Finally (after 25? years) got around to seeing if the dusty old record player still works. It does!
Apparently you connect it to something called Analog In these days. Alas my record collection is somewhat reduced from thousands to just four – which would have been four too many if it had not worked. This is a Thorens TD 321. It replaced a Garrard 301. I cannot recall what happened to the 301 – perhaps it just died from exhaustion. But I do still have the manual and test sheet.
The 301 replaced a Garrard SP 25 which had served well during my teens.
While I can appreciate the charm of old (and new) gramophone records I don’t think I will be in a hurry to acquire anymore anytime soon. Today’s streaming services are perfectly fine. There is a lot of nonsense talked about the pleasure of listening to music pressed into a plastic disc but I am not buying it. If there never had been any vinyl records and someone came up with the idea today would anyone be saying “What a great idea!” or , after they stopped laughing, would they point out that the discs are easily damaged, bulky, heavy, difficult to store etc.?
For the record: The pictured disc is The Mothers Of Invention‘s Cruising With Ruben & The Jets on the Verve label which, in the UK, was distributed by Polydor in the mid 70’s as opposed to the original 60’s issue which had been distributed by EMI – there was a time when this stuff was interesting and important.
You can listen to it here:
Yadit #100DaysToOffload
