After years of resisting, I caved – I am now a vinyl record collector

Long before I started bullet journaling and collecting fountain pens, I had set my eyes on the vinyl hobby and for one primary reason – I love music (but I am NOT an audiophile). The only thing that was keeping me from it was the portability (or the lack of it, thereof).

I was definitely the kid who had headphones on, made sure playlists were curated, and spent time searching for new music. I felt like this was inevitable – I was bound to end up in this hobby.

I got into the hobby so quickly and barely did any research. But here is what I knew before I started: I will take this mildly seriously. That meant, I was not going to buy a suitcase record player.

I figured that the rest of the things that I had to learn about the hobby, I’d learn along the way.

💸 What I bought to get me started

My gear is simple (but still of top quality) just because I still wasn’t sure that I’d stick to this hobby.

• Audio-Technica LP60xUSB: I already knew what I didn’t want and was looking for a record player that was straightforward and reliable. I opted for the USB version instead of the bluetooth version because I wanted my system to be as analog as possible. I wanted to experience it as close to how it’s intended to be experienced.
• Edifier R1280DBs speaker: I did a quick search on Youtube for the best powered speakers for vinyl players and the Edifier was one of them. As it was also the most affordable, I opted to purchase these speakers. It was also Bluetooth-enabled so it served more purposes than just being bookshelf speakers for my vinyl record.
• Vinyl Record Cleaning Kit: The turntable that I purchased had a cover but it gets really dusty where I am so I knew this would come in handy
• Vinyl records, of course: I already had a list of albums I wanted as part of my collection. I started off with a few random favorites like Blondie, The Smiths, Belle & Sebastian, RAC, The Shins, just to name a few. I purchased some brand new but half of my collection (surprisingly from newer artists) were purchased from Facebook Marketplace.

🎵 Check out this list of Vinyl Record product recommendations 🎵

🤔 How it’s going so far?

I’ve always been a person who enjoyed listening to the entire album – this was something I still did when I moved from the iPod to Spotify/Apple Music.

Despite records being quite expensive, I still find it the “hunt” thrilling. There are some albums on my list that were incredibly difficult to find (they were either out of stock or aren’t sold anymore). I also enjoy looking for secondhand records on Facebook Marketplace (just always very careful when you buy from other).

I make sure that I play a record once a day – preferably when I do my morning pages (stream of consciousness writing) as I use one side of the record as a “timer”.

In conclusion, IT WAS WORTH THE WAIT. I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT.