Spinning the tunes vinyl-style
Posted by Daniel Stout on Sat 28 Jul 2007 at 4:28 PM
After a big move, it takes a while to get everything out and unpacked. I had unpacked my turntable right away as setting up my stereo is a priority. But I didn’t hook up the turntable, and listened instead to streaming music and CDs. A few weeks ago though I got around to hooking up the turntable. My turntable in Iowa City had kind of fallen on hard times. I had eventually unhooked it, and wasn’t listening to vinyl during that last stretch there.
My setup’s a little different now here, and I have room for my records and the turntable. So I hooked it up recently, and I’ve been on a total vinyl kick lately. I’ve been spinning records every chance I get. I forgot how much I love the sound of vinyl. Music really does sound awesome on vinyl LPs.
I really like my turntable too. It’s a Music Hall MMF-5, which I picked up probably five years ago now. Anyway they still sell them. Even Amazon.com has the MMF-5. The MMF-5 sounds good, and it’s very stable/absorbs vibrations. If I had to do it over, I probably would have gone with a Technics SL-1200MK2. That’s a sweet turntable. I’ve used those at the college radio stations I worked at both as an undergrad and in grad school.
At any rate, I found a record shop locally that sells vinyl, so I’m pretty much set except I need to find a shop that sells used vinyl. That’s my next endeavor. I’m still exploring the area, and I just got a phone book.
And if you’re looking to get into vinyl – or get back into vinyl – it’s very affordable. You can find turntables for under $150 if you want. I’m surprised by all the places that still sell turntables – the high-end audio/video stores I visit do and so do a lot of other places. So there must still be a market. There are some catalog companies that specialize in vinyl and audiophile recordings, but the names escape me at the moment.
Tags: music hall mmf-5 · records · turntable · vinyl
This weblog is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
Validation: XHTML 1.0 Strict • CSS 2.1 • Atom 1.0
manufactured environments
This is a blog about technology, music, vinyl, turntables and more.
Blog Feed: 
Archives: 2000 to 2008
Classic Entries
The Tag Cloud
Contact
About: Daniel Stout
my other blogs
Manufactured Fotos is a collection of my photography.
Manufactured Podcasts is a podcast featuring poetry and PDFcasts.
monthly archives
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
- October 2007
- September 2007
- August 2007
- July 2007
- June 2007
- May 2007
- April 2007
- March 2007
- February 2007
- January 2007
- December 2006
- November 2006
- October 2006
- September 2006
- August 2006
- July 2006
- June 2006
- May 2006
- April 2006
- March 2006
- February 2006
- January 2006
- December 2005
- November 2005
- October 2005
- September 2005
- August 2005
- July 2005
- June 2005
- May 2005
- April 2005
- March 2005
- February 2005
- January 2005
- December 2004
- November 2004
- October 2004
- September 2004
- August 2004
- July 2004
- June 2004
- May 2004
- April 2004
- March 2004
- February 2004
- January 2004
- December 2003
- November 2003
- October 2003
- September 2003
- August 2003
- July 2003
- June 2003
- May 2003
- April 2003
- March 2003
- February 2003
- January 2003
- July 2002
- May 2002
- April 2002
- March 2002
- February 2002
- January 2002
- December 2001
- November 2001
- September 2001
- August 2001
- July 2000
- June 2000
- May 2000
- April 2000
- March 2000
- February 2000
Hi,
When looking for a turntable, dont go the really cheap way. Most of the sound quality is determined by the cartridge/headshell, decent cartridges cost at least $75 so count around $250 for a decent turntable.
Make your choice of turntable based on what cartridge is standard supplied with it.
And when looking for records, checkout my online shop at http://www.vinylrecords.ch/
Yes, I'll definitely check that out VinylMeister. The $150 figure is mostly an example to show that you needn't necessarily have a big budget to get into vinyl. But yeah, the biggest difference is definitely in the cartridge.