Vinyl shops

[gchrist]

Hello to everyone,

I like to listen to vinyl records but there is a short supply of new titles. New releases sell for 20 euros minimum which is very expensive compared to the past. I dont want to move to CD's but if one can only find vinyl at the price of CD's than vinyl is not an alternative. Everyone is speaking about 180gr or so of High End releases. Who gives a care about us, the simple audiophile that likes music at a reasonable price?

If anyone knows a shop (on-line) that sells decent vinyl records at a good price post its address for all of us.

George Christofilopoulos
Athens/Greece

[wuffwaff]

Hello George,

it´s getting more difficult the last few years to get recent Lp´s. All the big ones stopped selling records.

Since a few months I buy them at www.jpc.de in Germany. You can even get a newsletter with all the new vinyl every week. Prices are reasonable with around 15€/lp.

www.jpc.de

All the other ones I know sell secondhand and quite expensive audiphile stuff.

hope this helps,

william

[Brett]

George,

I agree with you about new titles being hard to get and expensive, but audiophile vinyl, as opposed to DJ vinyl, is a very small niche market and there is no economy of scale like there is with CDs.

If duties are not prohibitive, perhaps it would be best to get a few titles at a time from somewhere like Red Trumpet or Diverse vinyl.

A new LP cost me about $US50 to import, about 4x what I pay for standard CDs. However my there are plenty of second hand titles available for $US 50c so it's not that big an issue with me.

Last point is that except for a few very small 'phile lables, it will have been recorded digitally anyway.

Cheers

[dice45]

George,

i would like to add: those fancy audiophile 180gr pressings are not comparable to the 108gr crap pressings on the market from 1973 and after. They have no warps, they have stellar S/N ratio (approx.60dB) and are ultra-quiet, they have way less distortion sometimes and in most cases re-recording/recording processing as well as remastering has been done most carefully and by sonics priorities. Having said that, my opinion is that they are rather HiFi than music. I own quite a number of original 1stpressings of which i also own the 180gr audiophile re-issue.

In HiFi aspects some of the re-issues are better than the original, some are way worse. But in any case the original pressing has way better atmosphere, and seductivity, more natural and plausible sounding tone colours and (sometimes way) better tone colour saturation.

Bottom line: if your funds are limited and you think HIFI sonics are not that important, go on ebay, have patience, win your preferred music as used vinyl (i got a practically unused original pressing of LvB 5th symphony, Serge Koussevitzky cond. BSO for $5 + shipping: a crown jewel ). Oops, forgot, www.saturnrecords.com is a 1st class adress for used vinyl and super honest.

If you are after HiFi, go for re-issues.

[gchrist]

Thank you Bernhard,

I think you covered me 100%. Thank you for the link.It is very good.
George

[Brett]

Ditto.

Thanks for the link Bernhard.
My ears are grateful, but my wallet hates you <grin>

Cheers
Brett

[dice45]

Brett,
you are fervently avoiding smilies but you type <grin>. Gotcha ... .. <vbg>

RE: saturnrecords: their prices are truly moderate and considered hown honest they are and how their grading is, you don't risk much.

If a record turns out ot be overpriced, they listen to your offers.
One of my copies of the fancy Mercury SR90316 (Vienna 1908-1914,Berg, Schoenberg, Webern) i got from them :it did not sell for $150. I observed it for a while, not being in urge as i already owned two copies, and after 6 months, i offered $100 on occasion of some other records ordered and i simply got it, without further negotioating. I obviously still offered too much .
but don't be mislead by this comparatively high price: $100 for that record, in that NM condition, it was no bargain, it was a steal

Before ebay was there, this record went went for $1000 if not 1500.

Maybe we meet some day, then i play it, you won't believe the sonics.

[promitheus]

Does anybody have experience in buying vinyl in Ebay ?
You can find some very good offers, but you can´t know how good they are.

[Brett]

is pot luck for LPs. You never know what you're getting. Almost no one play grades, all are done visually, so a grading unless it's bad, has not a lot of relevance to how good it sounds.

I only buy on eBay from, a known source, a sealed disc either NOS or re-issue or get them very cheap.

A known source is the hardest to find. I bought an LP this week off a guy who posts on AA a lot and has very fine gear and taste. I knew it was him because I recall someone asking about an auction of his a while back and made a note of his moniker. The disc is extraordinarily good. Not cheap but good value.
About a year back I bought an MFSL of a guy who turned out to be local. I went and picked it up, we spoke for hours and I took away about 20 more discs. He knows I want mint only, so I send him a list and he mails them to me (I now live 1000km away) and I send him the money when I check them, mainly because he will add in a few others he thinks I might like, though if I'm not happy with any, I just send em on back. Best way to buy LPs I've ever had.

It took luck and a good memory to find both these guys (plus others I know). And patience. The trick with eBay is patience and being willing to let the deal go, and look for the next. If it feels bad, or you have any reservation about it AT ALL, or the price is escalating in a bidding war, or you suspect a shill, walk away, it's not worth the greif. And remember, except for a few audiogeeks no one cares about the discs absolute sound quality. Can you hear the music?

Sealed discs are easy, just check they're feedback and maybe ask them some questions, like are they cutouts and where did they source them. For a high $ disc, I email previous customers and ask them about the quality of the disc and the transaction.

Cheap stuff are discs I'm prepared to write off the $ on even if they're total duds. No bad ones yet.

All that said, I've bought one really bad disc out of over 100. It was graded M/M, packed exceptionally well (disc outside sleeve, custom reinforced mailer, padding) and was a rare title I wanted and cost a lot. It looked exactly as described, the guy was a pro from his packing, knowledge and attitude but............it must have been played with an old nail, so bad did it sound. The seller was very good, explaining his grading was visual, gave me the website for his long established store and offered a refund. He is in the US, so it wasn't worth the cost to send it back. He also uses a cheapo plastic fantastic to play his LPs on, so a play grade would have been worthless anyway. Eventually I sold it on cheaply to a friend who loves it.

Good luck.

[Jeb-D.]

I don't know where you guys are looking, but I usually find sealed LP's for $10 USD. Ebay and Amoeba Music, which is about 30min drive. Honestly I've had really good luck from e-bay, just check out their feedback and see if the posting sounds like they know what their talking about.