I’ve been a digital DJ from the get go, starting on CDs in the mid 90s – but recently I decided to dabble with vinyl and turntables.
I recently came into a crate of old records from my family, plus I’ve had a crate of records for decades that I haven’t been able to listen to. Also there is the occasional “vinyl only” techno release that I really want to get my hands on, so I started assembling a low cost, bang for buck, vinyl listening and digitising setup. Although this is a “DJ” style turntable I’m not planning on playing sets with it.
I’ve been playing around with this setup for a few months, and really enjoying checking out old recordings and some modern techno / electronic releases played on vinyl. Does it sound better than digital? No – though the right record can sound really good. It does sound different though. There are a lot of records that sound complete rubbish, but I’m surprised how nice sounding some really old recordings are.
The current vinyl digitising / listening rig is:
- Stanton ST-150 direct drive turntable. Purchased second hand for $280 with a damaged cartridge. This is a “DJ style” turntable, based on the Hanpin DJ-5500 “super oem” model which is one of the higher grade “technics clones” out there. It has a built in phono preamp (even with digital out) but I’ve found an outboard preamp sounds better. This thing weighs more than 16kg!
- Ortofon Club-1 Club MkII Concorde Cartridge and Stylus – claims to be suitable for archiving and DJ use.. just what I’m after.
- Fosi X5 phono preamp, as well as a Schiit Mani (mk1) on loan – these two give a step up in sound quality from the built in phono preamp on the Stanton turntable. Right now I’m tending towards the Fosi X5 but I just got it.
I’m usually listening and recording via an Allen & Heath ZEDi10FX mixer, which has nice 96Khz 4 channel ADC/DAC built into it, though sometimes I’ve hooked it up to my main hifi system
I also had to purchase a pile of record brushes, cleaning fluids and assorted accessories to maintain the records and player, tinkering with this stuff seems part of the whole vinyl playing ritual.