any vinyl fans here?

Xenosapien still hasn't sent from amazon, so i cancelled my order and ordered Morbid Angel - Gateways To Annihilation instead
YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHH :D

also did a big basket of vinyls from southern.net last night
two copies of Sunn O))) - Domkirke
two copies of Burial Chamber Trio's picture disk
Pentemple - O))) Presents... x1

my bud wanted some shit so i said we could do one big basket so thats why theres two copies each of those.
also ordering 2 red behold the arctopus/orthrelm 7" splits tomorrow and swapping one of the reds for a brand new green.
VINYL BINGE
 
I got Metallica Kill em All when it came out on Vinyl. ;) I was only 5 though... my dad was into teh metal.

Also got Ozzy Bark at the Moon on the same Christmas - also from my dad.

I have close to 1000 albums, but they're in storage.
 
Finally got a killer turntable - a vintage classic, the Realistic LAB-420, made in Japan. Reviews online have been solid, everyone seems to agree that it slays the Pro-Ject Debut III and Rega P1. It only ran me $75 from a local seller on Craigslist, and it's in mint condition.

I've put in an order for an Audio Technica 440 MLa cartridge (another highly regarded budget audiophile item), because the original Realistic stylus is shot, and the stock cartridge was never considered very good to begin with. Cartridge/stylus should be here in a few days. Looking forward to getting this going, excited to finally get into this format.

PS - apparently vinyl sales are increasing more than I had thought. From the article below: "...vinyl sales in the U.S. shot up 90 percent in 2008 and another 33 percent in 2009."

http://www.exclaim.ca/articles/multiarticlesub.aspx?csid1=140&csid2=889&fid1=43921
 
The cartridge, along with various vinyl cleaning supplies and a turntable bubble level arrived today. So I've gotten it all going, and it sounds pretty amazing overall, but I'm getting some distortion during peak levels in the sound of various LPs, not from improper tone arm adjustment (I've messed with that until it was absolutely perfect), so I believe the distortion is happening somewhere inside the Marantz 2245 receiver, possibly inside the phono preamp itself.

I may have to look inside the 2245 receiver, clean it, but possibly have it serviced professionally if that doesn't help. Anyone else ever encounter a distorting phono preamp in a vintage receiver?
 
Another update - if anyone cares (and I am not upset if this is completely uninteresting to you guys) - I've determined that the source of the distortion is the LPs I got at the aforementioned yard sale. Not as "minty" as I had thought originally as a vinyl n00b. Despite my awesome cleaning products and obsessive cleaning prior to playing, fairly distracting crackles and pops, as well as distortion on peak audio levels are unavoidable. These discs were never that great to begin with - thin weight USA major label presses, due largely to the petrochemical industry crisis of the 1970s. The "dopey smokey" tendencies of the disc owners are dead obvious - these discs were obviously worn heavily in repeated plays by a crude stylus, and a couple of them have some pretty big scratches, and what I assume to be burns one one disc, most likely from ashes/seeds/whatever (Physical Graffiti + stoners in the 1970s = epic fail.) They still look pretty nice, but they distort and pop all over the place, and the grooves seem like they were shallow to begin with. There's even some obvious imperfections in the plastic molding, as well as warping (most likely from being stored in a poorly insulated garage in a California desert area with temperature fluctuations from 26-110 degrees Fahrenheit in any given year.)

I'm going to be picking up some brand new, shrink wrapped 180 gram vinyl modern metal releases next. I'm thinking Opeth, Bloodbath, Katatonia, Sunn, Death, etc. as a few first picks. Really excited to be getting into the format, despite the many hurdles I've encountered so far (I suppose I neglected to mention that the "mint" turntable needed its hard wired right-channel RCA cable spliced with a new cable due to severe dropouts in the audio. I will be making a permanent cable replacement soon, for now the quick fix is working well.)
 
Shane I just played my copy of Sunn O))) - Oracle the other night for the first time, 180 gram, felt like I was holding some sort of monolith \m/ And it sounded absolutely GORGEOUS!
I am ordering an Ortofon M2 Red cartridge later today, exciting times!

Also on distortion, I played my supposedly mint copy of Behold... The Arctopus - Skullgrid the other night as well and that had some very noticable distortion around the end of each side (so You Are Number Six and Transient Exhuberance in particular,) and it really took me out of it, but it's a pretty thin vinyl. I also played my copy of Atheist - Unquestionable Presence (from the same ebay store) which sounded absolutely pristine (as did everything else I played that night,) so I'm pretty sure I must have gotten a one off dodgy pressing. My bud's copy of Skullgrid that has been played quite a few times has some distortion on the same tracks (as vinyls aparrently wear more towards the center, dunno why,) but it was fairly mild, so yeah, I'm convinced I just got a dodge copy.
Be wary of first pressings from Relapse Records, too. They tend to be pretty light and thin.

Anyway, I'd highly recommend investing in some Sunn records. Monoliths and Dimensions and Oracle both totally, totally blew my mind sound wise.
Has that AT cartridge got an elliptical stylus by the way? You might wanna look into getting one if not because the detail is really enhanced with one, noticably so.

Nice to be sharing the journey of getting into the forum with someone \m/



As for recent acquisitions here:

Sunn O))) - Domkirke
Burial Chamber Trio 10" Picture Disk (Sunn O))) side project featuring Greg Anderson, Oren Ambarchi and Atilla Csihar, get it, it's fucking awesome)
Pentemple - O))) Presents
(These three are arriving today! :D)
Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Lift Yr. Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven
Behold The Arctopus/Orthrelm 7" split x2 (one red, one green, £6 altogether from eyeofsound)
Dysrhythmia - Barriers And Passages (only 500 made, if you're a fan you should probably invest in this IMMEDIATELY and it's only £7.99 from eyeofsound, sounds great too.)
Current 93 - The Inmost Light Trilogy (this is a birthday present though and I won't be getting this for another week, although it arrived with my GY!BE record)
Atheist - All 3 albums on 12" picture disks from Relapse (36 dollars, absolute steal and they sound great on vinyl \m/)
Cynic - Traced In Air (180 gram vinyl also, look into this one Shane if you're a fan, got it brand new from ebay.)

Edit: ignore my previous statements about looking at an elliptical stylus, goddamn, I bow in your cartridge's aura. \m/
Edit 2: Shane you got msnz? LETS BE VINYLFAGZ 2GETHA BBZ
 
Hey Gareth - my MSN is TheRealKazrog at hotmail dot com (don't want to get harvested by spam bots.)

So anyway, today I downloaded a turntable cartridge alignment protractor and printed it. I aligned my cartridge and the difference is immediately apparent. Everything sounds better. I also do have one truly mint, unplayed original vinyl pressing that I ended up being given randomly - a yacht rock classic - The Doobie Brothers' Minute By Minute. Fired that up with the properly aligned cartridge and now my rig sounds seriously epic. I've never seen my speakers move this much at low to medium volumes. Sounds amazing now!!!

Next, I'm going to order some new 180g metal releases... see you on MSN next week!
 
Just blasted Sunn O))) - Domkirke tonight for the first time!
Utterly incredible, one of the most intense listening experiences of my life bar fucking none.
 
Turns out my copy of Dark Side Of The Moon that I scored at the garage sale sounds great now that the cartridge is aligned properly. The other discs sound better than before, but are still fucked up, however Dark Side is minty and amazing sounding. That alone was worth the $20.

Anyone else notice how much more bass intensity you get with vinyl? I'm assuming this has something to do with RIAA equalization, however since that gets reversed by the preamp, it can't affect the actual sound that much IMO.
 
well vinyl seems to be able to handle LESS bass than cd's, but what's there is far more palpable and alive IMO.

more purchases last night:
Godspeed You! Black Emperor - F#A# Oo (limited to 500, from the original pressing, brand new)
Miasma & The Carousel of Headless Horses - Manfauna x2 (one black, one clear)
Paramore - Brand New Eyes (cant wait to hear how this one sounds on vinyl.)

also Gravetemple - The Holy Down on CD. Hurrr

edit: oh and shane i have inbox space now haha.
 
Haha, that's cool man, I've honestly never even heard them, they just seem to have the stigma of being like the ultimate indie hipster fart-sniffer band :lol:
 
yeah they are pretentious wankers indeed
but theyre still pretty awesome
 
oops.
did it again

mr bungle - disco volante
cephalic carnage - conforming to abnormality
earth - earth 2
 
I just put in my order for this..

Next month sees a release that many people will have been waiting
since 1998 Morbid Angel's 'Formulas Fatal to The Flesh' for the First
Time On Vinyl! Following on from the almighty 'Domination' album and
with the departure of David Vincent still fresh in everyone's minds
Morbid Angel returned with an unrivaled ferocity, invoking the
Sumerian spirits of old and reminding everyone just how Death Metal
should be written, when many of the scenes leading bands had
misguidedly changed direction or lacked any originality!

Now released on vinyl for the first time 'Formulas Fatal To the
Flesh' is housed in a deluxe gatefold sleeve and presented on either
black, red, clear or an extremely limited lava coloured vinyl! The
Lava vinyl is only available at the Earache Webstores and limited to
just 100 copies so be sure to order yours now as this is going to sell
out fast!

Get hold of the LP and brand new 'Formulas Fatal To the Flesh' Shirt
here:"

Lava Vinyl LP:

http://www.earache.com/webstore/product_info.php/products_id/2356


Tshirt & More!

http://www.earache.com/webstore/advanced_search_result.php?keywords=morbid+angel&x=0&y=0

:headbang::kickass:
 
I am interested in the Skullgrid vinyl version.
GarethSE can you say something about the sound quality? I hope it's better than the CD.