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Joshua Singson
What got you into collecting records?
I started seriously listening to music at a very young age, may be when I was 8. I am just old enough to witness the last vestiges of vinyl before cassettes superseded vinyl as the medium of popular playback. So I grew up listening to cassette tapes till I could afford to buy my own CD player. I went through a number of Japanese midi music systems with carousel CD changers. Sonic-wise, each of the midi systems that I owned sucked! This was when I started exploring separates and that was the best decision I took in my audio journey. With the resurgence of vinyl playback in the late Noughties, I was curious to rediscover and explore the medium on which I had first heard The Beatles’ Back in the USSR and Revolution, and all of ABBA's hits, as a pre-teenager. I must say it has been one hell of a nice ride.
Is collecting vinyl expensive?
Collecting music had always been expensive. Vinyl is no exception. In the 70s a record would cost Rs 40 to 50. That was a lot of money then. With an ever growing number of music enthusiasts chasing an ever shrinking pool of used records, the cost of records had to appreciate, and it did. And how! New music is now issued on the vinyl medium (along with CDs and as well as digital downloads) but the scale is just not yet big enough to bring down the cost of vinyl albums, so I believe the cost of records will remain high in the foreseeable future. It looks like it will remain a niche, “halo” product and not the mainstream medium of new album releases. Besides the records themselves, a good record player isn't cheap either. And then comes better cartridges, better phono stages, etc. And a record cleaning machine if one is even more keen to take the quality of one's playback to a higher level. Without a shred of doubt it is for the serious enthusiasts. But no complaints here - it's all part of the game.
Does music on vinyl sound better than any other format?
No, it doesn't. Allow me to explain. The sonics of any recording depends on much more than the medium, be it CD or vinyl records or open reel tapes. What we hear on a recording is shaped by how good was the microphones used in the recording, the quality of mic preamps, the quality of the mixing consoles, how well noise floor was lowered in the overall recording-mixing-mastering chain, the sensibilities of the mixing and mastering engineers, what grade of vinyl pellets was used in the pressing (virgin versus recycled), etc. Besides vinyl is typically mastered differently from those intended for digital formats. So we're not even comparing apples to apples. In any case, anyone who's been listening to both analog and digital media knows that there are lousy sounding CDs and excellent sounding CDs. Ditto for vinyl. The point is to view all these mediums as different sources of music and not sit down to butt vinyl heads against digital heads. I own way too much good music on vinyl that I don't own on CDs, and vice versa, to even think about this “contest”. This is one internecine war we don't need and we should not propagate it. Most people who claim vinyl is superior simply haven't heard a good digital setup. <<<rant over>>>.
Tell us about your turntable setup
I currently use a Thorens TD 124 Mark I turntable from the late 50s. The stock box-type plinth has long been discarded in favour of a heavy, multi-layered plinth made from Baltic Birch plywood. This turntable is Swiss made, and uses a drive system that is a hybrid of belt and idler wheel drives. There are two tonearms installed - the first is a clone of a Frank Schroeder Reference arm made for me by a friend in Hyderabad. This arm does not use a conventional gimballed bearings but uses strong Neodymium magnets to hold the arm in place. There is no physical contact in the magnetic “bearing” and is therefore frictionless. It behaves like an unipivot bearing. This arm carries a Denon DL 103 low output MC cartridge. This cartridge is difficult to beat for its sheer musicality though it may not have the extended reach at the lower and upper frequency extremes, or manage to dig out the tiniest details from the groove. The phono stage is DIY-ed Hypnotoad LOMC phono preamp. The second tonearm is a unipivot arm that I built myself. This arm carries an Astatic MF200 moving flux cartridge purchased NOS. Phono preamp for this is a DIY-ed Isotope MM-only phono preamp. My line stage preamp, power amp, speakers and all cables are also home brewed Besides the Thorens TD 124, I have a few other turntables and a small collection of tonearms and cartridges.
I started seriously listening to music at a very young age, may be when I was 8. I am just old enough to witness the last vestiges of vinyl before cassettes superseded vinyl as the medium of popular playback. So I grew up listening to cassette tapes till I could afford to buy my own CD player. I went through a number of Japanese midi music systems with carousel CD changers. Sonic-wise, each of the midi systems that I owned sucked! This was when I started exploring separates and that was the best decision I took in my audio journey. With the resurgence of vinyl playback in the late Noughties, I was curious to rediscover and explore the medium on which I had first heard The Beatles’ Back in the USSR and Revolution, and all of ABBA's hits, as a pre-teenager. I must say it has been one hell of a nice ride.
Is collecting vinyl expensive?
Collecting music had always been expensive. Vinyl is no exception. In the 70s a record would cost Rs 40 to 50. That was a lot of money then. With an ever growing number of music enthusiasts chasing an ever shrinking pool of used records, the cost of records had to appreciate, and it did. And how! New music is now issued on the vinyl medium (along with CDs and as well as digital downloads) but the scale is just not yet big enough to bring down the cost of vinyl albums, so I believe the cost of records will remain high in the foreseeable future. It looks like it will remain a niche, “halo” product and not the mainstream medium of new album releases. Besides the records themselves, a good record player isn't cheap either. And then comes better cartridges, better phono stages, etc. And a record cleaning machine if one is even more keen to take the quality of one's playback to a higher level. Without a shred of doubt it is for the serious enthusiasts. But no complaints here - it's all part of the game.
Does music on vinyl sound better than any other format?
No, it doesn't. Allow me to explain. The sonics of any recording depends on much more than the medium, be it CD or vinyl records or open reel tapes. What we hear on a recording is shaped by how good was the microphones used in the recording, the quality of mic preamps, the quality of the mixing consoles, how well noise floor was lowered in the overall recording-mixing-mastering chain, the sensibilities of the mixing and mastering engineers, what grade of vinyl pellets was used in the pressing (virgin versus recycled), etc. Besides vinyl is typically mastered differently from those intended for digital formats. So we're not even comparing apples to apples. In any case, anyone who's been listening to both analog and digital media knows that there are lousy sounding CDs and excellent sounding CDs. Ditto for vinyl. The point is to view all these mediums as different sources of music and not sit down to butt vinyl heads against digital heads. I own way too much good music on vinyl that I don't own on CDs, and vice versa, to even think about this “contest”. This is one internecine war we don't need and we should not propagate it. Most people who claim vinyl is superior simply haven't heard a good digital setup. <<<rant over>>>.
Tell us about your turntable setup
I currently use a Thorens TD 124 Mark I turntable from the late 50s. The stock box-type plinth has long been discarded in favour of a heavy, multi-layered plinth made from Baltic Birch plywood. This turntable is Swiss made, and uses a drive system that is a hybrid of belt and idler wheel drives. There are two tonearms installed - the first is a clone of a Frank Schroeder Reference arm made for me by a friend in Hyderabad. This arm does not use a conventional gimballed bearings but uses strong Neodymium magnets to hold the arm in place. There is no physical contact in the magnetic “bearing” and is therefore frictionless. It behaves like an unipivot bearing. This arm carries a Denon DL 103 low output MC cartridge. This cartridge is difficult to beat for its sheer musicality though it may not have the extended reach at the lower and upper frequency extremes, or manage to dig out the tiniest details from the groove. The phono stage is DIY-ed Hypnotoad LOMC phono preamp. The second tonearm is a unipivot arm that I built myself. This arm carries an Astatic MF200 moving flux cartridge purchased NOS. Phono preamp for this is a DIY-ed Isotope MM-only phono preamp. My line stage preamp, power amp, speakers and all cables are also home brewed Besides the Thorens TD 124, I have a few other turntables and a small collection of tonearms and cartridges.
Any advice to people that are about to start their collection?
Buy music you like to hear, and not because it's a first pressing or limited edition reissue. It's about the music. Don't get lost in the minutiae or esoterica of the record medium (unless you want to treat your records as some sort of trophies or investments!). Having said that, there are definitely record labels that consistently produce superior records. It pays to seek out the best pressing of a particular album. Also, strive for quality collection than sheer numbers. Numbers don't mean much if they're not going provide you musical joy. In my case, seeing so much western classical LPs with record sellers that no one seems interested in ever buying, piqued my curiosity and I started buying them for cheap. This genre is very far away from the staple of rock, blues, country & western or pop that I grew up on. I'm glad I decided to plunge into this genre. Today it is my primary listening. I even attend western classical concerts regularly. Another genre that I discovered mainly because of vinyl is jazz. I feel blessed to have discovered two great musical genres via vinyl.
Joshua Singson
What got you into collecting records?
I started seriously listening to music at a very young age, may be when I was 8. I am just old enough to witness the last vestiges of vinyl before cassettes superseded vinyl as the medium of popular playback. So I grew up listening to cassette tapes till I could afford to buy my own CD player. I went through a number of Japanese midi music systems with carousel CD changers. Sonic-wise, each of the midi systems that I owned sucked! This was when I started exploring separates and that was the best decision I took in my audio journey. With the resurgence of vinyl playback in the late Noughties, I was curious to rediscover and explore the medium on which I had first heard The Beatles’ Back in the USSR and Revolution, and all of ABBA's hits, as a pre-teenager. I must say it has been one hell of a nice ride.
Is collecting vinyl expensive?
Collecting music had always been expensive. Vinyl is no exception. In the 70s a record would cost Rs 40 to 50. That was a lot of money then. With an ever growing number of music enthusiasts chasing an ever shrinking pool of used records, the cost of records had to appreciate, and it did. And how! New music is now issued on the vinyl medium (along with CDs and as well as digital downloads) but the scale is just not yet big enough to bring down the cost of vinyl albums, so I believe the cost of records will remain high in the foreseeable future. It looks like it will remain a niche, “halo” product and not the mainstream medium of new album releases. Besides the records themselves, a good record player isn't cheap either. And then comes better cartridges, better phono stages, etc. And a record cleaning machine if one is even more keen to take the quality of one's playback to a higher level. Without a shred of doubt it is for the serious enthusiasts. But no complaints here - it's all part of the game.
Does music on vinyl sound better than any other format?
No, it doesn't. Allow me to explain. The sonics of any recording depends on much more than the medium, be it CD or vinyl records or open reel tapes. What we hear on a recording is shaped by how good was the microphones used in the recording, the quality of mic preamps, the quality of the mixing consoles, how well noise floor was lowered in the overall recording-mixing-mastering chain, the sensibilities of the mixing and mastering engineers, what grade of vinyl pellets was used in the pressing (virgin versus recycled), etc. Besides vinyl is typically mastered differently from those intended for digital formats. So we're not even comparing apples to apples. In any case, anyone who's been listening to both analog and digital media knows that there are lousy sounding CDs and excellent sounding CDs. Ditto for vinyl. The point is to view all these mediums as different sources of music and not sit down to butt vinyl heads against digital heads. I own way too much good music on vinyl that I don't own on CDs, and vice versa, to even think about this “contest”. This is one internecine war we don't need and we should not propagate it. Most people who claim vinyl is superior simply haven't heard a good digital setup. <<<rant over>>>.
Tell us about your turntable setup
I currently use a Thorens TD 124 Mark I turntable from the late 50s. The stock box-type plinth has long been discarded in favour of a heavy, multi-layered plinth made from Baltic Birch plywood. This turntable is Swiss made, and uses a drive system that is a hybrid of belt and idler wheel drives. There are two tonearms installed - the first is a clone of a Frank Schroeder Reference arm made for me by a friend in Hyderabad. This arm does not use a conventional gimballed bearings but uses strong Neodymium magnets to hold the arm in place. There is no physical contact in the magnetic “bearing” and is therefore frictionless. It behaves like an unipivot bearing. This arm carries a Denon DL 103 low output MC cartridge. This cartridge is difficult to beat for its sheer musicality though it may not have the extended reach at the lower and upper frequency extremes, or manage to dig out the tiniest details from the groove. The phono stage is DIY-ed Hypnotoad LOMC phono preamp. The second tonearm is a unipivot arm that I built myself. This arm carries an Astatic MF200 moving flux cartridge purchased NOS. Phono preamp for this is a DIY-ed Isotope MM-only phono preamp. My line stage preamp, power amp, speakers and all cables are also home brewed Besides the Thorens TD 124, I have a few other turntables and a small collection of tonearms and cartridges.
I started seriously listening to music at a very young age, may be when I was 8. I am just old enough to witness the last vestiges of vinyl before cassettes superseded vinyl as the medium of popular playback. So I grew up listening to cassette tapes till I could afford to buy my own CD player. I went through a number of Japanese midi music systems with carousel CD changers. Sonic-wise, each of the midi systems that I owned sucked! This was when I started exploring separates and that was the best decision I took in my audio journey. With the resurgence of vinyl playback in the late Noughties, I was curious to rediscover and explore the medium on which I had first heard The Beatles’ Back in the USSR and Revolution, and all of ABBA's hits, as a pre-teenager. I must say it has been one hell of a nice ride.
Is collecting vinyl expensive?
Collecting music had always been expensive. Vinyl is no exception. In the 70s a record would cost Rs 40 to 50. That was a lot of money then. With an ever growing number of music enthusiasts chasing an ever shrinking pool of used records, the cost of records had to appreciate, and it did. And how! New music is now issued on the vinyl medium (along with CDs and as well as digital downloads) but the scale is just not yet big enough to bring down the cost of vinyl albums, so I believe the cost of records will remain high in the foreseeable future. It looks like it will remain a niche, “halo” product and not the mainstream medium of new album releases. Besides the records themselves, a good record player isn't cheap either. And then comes better cartridges, better phono stages, etc. And a record cleaning machine if one is even more keen to take the quality of one's playback to a higher level. Without a shred of doubt it is for the serious enthusiasts. But no complaints here - it's all part of the game.
Does music on vinyl sound better than any other format?
No, it doesn't. Allow me to explain. The sonics of any recording depends on much more than the medium, be it CD or vinyl records or open reel tapes. What we hear on a recording is shaped by how good was the microphones used in the recording, the quality of mic preamps, the quality of the mixing consoles, how well noise floor was lowered in the overall recording-mixing-mastering chain, the sensibilities of the mixing and mastering engineers, what grade of vinyl pellets was used in the pressing (virgin versus recycled), etc. Besides vinyl is typically mastered differently from those intended for digital formats. So we're not even comparing apples to apples. In any case, anyone who's been listening to both analog and digital media knows that there are lousy sounding CDs and excellent sounding CDs. Ditto for vinyl. The point is to view all these mediums as different sources of music and not sit down to butt vinyl heads against digital heads. I own way too much good music on vinyl that I don't own on CDs, and vice versa, to even think about this “contest”. This is one internecine war we don't need and we should not propagate it. Most people who claim vinyl is superior simply haven't heard a good digital setup. <<<rant over>>>.
Tell us about your turntable setup
I currently use a Thorens TD 124 Mark I turntable from the late 50s. The stock box-type plinth has long been discarded in favour of a heavy, multi-layered plinth made from Baltic Birch plywood. This turntable is Swiss made, and uses a drive system that is a hybrid of belt and idler wheel drives. There are two tonearms installed - the first is a clone of a Frank Schroeder Reference arm made for me by a friend in Hyderabad. This arm does not use a conventional gimballed bearings but uses strong Neodymium magnets to hold the arm in place. There is no physical contact in the magnetic “bearing” and is therefore frictionless. It behaves like an unipivot bearing. This arm carries a Denon DL 103 low output MC cartridge. This cartridge is difficult to beat for its sheer musicality though it may not have the extended reach at the lower and upper frequency extremes, or manage to dig out the tiniest details from the groove. The phono stage is DIY-ed Hypnotoad LOMC phono preamp. The second tonearm is a unipivot arm that I built myself. This arm carries an Astatic MF200 moving flux cartridge purchased NOS. Phono preamp for this is a DIY-ed Isotope MM-only phono preamp. My line stage preamp, power amp, speakers and all cables are also home brewed Besides the Thorens TD 124, I have a few other turntables and a small collection of tonearms and cartridges.
Any advice to people that are about to start their collection?
Buy music you like to hear, and not because it's a first pressing or limited edition reissue. It's about the music. Don't get lost in the minutiae or esoterica of the record medium (unless you want to treat your records as some sort of trophies or investments!). Having said that, there are definitely record labels that consistently produce superior records. It pays to seek out the best pressing of a particular album. Also, strive for quality collection than sheer numbers. Numbers don't mean much if they're not going provide you musical joy. In my case, seeing so much western classical LPs with record sellers that no one seems interested in ever buying, piqued my curiosity and I started buying them for cheap. This genre is very far away from the staple of rock, blues, country & western or pop that I grew up on. I'm glad I decided to plunge into this genre. Today it is my primary listening. I even attend western classical concerts regularly. Another genre that I discovered mainly because of vinyl is jazz. I feel blessed to have discovered two great musical genres via vinyl.
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