Thinking About Getting Into Vinyl Records? Here's A Few Things To Help You Get Started

You're a music lover. You've got a bunch of downloads by your favorite artists that you listen to all the time and you're really into what you like. You've heard about this whole "Vinyl Revival"; i.e., people buying records and record players and starting super cool modern music collections with that old school vintage vibe.  It really has you interested... but it also has you intimidated, because let's face it - you don't  know shit about records! And why should you? This is 2015, you can download or stream just about anything you want to listen to over the internet and be chilling to it in less than a minute. You can put in a CD and not have to flip it over to hear what's on Side B, and you own at least three different players that will play any of them at any given time, no worries at all if they're compatible.  Still, you wonder about this vinyl thing... there's just something about it you find really really awesome.

Be relieved to know that starting a vinyl collection is not as complicated as you might think.  The resurgence of the format, the increasing popularity of it - it's as easy to get into now as it was back in the day.  

WHAT KIND OF RECORD PLAYER DO I NEED TO PLAY THE RECORDS I WANT?

Any kind you want, friend.  Any of them will play any record you're likely to buy (even those slightly smaller 10" ones that Radiohead likes to put out) - whether its 45 RPM or the traditional 33 RPM.  The one wild card is 78s.  Not all players on the market today will have that speed option, but on the other hand, 78 RPM is/was reserved for singles.  If you're going to be a vinyl singles collector, you might want to consider that, but even so, I'm fairly confident 78 RPM is pretty rare in the new vinyl era - 33 and 45 speeds dominate the scene now, and anything pressed to play at 78 RPM will state that pretty clearly on the label somewhere, so you won't be caught off guard. 

OKAY, BUT WHAT KIND OF RECORD PLAYER DO I WANT TO PLAY THE RECORDS I NEED?

Ahhh, now there's the million dollar question. You see, while any turntable/record player will play any record, bear in mind that record players in this modern age are manufactured like toasters. They're all made in China, craftsmanship comes secondary to cost of materials, and thusly they are built to malfunction the very second the warranty expires (I listen to too much David Ford, I know), if they even get that far.  Crosley players are the worst, even though they're the most commonly available. They sound tinny and warbly and offer a really sorry ass reproduction of that potentially warm, rich vinyl sound. And quite honestly, any other brand you go with (Pyle, Boytone, etc.) are going to be just as hit or miss.  So, ultimately you're looking for the lesser of all these evils, but here's what you want to avoid: Portable all-in-one units, and/or anything with built in speakers. You don't

A Crosley all-in-one unit. Not great... not great at all. 

start a vinyl collection with convenience in mind (come on, they're decidedly inconvenient by concept, if you really think about it), and speakers enclosed in an all-in-one unit will for sure sound crappy and frail; because if they sound warm, rich and full like they should, the bass reverb in certain types of music will bounce the tone arm all over the place, causing the record to skip and leaving your listening experience nothing short of completely annoying.

I'm not one for product endorsement, because not a single corporation these days deserves it, but I have to admit that the ION Profile unit is a fine, fine player for someone interested in getting good playback out of their vinyl without having to spend a fortune. It needs an external speaker, however, and once again I have to reluctantly endorse the Klipsch G-17 Air.  It's a great speaker capable of reproducing a good range of sound, especially in the mid-range area (which is key, because a lot of speakers don't reproduce this region very well) and it's wi-fi compatible, so you can bounce music from your tablet or phone to it when you aren't listening to records. Unfortunately, it comes with a price tag in the $250+ range, but if you're serious about your collection, it's worth the investment (especially since you can use it for other stuff besides your turntable).   Oh, and that ION record player has an RCA output on it that puts you in need of this $8 cable to connect it to the speaker. It's a pretty decent sounding set up, comparably priced (under $350, all in), and while it's definitely not the top of the line, it's a great start up system that will sound significantly better than most of the chintzy all-in-ones out there.

VINYL SOUNDS BETTER THAN ANYTHING ELSE, RIGHT?

Not exactly, no.  Not by virtue of the format itself, anyway. It can sound fantastic, and when it does, it's quite rewarding, because a well forged vinyl record does tend to reproduce a more nuanced soundscape in the way it's mastered... but so do a lot of CDs, and even some MP3 files encoded at 320kbps or more can sound really dynamic.  Any format you prefer has the potential for sounding stellar if it's well recorded, well mixed and mastered, reproduced through a great player, through nice speakers, in a room conducent to decent acoustics - all these things are considerations. Vinyl enthusiasts that puff their chests and state flat out that vinyl sounds better no matter what because blah, blah and

ION Profile turntable and Klipsch G17 Air speaker. A winning combination!

blah are full of shit.  The true attraction to vinyl is the tangibility of the format. The ability to engage physically (in a sense) with a non-physical sensory perception.  With a vinyl record, you get to touch, feel and hold that big giant album art, you get to carefully pull it out of its sleeve, see the grooves and indents that will ultimately transform into the sounds you love to hear.  It's an experience. It's an exercise in metaphysics because with records, you're holding and touching and seeing every detail of what you'll ultimately only hear. Or, if you want to just skip the poetry: listening to music on vinyl is cool and retro - no further explanation required.

I'VE HEARD VINYL RECORDS SCRATCH PRETTY EASILY, IS THAT TRUE?
Not particularly true, no.  A record demands a little more respect when handling it, of course, because among all the available recorded mediums, a record wears its heart on its sleeve the most (to put it figuratively). There's no protective plastic jewel case and tray to store it in like a CD has, and the vinyl disk itself requires the grooves be relatively clean and free of debris during playback, or you're going to hear a lot of crackles, pops and skips.  A wipe down with a soft, very slightly damp cloth is usually all you need to do to clean it up, though - and even very slight hairline scratches (like you'd see on a gently used CD) will typically not affect playback, especially with today's vinyl being pressed much sturdier than ever before. You may see some advertised as "heavy weight, 180g" etc., and that's definitely noteworthy, because the thicker that disk is, and the deeper those grooves on it are, the more durable and able to withstand nicks and scratches it's likely to be.  On the other hand, overkill of this manufacturing trend can be a bit obnoxious...

To explain: one side of a record pressed at 33 speed can only hold approximately 30 minutes of music - at most.  An album that has a total running time exceeding that, is going to require a second disk, which explains why you see 2 LP sets out there for albums that you recall being on only one CD (or there's bonus material on the second LP).  So, understanding that, you might ask: "alright, then why is The White Stripes Elephant record (for example) pressed on 2 LPs, but has a total running time of less than an hour?".  I'll tell you: no necessary reason at all; other than to space out the grooves and provide a more

Scratched 180g LP that plays without skipping - just pops a bit over the sore spots

durable, consistently playing record.  Consider that if a full 30 minutes of music is going to be on one side of a record, those grooves are going to be cut much closer together to fit them all on there.  Cutting grooves closer together leaves the record much more vulnerable to things that can cause it to skip, because that needle is now barreling through much narrower "hallways" placed much closer together. A "roadblock" - like a piece of lint or dust particle - that might otherwise get pushed out of the way by the stylus (needle), becomes a much bigger obstacle in such cramped quarters.  This is why some people are drawn to 2 LP pressings, even when a 2 LP pressing seems unnecessary.  It just makes a sturdier, more damage resistant record.

Regardless, with records being what they are, I'm personally one who tends to prefer single LP pressings whenever possible.  It's simply a matter of not wanting to hassle with flipping and switching records several times, just to hear the entire album in one sitting. For me, that's crossing the line between an involved and measured listening experience, and just too much damn work.  To each his or her own, however - it's just a matter of preference and opinion.

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All said, don't let this cool new vinyl trend bewilder you.  Getting geared up to start enjoying records is easy if you know a few basics - but even this article is full of a lot of one jerk's advice you may just choose to ignore completely, and that's fine too!  The point is, you don't need a degree in audio engineering or an understanding of all the tiny little facts and figures of recorded sound to feel confident enough to go out there and buy a record player and some vinyl records.  All you really need is an interest in what is a "new to you / old to them" format, and a desire to see if it suits your fancy as a music collector.  The comeback of vinyl records gives a whole new generation of music lovers the opportunity to experience the albums they love NOW, in the throwback setting of how folks enjoyed music THEN.  And that's all there is to it. You're showing an appreciation for music history in a trippy kind of past-meets-future sense.... even if you couldn't care less about music theory.

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