| If you're under the age of 30, you've probably never | | | | days of vinyl. |
| seen a turntable outside of a movie, and if you're | | | | Many turntables sold these days have modern |
| under the age of 20, you may have never seen one in | | | | enhancements - for example, digital signal processor |
| a movie. Turntables are used to play old vinyl LP's and | | | | chips in the turntable itself can be used to tune the |
| records, and they work by dragging a needle lightly | | | | sound as it comes through the needle, and is used to |
| through a spiral groove on a record, going from the | | | | give needles sensitivity that they never had back in the |
| outer edge to the inner zone. | | | | days when spinning disks were king. Others try to |
| This needle would be used to make an oscillating | | | | remain true to their original manufacturing stats - if you |
| electrical current, which was used to drive speakers | | | | want to experience a Rolling Stones LP from the '70s, |
| and make a sound. A lot of the audio technologies we | | | | you need a turntable build like those from the 1970s, |
| take for granted (high fidelity, stereo sound) were first | | | | forgoing many of the technological innovations that |
| pioneered in turntables. | | | | have come since then. |
| Turntables were supplanted by CD players on the | | | | Still others, like turntables in the '80s, are multi-platform |
| market in the 1990s. It was in the late '80s that sales of | | | | devices, able to play back CDs, LP's, cassette tapes |
| new titles on CD supplanted those on vinyl LP's, and | | | | and more. Quite a few, following the lead from several |
| most record labels quickly switched formats to the CD, | | | | devices in the '90s, will transcribe an MP3 copy of the |
| which allowed customers to select which track they | | | | LP file. Modern high-end conversion files, in an attempt |
| wanted more readily, were smaller, cheaper to | | | | to give the benefits of vinyl in a format that can be |
| produce, and produced a more pristine sound. | | | | played on an iPod, use amazingly high bitrate |
| What's changed since then is audiophile appreciation of | | | | transcription modes to catch all the subtle undertones |
| the turntable. The analog reproduction mechanism | | | | of the richer vinyl sound. |
| makes a sound that's more 'alive' or 'warm' than a | | | | For true nostalgia buffs, nothing beats the warmth of |
| digital file, and lots of music from the '50s through early | | | | vinyl, and some of the more retro designs for |
| '80s never got re-encoded to digital formats. The | | | | turntables come from Rek-O-Kut and Stanton, which, |
| current range of turntables mostly applies to nostalgia | | | | depending on their models, try to get the exact feel |
| buffs, who want to either listen to music that isn't | | | | (including remanufacturing older parts) to get the exact |
| available on CD or MP3, or who want to experience | | | | same sound as a vintage turntable. |
| the music the way it was experienced back in the | | | | |