The turntable has returned to favour with a resurgence of vinyl music, writes Rod Easdown.
THERE are all sorts of theories explaining the return of the turntable: baby boomers with big record collections; young people getting into dance music on vinyl; DJs; DrHouse using one in the television series. And there are the legions of folk who say records sound better than CDs.
Greg Borrowman, the editor of Australian Hi-Fi magazine, has another one. He thinks we're yearning for what was lost when analog music yielded to digital.
"CDs have no personality; they're set and forget," he says. "With vinyl, it's ritual. You slide the LP out of its sleeve, then deftly remove it from the inner dust jacket, making sure not to touch the playing surface. You place it on the platter with both hands, like an offering. You clean the record's surface and perhaps the stylus. Only then do you lower the tonearm to be rewarded with the music."
This covers the full gamut of anticipation, the careful, practised flourish of implementation and the ultimate reward, no different from pulling the cork out of a 10-year-old Hill of Grace.
Whatever the reason, turntables are back in favour.
Michael Thornton-Smith at importer International Dynamics says for every CD player he wholesales, five turntables go out the door. They are "the most consistent, most reliable product we have - month in, month out".
"And it's not like we don't sell CD players. Given the resurgence in two-channel stereo music, CD players sell steadily.
"We've noticed this resurgence over the past couple of years and not just with turntables. Two-channel amplifiers also sell strongly. People with home cinemas and iPods aren't happy with how they handle music and want to get back to hearing it reproduced faithfully."
Craig McNeil, general manager at retailer Tivoli Hi-Fi, politely scoffs at talk of a two-channel resurgence. "Really, stereo never went away. It's the best way to get the most out of your music," he says.
Mr Borrowman believes turntables have become objetsd'art. "Gone are the old, square, teak boxes with perspex covers," he says. "Turntables are now beautiful and they're beautiful to watch. They've become a feature in living rooms."
An Austrian turntable maker called Pro-Ject has been extraordinarily successful in Australia, and the biggest seller in its range is the cheapest model, the Debut, starting at $549. Unlike many more expensive ones, it's ready to go straight out of the box, supplied with both tone arm and cartridge. Premium turntables frequently have neither, leaving buyers free to customise with offerings from manufacturers specialising in them.
"Pro-Ject turntables up to $850 come with cartridges and tone arms. After that, buyers want to make their own choices," MrThornton-Smith says.
Mr McNeil says most turntable sales at Tivoli are between $600 and $2000. "But the sky is the limit ... there's a Goldman from America supplied in a 100-kilogram isolation rack that needs part of its componentry placed in another room. It's around $215,000 and we've never sold one, but we sell turntables up to $15,000."
An important factor is the availability of spare parts, like cartridges and styli, and MrThornton-Smith says ancillaries are big sellers. "Phono preamps are big movers, both with and without USB outputs, and we also sell speed regulators, wall-mount brackets, cleaning equipment, anti-static mats and strobe discs."
Phono preamps? All amplifiers used to have an input marked "phono" where the turntable plugged in. Unlike other inputs, it was specially amplified because signals from turntables are weak. But with the rise of CD, and especially home theatre, many amplifier makers have dropped them. Plugging the turntable into an amplifier's auxiliary input doesn't work unless you have either a phono preamplifier or a turntable with one built in. These boost the signal into something the amplifier can use, and they start at about $200, going up to $5000. If your amplifier has a phono input, you won't need one.
What about USB outputs? These allow you to plug the turntable directly into your computer so music can be transferred onto the hard drive, a CD, DVD or iPod.
MrBorrowman believes the popularity of iPods and whole-of-home music servers is yet another driver of turntable sales, with people wanting to access their vinyl music through them.
Transferring records to digital media involves software, some of which can be bewilderingly complex. He suggests Xitel's INport Deluxe, selling for about $150 through xitel.com.
If you're hankering for vinyl music you haven't heard for years, some notes of caution. Today's music production is far more sophisticated than it was 25 years ago and nothing brings this home faster than listening to old records. Many sound flat, boring and almost crude. Also,there's surface noise, the clicks and pops always present with records that disappear withCDs.
But, as Mr Thornton-Smith observes, the warmth and dynamic range of a vinyl recording is still compelling.
Deconstructing a turntable
The disc on which the record is placed. It is usually driven by a belt, sometimes directly by an electric motor. At its middle is the spindle, the spike that centres the record.
Mat
It sits on the platter and cushions the record. Some are treated to reduce static electricity; others, called slip mats, are low friction, allowing the record to be stopped or reversed while the platter keeps spinning. Don't try this with a normal turntable; you'll need a DJ model.
Tone-arm
The arm housing the cartridge and stylus that moves across the record as the stylus follows the groove.
Cartridge
It contains the delicate electronics that convert the stylus' movement into electrical impulses.
Stylus
Sometimes called the needle. It's the tiny assembly for the diamond point that tracks minute undulations in the walls of the record's groove and translates them into music.
Counterweight
An adjustable weight at the back of the tone-arm regulating downward pressure of the stylus on the record's surface.
Anti-skating device
Often a counterweight on a string, sometimes a spring-loaded device near the tone-arm's pivot point, this counteracts the propensity of the stylus to move towards the outer side of the groove wall due to centrifugal force.
Strobe
Usually a series of radial lines on the edge of the mat or platter spaced so that when the platter is spinning at the correct speed they appear to be stationary. If they seem to be moving, the speed can be fine-tuned with a pitch control, if fitted.
Cue
The lever assembly that lowers the tone-arm and stylus onto the record's surface. These are often hydraulically damped.
Damping device
Found only on expensive tone-arms, it usually consists of a paddle sitting in a trough of oil and prevents the tone-arm skating across the record when knocked. It helps with warped records or when the stylus encounters dust build-up or an imperfection in the record's groove.
Head shell
On some tone-arms the cartridge fits into a removable head shell rather than directly to the arm. Particularly handy when using multiple cartridges.
Speed selector
Very old records play at 78 revolutions per minute (use a special 78rpm stylus for them) and some very rare records were recorded at 16rpm, but the two main speeds are
33rpm for LPs and 45rpm for singles and EPs. Most turntables handle 33 and 45, sometimes with a switch, sometimes by moving the drive belt on the spindle (use cotton gloves). Some new USB turntables claim to play 78rpm but don't - they provide computer software that fakes the correct speed after you've recorded the track at 33rpm.
SOURCE: http://www.theage.com.au/
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