[JPL] Re: You Say You Want a Revolution (at 33 1/3)

[Jazz Promo Services]

> Go for it Will...LOL...
> 
> I'm going to do an article for the NYT about all the articles about the
> re-discovery of vinyl - it seems like every third article I read these days is
> about LPs.  It isn't LPs that are proliferating - it's the articles about
> them!
> 
> 
> On Dec 2, 2008, at 11:19 AM, Jazz Promo Services wrote:
> 
>>  http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/02/technology/techspecial2/02table.html
>>  
>>  
>>  December 2, 2008
>>  You Say You Want a Revolution (at 33 1/3)
>>  
>>  By ROY FURCHGOTT
>>  WHEN Melissa Walker, 31, was growing up, vinyl records were nostalgic
>> artifacts. But when three crates of LPs were left in an apartment she had
>> rented, a $10 thrift store record player turned those records into a kitschy
>> novelty. And when her boyfriend bought her a Rega P1 turntable and a Bill
>> Evans jazz album for her 30th birthday, playing the records became a daily
>> ritual.
>>  
>>  ³Dave brought it home, and we dimmed the lights and sat on the couch with a
>> glass of wine, and I felt like we were in a jazz club,² Ms. Walker said. ³I
>> could hear the musicians breathing. It felt like I could hear them smoking.²
>>  
>>  Now she holds listening parties in her Brooklyn apartment, introducing
>> friends to the rich sound of vinyl. ³There is something I like about the
>> process of listening that way,² she said. ³Having to listen to it in the
>> order the musicians intended, and turning it over. There is something social
>> about it.²
>>  
>>  Sales of new LPs show that Ms. Walker isn¹t the only one rediscovering
>> vinyl. While CD sales dropped last year, sales of records were up 36 percent,
>> although they are still a minuscule part of the music market.
>>  
>>  All those records have to be played on something. And when it comes to
>> turntables ‹ no one would dare call them record players these days ‹ there
>> are many options, from bare-bones $99 models to ultra-high-end audiophile
>> equipment with price tags of $100,000 or more.
>>  
>>  There are so many choices, in fact, that it can be tough for a shopper to
>> know where to begin. ³You can buy too much turntable or too little turntable
>> for the rest of your equipment,² said John-Paul Lizars, marketing director at
>> Sumiko, which imports and distributes turntables. He recommends investing
>> about a third of your equipment budget in a turntable. ³I urge people to get
>> the best turntable, cartridge and phono preamp as they can,² Mr. Lizars said,
>> ³because if you don¹t capture the content at the source, no other component
>> can enhance it.²
>>  
>>  A turntable is a basic piece of equipment ‹ a motor turns a platter on which
>> the record sits, and a tone arm holds a needle and a cartridge. The needle
>> wiggles as it rides the record¹s groove, and the cartridge converts those
>> vibrations to electrical signals that go to an amplifier.
>>  
>>  But in those few parts lies a world of variation.
>>  
>>  Modern turntables are usually either direct drive or belt drive. Direct
>> drive has been popular with radio and club D.J.¹s because the record gets up
>> to speed very quickly. The downside is that motor rumbles can be audible on
>> lesser models.
>>  
>>  Belt drive is more common, with a rubber belt insulating motor noise from
>> the platter. Belt drive turntables can require maintenance (belts
>> occasionally wear out), and they can be less precise, causing speed
>> variations heard as wow and flutter. But that is not a problem in
>> audiophile-quality equipment, said Ed Dorsey of Soundscape, an audio boutique
>> in Baltimore. ³The wow and flutter is so small, the average person isn¹t
>> going to hear it, only the musician with perfect pitch.²
>>  
>>  Less expensive turntables, like the Denon DP-29F, which lists for $150, and
>> the Pioneer PL-990, which lists for $130, generally come with permanently
>> installed cartridges. That means no souping-up the turntable with aftermarket
>> parts.
>>  
>>  But adding a new cartridge is the most common way to improve a stock
>> turntable. ³Most of the time turntables come with an entry-level cartridge,²
>> said Ken Bowers, manager of Needle Doctor, near Minneapolis. A better
>> cartridge will get more information from the record groove for more detailed
>> sound, he said.
>>  
>>  As prices go up, the quality of the parts improves. The turntable bases,
>> instead of hollow plastic, are made of metal or dense wood, which dampen
>> vibrations. ³You¹ll get tighter bass, better imaging, more detail,² Mr.
>> Bowers said.
>>  
>>  On high-end equipment, motors tend to be heavier and more precise, the
>> bearings in the tone arms present less friction, and the level of
>> craftsmanship is higher. ³You are buying build quality, you are buying
>> precision,² Mr. Lizars said.
>>  
>>  Once again, more precision means more detailed sound. The price of
>> turntables with solid bases and replaceable cartridges generally begins
>> around $300. Ms. Walker¹s Rega P-1 and the Pro-Ject Debut III, which is
>> imported by Sumiko, both list for $350 to $400.
>>  
>>  To those audiophiles returning to vinyl, that may seem like a small price
>> for high-fidelity quality, but like all things technological, turntables have
>> become cheaper and better. ³The $300 turntable of today is vastly superior to
>> the $300 of 20 years ago,² Mr. Lizars said.
>>  
>>  Those who want to spend more can do so easily. ³Our turntable lists at
>> $46,000, but we are far from being the most expensive,² said Lloyd Walker of
>> Walker Audio in Audubon, Pa., who handcrafts the company¹s Proscenium Black
>> Diamond turntable. ³They go up to a quarter of a million.²
>>  
>>  For $46,000, Mr. Walker said, you get 250 pounds of turntable with a platter
>> and tone arm that float on a nearly frictionless cushion of air. And Mr.
>> Walker comes to your listening room to tweak every setting for optimum
>> performance. ³Setup is extremely important,² he said.
>>  
>>  That is also true of less expensive turntables. The cartridge must be
>> correctly aligned and the tone arm weighted properly. Some cartridges or tone
>> arms come with an alignment tool, but they can be bought separately for $5 to
>> $275. Likewise, a stylus force gauge, which measures the pressure of the
>> needle on a record, can cost $25 for a weighted balance or $450 for a
>> precision digital model.
>>  
>>  To check your work, there are test LPs that play a series of signals that
>> let you hear, for instance, whether both channels are equally loud. Such
>> recordings can cost from $30 to $100.
>>  
>>  Of course, for a fee you can usually get the shop that sold you the
>> turntable to set it up.
>>  
>>  Among the pleasures of turntables are the tasks and rituals that surround
>> preparing to play a record. That means cleaning off dirt and dust and
>> removing static. Mr. Walker said that nothing less than a machine that
>> vacuums a cleaning fluid from the record would remove the manufacturer¹s
>> release agent ‹ a lubricant that makes a record come out of a mold. ³It will
>> sound 30 to 50 percent better,² he said. ³It¹s a big difference.² Such
>> devices can cost hundreds to thousands of dollars.
>>  
>>  Others may be satisfied with an inexpensive carbon fiber brush or the
>> classic Discwasher cleaning fluid and pile brush for $20.
>>  
>>  But Mr. Bowers warns against fixating on minute technical details. Better to
>> spend your time at thrift stores finding music that will never appear on a
>> CD. ³Playing records,² he said, ³should be fun.²
>>  
>>  
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