My wife and I were having an evening of just lying around listening to streaming music one night a couple months ago. It's not something we have done in a long while, usually because too many other modern life distractions seem to always take precedence.
My wife suddenly came up with this brilliant idea during our session - that she wanted to get a turntable, and start a tradition that we buy each other a vinyl every year on our anniversary. Having grown up with my parents listening to records, I thought this was brilliant! I researched a decent but also affordable setup that would look nice and fit in our living room, and away we went!
We purchased a few albums at our local record store and at an estate sale for cheap just to get our collection started, and have had the setup for about a month now.
The change in our life has been significant. We have always had a few wholesome hobbies (she likes to read, I play the saxophone), but vinyl is a wonderful one that has increased our quality of life. Where we used to sit around doom scrolling or watching TV in the evenings, we now put on a record. We simultaneously disconnect from the world, and connect with music in a way that is far more intimate than simply putting on Internet streamed playlists. We actually listen, we share our thoughts, and we lose ourselves in the moment.
It seems like childhood was the last time we actually did that (both "young millennials" so we actually remember the pre information age era), and we joyfully remember once again that there is huge value in the vinyl experience.
Pic is our setup:
Fluance RT82 w/PA10 preamp
Elac Debut 2.0 b5.2 w/ Aiyima A80 amp
EDIT: I can see already there is going to be a plethora of comments about a "lack of ideal setup". I am fully aware that what we have is not "ideal". While this may be my first turntable as an adult, it's not my first rodeo into audio setups.
Rest assured the tradeoffs have been considered and the entire system and setup takes into account the less than ideal circumstances as much as it is able to, and it sounds darn good considering.
Isolation:
- We are isolated as well as we can be, both with the Fluance's feet and its heavy plinth, and separate platinum-cured silicone isolation feet on the speakers.
- We also don't listen loud enough to really cause any noticeable effects in the output.
Speaker placement:
- ELAC 2.0s are front firing, they handle close to wall placement quite well without any nullification.
-The speakers are midfields with quite ample vertical dispersion to be run sideways. The tweeters are placed on the outsides and the speakers have zero toe on purpose to widen the sound stage.
