Though I’m late to the party, I credit my son for getting me into vinyl records. It was timed well with my general frustration over where we are going as a society with all of this digital madness. I spent considerable time contemplating and researching if this was to be a positive new hobby for me and if so, what was the right setup to buy. During an unfortunate case of Covid in early January, I had read the book Analog by Robert Hasson and in my isolated recovery with full “covid brain fog” decided to just go for it. By the afternoon, I had ordered everything I needed.
I have always been afraid of falling hard into the audiophile rabbit hole. The limitless abyss of spending ridiculous money to get an imperceptibly marginal improvement in sound quality. My salvation and grounding came in the form of The Cheap Audio Man and with his pragmatic guidance, ended up getting the following setup:
- Fluance RT83 Reference High Fidelity Vinyl Turntable
- AIYIMA A08 PRO TPA3255 Amplifier
- Fosi Audio Box X2 Phono Preamp
- Klipsch RP-600M Bookshelf Speakers
What surprised me most about delving into vinyl is a re-appreciation of the album as a complete unit of work. In my youth, you had to commit to a full CD, so you learned it over time. You committed to the entire album. You’d get to know the music through repetition and only then would you have new favorites that may or may not have been radio singles. The entire album became a soundtrack to a specific period in your life. It’s an experience I didn’t realize that I missed.
He who has a record player, must also have records.