Hey Haffiz! Thanks for doing this, stoked to feature you. How've you been these days, you all settled in the new spot?
Hey Nick! Thanks for featuring us! I'm pretty good, busy as usual, but it's good to be busy. We're settling in the new spot pretty well with all the work needed to be done and now, we're actually expecting, Me and Ina are gonna be busier than ever!
Moving a room full of records and hi-fi gear is never an easy task. How did you go with it all and how's it feeling since you've set it all up?
Funny you mention this, it's actually the first thing we decided to set up when we shifted in. I'm just grateful that all the stars aligned and our timeline leading to the shift was pretty smooth. This was all happening the week before the wedding! Of course, we had to sanitize the place before actually unpacking and all. But there weren't a lot of touch-ups to begin with, so after cleaning up it was straight to setting up the Hi-Fi stuff.
Run us through your setup; turntables, amps, speakers, everything!
Ummm. I gotta be honest with you guys, our stuff isn't the most expensive/luxury of choices, and most of all of them were actually thrifted! It's the memories that me & Ina shared while getting them makes them special to us.
Beogram 1000 turntable
Right off the bat you'll notice a Beogram 1000 (still works btw) I only prefer it to be as a display. I think I collected this one quite awhile back from carousell, but it was trashed (original power and Din cables were cut and no Stylus, but hey for a couple of dollars why not right? haha)
So I brought it home, got my dad to look at it, and replaced the cables and all so it worked again! The best part about reviving it was that I knew my dad had a spare Stylus from his old beogram so this thing could actually work again. (if I knew he didn't then I wouldn't bother getting it)
Kenwood KD 1500 turntable
One evening me and Ina were just browsing through carousell looking for nothing in particular at all. I saw this post of a dude selling a hi-fi set for $50(insane right?), that night ended with us heading to somewhere in Katong to pick the set up, brought it home and it still spins smoothly. But the stylus had to go.
Technics 270C cartridge w/ EPS270ED stylus
This stylus is a really good upgrade from an entry level one. It's affordable, and it sounds amazing. We got this set from Redpoint!
Akai AM-2350 Integrated Amplifier
I grew up alot around Hi-Fi equipment because of my dad, and this brand, really takes the cake. I've seen him play with alot of turntables, cassette & tape decks so this hobby is all because of him. When I started collecting my own records, I told myself that if I were to get my own setup, the amplifier has to be an Akai. Call me biased for loving these but they sound amazing. It's warm and crisp. The vintage look, the VU meters. It's everything to me, man.
Pioneer S-H310V-QL
These speakers they do their job and they look nice! Again, it's one of me & Ina's findings that brought us to Sembawang, from a nice gentleman who was letting go of his whole setup. Driven by the AM 2350, they do a really decent job of delivering the mid and high frequencies, but it still lacks some low end punch in my opinion.
How do you organize your records?
Well, I'd like to think that we've split it all into genres, but I think decades are making a bit more sense! We have some 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, and 2000s records that are jumbled together. We also do save a nice separate spot for Soundtracks and Local/Regional music.
Tell us a bit about Novacane! What was the inspiration there and how's it going these days?
Thanks for bringing up Novacane! We're a duo who sell records, and we started in September 2019. (Happy 3 Years to us!)
We created Novacane because at that point in time, we felt that we actually had too many records in our collection. We didn't think we would possibly be able to play everything, right? The records were only going to gather dust sitting in a corner at home. So we thought why not just sell it? 300-400 records was a bit too much to individually post on Facebook or Carousell. We definitely didn't wanna do that. So we started Novacane.
I also remember in 2019, we saw the trend of people hopping onto vinyl collecting even more than the years before that. And it was really amazing. So we figured, why not create a name for ourselves and see if it gets traction?
Soon after we did, a good friend of ours found a spot where we had our first pop-up at Camp Kilo! The support that we get was amazing, and more importantly encouraging. We made a lot of new friends, we see a lot of people talking about music, just sharing everything they love about music. And that was, to us, a beautiful sight. Not long after that that, we were invited to Scape & The Hive for events as well. Boy was it tiring, but the love & support we'd get at these events is always rewarding.
These days, you can find our selections at Memory Lane (B1 of Adelphi Mall, just opposite Funan), We're consigned to them and Kali helps us look after our records. So be sure to find our selection there Labeled "NC".
Thank you in advance for supporting us!
Who are you listening to these days, any recent discoveries or new favorites?
These days I find myself diving into the 70s-80s a lot! Bobby Caldwell, Donald Fagen, Marty Balin, Debarge.. the list goes on la! hahaha
Any advice for your younger self just starting his hi-fi journey?
If you see a record you like, just buy it. You might never see it again. Period.
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Follow Novacane Records:
https://www.instagram.com/novacanerecords