I recently started collecting vinyl records. I built a pair of Dayton Audio BR-1 speakers (from Parts Express, which I plan on posting about in more detail when I have the time) and bought a “beginners” turntable – an Audio-Technica AT-LP60.
For a few weeks, I used a Sony receiver that my roommate had sitting around.
But I knew I wanted something older. I did a bit of research, and lots of people seemed to think that some of the vintage Marantz receivers had great sound, if you could find one at an affordable price. So I began to scour Craigslist.
I found someone selling a Marantz 2215B for $125, so I made arrangements to go check it out and make sure it was in decent shape.
After I confirmed that it wasn’t full of rust, the man asked me if I was interested in records. He brought out two boxes full of old LPs.
I looked through for about 5 seconds and saw The Talking Heads, David Bowie, and some Stones records. I could barely contain myself! I paid $150 total for the receiver, two boxes of records (roughly 125 of ’em), and another turntable – a BSR 2260 BX, which he clearly just wanted to get rid of.
I went through all of the records and organized them into the two boxes. The first box was all artists/albums that I am already familiar with. I’ve added all of those albums to discogs, if you’d like to take a look.
Anyway, I’m super stoked about all of my new records. My collection just exploded! There’s so many good albums in here – and a whole lot of albums that I’ve never heard before by artists that I already know I like. Some of the albums I’m most excited about (in no particular order):
- Old & In The Way – Old & In The Way
- Eric Clapton – The History Of Eric Clapton
- Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers – Hard Promises
- Kiss – Destroyer
- Chicago Transit Authority* – Chicago Transit Authority
- Various – Woodstock – Music From The Original Soundtrack And More
- Who, The – Live At Leeds
- Doors, The – Waiting For The Sun
- Michael Jackson – Thriller
- David Bowie – ChangesOneBowie
- Neil Young – Harvest
- Neil Young – After The Gold Rush
- Talking Heads – More Songs About Buildings And Food
- Stevie Wonder – Fulfillingness’ First Finale
- Prince And The Revolution – Purple Rain
There’s also a bunch of stuff in “box 2” that I’ve never heard of, so perhaps I’ll dig into there at some point.
Oh yeah, and the Marantz receiver…
She needs some work, but that’s a good looking piece of audio equipment.
Dan P
I hate you. This looks awesome dude. I need to get on craigslist more often. Great finds
OLDpmstr
Funny story about vinyl.
As a kid I loved Rock, music was everything to me, and the darker and more “satanic” the more I loved it. My parents, really just my mom, were VERY religious. And I remember buying tapes, CD’s and anything I could at an early age and hiding it in my closet or under my bed away from my parents eyes. I remember listening to the music at night with the volume as loud as a tape player, later disc man, could go with those shitty cotton headphones they used to come with.
Fast forward 15 years.
I’m at my parents house and my dad and I start talking about music. I tell him about how I used to spend all my money as a child on bands like Slayer, Led Zeppelin, Metallica, etc. We both have a laugh at how crazy my mom was at the time about keeping anything evil away from her growing boys, and then he invites me inside to show me something.
Inside before showing me his inevitable collection of vinyls which I was expecting Sunny and Cher, or any disco, he asks me if I had even heard a vinyl of one of my “fancy digital” songs. No. He takes me to an old box that I had walked by so many times without ever realizing it was a record player. He opens up the front doors, which held the speakers, if I recall correctly. and inside was the actual record player. He excuses himself, and returns with a big, stained white box. In it were records and records and records. Beatles, Pink Floyd, Deep Purple, Yes, ELO, ELP, Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, just albums and albums of nearly the same music I listen to and hid from him. He told me he was into that music before he met my mother and had them put away after they were married. One day I hope he hands me down that collection. He put on the very first Led Zeppelin album and hearing the fuzz and the almost grungy sound of the vinyl made that album sound much more raw than the CD. In fact, to me it was similar to hearing the band live.
Anyway, great post John, I was a regular to your old site (if the the name doesn’t give it away) and I will continue to frequent this awesome blog.
John
Awesome story! My parents have several boxes of old vinyl that I’m excited to sort through the next time I go home. Though I don’t think I’ll find any of the stuff that I hid from them when I was younger (Korn, Manson, Eminem, etc) on vinyl…
OLDpmstr
Those bands, maybe not EMINEM, usually had their rare UK LP vinyl, and maybe even some release full vinyls. http://goo.gl/wG04l I remember collecting some, but finding my dads collection from like 1970-early 1980s was just amazing.
John
Yeah, I definitely need to get some Tool. Lateralus will probably be the one I end up getting. Just got both Acid Bath albums the other day, but they actually sound like crap. I think I’m gonna return them =/