[Jgordon]

Glad to see there are so many people with the same tastes.

The turntable is a Linn Sondek. It is, however, from 1980. Making it much more affordable than new (~$15k or so) offerings from the company.

The shelving is indeed Ikea. It's expedit shelving. Surprisingly, it holds a whole lot of weight with nary a complaint. Many guys reinforce it with screws, glue, braces, and backing, but I find that it works just fine.

The record cleaner is a vpi 16.5. I got it after I bought 1,000 classical LPs, thinking that I'd salvage 200 at the most. When 850 came up NM, I figured I should get a more industrial solution.

The tubey thing is just that - a tubey thing. It's a Yaqin MS-12B pre-amp. Just as Randy said, it's my solution in space-constrained manhattan. The ideal is a dedicated analogue system, but I am not buying any Mac gear or H-K at the moment, and everything else I have goes through the onkyo receiver, so the turntable does as well. It also allows for tweaking. I found an Ampex tape deck full of telefunken tubes, so I've been rolling them through. At some point, I'll go all analogue from start to finish, including dedicated speakers.

I love the ritual as well. I find that it makes the music that much more involving, and you take the time to learn lyrics, appreciate the song choice and mastering, and form opinions on the various studios (quality of music and pressing).

Don't get me wrong - I have an ipod with 80 gigs of music on it (~14,000 songs or so). Nothing as convenient when you're cooking, or driving, or on a subway. I loves me some vinyl, but I'm no snob. I just love music.

Anyone have some pics of their setups, prized albums, listening rooms, etc?