

Attached to my computer, which is running Linux Mint 8, I have a Numark USB turntable sitting on top of a JVC dual cassette deck. It's kinda interesting how I got the turntable. My mom originally got it for my dad for Christmas of 2008, and I showed him how to burn his bluegrass LP collection into CDs, but he couldn't get the hang of using Audacity.

Therefore, my mom got him a turntable that has a built-in CD burner for Christmas of 2009, where he could bypass the computer entirely (he doesn't care what clicks and pops there may be on the CD). They gave me the old turntable, which I got to bring back home with me over Thanksgiving as an early Christmas present of sorts, and I didn't mind it in the least that it was VERY slightly used.

In the living room, I have a JVC receiver and 5-disc CD changer, and I used to have the cassette deck attached to that until I brought it into our guest bedroom, where my computer is.

In my wife's 2000 Buick Century, she has an Alpine receiver/CD player I got her for Christmas of 2007 after her cassette factory stereo bit the dust.

In my vehicle, a 2006 Toyota Sienna minivan, which we traded in a 2003 Chevy Venture for on Christmas Eve (due to falling victim to coolant leaks on BOTH of my last two vehicles that GM has REFUSED to issue a recall for, I personally have had my fill of GM -- I will NEVER buy another GM vehicle again as long as I live...but that's another story), it's got a factory receiver/CD player that is a bit hyper on the bass, at least on FM and CD, and therefore, I sometimes have to turn the bass down into negative territory just so it doesn't overpower everything else. LOL

[koshatnik]

Musical FIdelity X-150 pre and Musical Fidelity Poweramp
Headphone amp custom made by my mate, a frankensteined Tsingua
Rega P3 with a custom built SME tonearm
Cambridge Audio 640C CD player
Kimber Tonik interconnects

[doorknob60]

iTouch + iPod earbuds :P

[Whistling Nixie]

My set-up's simply my laptop with a pair of huge go-away-and-leave-me-alone headphones plugged in. I rip the songs I like from a CD to Rhythmbox, in .ogg format. Basic, but it works.

[Kai69]

I still use seperates
turntable pioner c1980 pl200x
amp Rotel ra930ax mk11
cd cambrige audio azur640c mk11
tapedeck sony tc-ke500s
radio yamaha
speakers mission

[ticopelp]

I haven't owned a stereo or a radio in about nine years. Which still kind of freaks me out sometimes.

I didn't buy much music at all until compact discs came out. I never owned a record player, and had only a few cassettes.

[SuperSonic4]

An LP is essentially Vinyl, they have a bigger diameter and sound is made my a needle rotating around different parts of the circle IIRC. They need a special player which needs the user to set it at correct speed (specified on the album)

They are more prone to damage but are widely considered to have better fidelity

As for me I use a generic 5.1 system and Amarok/iPod connected via a 3.5mm to 2RCA lead. For the radio I have a Pure Evoke 1-XT DAB

Much the same but I have a Cowon D2 now

[cmay]

I use a stereo and I also use my laptop "as is" for listing to music.
My stero is a sony sourround amplifer and I have a sodny minidisc and a casette player on the stack. I connected it to my harddisc recorder and computer via a patchpay and I listen to my CD from the computer. the minidiscs are the same as the cd and tapes because I have a little extra sony minidisc player in walkman format I used before for when traveling. now its all on the laptop. I dont own much music . five gigabytes worth. its about 30 minidisc I have I think.

anyway. I am glad this thread is started up. I been wanting to ask how others get high fidelity sound from laptops and desktops when replacing the old stereo set with the computers. I want the same sound as a tube amplifier gives but I cant find anything. my old but really good tube amp died some times ago. the sony sorround sound does not sound as good.

[cartman640]

At home I use my computer running FLAC through bit-perfect digital output being decoded by my Logitech Z-5500's, sounds good although I really need to increase the size of my FLAC library.

For quiet time I have a Cowon D2 loaded up with FLAC connected to my Sennheiser HD555 headphones, the D2 is one of the few players I've seen that can properly drive the big Sennheisers, and coupled with the ability to play FLAC it sounds amazing.

On the go I use MP3 on my iPhone just with the normal iPhone ear buds (which are pretty bad) until I find some decent canal buds with the inline microphone/music control bit like the normal iPhone ones.

In the car I have a Pioneer DEH-6850-MP headunit driving a pair of 6.5" components and an amp driving a 12" aluminium cone, dual voice coil sub, all Blaupunkt (I forget the model numbers), had some Sony 6x9's in the rear but they sound crap so I chucked them away, yet to find something to replace them with.

[oldos2er]

My computer's hooked up to a Sansui 9900Z receiver, which is in turn hooked up to a pair of Klipsch Heresy speakers. Also have an Akai turntable to "rip" records.

Our main stereo is a Sansui 8700DB receiver w/ a Sansui QS-500 output to a pair of Infinity Column2 and a pair of Kenwood KL-777DX speakers. Also hooked up to the 8700DB is a Marantz 6100 turntable, and a Technics SL-QD35 turntable. This is the system I would've owned in the 70s (except for the Kenwoods) had I been able to afford it then.

[audiomick]

So, time for a really good rant!!!:p
@ cmay
I want the same sound as a tube amplifier gives but I cant find anything

There is no substitute. Valves do things to the sound that solid state can't do.

@ markbuntu
If you buy really good speakers, you will never have to upgrade them.

How right you are. You might have to re-cone them sometime if they do a lot of work, but good is and will always remain good.

Now for a couple of declamations:
the 3.5 mm 3 pin jack plug is a work of the devil
RCA is not much better

mp3 sounds bad. Full stop. No arguments will be taken into consideration.

The difference between LP and CD is a valid discussion, but has a bit to do with hearing habits as well. I once read a piece about research during the early days of CDs. Test subjects were asked to evaluate the quality of a sound source. They heard the same source twice, but once with white noise mixed in. A large number preferred the version with the white noise. This can only be because they were used to hearing that way. Just by the way, I think a quality LP on a good turntable sounds pretty good.

I also believe that CDs suffered in the early years from a lag between the characteristics of the new medium (CD) and recording practices that were appropriate for the old medium (magnetic tape and LP). The things behave differently, and must be approached appropriately. A well recorded CD played on a good system is miles ahead of an LP, in terms of accurate reproduction. The thing is, the inaccuracies that an LP introduces sound pleasant.

Anyway, enough of that.

I have a pair of Genelec 1031 speakers. I am a bit ashamed to admit that I feed them with a Behringer mini mixer. I have measured the Behringer, and it is actually pretty flat, but the power supply is cheap. I play CDs on a DVD player at the moment. The CD player died. The DVD player (Samsung) sounds like crap. I have a Project Turntable and phono pre-amp which is pretty nice.

I generally don't listen to music on the computer. As might be apparent, I am a snob. A decent A-D converter costs more than my computer, and I can't afford another set of Genelecs, so I leave the music out when I am in the office.

For those who haven't guessed, I am a sound engineer.

[Yes]

Some Realteck integrated sound card, with Altec Lansing speakers/Sennheiser headphones.

I've also got an Onkyo record player I use sometimes to listen to vinyls.

[gungrog]

No record player anymore (no records anymore...)

No CD player, still got the CD's though, mainly because I haven't got round to getting rid of them.
I don't listen to music ON the computer, but it still gets involved in the music process:

music (mostly FLAC, some high-bitrate mp3) is reproduced using the Logitech SqueezeServer/Squeezebox, running into a Roksan DAC, feeding a passive pre-amp (basically just a volume control), which then runs into a Roksan S1 power amp, and it all eventually comes out of a pair of modified Musical Technology Kestrel speakers.

Mobile musical enjoyment comes via my Motorola phone and a pair of Sony headphones. Does the job...

[koshatnik]

The difference between LP and CD is a valid discussion, but has a bit to do with hearing habits as well. I once read a piece about research during the early days of CDs. Test subjects were asked to evaluate the quality of a sound source. They heard the same source twice, but once with white noise mixed in. A large number preferred the version with the white noise. This can only be because they were used to hearing that way. Just by the way, I think a quality LP on a good turntable sounds pretty good.



Interestingly, I've had the good fortune to hear a CD through an Accuphase setup with DAC, on kit costing around £34,000. It sounded amazing.

Equally amazing was a turntable set up of around £20k. The soundstage on the vinyl was slightly better imho, but that could also be down to speaker position and room acoustics.

The bottom line is - good kit costs money, but does sound amazing. People that say vinyl is no match for digital, have never heard a decent setup.

Even on a relatively small budget, like I have, a customised tonearm kills all pops, clicks and hisses. People don't understand this - they are so used to hearing vinyl on crap turntables they make the assumption that all turntables produce this noise. They don't, you just need to invest in decent kit.

[LightB]

I have a quaint looking turn table and I inherited some LPs but I won't ever play them, at least not regularly. I don't want to scratch them.

[audiomick]

They don't, you just need to invest in decent kit.

True. One needs to pay attention to having the whole signal chain of equivalent quality. No point in spending, for instance, 3 grand on speakers and 30 bucks on a turntable, or vice versa.

Someone once demonstrated to me the difference between two copper cables, and on a later occasion the difference between two optical link cables. Although I knew that such differences exist theoretically, I was surprised at how much audible difference it made. However, it was only audible because the cable in question was the "weak link". The rest of the setup was high quality enough to make the difference audible.

[Groucho Marxist]

I have a cherry-finished Crosley Radio Director-series CR2405 turntable (http://www.crosleyradio.com/Product.aspx?pid=1830) as a gift from my grandmother this past Christmas. As an audiophile and Music Director for one of my college's radio stations, I use this every day :)

[oldos2er]

I have a quaint looking turn table and I inherited some LPs but I won't ever play them, at least not regularly. I don't want to scratch them.

Playing records won't scratch them, unless there's something seriously wrong with your turntable.

On my wish list: http://www.elpj.com/

[audiomick]

Playing records won't scratch them, unless there's something seriously wrong with your turntable.

On my wish list: http://www.elpj.com/

If the needle is not in good shape, it is not good for the record.

that looks like a really flash bit of gear. Good thing it isn't too expensive...;)

[LightB]

If the needle is not in good shape, it is not good for the record.

that looks like a really flash bit of gear. Good thing it isn't too expensive...;)

Yeah, that, and they can get scratched in accidents. I know LPs even though the main use was almost before my time, but I do know that's how it tended to happen; accidents while in use. I'm keeping them sealed away.

At any rate, I'd only play them for s&g. The sound is not better anymore than analog film is better than digital.

[Yes]

When you record vinyls to your computer, what file would you suggest saving it as?

[LowSky]

When you record vinyls to your computer, what file would you suggest saving it as?

FLAC would probably be the best or OGG Vorbis is you want to go Opensource, or high bit MP3 to usable with most portable players

[PurposeOfReason]

FLAC would probably be the best or OGG Vorbis is you want to go Opensource, or high bit MP3 to usable with most portable players
No.

Flac, only flac. For Gods sake if you're going to bother ripping vinyl to your computer use flac.

[koshatnik]

Playing records won't scratch them, unless there's something seriously wrong with your turntable.

On my wish list: http://www.elpj.com/

Its the most common cause of record scratches actually - a misaligned cartridge.

[audiomick]

No.

Flac, only flac. For Gods sake if you're going to bother ripping vinyl to your computer use flac.

Probably absolutely right; I haven't looked at flac yet.
In any case, definitely not mp3. The format sounds bad, doesn't matter how high or low the compression rate is.

[fugazi32]

I have SoundLab turntables and a Behringer Mixer (which I swapped for my Gemini one). Vinyl all the way! :)

[bonzini]

How cool to stumble on this thread!

I have a nearly one year old VPI Classic turntable with a soon-needing to be replaced Linn Adikt MM cartridge. The rest of my stereo is all classic Linn black box stuff (kolektor, lk140 in aktive) and a wonderful pair of keilidh speakers. plus various bits and pieces to hook up the computer with its flac files. plus a set of AKG 701s when I need to listen by myself.

Being umm 50 something I was there for vinyl in the 70s, moved to CDs in the 80s, moved back to vinyl in 2007. I buy music in FLAC format for downloads, mostly from Linn, but, living in Canada, I don't have access to HDTracks which is a great source of FLACs for you Yanks.

No high-res dowloads or SACD or anything like that yet. My high-res source is vinyl :-)