Pimping ain’t easy… but it is necessary… so says the almighty audiophile hip-hop, rap artist and now television star, Ice-T.
Unlike the world of digital audio and audiophile streaming $15 per month doesn’t get you high-definition access to literally every recording ever made that in the WORST CASE scenario is delivered at uncompressed CD level. Other files come at full, master tape resolution for your $15 to $20 per month. Audiophile Turntables is just much more difficult to have such a powerful music collection.
Issues with collecting audiophile vinyl:
- You need a lot of room to store vinyl
- You can’t stream vinyl
- Vinyl is best stored in a temperate climate. Too hot and it can melt. Too cold and it can crack.
- Vinyl, at the perfect temperature, is fragile and needs to be treated very carefully.
- Even well-maintained vinyl degrades with every spin on a turntable (link text: Rega Planar 1 turntable)
- The cost of new vinyl well exceeds that of buying the same recording on Compact Disc even if vinyl is a low-resolution, 100 year old, aging audiophile format. Stock new records can cost $20 and range upwards of $100.
- Vintage vinyl, mainly because of its scarcity, can cost $100 to well over $1,000 per record. One California earthquake and you can ruin that record.
- You need to clean your vinyl carefully.
- You need to keep your turntable free of dust.
- You need to keep your turntable in a solid, stable location thus free of vibrations and external factors.
Audiophile vinyl is a total pain in the ass but many who live in an overly digital world love the format for its analog nature. We can understand that. We just want you to know what you are getting into when it comes to audiophile vinyl and collecting vinyl before you pimp a big-time collection. There are less expensive and far higher resolution ways to make your collection rock and roll.