Music rediscovered

by Pilipo on Apr.04, 2009, under Personal

A friend named Cody recently visited us here in Nashville and solidified an interest that has been stirring for a while in my mind and spirit. That interest is in phonographs and vinyl lp’s. With the current state of digital copyright laws, crappy digital music quality, and microscopic album art, it is almost surprising to me that more people have found themselves immersed in warm fat sound that is analog music.

Numark TT-1700

After getting stirred up about the old vinyls, I mentioned my interest at work and a coworker told me that he was getting rid of his old turntable. I let him know that I would gladly take it off his hands, so he brought it in. Turns out that he was an amateur DJ, playing some weddings and such and that that turntable is a pretty good player. It is a Numark TT1700 with a Stanton 500 cartridge and stylus on it and he took amazing care of it.

Turntable Setup

While I could do without the purple, but it plays records and I didn’t have to pay a dime for it. In case you are uninitiated, this is a bit better than entry-level DJ gear and he also gave me his old Gemini crossfader which I use purely as a phono-amp. I spent the day today finalizing my setup so we will be able to listen without a huge ordeal. And feel pretty confidant that I succeeded.

I finally got to bring my old speakers out of retirement (against Hannah’s wishes) and discovered that our little storage bedside thing stores lp’s like a charm. We got to pick up a couple of new ones today (lp’s that is). Hannah got an America record with “Muskrat Love” and I found Daniel Amos’ Horrendous Disc which has “Hound of Heaven” among several other great tracks. We spent most of the afternoon reading the liners and looking at the art (both of which are totally visible on vinyl) and wondering what we have been spending all this money on for 10 years of buying CD’s. Depressing really. In closing, I am adding a series of record images that we have been listening to recently. Hopefully, I can write again soon with some suggestions and notes on records I have come across. Please drop me a note or comment if you have any suggestions.