If my memory serves me right, I had a record player in my home until the turn of this century. I always had one growing up and I took it with me when I got my own place. Somewhere when Napster became a household name, the first MP3 players came to market and broadband internet started, I stopped buying and playing records. I always kept my record collection of hiphop music though. But I gave away or sold my record player and the amplifier. I had regrets later on, especially for the (now vintage) Marantz 1050 amplifier I parted with.

Around 2014 I bought a small Crosley record player. Nothing fancy, just a funny record player with built-in amplifier and speakers, so I could play some of the newer vinyl I bought in those previous years.

I quickly discovered this Crosley speaker was just a terrible setup, but I didn’t have the means or the space for anything else.

Last week, I was browsing Marktplaats, the Dutch equivalent of Craigslist, and I stumbled upon a second-hand record player for a fair price. It looked good, the buyer had more audio equipment for sale and seemed knowledgeable so I made an offer he accepted. When I picked up the record player I informed if he had an amplifier as well. He did. He showed me one, connected it to the record player and it sounded good. So now my new setup was almost complete! This morning I picked up two brand new speakers for a fair price. I got them at 30% of retail value. The seller won them in a company lottery and he had no idea what to do with them.

I do.

A vinyl record player plays a purple record on a shelf holding a stereo receiver flanked by two speakers, surrounded by books and albums in a home setting. A silver stereo amplifier with various knobs and buttons is resting on a shelf; books are visible below it. Purple vinyl record playing on a silver turntable with an automatically moving tonearm in an indoor setting. The record player has text on its front side.

I am a happy man now. It is a ragtag of a setup. Three different brands, all connected together. It is nothing fancy, any audiophile will condemn me for the choices I made but I love it. I play my old hip-hop collection from the 1980s and it sounds great to me. I play my rock records and I love the warmth and the analog feel of it.

Maybe in the future, you know, when I grow up, I might invest in a serious audio setup so I can really enjoy the music the way it was meant to listen to. Or I’ll just keep it like this, to enjoy music without too much pretensions.

For those interested, I have a Nikko NA-500II amplifier, Sony PS-LX2 turntable and Denon SC-N10 speakers. The record on the photo is Temple of the Dog’s self-titled album from 1990, reissued in 2016.