Turntables at CES: Still Mostly Cheap Plastic

The annual Consumer Electronics Show has come and gone, with the usual array of new gadgets ranging from the cool to useless, to vaporware. Over at RadioSurvivor I covered some of the news relating to radio. Along with radio and a metric ton of iPod/iPhone accessories, there were some new vinyl playback devices at CES, too.

Stereophile magazine covered the high-end arena of $4500 phono cartridges and $11,000 turntables, otherwise ignored by the rest of the mainstream electronic press. What caught the typical reporter’s eye was a bevy of new cheap plastic turntables studded with USB connectors and memory card slots.

The LA Times’ music blog notes the models offered up by retro-plastic purveyor Crosley and space-age plastic pusher Ion. As I’ve noted before, the actual record-playing parts of these “new” turntables are tried-and-true knockoffs of the flimsy plastic turntables previously seen on your mid-80s compact stereo.

Bloggers seemed particularly excited by the Crosley Revolution turntable, which, as Retro-Thing points out, is a knock-off of the 1980s Audio-Technica AT-727 Sound Burger record player. Although R-T’s James Graheme recalls that it has “an almost mythic reputation for high-quality sound,” my own recollection is that they were fiddly and mediocre at best. Sony had its own versions of the platter-less record player in the 80s, too, the PS-F5 and PS-F9. Because their unusual design both have also achieve a near-mythic status. But mythic does not necessarily mean good.

Again, I must argue that the “innovations” of linear-tracking and platter-less turntables in the 1980s contributed to the widely-held perception that vinyl provided low quality sound. I’m not so certain that these approaches were inherently wrong-headed. Rather, I’m inclined to blame their application in increasingly light-weight plastic components. That’s why none of these technologies have been seen again since the 1980s… until now, that is.

CNet’s audio blogger Donald Bell demonstrates his understanding of this in his post on the new Audio-Technica USB turntable that is a knock-off of a much more proven design:

Compared with most of the flimsy, plastic, belt-driven, disposable toys that get passed off as turntables these days, my 1200 is a 20-pound metal beast that will probably outlive my grandchildren. …

the Audio Technica AT-LP120-USB ($429 list, $299 street) offers a shining ray of hope. Clearly built as an homage to the classic Technics SL-1200MK2, the AT-LP120-USB seemingly offers old-schoolers a way to straddle the analog and digital music realms in style.

Unfortunately Bell is one of few voices of reason outside the high fidelity press.

It’s a bit of shame that the simple, no-frills but high-quality designs like those from Pro-ject and Music Hall aren’t more widely available or covered. Myself, I rock a five-year-old Pro-Ject that shows no signs of fading. If one of the mass-merchandise manufacturers were to knock-off one of these, rather than a discredited 80’s plastic wonder, it would do a wonder for the nation’s ears and the long-term viability of vinyl.

Frankly, I’m a little amazed that the vinyl renaissance seems to be thriving as long as it has, especially given how many of the new turntables out there are a bad 80s flashback. Some might argue that the prevalence of MP3s has numbed the country’s ears to true fidelity. I don’t quite buy that argument. MP3s can actually sound pretty good on decent equipment, and the dominance of digital audio has trained us to be less tolerant of added noise.

My best guess is that the continuing vinyl resurgence is really based on sound quality, in as much as vinyl sounds simply different than CDs or MP3s, and can sound better on good equipment. I also think it’s due to the inherent physicality of the LP. It’s bigger size makes the whole album package somewhat more aesthetically pleasing than the CD jewel case. But the starker contrast stands out when compared to the intangible nature of MP3 files.

As someone who is enjoying the increased availability of new vinyl records, I guess I shouldn’t complain too loudly about the plastic turntables, since they appear to be sparking demand. I just hope that at least a few enthusiasts newly awakened to vinyl’s allure will listen past their entry-level IONs or Crosleys and consider a nice used or new turntable that will really let the music shine through (and will also last decades longer, I bet).

Cheapskate Audiophile

As a geek videophile audiophile there’s the tendency for that interest to be conflict with my critical side that questions our modern consumerist capitalist economy. I believe that balance can be found, as long as one accepts that it’s nearly impossible to be entirely non-comsumerist without checking out of modern technological society altogether. Yet, it is possible to temper the consumerist side while still having enthusiasm for good audio and video and the aesthetics of sound and vision.

In particular, I think I’ve always been an audiophile. I’ve been obsessed with sound and music since I was a child, and I’ve always been interested in finding better, more pleasing, more realistic sound reproduction. While in high school in the mid-80s I bought my first component cassette deck, amplifier, CD player and turntable. All of this gear was decidedly “mid-fi” by audiophile standards, but still whet my appetite for sound that was significantly better than the boomboxes and discount-store compact stereos used by most of my peers.

While I’ve been willing to spend some amount of disposable income on audio gear, I’ve also been hestitant to lay down the kind of cash required to buy in to what is considered the “high-end” of audio gear. This is the world of $1000 CD players, $5000 turntables and $10,000 speakers. Certainly, the kind of craftsmanship and design excellence that goes into many of these products has real value. At the same time I think much of it is the audio equivalent of Ferraris and Lamborghinis — semi-impractical exotica meant to give the affluent something to spend their money on, while giving the less-affluent something to aspire to.

My experience in slogging around in the low-end of the high-end has proven to me that good sound does not have to be an exotic rare commodity only for the rich and golden-eared. In fact, very pleasing and accurate sound can be had for as the same or less money than it costs to buy a home-theater in a box system at Wal-Mart or Best Buy.

There are multiple paths to being a cheapskate audiophile, many of them DIY. The more industrious or crafty amongst us build some of their own gear, either from kits or from scratch. Others perform minor modifications on mass-market gear that results in sonic gains.

Possessing neither the skill nor patience to take these routes I instead keep my eyes and ears open for the bargains — gear that achieves unusually good results at an unusually low price-point. The ‘net is a real boon for all of us cheapskate audiophiles by giving us easy access to this sort of info that otherwise would come by word-of-mouth, technical books or low-circulation specialty magazines and newsletters.

To demonstrate I’ll show off my current cheapskate system which I use in my home office for music listening and audio production. The core cheapskate item in the system is the Sonic Impact T-Amp, which I’ve written about before. It’s a cheap, plastic $25 stereo amplifier based on a new digital amplifier design that rocked the audio world three years ago by producing sound more like an amp some 20x its price. The T-Amp is rated to produce 15 watts of power, and I think that’s probably stretching it. More likely, it delivers around 8 watts into most speakers. But they are still an incredibly clean, transparent 8 watts.
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Goodbye minidisc, Hello Zoom H2

I’ve finally broken down and abandoned my beloved minidisc for mobile audio recording. I held out for as long as I could, which wasn’t hard. Until recently the format that never caught on (in the US) was the best portable digital audio recording format, especially when Sony finally unveiled Hi-MD four years ago finally allowing us to upload our recordings directly to our computers, not just download from them.

Then, about three years ago, recorders using memory cards came on the scene offering more convenience and equivalent sound quality, although for more money. Already invested in minidisc gear going back to 1997 I was tempted, but the continued good service of my MD recorders kept me from straying.

But things change. Come 2008 my most recent (circa 2006), and most expensive minidisc recorder has developed issues, and as far as I can tell Sony has no plans to release any new minidisc recorders. However, new ones are still available.

With a trip to NYC planned along with an appointment to do an interview at Neighborhood Public Radio I broke down and bought a Zoom H2 “Handy Recorder.” I’m not going back.

Because of my professional occupation in educational media I’ve had the luxury of messing around with flash memory audio recorders from Marantz, M-Audio and Zoom, so I’ve had a chance to try out features and get to know their benefits and problems.

I was especially intrigued by Zoom’s first recorder, the H4, for it’s comparatively low cost, but inclusion of such pro features as XLR balanced mic jacks. The most interesting things about the H4 is the quality of its built-in stereo microphones. Unlike any under-$1000 recorder that came before, these mics are clearly not afterthoughts and meant to be used.

Then, last year Zoom came out with an even less expensive model, the H2. While you give up some pro features, like the XLR jacks, you gain two additional microphones and the ability to record surround sound. At first I thought this arrangement represented a hollow bit of bling-bling at the expense of quality. But then I read reviews that found the quality to be quite good. I also started talking to other folks who adopted early and sang its praises.

While I like the XLR jacks on the H4, my prior experience left me feeling lukewarm about the actual quality of the mic preamps. Using a basic dynamic mic (like a Shure SM58) the level runs low on the H4, with a fair amount of hiss. Condensers work better, but aren’t always a good fit for field recording. On top of that, the H4 looks like a tazer, which makes me wonder if anyone ever gets harassed at airport security with one in their carry-on.

So, I ordered the H2 for under $200 and put it to the test with an interview. I am impressed. I can barely believe that four decent quality mics are mated to a good digital audio recorder in a package the size of two iPods can work so well at that price. I do have to admit that the construction feels light and cheap — the plastic isn’t too different from what you’d find on a $19 CD discman at the discount store. By comparison, my minidisc recorders have metal cases that inspire more confidence.

The killer feature for me is the ability to record the four mics separately into two two-channel stereo pairs. These two stereo pairs are recorded into two separate files that are otherwise completely sync’d. This is great for doing interviews in the field where you want to record both yourself and your subject without having to move the mic around like you’d have to do with a handheld microphone.

For the interview features on last week’s radioshow, I positioned the mic on the table between myself and the interviewee — we sat on opposite sides. What I ended up with is two stereo .wav files, one in which I was closer and louder, and another where the interviewee was more prominent. I sync’d them both up in multitrack software (er… GarageBand) and mixed them together, muting my file when I wasn’t talking.

I had to produce the entire show on the road. So instead of lugging a mixer and mic with me as I’ve done in the past I just used the H2 to record all my voiceovers, too. The overall quality isn’t as nice as my large-diaphragm condenser mic through a mixer, but it’s so damn close.

All the better, now that SD memory cards with 2 – 4 GB run $15 – $20 the price-per-minute for storage is even competitive with Hi-MD, where 1 GB blanks cost about $5. With a 4 GB card I have 6 hours of full uncompressed CD-quality recording available to me — great for conferences or other events. If I’m willing to live with MP3 compression, that 4 gig card will deliver 20 – 60 hours of record time.

The age of direct-memory recording is here and truly feasible for audio. Video is just starting to become reasonable, depending on how patient you’re willing to be. A little part of me will always love minidisc, just not the part that likes dragging and dropping 60 minute audio files in less than a minute.