How many of you play your old (vinyl) albums?

17 years ago

OK, I ask because I've had a yen to get out my old (really old) albums and listen to them. There are a lot you can't find on cd's and I'm missing them lately. We pulled some funky old speakers (they still sound good) out of the basement and I dropped them into baskets so I wouldn't have to look at them. (I bought my husband an old record he's wanted for a long time to help move this little project along.) I have to say I'm enjoying my blast from the past. Who still plays their old records?

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Comments (16)

3katz4me
17 years ago
We still have all of them but gotta' say I can't remember the last time I played one - DH has more recently than I have. We have a relatively unused turntable that we bought when we were afraid they'd quit making them. I've since learned vinyl is actually the purist form of sound according to audiophiles (which DH is). That is of course if your vinyl wasn't subjected to alot of college party abuse.....
housekeeping
17 years ago
I still play mine, though often it's just to make copies (tapes, CDs) to play on other, more portable, devices and to keep the wear down when I know I'm going to be listening to something a lot. Heck, I still have some 78's and 45's that get a spin every now and then. Next to scents, I think music is especially evocative of days gone by.

Molly~
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seekingadvice
17 years ago
I used to play select ones (my old Beatle albums), but then I discovered downloading music and making my own CDs. You can find practically anything online, which is fun. I have things from movies (I love this song that I *think* is called "Tonight You Belong to Me," sung by Bernadette Peters and Steve Martin from the movie The Jerk), old albums, new stuff, soundtracks, etc. It has been a lot of fun making cds for the kids. One dd adores Shirley Temple so I put together a cool cd for her. One of my little ones loves everything yellow so dh and I thought up all the songs we could that featured Yellow and made a whole cd. There are cds made up of the requisite Raffi songs, Kermit songs (including things from the old Muppet Show), and so on. I made a breakup cd for a friend and a cd with some of my mom's favorite tunes from long ago. I made one for dh for our anniversary that had a lot of appropriate songs. I made a Sound of Music cd when we bought a used movie because the girls loved the songs. So, no, I no longer play my old vinyl records. These days I'm more into compilations, with the exception of the Beatles. I tend to have certain times when I want to hear specific strings of Beatle songs but I also switched over to cds on those quite a while back. Most of my Beatle albums are pretty warped from the crappy stereo I used in the 70s. I doubt I'll ever get rid of them, though. I like the covers and the memories :)
claire_de_luna
Original Author
17 years ago
Hey Gibby, I guess I'm an audiophile, because I can't quite believe how good these sound! (Nice, warm, full-bodied.) I still have all my old records; I think there's close to 300 in the basement. (I don't know if that's just a few or quite a lot, but I can't wait to dig them all out now.) I know there are some that pop and crackle, and some that still sound surprisingly good. I feel like I've discovered an old part of myself that went missing for years.

Molly, I'm right there with you on scents and music. A certain few of these old records evoke a sweet burning smell that was familiar in my youth!
celticmoon
17 years ago
Oh yeah.

We have a turntable in the basement, and DH will often choose to play vinyl while practicing pool. And occasionally he'll fire up a patcholi or incense stick too!

Just yesterday he was bemoaning that the turntable speed for playing a 45 is out of kilter. Finding someone to fix that ought to be interesting...

Meanwhile I'm working on mp3 playlists for an upcoming trip. Working the both extremes of music formats here!!!
lowspark
17 years ago
Well, my kids do, does that count? Both of my teenage boys like to play my old vinyls, they each have their own turntable. To be honest, I don't play music all that often but the convenience of a 25-CD changer is too hard to resist.
claire_de_luna
Original Author
17 years ago
I agree with you Seeking and Lowspark that the call of the CD is an itch more easily scratched. (Not to mention that scratched is what a lot of those old records sometimes are.) I've decided to put the old turntable in my home office, since I spent a lot of time in there and that's where the record cabinet is. I forgot about how little music there is on each side of a record and how often you ''get'' to flip it!

Lowspark, what do your boys listen to?

Celticmoon, that sounds like a good arrangement! I have a turntable that doesn't keep good speed either, and I'm not looking forward to try and getting it fixed...
lowspark
17 years ago
Amazingly enough, everything! They discovered the Beatles when my older son (now 19) was maybe 11 or so. They moved on from there. I have Led Zeppelin, The Who, Jethro Tull, that sort of stuff. They do have definite criticisms on some of the music, Neil Diamond comes to mind, but I didn't like him when I was that age either! I think those albums allowed them to discover a lot of 60s & 70s music which they have since downloaded to their Ipods. My 19 yo is spending his first year of college is in Israel so no turntable there, but my 16 yo still uses his!

My kids love old things, I recently bought my younger son a Remington typewriter at a garage sale because he told me he wanted an old typewriter. He loves it and does type on it, although it needs some cleaning and a new ribbon! My older son has a collection of old macintosh computers in his room, 80s models. It's kind of a neat thing!
natal
17 years ago
We gave away our collection of about 400 albums earlier this year to a former neighbor who's a big audiophile. None of them were in pristine condition and I found the hisses and pops too irritating to bother with anymore. There comes a time....

A few months prior to that we put the majority of our CD collection in a 400 disc changer. Organized the case sleeves in special albums, made master lists according to category and placement in the carousel ... and quickly fell in love with listening to music again.

If we had had the luxury of space to keep the albums we probably would have, but it actually feels good to be rid of them. What's the point of keeping something you never use or listen to?
msafirstein
17 years ago
Nothing like my original copy of LAYLA with Derek and the Dominos!

Every once in a while, usually on a Sunday, we get out my huge album collection and have a ball! I have most of the Beatle albums! So many memories that are all too often forgotten!
mitchdesj
17 years ago
We rented a house recently in florida; I had a ball looking at the hundreds of album covers the owner has, couldn't play them but a lot of the covers brought back memories...........
carolyn53562
17 years ago
My DH plays his--at least the ones that aren't available on CD. We enjoy listening to them, but most of them have been played a lot and are scratchy sounding and then will either skip or get stuck--just like old times-LOL! My son was taking a history of popular music class in high school and wanted to bring some to his class, but the school didn't have a record player. We were lucky in that we bought a new turn table shortly before they became hard to find and our turntable has a search feature so that you program it to only play some of the songs on the record (not perfect but works most of the time) so we can skip the tracks where the needle gets stuck. I read that vinyl records are making a comeback. I am hoping that they have improved the vinyl so that it won't get scratched as easily.
jubileej
17 years ago
My DH gave me a turntable for Christmas so I could enjoy LPs brought up here from my mom's house when she moved in with us years ago. We should have done this sooner!
mtnester
17 years ago
I have a laundry tub full of LP's (with a few 45's and 78's thrown in for good measure), but our record player died long ago, so I haven't listened to them in years. There's a good assortment of rock, blues, jazz, soul, showtunes, and classical. I don't know whether to bring them to a record dealer or put them out as giveaways at a yard sale, but I can't use them now, and I can't vouch for their condition (some were stored in the attic or basement for years and may be warped; most of the album covers are not in great condition), so I have no idea of their worth. And I don't want to buy a new turntable, as the scratches would probably be too painful to listen to. But looking through them brings back such memories! I can even remember how the final chord at the end of one cut was followed by a particular note at the start of the next, or where I was when I first listened to some of the songs; I guess it's an auditory memory that never leaves us.

Lowspark, my DS also discovered the Beatles and then moved on to Pink Floyd, Queen, the Grateful Dead, Jimi Hendrix, and many more. When he still lived at home and played his CDs, I had the pleasure of listening to them again. Good music lasts forever, even if the medium changes.

Sue
mtnwomanbc
17 years ago
DH recently purchased a rare jazz "CD" album off Amazon, knowing he was buying vinyl that would be transfered to CD before delivery (of both the original vinyl and CD). He was expecting a literal translation, including the expected hisses and pops from the vinyl to CD, but evidently there are software programs now that will smooth those out and deliver a top notch quality CD.

Just an FYI that, similar to kitchens, a bit of research in advance can be very educational, as well as efficient, cost-effective, and in the end, satisfying.
sombreuil_mongrel
17 years ago
I still play some vinyl. I bought a Telefunken Hi-Fi as old as I am to play them on. It dates from 1961, and plays 33/45/78. It needed a new cartridge, which I found online for $20. I love the sound of the tube amplifier, and it has a really great radio section, with am, fm, sw. I finally got around to connecting it to my fm antenna in the attic, so I can really "pull in" those stations!
I have bought some new vinyl, but since this is a heavy needle record player, I don't want to wear them out.
Casey

How many of you play your old (vinyl) albums?

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How many of you play your old (vinyl) albums?

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