Anybody ever needledrop their lp collection?

superdog

AK Member
The thought of downsizing my vinyl setup of four turntables and perhaps 500-600 lps is entering my head.I'm beginning to doubt my desire to have this size of a collection and am thinking about needledropping the most desired and scuttle the rest.Of course I am talking about over a period of time.With that being said I am contemplating this because I want to narrow down my audio life and lps as much as I like to some degree I am no vinyl freak.Anybody ever do this to any extent?
 
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Needle dropping isn't my selection method but I've also been downsizing my LP collection. To get it down to ~1100 from 3500+ has been relatively easy for me. If it hadn't been played in the last couple of years it went. I also got rid of any duplicates. The brother of my neighbor across the street has happily taken most everything I've let go.

My next nefarious act is to get him interested in higher quality playback gear. I'm not sure what he has now. However, I'm fairly certain it's Yorx, Crosley level.
 
I moved all LP's and TT to closet storage nearly 2 years ago. My source is 95% streaming and occasional CD. Really have not missed albums whatsoever. To my ears, minimal difference in SQ, a lot less clutter in listening area, and streaming gives me more music choices than I care to collect/spend on vinyl.
 
Needle dropping isn't my selection method but I've also been downsizing my LP collection. To get it down to ~1100 from 3500+ has been relatively easy for me. If it hadn't been played in the last couple of years it went. I also got rid of any duplicates. The brother of my neighbor across the street has happily taken most everything I've let go.

My next nefarious act is to get him interested in higher quality playback gear. I'm not sure what he has now. However, I'm fairly certain it's Yorx, Crosley level.
I culled about fifty a couple of years ago and can rid another fifty at a moments notice.I can probably get down to 200 if push came to shove.Its the 200 that I would like to select certain for needledrops.I think eventually I want to unload all vinyl but want the sound of my best sounding vinyl digitally saved.
I moved all LP's and TT to closet storage nearly 2 years ago. My source is 95% streaming and occasional CD. Really have not missed albums whatsoever. To my ears, minimal difference in SQ, a lot less clutter in listening area, and streaming gives me more music choices than I care to collect/spend on vinyl.
I have some vinyl that is noticeably superior to cds and these are what I want needledropped.I'm really not a streamer at this point.Just an older listener who likes the hard copy but want to start narrowing it down.Agree the extra space will be nice but its going to be tough after building this vinyl collection over the last ten years.
 
I culled about fifty a couple of years ago and can rid another fifty at a moments notice.I can probably get down to 200 if push came to shove.Its the 200 that I would like to select certain for needledrops.I think eventually I want to unload all vinyl but want the sound of my best sounding vinyl digitally saved.

I have some vinyl that is noticeably superior to cds and these are what I want needledropped.I'm really not a streamer at this point.Just an older listener who likes the hard copy but want to start narrowing it down.Agree the extra space will be nice but its going to be tough after building this vinyl collection over the last ten years.
You sound conflicted.....when that is the case, save it. It doesn't take up that much room. Difficult and costly to undo once you act......
 
You sound conflicted.....when that is the case, save it. It doesn't take up that much room. Difficult and costly to undo once you act......

I agree with being careful. It's a pain to spend money to replace something you already had.
Maybe over the next while, start researching ADCs and do some experimentation. When you get to where you can make great recordings it should be easier to move some things along.
 
I agree with being careful. It's a pain to spend money to replace something you already had.
Maybe over the next while, start researching ADCs and do some experimentation. When you get to where you can make great recordings it should be easier to move some things along.
Or maybe just pack it up and store out of sight.....you'll have it later if you want it. Not a big deal for others to discard after you are gone....
 
I "needledrop" all my vinyl. It's just so great having everything in one digital collection. It's also nice since I live in an apartment and can keep my collection here smaller.
 
While I have a very nice Digital recorder and it's as easy to use as a tape deck to record with. I generally record a whole side and leave it alone, labeling it title and side. It sounds just like the record in playback so that's kinda cool. However I wouldn't do a lot of this recording as it's still time consuming, if you edit breaking songs up time will eat away. Then the fact it will be hard and most your files will not have cover art.

You can buy 5 CD to one record today, in fact you can get top shelf CDs like MFSL & SACD for the sale of a title in a lot of cases. So I would go though your collection making a priority list of what you want in digital, what you want as the best CDs you can find. Sell or trade the records and use the money for CDs. The CDs can be ripped to the computer for easy listening, and you can get or have a really nice CDP to listen to top shelf disc one at a time for critical listening.

In the music forum there is a music trading section you can start a thread.
You can also subscribe and sell and trade in BT...

I will also be interested in what your moving along under the proper forums. But I'm also kinda where your at and thinking of moving out half my collection and sliming weight down and ease up my listening work.
 
BTW

SD is a older guy as he said, records are a pain at times a take up space no mater how you store them. I can relate as I must still have 6500 records, it's work having that many titles.

He's also been buying records over the past 10 years so I would say most of it he got dirt cheap. In the past couple of years used record prices have jumped though the roof. Titles that could be bought for $4, five years ago are $15-$20. Top artist that you might have paid $10 for a first pressing are $50-$60 and up.

Throwing records into storage today would be like throwing money away. I think if someone is starting to not want to put the work into listening to records, today is the time to sell. Tomorrow the romance of records with the young crowed and baby boomers can be over with and titles back to .50 cents each no matter what they are.
 
For the very few LP's I've transferred to FLAC I broke them into individual selections added full tagging information and cover art. It is a time consuming a PITA process. To do this I usually use MP3 Tag.

They were all recorded at 16/48 using Audacity. 16 bits (96dB) is more than enough to handle an LP's dynamic range. A sampling rate of 48KHz gets the digital signal's upper frequency limit (24KHz) well above the Nyquist frequency necessary to preserve an LP's high end and allow for filtering.

IMO: If the original CD standard had been 16/48 there would have been a lot less complaining about CD sound both then and now.
 
I started down that path about 10 years ago with DAT, but quickly realized that the recordings didn't quite sound the same as the LP. Fast forward to now and I have Spotify for when I don't want to spin an LP, and two turntables for when I do. I see no need to record them because someone else already did and the quality is fine for most of my casual listening.

jblnut
 
I gave a collection I had for years to one of my sons. If I ever get the urge to listen to any of those old LP's it's a short drive to get one.
 
I gleam far too much pleasure from the act of playing an album. Sure I will stream some CBC podcasts or classical now and then, but for critical listening, analogue is king in my house.

Eventually I will cull the collection and at that time I might record some of the selections. Just not the now.
 
I've been ripping parts of my 1200-1500 LP collection over the last few years, not to get rid of them, but to have a digital copy for my car.
 
That's why I said and have done very few.
I’ll respectfully disagree that 48/16 is sufficient to duplicate the best vinyl.

I record at 96/24 with an HRT Line streamer and realize it like most modestly priced options is limited by the op amp based circuitry.

IMO: If the original CD standard had been 16/48 there would have been a lot less complaining about CD sound both then and now.
Remember that the first vinyl based digital recordings from Soundstream on Telarc were recorded at 50/16 and subsequent SACD releases didn't need to compromise the original. Sony and Philips were fenced in by what we would consider today to be Jurassic storage limitations of 1980 - 640 MB for an entire album uncompressed. It was never a question of "what would it take to fully replicate analog in a digital medium?" We have a fixed budget and must compromise either playing time or resolution. Such is no longer the case...
 
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I understand completely, Superdog. Many titles I have haven't been played even once. I like finding, cataloging, and then spinning them.

But.....things change, time is the real currency, and if it is in the way, or no longer desired, pffft. Let it go. We are all 1 heartbeat away from making all our acquisitions a headache for someone else.

Give it thought, and time, and you'll know what to do.
 
After lugging maybe 300 records around for 40 years, finally buying a house we are retired in, gathering another 700 or so records, and investing quite a bit of time and effort in LP storage and playback, I'll wait to stop playing records until I cannot walk to my turntables.

YMMV.
 
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