How much does it really cost to clean and play records.

[Thunderbox]

In this hobby people will go to great lengths in the care and playing of records. The question is, how much is this costing us. We will start with the picture of the records. This is approximately 1350 records. All catalogued and alphabetized. Doing this can cost a bit. 1350 outer covers at about .30 cents a record. That's over $400 alone and that is the smallest cost. Now if you have a Koetsu cartridge you can play for 1000-1500 hours before needing a retip. Koetsu retips are between $2700 and $4000 US at the manufacturer. That will last about 1500 records and needs to be replaced. That works out to $2.66 per play. Not including the original cost of the Koetsu which ranges from $7000 to $15000. At median price lets say on average $10000. That's $6.66 per record but is only a one time cost. Now we have a RCM which could cost from $100 to $7000. that could cost as much as $4.66 or as little as .06 cents. Chemicals and DW for washing and rinsing, say .02 cents per record.

The total to listen to a single record once can be more or less than the $11.64 in this post depending on your circumstances. This does not including the cost of your turntable, the record and a phono preamp. That is just to play and it doesn't matter if it is a $30 new purchase or three for a $1 garage sale special. Do any of us wonder why streamers have become so popular. Records are not cheap, they have value and seem to be increasing in price. On the other hand with digital you have only the music and the value is Zero. Yet we persist.

 

[Jeff449]

It's worth it.

 

[tourmax]

deleted by op

 

[ripblade]

I remember calculating the cost to wear out the stylus on a MC to be ~a buck a play back in the'80s. Hasn't changed that much when inflation is factored in.

I always said vinyl replay was a rich man's sport. That hasn't changed, either.

 

[curtisw99]

In this hobby people will go to great lengths in the care and playing of records. The question is, how much is this costing us. We will start with the picture of the records. This is approximately 1350 records. All catalogued and alphabetized. Doing this can cost a bit. 1350 outer covers at about .30 cents a record. That's over $400 alone and that is the smallest cost. Now if you have a Koetsu cartridge you can play for 1000-1500 hours before needing a retip. Koetsu retips are between $2700 and $4000 US at the manufacturer. That will last about 1500 records and needs to be replaced. That works out to $2.66 per play. Not including the original cost of the Koetsu which ranges from $7000 to $15000. At median price lets say on average $10000. That's $6.66 per record but is only a one time cost. Now we have a RCM which could cost from $100 to $7000. that could cost as much as $4.66 or as little as .06 cents. Chemicals and DW for washing and rinsing, say .02 cents per record.

The total to listen to a single record once can be more or less than the $11.64 in this post depending on your circumstances. This does not including the cost of your turntable, the record and a phono preamp. That is just to play and it doesn't matter if it is a $30 new purchase or three for a $1 garage sale special. Do any of us wonder why streamers have become so popular. Records are not cheap, they have value and seem to be increasing in price. On the other hand with digital you have only the music and the value is Zero. Yet we persist.

It doesn’t have to be that way.
Most of the best albums of the 70s can be had for a few bucks and they sound awesome on a vintage turntable with an at3600l

And you can clean them with a soft sponge and dish soap.

 

[Thunderbox]

It doesn’t have to be that way.
Most of the best albums of the 70s can be had for a few bucks and they sound awesome on a vintage turntable with an at3600l

And you can clean them with a soft sponge and dish soap.

No argument from me. I didn't say I support those costs either.

 

[sqlsavior]

A real, vintage Discwasher brush with the original directional bristles is $15-30 on ebay.

A bottle of Pfan-Stat anti-static cleaner with a spritzer is about $6. Spritz the brush lightly from about 6-8 inches away before using the Discwasher. Use it properly, leading edge first while rotating slightly. Wipe the brush backwards on your pants to clean, for free.

 

[Redd House]

Buzz kill!!

 

[bolero]

A Spinclean is about $70 ( made in USA too )
Distilled water is cheap 4L for $1 or so?

Records: you don't need 1500 records. Just buy a few to start out
A good vintage TT doesn't need to be expensive. $200 or even less will get you something decent. $70 will get you a good MM cart/stylus.

You can upgrade the cart & stylus if you want but it's not necessary

And you don't need to pay a streaming service, or internet/cell phone provider to listen to it. It'll also work if your internet goes down.

 

[Thunderbox]

It doesn’t have to be that way.
Most of the best albums of the 70s can be had for a few bucks and they sound awesome on a vintage turntable with an at3600l

And you can clean them with a soft sponge and dish soap.

Nobody has said it should be that way.

 

[Thunderbox]

A real, vintage Discwasher brush with the original directional bristles is $15-30 on ebay.

A bottle of Pfan-Stat anti-static cleaner with a spritzer is about $6. Spritz the brush lightly from about 6-8 inches away before using the Discwasher. Use it properly, leading edge first while rotating slightly. Wipe the brush backwards on your pants to clean, for free.

If that puts your hair back fantastic.

 

[twiiii]

If you store your records in good sleeves and rotate the opening of the sleeve when inserting in the jacket and keep your TT platter clean and have a decent well fltered HVAC system , then you don't need to clean the LP every time you play it. I only listen to lp's once a week or so. With close to 3000 digital recordings on CD and 600 on the computer listening to LP's is reserved for a special occasion of once a week or so. So thats about 200 hundred hours a year. Mostly less. So maybe a record gets cleaned once every two or three years. My most valuable LP's have also been dubbed to CD for casual listening further extending the life of the record, MC cartridge, and cleaning cycle.

What's casual listening you might ask. That would mostly mean when I am sitting at the computer in a room with a large opening into an adjacent room where the Stereo system is located. Even though the speakers aren't pointed at me and basically stereo becomes mono the experience is still enjoyable as I fix meals or am working at the computer, doing my image correction thing for my photographic files or making special playlists of music. Some times I down load CD's of LP's on the computer to make my own entertainment playlists. Here again I am not playing the LP's directly but using the dubbed CD's.

Until I started buying Original Master LP from DGG and rare direct to disc Lp's from Acoustic Sounds in Kansas my average cost per LP was under $3.00. A friend and I share the DGG. I make him CD's of my LP's and he allows me to dub his LP's. So I guess my average cost for those Lp's is about $19,00 each. So I have 12 of those and about 20 of Acoustic Sounds averaging about 30 dollars each so maybe the average cost of the my Lp's has gone up a dollar as a best guess. . Plus those new LP's don't need cleaning either. The few pre-owned LP's from AS have been cleaned with a KL Audo cleaning machine and are just like new. So if you want my advice and can afford one, you should definitely buy one. I got my VPI model 17 for less than 600 dollars back in 2008 as I best remember. It does a great job using Groove Washers G3 fluid and then rewashing with distilled water. That probably adds a 25 cents to the cost of each play, too. My 15 month old Dynavector XX_2 MK II was a significant investment even with the 20 % discount, but it really is the best cartridge I have ever had. I have had at least one new cartridge every two years over the past 65 years. Some of the Ortofon's from the 60's and 70's were not cheap either when figuring in inflation and cost of living increases.

When Hastings went out of business I bought over 100 Lp's at 99 cents each. When my favorite local L P music store moved 5 or 6 years back I was buying over 100 Lp's at $1.86 average and the VPI record cleaner really earned its way. Then you figure the cost of the sound system whether playing streamed music, CD's or LP's and the cost starts really climbing. Close to $50,000. Some of the pieces are 55 years old some are only 15 months old. Retail price if all the stuff were new would be over $100,000. Though I paid only $400.00 for my turntable with linear arm an equivalent one today would be close to $14,000. So what is the hourly cost on that? Have no clue and don't really care. The system and the collected music makes me happy and helps this old hermit pass the 24 hours in each day happily.

 

[Mike_S]

I totally feel you! Last year when cleaning my piano black TT (will never buy a piano black anything ever) just finished and removing the MF towel after putting the tonearm back, the end of the towel caught and ripped out my almost brand new needle. That cost me almost $500!

Records are the "cheap" part, however they keep going up in price over the last couple years new records have gone from $20-35 each. It's getting hard to find anything new under $30. Used around me are almost always over $20. Don't get me started on almost everyone having a double or triple album for $50+!

Then you get new inner and outer selves, usually get them on sale, and in bulk. Think I got a few hundred in the cabinet waiting for new records. They get sleeved after a nice multi step cleaning process ending with an ultrasonic cleaner $$.

Vinyl is time! So much time, picking out the record, cleaning/sleeving the record, cataloging the record, then lastly listening to the record. It's all so analog, my TT is full manual. Then we get to store all the records, got over 2500 now, almost out of space. Half of my music room is record storage.

It's a labor of love for sure!

 

[Ken Boyd]

Hey other hobbies cost more, ever look up the cost of a nice offshore fishing boat? Then you have electronics, rods and reels, outriggers, downriggers, tackle, bait, fuel, oil, it just goes on and on. I have been told golf isn't cheap. I have collected stamps and coins all my life as well, very expensive. Living life to its fullest is what we work for.

 

[Ken Boyd]

I totally feel you! Last year when cleaning my piano black TT (will never buy a piano black anything ever) just finished and removing the MF towel after putting the tonearm back, the end of the towel caught and ripped out my almost brand new needle. That cost me almost $500!

Records are the "cheap" part, however they keep going up in price over the last couple years new records have gone from $20-35 each. It's getting hard to find anything new under $30. Used around me are almost always over $20. Don't get me started on almost everyone having a double or triple album for $50+!

Then you get new inner and outer selves, usually get them on sale, and in bulk. Think I got a few hundred in the cabinet waiting for new records. They get sleeved after a nice multi step cleaning process ending with an ultrasonic cleaner $$.

Vinyl is time! So much time, picking out the record, cleaning/sleeving the record, cataloging the record, then lastly listening to the record. It's all so analog, my TT is full manual. Then we get to store all the records, got over 2500 now, almost out of space. Half of my music room is record storage.

It's a labor of love for sure!

Your price for records is for just average inexpensive ones, I have records bthat cost over 500 dollars and many other records cost much more than that.

 

[Fishead]

It's a labor of love for sure!

So true, and I'm very much in love with it all despite the extra work and time that goes into it! I enjoy all formats, especially keen on the MoFi SACDs that sound really, really good to me, but the analog sound tops them all to my ears and makes all that effort deemed going to worthy cause. That said, I also know the challenges that all those records present with in terms of storage space. I've gotten kind of creative with this, finishing out an area under a staircase that was just a place to put stuff out of the way and either got rid of that or moved it on to the garage and ended up with this:


It's kind of a cool little space to be in, the "Vinyl Vault"......that second picture is a panorama shot so the shelves are not really curved as pictured, but rather flat as the first picture shows them to be. It's just that I wanted to show the other shelves that are around the corner where the steps first start going up on the other side of the wall. It took some getting creative with lighting though, and the light over the shelves on the left in the second picture is actually a battery powered one. It's easily recharged though and seems to last a very long time before I have to do that.....

 

[Redd House]

Hey other hobbies cost more, ever look up the cost of a nice offshore fishing boat? Then you have electronics, rods and reels, outriggers, downriggers, tackle, bait, fuel, oil, it just goes on and on. I have been told golf isn't cheap. I have collected stamps and coins all my life as well, very expensive. Living life to its fullest is what we work for.

Absolutely correct. One of my current obsessions is Grado headphones. Rare, long gone and expensive Grados, and current expensive Grados:
Headphones: (2) Grado RS-1 'buttons' (numbered, unnumbered), (2) Grado RS2e, Grado GH1 (LE), Grado GH2 (LE), Grado GH4 (LE), Grado Russell's Reserve (LE, 1 of 100), Grado Black Label I (LE), Grado HF3 (LE), Grado PS500, Grado PS500e, Grado PS500 Special (x) (LE, 1 of 5), Grado PS1000, Grado PS1000e, Grado PS2000e, Grado PS2000x (LE, 1 of 5), Grado HP100 SE, Grado S950, Grado RS-1x, Grado RS-2x, Grado-Alessandro MS Pro X, Grado-Alessandro MS Two X, Grado SR325x (LE 2024 Gold), Grado SR80x, Grado-Pokémon Poké Ball maple/black 80x, Grado SR40, (2) Sony MDR-V6 (Japan).
Headphone Amps: Bottlehead S.E.X. with upgrades, (2) Schiit Audio Vali 3 (silver, black), (2) Grado RA-1 (AC, DC).
Sources: Yamaha CD-S303, Desktop DVD drive w/ Schiit Modi+. Cables: Mogami 2549 RCA interconnects, Fog City Audio & Forza AudioWorks.

 

[tourmax]

Who cares? Its just money.

what’s money for if not to be spent on things you need or that just make your life a little bit happier?

can’t take it with you….

 

[Quadman2]

In any hobby, "dept of pocket" usually dictates how much is to be spent.

Some car enthusiasts spend $100,000's on cars, while others with model cars in the $100's.

It's what ever floats your boat.

I agree on your "range of cost" for an potential audio system, but records, esp some rock records are a lot more than .30 cents each.

I think the mode of listening depends upon your age, wherein those were brought up with the vintage TT's et al, others with the CD's bought later on. And I find it kinda unique at your age that you seem not aware of age factor and the relevance to this age group to the playing of records.


But as already mentioned...each to their own when it comes to hobbies... and the resulting cost factors, eh?


Q

 

[BmWr75]

Messing with vinyl just isn't worth it to me. I've got over 600 LPs collected over the last 20 years that I'm ready to let somebody else enjoy. They take up way to much space that I could use for speaker storage.