Vinyl

This is a long overdue post about one of my newer loves in life - my record player.


For my 20th birthday I bought myself a record player. I'm not sure what exactly inspired it but a few of my friends have record players and I thought it was a cool process, the whole collecting vinyl, setting up the player, the vibe of it, and then of course - how amazing it sounds. I think its something I've always been interested in doing but haven't had the funds or the opportunity and hey it was my birthday -so treat yo'self.  
Also, we'd recently been to visit my Grandpa Jack and collected a few of mums old records that she used to listen to, including a couple of Pink Floyd albums, so that was another reason for getting one (not that I didn't really need much persuasion!). I think the only thing putting me off was not wanting to make the wrong decision and end up spending money on a flimsy shit player that could potentially ruin any records I got!
 And the actual buying of the thing was probably the most stressful part of this whole experience (that and when I thought I'd blown a speaker). I'd done a bit of research (okay, a LOT of research) because I knew the wide variety of players available and also the wide price range. You can get players with built-in amplifier and speakers e.g the retro, Crosley type players, which have their advantages in portability, ease of use, immediate sound production and they are relatively cheap. But they also have their disadvantages in that the sound quality can sometimes be limited and a lot of audiophiles (aka Hi-Fi enthusiasts) don't recommend them due to how heavy the cartridge arm can be which puts a lot of pressure on your record and eventually wears the vinyl down too much - ruining the record. So then I looked at the next kind of price bracket, which are turntables, these don't have built in amplifiers or speakers so you need to invest in those too. There is a huge range in terms of price they can go from around a £100 right up to £3000+ for the REALLY fancy ones. But I settled for the Lenco L-85 which I discovered from my research was a good turntable for beginners because its user friendly, has decent, enjoyable sound for the money, is good with voices and is reasonably priced with good features.

So, the day of my birthday I couldn't wait and me and my mum went out to Guildford to go shopping and get my record player! I got the actual turntable from HMV and then it was a stress to try and find speakers. We were going to go with a turntable that had speakers in the bundle with it but I thought if I was going to get a decent turntable then I needed decent speakers. So we traipsed around town and looked in all of the places we'd assumed would have speakers but alas they didn't have the ones we needed. But, we called up a music store and they thankfully had some. They were super helpful in the shop (and the sales guy was super cool...) and I only had to wait around an hour for them to get delivered to the shop. In that time I went into town and spent some more of my birthday money and I got my first record - Radiohead's The Bends!

I remember riding the bus home clutching my speakers and my bags of shopping and feeling so elated and full of birthday happiness. Itching to get home and set up my record player and listen to the records if brought!

I was nervous setting everything up, I really didn't want to damage everything but I got it all set up and put on The Bends... WOOOO! It was incredible just hearing the first notes of the record and then the track kicked in and the heavenly sounds of Radiohead came crashing around me! Mum has a video of me and my face just lights up like a child on crimbus morning!

I spent the rest of the day listening to the records I'd brought (led zep, Moose blood, Bon Iver) and the records I'd rescued from grandpa Jack's house. It was magical lsitening to a Pink Floyd album that my mum had when she was my age. And a copy of Bob Dylans the time are changing. 
In the evening when my family came over it was a really experience to sit around and listen to records together as a family!

Thus began my collecting! Currently I've got around 40 or so records and my collection will only grow! It's a great hobby and I inspired my uncle to get out his collection of vinyl and his record player again and I even went over for a record listening evening!

I wish I knew more people who had record players, I want to borrow and share vinyl and geek out over awesome 2nd hand record finds! Also vinyl can be expensive so it's cost effective to share and borrow!
There does seem to be a whole commericalism to vinyl now, I'm so pleased its back in fashion - but that doesn't mean consumers should be sold dreadfully poor quality record players and overpriced vinyl in urban outfitters (£38 for a 12" is ridiculous...)!

Anyway, this was a rambling post about vinyl and my love for record collecting! I hope you enjoyed reading and I hope this maybe inspires you to listen to records!

Love and light,
Lily