by Rick Coste | Feb 23, 2024 | Vinyl Record Tips
A commenter on my YouTube channel recently stated that vinyl “sucks”, and they would put their CD version of Van Halen’s 5150 up against the vinyl version to prove it. I’m not a huge fan of the band’s “Van Hagar” lineup....
by Rick Coste | Feb 17, 2024 | Vinyl Record Tips
I recently bought a US first pressing of U2’s Boy. I was in my local record store and inspected the record quickly before purchasing it. The lighting in the store isn’t the best for inspecting a record, but I couldn’t see any visible scratches, warps, dimples, or...
by Rick Coste | Feb 12, 2024 | Equipment Tips
Tube amps are beautiful to look at. When I first purchased the Galion TS120, I marveled at how beautiful it looked at night when I dimmed the lights in our listening room. It was exactly what I expected vacuum tubes to look like – a steam-punk aesthetic that...
by Rick Coste | Feb 1, 2024 | Vinyl Record Tips
I often get asked why I prefer vinyl over any other format, especially given my investment in my collection and the equipment to play it with. It’s a constant journey. But why undertake the journey at all? Especially when I can ask Alexa to play any song I want to...
by Rick Coste | Jan 24, 2024 | Vinyl Record Tips
I’ve been collecting records for over four decades. While I’m proud of how I’ve taken care of my record collection, I’ve made mistakes with storage and used some pretty poor equipment in my 20s. Fortunately, most of the records I bought as new ones back in the 70s and...