Does anyone here play vinyl records?

I still have my oldies, dozens of them, but I haven’t played any lately. Not even sure where my old stereo set is.

For a while, my son was a volunteer DJ on his college campus, and he reported then that interest in vinyl was increasing. This was maybe 12 years ago. He had a collection of discs and the paired turntables so he could practice the smooth, manually controlled segue from one song to another. My classical LPs and my sixties folk albums didn’t suit his style, though.

I have hundreds of LPs. When CDs appeared on the scene, the record stores were virtually giving the records away at unbelievable prices and I doubled the size of my collection in less than a year. The classical & jazz deals were phenomenal in scope and availability, and one of my favorite hobbies was hittin the recca stow. Berkeley was the el Dorado of record stores, and Village Music in Mill Valley was absolutely the premium record store for the West coast.

@stanleybmanly Berkeley is still one of the best. There are only a small handful of record stores left in Silicon Valley, but I’ve been able to find some good ones in Berkeley (as well as shops that sell and repair vintage audio equipment).

@stanleybmanly Classical LPs sound good to me. :) I have many classical albums, as well as jazz. No genre sounds better on vinyl than jazz.

I listen to vinyl records all the time

@Demosthenes, was one of those comments meant for me?

Now I’m wondering if I should try to sell my records. They’re used, of course, but mostly not scratched and all in their original jackets. I didn’t think there’d be any interest, but maybe I’m wrong. A few might even be collectors’ items, such as this one.

I love my old vinyl. The sound is rich and nostalgic, and the process of starting a record impresses the kids. I’ve bought new LPs from modern bands but either I’m crazy, or they don’t sound as good. Certainly they feel like they’re made of lower quality material, but I wonder if something hasn’t been lost in digitizing everything, rather than cutting the sound right into a physical object like back in the day.

@Jeruba Yes. I screwed up the tagging. :(

There was a record store that would have yearly “dollar per disc” sales. It was awesome. Built up a lot of my collection through that. Unfortunately the last time was 2018 and I doubt they’re going to have one this year…

@Smashley So far I’ve only bought used records from the 70s mainly. I wouldn’t be surprised if the modern records don’t sound as good. Songs are mixed differently these days. They are mixed much louder, for one thing. I think that would affect the sound on any format.

No, not really. We have a record player, nothing fancy, and I own a handful of vinyls, but I never play them. I cut my teeth on cassettes (sometime multiple generation dubbed ones) and a walkman. I’m fine with CD/digital. Plus I can play an album all the way through, no interruption from having to flip the side or change the disc.