Christmas Vinyl

Last year my vinyl collection returned to me after decades in storage. Ditto my old turntable, but sans preamp and stereo, which I sold (along with all my CDs) around the time the vinyl went into storage (2005ish).

It was just an instinct that I should keep the turntable, and the vinyl.

So all this old vinyl reappeared in my life lately and I started the mental calculation for what it would take to get my turntable into a state where I could actually listen to it.

New Pre-amp? New stereo? Just to listen to some 35-year-old albums? Not cheap, not worth the hassle.

For Christmas Jenny cut the Gordian Knot here and surprised me with a Bluetooth turntable with a built-in pre-amp and speakers. Not audiophile-grade, but then I am capital Not an audiophile.

This will do nicely.

Yesterday I dropped by my neighborhood used record store and picked up a little new vinyl. There was a lot to choose from! I was tempted to recreate some of my 80s cassettes (e.g: R.E.M., The Clash, Talking Heads) which I ditched at Goodwill around the time I sold the CDs. Or the deep well of jazz. Instead I picked 5 discs I’d never heard before, but which I suspected would suit me.

I realized when I got home that I had subconsciously chosen “discs I wish I could send back in time to myself in 1988.”