USA Today story on turntables

Here's a USA Today article on the revival (of sorts) of turntable sales:

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/techreviews/products/2003-01-28-turntables_x.htm

 

I read that this morning. I can't imagine these 4-in-1 entertainment centers being anything but cute retro machines. The article doesn't say anything about real turntables.

 

They're just reconsituting those old all-in-one machines so popular back in the day for a new audience. They probably have a stylus that'll grind right through the record.

 

I've seen this unit in Sears. It's basically the "toy" like turntables that were built into Emerson machines back in the 80's. Remember those cheapie stereos in dept stores?

Well, it's all good. I really hope vinyl gets a good shot in the arm.

 

I don't believe it is good news at all.

I'd rather heathens discard their old Lps at ebay, used bins, and garage sales.

 

That's already happening. More users using vinyl for whatever reason is a good thing. Trust me. Everyone has to see that vinyl is actually a wonderfully analog medium. From DJ clubs to Rick at RTI.

 

I'm beginning to think we are about the right level now.
A good shot in the arm and eBay prices will go up even more.
People are are going to hold on to their vinyl in hope of someday getting a TT.

Used record prices are beginning to go up and used record stores are saving the good stuff for eBay.
I can't keep up (money-wise) with all the new vinyl that is out right now.
RTI is probably at full capacity.

I am happy with the state of vinyl now.

BC

 

Yeah, and to fix the tracking/skipping problem, they can tape a penny to the top of the headshell.

Strangely enough, I started out with a Panasonic all-in-one set, and the old records I have from that time while playing on that cheapie set-up sound pretty good, in spite of having a tracking force of 5.0 grams and a noise floor that sounded like a not-so-faraway dump truck. Maybe vinyl is more durable to playback than I thought.

Robert

 

Don't they have magnetic cartridges that track at reasonable forces? I'd guess that while they may not sound good, they're probably a *lot* more gentle to records than the old cheapies were.

 

The resurgence of the Turntables popularity is a good sign. Call it nastalgia
if you will, but once youngsters hear how wonderful analogue music
sounds they will probably want to know more about the other hirez formats. This in turn could push a demand for higher quality CD's or SACD's.

 

This is the kind of turntable my Samsung had. They are not good turntables at all.

 

Yeah, I have some Elvis LPs from the early 70's that I remember mom playing on a Magnavox console of that era. Leave the return arm up, let a side play for hours...that sort of thing. I later played them on my cheapo Soundesign "system" with a cheap BSR changer. They still sound fine.
But all it takes to screw things up is one pass of a worn down stylus with a half-dollar taped to the headshell.

Dan C

 

OOOhhhh likin' the sound of that!!

 

I don't know, I have a kind of contrary view to the belief that huge sales of these sorts of low end turntables will lead to more turntable or vinyl sales in the future.

Most of the people who buy these do it for nostalgia reasons, and to play records they have sitting in their closets. Most of them probably don't know about the vinyl cult--if they did, they wouldn't be buying a Crosley all-in-one--and aren't going to go searching for new records or an upgrade turntable.

In fact, I'd bet that many of them, after they fire the Crosley up and put on that first record, can't stand all the cracks, snaps, and pops on their worn-out discs, and never put another record on after the first week or so. The Crosley will end up back in the closet with the records.

It's another case where the high end has a chance to reach out to potential new customers, but instead always ends up preaching to the converted thorugh the usual advertising channels.

John K.

 

Well, I see the vinyl revival everyday, and I think it's great. BUT, there are one backside with it also. Used vinyl is up in price.

But the records company's that try to get a superb copy protection for their music already don't know that they already HAVE IT, the vinyl. I would say the IF the company's DID market the vinyl release also (not only the CD release), something that they often don't do, people would KNOW that there is a vinyl release and that they don't only do a 1000-5000-10 000 limited release that's out of print within 3 weeks I would think the vinyl sale could be 10% of the total music sale!!

If people would know that there is a vinyl release and that you can get it easy I don't think those 10% is something out of reach, rather low may be.
I see on forums everyday that people buy new tables, or used tables and WANT music on vinyl. It's people that have had vinyl before, people that don't even was born when vinyl ruled the streets, audiophile and not audiophile people, all want vinyl. It's up to the record company's to give them what they want.

 

They wanna sell more of those things, maybe they ought to make that CD player a CD-R recorder. Wonder if they'll one day make a turntable with a built in real-time declicker and digital limiter. Perhaps I should invent one . . .