[78-L] Portable record player

[H D Goldman]

Hi Kristjan,

You may want to spend a little time at Acoustic Sounds, The Needle Doctor, Elusive Disc & others sites before dismissing the current state of analog vinyl production.  Recent press on the "resurgence" of interest in LPs shows a similar mis-representation.

Reality is that an interest in analog playback has been ongoing & steadily growing for over a decade along with the availability of high quality modestly priced playback equipment [turntable/arm/cartridge combo in the $500-1600 range].  We'll still hear this same BS a decade from now; it's a common thread in the history of recorded sound.  This past year hurt a lot of audio based manufacturers & retailers but we're a long way from burying analog sound reproduction.  It is likely that both the US & Europe will see new pressing plants come online this year.  

To date only a small fraction digital audio material available today can rival good analog playback & the cost of the playback equipment places such performance out of reach of the average consumer.  Drop & play convenience with continue to dominate in most homes as will portable devices but many will also include modern analog equipment.

At CES later this week, Herron Audio will demonstrate the new VPI "Classic" turntable.  While $2500 for a tonearm/table combo is pricy for most of us, it will offer performance to rival equipment valued at easily 2-4 times its price point.  Having had the privilege of hearing this unit with a cartridge & playback equipment I'm very familiar with, it's fair to say you'd have to spend 7-10K on the digital source to get even close; and that's being generous.   Stunning re-creation of voice, soundstage & instrumental textures.

Cheers,

Duane Goldman  


On Jan 3, 2010, at 3:36 PM, Kristjan Saag wrote:

> One of the reasons that the Vestax 2000 has been discontinued and most of 
> the other marks haven't been commercial successes is that they came to late. 
> Dj's were already abandoning vinyl for CD and files.
> And with new techniques developing since, which makes it possible to scratch 
> "digitally" with the help of any vinyl platter, used just for registering 
> the physical movement (see my post of December 10) the market for "private" 
> dubplates is even smaller.
> The vinyl factories, today, rely more and more on special issues (of regular 
> releases) and certain genres like soul, heavy metal etc where there's a 
> fashion to release stuff on 45's.
> Kristjan 

H D Goldman Lagniappe Chemicals Ltd. 
PO Box 37066 St. Louis, MO 63141 USA
v/f 314 205 1388 thedoctor at discdoc.com