Actually playing your collection

Unlikely One

Junior Member
Having finally established my own hideaway in our house after lots of renovation and my children leaving I have the right space now for my collection where I can really appreciate it. Yes moz looks down at me from various angles. I've got all my vinyls back together in a great ikea storage system which seems perfectly designed for vinyl (god bless the swedes Mikael!

My neat little turntable is all sorted with its strange rubber band mechanism and weight on a string anti skate mechanism. Bizarre when I think back to those early smiths releases and what they were played/tortured on. My wife's only comment in the shop when I was explaining to an appreciative audio geek that the turntable was gonna be for my own special moments was....it doesn't have a lid!

Anyway I have my space, I have my gear, I have plenty vinyl inc lots of collectible stuff and now I find myself wondering if I should actually play them. What do you lot do? Some stuff is sealed and will be kept that way but most is not. With almost everything available digitally it's easy to listen to what you want but actually playing a record is a different thing, almost religiously ritualistic at times.

So do you play your rare stuff, test presses, promo vinyls, marbled vinyls and the like for that really special moment or do you keep them filed away. I am really interested in how collectors treat their own treats so to speak. To play or not to play?
 
As a vinyl junkie I think the records have to be played. If you treat them well, dust them as needed and handle with care you won't damage them. Yes I have all my collection digitalised but it just sounds better to me on vinyl. I love the bumps and crackles, I love reading the inner and sleeve as the record plays, I love having to get up and change sides. You would need a really crap set-up to do major damage to your records. I don't have any really really rare items in my vinyl collection but I do have over 1,200 LPs and I've being buying for over 20 years. What I love most about kicking back and putting on an LP is that I'm immediately transported back in time to when and where I bought the LP and where I was in my life at the time. Anyway, digital for car etc. and play your records!
 
To be honest I don't have much of a love affair with actually playing vinyl. I've owned records for about 23 years, but never really liked playing them. I'm happy leaving everything in their boxes/sleeves/shelves and listening to them on iTunes or Google Music.
 
I recently came to the point where I unloaded any record I wouldn't actually play. Most vinyl sounds better than any digital counterpart... assuming you have a decent setup. Your Arsenal and Southpaw Grammar particularly sound light years better than their CD counterparts. Playing those LPs is always a pleasant experience. So I keep all the original albums on LP, but can do without the multiple copies, different pressings, promos, etc...

For me, if a record is just going to sit on a shelf or in a box, it's just clutter and I'd rather have the cash value of that record than have it take up valuable real estate in my home. I don't have that collecting disease anymore... I like vinyl for its intended purpose: to be played often and loudly.
 
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Suppose that makes me a player.....never thought I'd say that about myself. But if I drop something or scratch something (seeing as my emotional draw to those discs increases the more out of it I get) I know my mind will be saying......Beau told you this would happen.
 
Play your vinyl!

BUT, as I'm sure you are aware, the gear is as important as the source. Would love to see pictures of the room, and setup!
 
I spose back in the old days the running order of an album was really important, whats the first track, whats the last track....filler anyone? Think thats why I love those old vinyls and as was said pieces like Vauxhall and Southpaw, which while not too rareish, really are like pieces of art, special on vinyl. With all the rejigging of albums, Viva Hate and compliations, I still love the original albums...I am sure Moz was pretty thoughtful about how those ran, looked, reflected on him. And when you were listening for the first time on the first day of release and you were loving it like the Queen Is Dead. And you are thinking wow as the first side closes and then you flip it and blast into Bigmouth and not long after There is a Light......properly amazing and so much better than than flicking up napster top tracks IMHO. Not sure if this works...my lil Genie
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Pro-ject makes some nice turntables...whats the rest of the chain look like? Speakers, Amp, Pre, etc.

One of the reasons I stopped collecting was because I started building my 2 channel system, and I havent looked back. For me the only way to listen to Southpaw Grammar is on vinyl. The production on that album just begs for an audiophile system.

Enjoy your room and your foray into 2 channel audiophilia...just wait until you get into room acoustics, it will blow you away.
 
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The Scout:

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Beautiful piece of engineering........out of my league, due to funding wives beauty products........there has to be a compromise, and saying that she's just told me its too late on a Sunday to be drinking beer, smoking and listening to music on my headphones. So off to check my investment in the beauty products!
 
I play mine all the time, so much so that I own three copies of Hatful of Hollow which has taken the most hammer. I also own two copies of Viva Hate as my oldest boy carved a flower on one side when he was a baby :eek:

The only part of my collection that I haven't played is the singles box set collection as I have them all anyway.
 
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