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How old are you and how did you get into vinyl?

How old are you?

  • Total voters
    332
VERY INSTERESTING POST HISTORICAL FACT

I was born in 1981, and lived southern France during most of my youth, and during the mid to late 80's vinyls were still the only medium I knew apart from cassettes. I first saw a cd in my life when I moved to Belgium around 1990.

hope you enjoyed my contribution
 
I'd like to add that, I got myself a TT again a year or so ago; the td-126mk2 from Thorens. I've built quite an lp collection sincethen, but I need a different arm for my TT as the stock one is broken; then I have to find someone to set up this TT because I don't really know how to do it.
 
I'm 30, and my earliest memories of listening to music at home was on vinyl and tapes. We mostly had tapes, but there were a few LPs such as Fleetwood Mac Rumors and a bunch of KISS albums. After around '82 we gave up on vinyl and went to tape because of it's portability (portable tape players became very popular, especially around the beach). I also experienced vinyl vicariously through some friends who played it in their homes. I was late coming into the CD era (1990) and at that time I just accepted that CD was the definitive way to listen to music, and figured vinyl had gone the same way as 8 track. Recently I've become more interested in equipment and compared the sound from different CD players and noticed that there is a difference between a cheap player and a decent one. Having read about the different formats I found myself thinking about vinyl again. It helps if you've been exposed to it at an early age, because there is something familiar about it.

Much of the music I am interested was released during the vinyl era. I am someone who likes to touch things and make things with my hands (cooking for example). This is why vinyl has more appeal for me than CDs. I think you probably find that it is easier to spend more quality time listening and immersing yourself in the music with this format.
 
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I am 15 and ever since I can remember I have been playing stuff from my dad's huge collection. And then I got into stuff like The Doors and Led Zeppelin. I then got myself a harman/kardon T25 and the amp to my namesake with Fisher St-410 speakers in my room.
 
I'm 39 and bought my first album in 1980, AC/DC-Highway to Hell before I had a turntable, got a Fisher receiver/turntable/tape deck combo for Christmas. Couldn't ask my parents for anything with the word Hell in the name so I asked for Back in Black with it. Highway to Hell is MIA but I do still have Back in Black. Never had a good turntable until I picked up a sansui sr-838 a couple months ago. Finally got a cd player about 1990 after the tape deck and turntable wore out on the fisher. My replacement table was a cheap Kenwood kd-21r which sounded about as good as cd but not worth the trouble of playing albums so I bought mostly cd from there out. Now that I have the Sansui, it's back to vinyl big time, blows cd away.
 
I have my parents' shellac 78's, in book-style albums. Gotta wash them, and give 'em a listen. I remember hearing these when I was VERY young.
 
I grew up with vinyl and i love vinyl.
I still have more LP's than CD's.
The first turntable i had was like a shoebox from Philips and, when we opened it we have the speakers. :D
Now i still have an old Toshiba,an old Rotel and a new Pro-ject RPM 9 with a Shure V15xMR and i'm happy. :yes:

clint.
 
i'm 27 years old. My dad has about a ten-foot long shelf full of records, so that's probably where i picked up the vinyl bug. (although he mainly just listens to CDs these days) i started buying vinyl about ten years ago, mainly because the kind of music i was getting into at the time (underground punk/hardcore) still mostly comes out on vinyl. At first, i was just buying stuff that wasn't available on CD, but still preferred CDs. That changed pretty quickly, and i now pretty much only buy CDs if something isn't available on vinyl (or it's really hard to find/expensive). My collection these days is around 1500 records. Unfortunately, my bedroom is pretty jam-packed these days. Over the last few months, i've been getting a lot more serious about cleaning records, and the rituals involved. It's a great way for me to relieve stress, and just plain fun!
 
No surprises here -- started buying vinyl as a teenager in the '70's, never gave it up. Don't have a huge collection, never had a lot of money as a kid, but I have some pretty good music. I had a lot of cassettes for the convenience of listening in the car; have a lot of CD's now for the same reason, but I still buy vinyl because it just sounds better to me.

And I love sitting in the LR with the stereo cranked, and when my teenage niece and her friends come in the house and cringe I just point to my t-shirt that says "If it's too loud, you're too old!" :D
 
I'm 40 and have always been into vinyl. When I was 4 or 5 my parents bought me a portable record player and a portable reel-to-reel deck, and I was hooked.

I used their RCA console as my good rig growing up, finally getting a good Pioneer rig in '78, which was replaced by a Sansui rig in '84, which was replaced by an unending series of high-end rigs beginning in '88.

I started doing shows on college radio when I was still in high school, eventually spending 12 years in college, then community, then commercial radio, and was music director at a couple of stations.

My vinyl buying has slowed, obviously, but I have about 3000 LPs and 1000 7"s and an Elite Rock and a broadcast transcription turntable to play them on.
 
In 1968 at 16 yrs, I had a all in one Bradford thing from Grants. Perfectly content. Then one of the geeks from my neighborhood asked me if I wanted to hear his stereo. He had a complete AR system with XA table, integrated amp, and 3a speakers. He put on Holst's "Planets", specifically Jupiter. The Boston Symphony Orch. rendition.

The Monkee's "I'm A Believer"? No, but close......

"Pete Maran took me into space,
Now I'm a believer!
Not a trace, of doubt in my mind!"

Not long after I was the proud owner of an AR-XA table with Shure cart, a Lafayette Radio Electronics integrated amp, and a pair of H.H. Scott speaks. No tuna.
 
The first turntable I used was my folks' V-M all in one tube unit. It was pretty cool to watch it drop records and play them automatically!

My own first turntable was one of those generic gray metal $19.95 idler wheel changer units that had a ceramic cartridge but the base was optional. Anyone else remember those? Olson Electronics, Lafayette and others sold them, but I got mine used. I made a base for it that was not pretty but got the job done. That would have been in the mid-late '60s.

After a few years I graduated to a Garrard 42M changer with a Shure cartridge. That held me for another couple of years.

Then I got a Pioneer PL-10 which was my first foray into a decent record deck. Had various Shures and Audio Technicas on it.

After that came a Technics SL-1700 (I think that was the model number) which was a very nicely made semi-auto direct drive unit. Shures and Audio Technicas there, too.

Late '70s I upgraded from the Technics unit and got a Rega Planar 3 with a Grace G-707II arm and a GAS Sleeping Beauty Shibata cartridge. I really liked the sound of that setup and often wonder just how good that cartridge would sound in my current turntable setup.

In 1980 or '81 I bought my first Linn LP-12, early Ittok and Asak cartridge. That, too was really musical, but the Asak wasn't much for good tracking.

Rather than upgrading that turntable to Valhalla, I sold it and bought a newer LP-12/Valhalla around 1983. Newer Ittok and cartridge, too (I can't remember the name of the first metal bodied Linn cartridge right now). I eventually upgraded it to a Troika.

I still have this TT, but it now has all the upgrades...Cirkus, Trampolin, Lingo, etc. I managed to get an Arkiv B cartridge a few years ago and earlier this year finally upgraded that 1983 Ittok to a new Ekos.

Whew. I'm done upgrading for the forseeable (sp?) future, but it's a pretty darn musical record player now. If I had unlimited resources I'd probably try a handful of cartridges, though the Arkiv is really nice. Still would like to have heard the Sleeping Beauty on this setup.
 
"The Music of the Night" (What REALLY got me hooked on vinyl)

This isn't my first introduction (which I posted earlier), but my biggest impression of what a reeeally good TT can do, and thus what got me hooked:

The best all-around system I ever heard was back in the mid-80's, just before the silver disc revolution seemed to temporarily kill the TT industry. It had a Denon TOTL (or near-TOTL) DP-series turntable with a be-uuuutiful rosewood veneer. A very traditional and simple look as all DP series that I know of are, but a work of art IMO. I've been drooling over natural wood veneer TTs ever since.

Ah, well. Getting one is somewhere on my list (not necessarily Denon, but necessarily a "woody"), but it can't happen soon unless my winning lottery ticket shows up or I'm laid off and get re-hired right away (Thus pocketing a good sized severance pay.)

Anyhow, this was in my favorite stereo shop in the basement of the old opera house in my home town. (I suspect that cranking up "Phantom of the Opera" really loud just before plays was probably a favorite pastime.) They had it hooked up to an all-McIntosh system, with those Mc speakers that had the tall tweeter/mid tower separate from a huge woofer cabinet. (Either the XRT30, or a predecessor) They spun "1812 Overture" on the Denon and the dynamics were so fast and powerful that you could feel your eardrums pop in when the canons fired.

I don't know what cart they were using (probably the TOTL Shure at that time), and I think the tonearm had to be factory, since Denon designs them specifically for their induction servo system.

Sadly, that shop is gone now. The home town branch shut its doors just recently, though a couple other locations are still in business. But I bet if you walk into that opera house basement late at night and listen very closely, you can still hear the echo of "The Phantom" or the firing of old war canons, with maybe just a hint of a pop or crackle from a classy system of a bygone erra. :sadwave:

Yes, it was just the 80's. But also the end of the erra when high-end analog was the undisputed king.
 
kvltboy said:
Over the last few months, i've been getting a lot more serious about cleaning records, and the rituals involved. It's a great way for me to relieve stress, and just plain fun!
Click to expand...

haha, me too. i love to clean my records, its great after a long day of crate digging to come home and break out all the "tools" pop in an old skool action movie and wipe off the neglect of others, i find it very relaxing, and it lets me clear my head cause "action is the enemy of thought" :scratch2:

i got started on records like some others have said cause that was the only thing around, my folks had a dandy supply of good ol country music avaliable, and being from Texas there was much Hank Williams Sr, and Southern gospel favorites
my audiophile passion didn't kick in till the 80s, not sure why, its like the girl who broke your heart, but you still miss her anyways ;)
 
I got my first record player grom my grandmother when I was born in 1960. It was a suitcase Westinghouse, which I still have and use for 78s. (a pic of it is in the What's your favorite TT thread) I remember buying my first 45 at 7, Yellow Submarine b/w Nowhere man. I still have it along with a tall stack of others. We also had a Knight portable half track mono RTR we used to listen to classical music on. We also used it to send "letters" to my Uncle who had the same deck. I wish I still had that machine.
When I got into HS I got an AM/FM/8-track POS and started building my 300+8-track collection.
In 1978 I inheited some money from my grandmother and bought the Radio Shack $747 system-an STA-2000D receiver, 5 band, 2 channel EQ, 8-track and an LAB400TT. I've since upgraded the EQ, but the receiver and the TT are still pumping out music, in fact, they're on as I write this.
I now have the LAB-400, a newly aquired Tandberg TCD 330, MacGregor 8-Track, Akai GX-4000D RTR, Sony RCD-W1 CD recorder, Magnaxox CDB480 CD player and a 10 band, 2 channel EQ running off the STA2000D. I had a nice pair of Sound Lab 3-ways, but something happened to the crossovers, so I'm using 4 RCA bookshel speakers until I can get the Sound Labs fixed.
In my collection I have 8 feet of vinyl ranging from The Singing Nun to Zappa, 300+ 8-tracks, 200+ cassettes, maybe 100 7" reels and a bunch of CDs. I'm 45.
 
cool story Bog...

sma eage here...and although I've upgraded quite a few times...it's the raw nature of music that we love....



and of course there's Zappa!!


Peace, Pogue
 
I'm late (very late) 40's and my first turntable was when I was about three to four.. sort of a 50's version of a close and play. It was turquoise colored plastic like material. The records were small 45 sized items that had a regular spindal hole and were various bright colors. It had replaceable needles that were sizable steel things. The first lp sized record I recall. ( which believe it or not played on this contraption) was entitled "Train Sounds" and that was what it was! An entire record of blasting train noises! What were my parents thinking when they got that? I loved it, they did not. This about the grand age of four. Next, about 7th grade a got a Zenith all in one job, big box that the speakers swung out ( and could be disconnected from this thing and spread apart for increased "stereo effect". Once the speakers were opened, the turntable folded down and you started stacking those records on there! About 19 I bought an actual turntable, a kenwood belt drive whose model number I do not remember. A couple years later a Marantz direct drive ( 6350?) which survived into the cd age, whereupon things analog stagnated a little while until the 90s when I got a conneseur (spelling) BD-1, which served until late 90s when I got hold of the AR "The turntable" that I still have. It has been Merrill modded silly and is a fine piece for my purposes. BTW, the first real LP I went out and bought myself was Led Zeppelin II, which was new and hot as hell at the time. I was in the seventh grade? Maybe sixth, but I remember having it in seventh.... shoot, I STILL have it!

Russellc

Russellc
 
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Still got that "Train Sounds" LP? If in good condition they often sell for over $100 on eBay. Been chasing one for my brother for a while and always seem to get outbid.
 
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