Sound Well

Adventure trip to The Sound Well in Berkeley to get a new needle for the turntable today – it was damaged when we moved, hadn’t listened to an LP for six months. Love to wander around in there, a jungle of amps and pre-amps and turntables and speakers from the past 50 years. They even have the exact same Pioneer receiver I grew up with, which they use as a test amp. Since the turntable I brought in was also the same one I used as a teenager, it was (virtually) reunited with the same amp it spent the 70s and early 80s with, which made me smile.

I heard one of the employees, a 50-ish man, saying to a customer: “Someone brought in one of those iPods yesterday. 2500 songs in a unit the size of a deck of cards. Sounded fantastic, too. Sometimes I wonder why we futz around with all this old gear. But then I remember. Because it’s simple.”

I bet a lot of people would argue that the iPod is simpler. Matter of perspective.

Great to listen to vinyl tonight.

Music: Godley & Creme :: Random Brainwave

6 Replies to “Sound Well”

  1. Besides, you can buy a replacement battery for those models at http://www.ipodbattery.com. The install looks fairly straight-forward as long as you’re somewhat good with tools.

    BTW, cool story about the old stereo shop. I really need to get my turntable up & going again. My 7-yr old has never even seen an LP album playing ;)

  2. Complete with installation instructions. Very cool. Hate to think what becomes of one’s warranty, although it’s probably expired by 18 months anyway.

  3. David, I had the privilege of showing all my neices a turntable and records last Christmas. They were as old as ten, and none of them had ever seen vinyl. “What’s that uncle Scot?” Far out.

  4. Scot,

    I had the same experience with my niece and nephew. I bought a vinyl version of Oklahoma for my sister, as she had performed in it with her local light operatic society. The kids didn’t know what to make of the record…

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *