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.
Speaking of iPods – http://ipodsdirtysecret.com/message.html
I think I’ll put off buying one until they fix this problem.
The ‘Little Secret’ thing no longer applies, I’m, afraid:
http://www.pcmike.com/macmike/2003/11/ipods_dirty_lit.html
Merry Christmas!
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 ;)
Complete with installation instructions. Very cool. Hate to think what becomes of one’s warranty, although it’s probably expired by 18 months anyway.
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.
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…