Vinyls

Right, seeing as all the stars have re-aligned in favour of these old friends, who still has their collection?

Or are you starting one?

Oh go on then, what do you play them on?

I have them all..

But nothing to play them on...

No idea if they’re even playable.

I have a large collection of 78s, including several Gilbert and Sullivan operettas performed by the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company.

I play these on my late Grandfather's 90+ year old gramophone which even works when we have a power outage. This one is a bit "upmarket" as it has a Tone Control, and, of course one can use both loud and soft needles.

That's amazing Graham, it must be a rare piece...any chance of a photo?

Is it still possible to obtain needles?

If you PM me with an email address I will send you some photos. I even have the original manufacturer's handbook and Model Catalogue with prices!

It has a BSR turntable and I still find needles at garage sales and the like.

PM sent

I never actually stopped buying vinyl , whenever away always popped into 2nd record stores ,and still have all my stuff from early Beatles up to recently bought new Gregory porter LP ( yea old school still call them LP's ) .
spent the last 3 years upgrading my hi fi stuff ,from a years old Sansui set up with 80's mission speakers , to mainly Rega stuff now ( new pride and joy is a P10 ) and Dali Speakers ,really pleased with the sound after much mucking about
and not soo pleased vinyl is popular ....used to pick up loads of classic albums for under £5 ..............no chance now

and Possum I have loads of classic Italian tenors on 78's from my grandmother ....but alas nothing to play them on ....well done ,keep yours going !! it's hard to find them in working order now

I have quite an extensive collection from mainly the 70s, rock, pop, soul, some rare and worth a Bob or two. They are up in the loft in boxes, several hundred vinyls nearer a thousand believe it or not. I was heavily into my music back in the day. Before the covid my grand daughter and I were having a conversation regarding music of my day and the present. She became very interested in some of my offerings, never heard of most, but was hooked.

Long story short, I have left my collection to my grand daughter in my will. She’s been up in my loft and has choose a few albums, and up until just before these lockdowns, has chosen some more each time she’s here. According to her investigations on the ‘net they are worth quite a lot of money. Only when I’m gone will she inherit the lot. The older I get my priorities change so it’s an easy decision for me. Back in the 70s it was a day out going into town on a Saturday. Choosing an album was an event, hard to explain compared to these days when things come too easy.

I have a modest collection which was merged with that of my wife, but less than 100 LPs I think along with some EPs and 45s. I also kept my old Dual CS505-4 turntable along with the 90s vintage amp and speakers and after many years in the loft they were brought out of hibernation a few years ago and still get used occasionally. Using a 2003-vintage Toshiba laptop running XP I have "ripped" a few tracks to MP3 as a test. The original turntable drive belt broke (perished most likely) but it was easy to get spares, and they are as simple as simple can be, mechanically.

Been getting rid of mine slowly for the last 3 or 4 years but this has meant that I can see the wood for the trees now and they're getting played again. The turning point was our last house where I remember putting 6 huge boxes of the things in the loft when we moved in and pulling the same untouched boxes down 6 years later when we moved. That prompted me to start slimming down so most went on Ebay and I've got less than 500 now (and about 100 of those are still up for auction). I kept my favourites and anything worth a few bob and although growing family has meant shrinking audio system. I still have my Rega Planar 2 that I've had for 35 years now though, it was my 16th birthday present!

The slimming down of the collection has been good as it has meant that they fit in the house. There's still some in the garage but most are inside. Now that I have a home office, I built my own storage rack, the Rega is out of the loft and they're getting played again. The rack I made is like this sort of thing made from a solid oak kitchen worktop with storage for a few of the albums. It was also a glorified excuse to ask Santa for a router the other year. The Rega currently just goes through a small Cambridge Audio head amp and then into the active speakers shared with office PC but once the family starts shrinking I'll be looking at getting some proper amplification and speakers again. I may even splash out on the Gyrodeck that I always wanted.

With Graeme's (Possum) blessing here are some pics of his stunning 78 player.

I've had to reduce the file sizes a little.

There is a fascinating brief history attached to this Australian-based creation too...he can best describe it himself:

I have my old Thorens deck from the 70's, also a similar-dated Lenco with slider control for pitch adjustment. Inherited from my old man is some Quad hi-fi with separate tuner, amp and pre-amp powering two Quad ESL 57s for which he made two plywood protective covers and which have no doubt been their saviour over the years/house moves.

Having cleared the clutter around them in countless days over the last few months I have finally been able to get around to enjoying their sound once again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EL5SzTSMxLU

My remaining few went to the charity shop when we moved. I'm not of those afflicted with a preference for the noise and distortion easily available on any vinyl record. My father's collection of 78s was transferred to MP3 a long time ago, after some careful noise reduction.

I've still got my Project Debut turntable that I bought from Richer Sounds in 1991 with Creek Amplifier that I bought 2nd hand off work colleague for £50 when I 1st started work 35 years ago. Both UK made and working as good as the day they were made. Certainly got my money's worth and you get listed on ebay for more than I paid originally.

As Barnacle said it is an affliction that's hard to explain or justify, but it's as much the 'theatre' to the whole playing process that I enjoy. Even going to some of the increasingly hard to find record shops is an experience. I dragged the family to a famous Birmingham 2nd hand record shop https://www.facebook.com/The-Diskery-162843443768334/ when we were on holiday in Warwick - any excuse.