Plan 9 Music - Richmond, VA

Plan 9 is a large store located in Richmond, VA in the Cary Street area. I enjoyed spending time in their extensive discount section. The sorted vinyl was a little on the light side, however I was able to walk about with a nice copy of the Door's Morison Hotel, Neil Young's Journey through the Past and the Who's Who's Next. Certainly worth the trip if you are in the local area.

http://www.plan9music.com/Home

Edward McKay's - Greensboro, NC

Small vinyl selection amongst a huge selection of used books. Not bad, picked up a couple of nice finds for a reasonable price.

http://www.edwardmckaync.com/

Remember When Records - Greensboro, NC

Don't waste your time. Nice selection, however way over priced for me.

Wax Trax - Denver, CO

For me, I always know its going to be a good experience if a record store has the right smell. That smell includes mold, dust, and just go old plain dirt. Wax Trax in Denver has all of this and more; located in the Art district it is home to an awesome collection of vinyl. They have two store one for CDs and one dedicated to used and new vinyl. Nice store with an excellent collection and very reasonably priced.

http://www.waxtraxrecords.com/

CD Depot - College Park, MD

The CD Depot is a great shop located in College Park, MD and is a regular stop for me on my recent trips across the DC beltway to Virginia. They have an excellent selection of vinyl across many genres (rock, jazz, R&B, etc). As you enter the store you are greeted by the $1.99 and below bin, which is usually stocked with at least 3-4 good takes (e.g., the Police, Jimi Hendrix, Dire Straits, etc). Once you get past the $1.99 bin your greeted by a well organized vinyl section that typically has a good selection at reasonable prices. The store is lined with boxes of records which the CD Depot staff is constantly reviewing and stocking the shelves. Both the discount bin and the sorted vinyl stock is regularly refreshed.

Check them out at http://www.cdepot.com/

--Chris

AT440mla Cartridge Upgrade for my Pro-Ject Debut III

So I was unimpressed with the stock Ortofon OMB-5E that came with the Pro-Ject (Project) Debut III. It tracks well and does good with surface noise, however ever seems to be overly simblant (if that's the right word). I looked at a variety of cartridges and finally settled on the AT440mla. Although, I'm only about 15 hours into what some describe as 40-100 hour break in period it has been very impressive thus far. It tracks like no other, compared to my Shure M97xe and ATN-110E it is amazing. It's certainly more sensitive to surface noise, but I'll take this over tracking issues.

Mounting was not too difficult, although I'm still fine tuning the configuration. In the process of mounting I pulled one of the tone arm wires off the spade, but a quick re-heat of the solder fixed this issue. The video does not do the cartridge justice.

--Chris

Welcome

Hello,

Welcome to my latest blog. I've found blogging to be fun, informative, and it serves as a great permanent memory for me. My other two blogs on sailing (http://blog.myoldsailboat.com) and amateur radio (http://www.everydayham.com) have allowed me to capture my knowledge gained while progressing through these hobbies.

So, over the last 10 months or so I've dived into what I call budget audiophile. My current experiences center on vinyl record collecting and playback. I grew up on vinyl, listening to my Dad's record collection. I remember as a kid (some time in the 80's), my father getting a CD player for Christmas. The CD player from the late 80's through early 90's was reserved for classical music. The turntable and cassettes (eww) remained the primary playback instruments.

I'll try to capture my adventures and upgrades along the way.

--Chris