Suvo Prasanna Chatterjee

A little less than 4 years ... Only talking about phase II here ... Phase one was all about dusty , scratchy records and HMV Safari .. and I wasn't even the one collecting ;-)

About 200 LPs

Emotionally about 85% of what I own (the remaining 15% was when I was hoarding up initially with limited budget)

Direct Drive TT - Technics SL 5300 Cartridge - Ortofon 2M Red Belt Drive TT - Denon DP 300F Cartridge - Denon stock cart Others : Denon PMA 720 AE amplifier Cabasse MT31 floorstanding speakers Denon DRR 7.5L cassette deck TASCAM CD 450 CD deck Marantz CDR 603 for streaming , amplifier/cd back up , tuner , USB , Iphone , etc.

Well , if you are here , you must already be thinking about it , if not already into it , so I will share a few pointers : 1. Don't hoard !! This is the basic mistake we make when we start digging crates on a limited budget. You go to a shop and find that some unheard names are priced around 500/600 bucks , while the Floyds and Stones of this world are 1500 plus. You end up stocking up on things that You are never gonna listen to. 2. Get your equipment in order . Invest on the basic stuff. I invested in the following and do not regret a single penny spent : a. Cleaning records are essential. Use a Spin Clean for long term groove cleans and a carbon fiber brush to remove static every now and then during play b. Buy sleeves , outer sleeves are very important if you dig local thrift store crates. Remember aesthetics are important too. And inner sleeves for the health of those records . Buying vinyl is also an investment apart from listening to music. c. Invest in a turntable after a lot of research . I studied online resources for 8 months before my first setup and yet , within 4 years , I went from a Pro-ject to a Denon before I finally settled on a Vintage 70s Technics and mounted an Ortofon cart on it. d. Take care of your tonearm and needle. Keep in mind, they are the ones sending those phonetics to your amp... it is the source. Learn about counter weights , tracking force , cart alignment , etc. and get the basic equipment like protractors , digital weighing scales , etc. There are a bunch of online resources demonstrating them and they are a lot of fun to watch. p.s. - I recently ordered an Onzow Zero Dust stylus cleaner and if it actually works on the technology as advertised , then it should last me years and justify those 6000 odd bucks easily. e. Keep watching ebay. At times you can get a lot of vintage restored TTs and stereo amps at throwaway prices. However, go the vintage way only if you have a passion for the machinery and the time to afford. 3. It is very easy to go overboard as audiophilia is an addiction. Try curbing on the urge to constantly upgrade and spend those extra bucks on new music. It will never be perfect so stop chasing that. 4. Last but not the least, get into communities such as this and many other FB forums and ask stupid questions if required. We were all once where you are today. Cheers and drop that needle asap !

I am extremely agnostic to genre ... I like anything that sounds good to me . One moment you might find me playing Tull and the next LP on my TT may be Ghulam Ali and the next one may be Monk.