While records have dominated the home audio electronics business throughout the 20th century, little has been published about record stores themselves. With few exceptions, most record stores were family operated or were departments in larger stores. Gary Calamar and Phil Gallo have co-authored what may be the first comprehensive book on the evolution of the record store, Record Store Days: From Vinyl to Digital and Back Again. The book is due for release on April 6, 2010.

Records appeared as discs in 1900 with two major manufacturers, Columbia and Victor. One format was at 80 RPM while the other was at 76 RPM. It took an entire generation of listeners to standardize the speed to 78 RPM, in 1925. At that era discs were competing with cylinder recordings made popular by Thomas Edison in 1897. Vinyl records have undergone turbulent evolution as 78’s were replaced by long playing records and 45-rpm singles. Could someone in the late 1960’s, the era of the vinyl LP, been nostalgic for 78 vinyls? Continue Reading »

Pyle PLTTB3U Belt Drive USB Turntable

Pyle’s Belt Drive USB Turntable is the easiest way to convert your vinyl into MP3s. Bring your record collection into the digital age. This gives you everything you need to transfer your vinyl albums to your computer. The USB output connects directly to your computer, and the included music recording/editing software makes it easy to transfer songs and optimize sound quality.

Simply connect to a PC or Mac via USB connection, and use the Audacity to Record and clean up the track, removing hissing and pops. Now you’re able to preserve your rare and hard to find records. While having the ability to burn CDs with your favorite songs.
Save music as MP3 or WAV files that you can store on your computer or download to your favorite portable player.

It spins at 33-1/3 and 45 rpm, allowing you to enjoy albums and singles. You can also make this turntable part of your main music system, thanks to the standard stereo outputs and built-in PHONO preamp. An adjustable counter weight and magnetic anti-skating mechanism in the tone arm lets you make precise adjustments to keep the stylus tracking properly. All of the controls are on the front panel and easy to access.
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Britt Daniel and Spoon keep the process and end result simple on Transference (Vinyl and Digipak).

Ever since their second release a decade and a half ago, Britt Daniel and Spoon have responded to their last album on their newest album. It’s not as though the band does a comparative analysis and conceives a work that thoughtfully departs from its predecessor; it just turns out that way. And that’s certainly the case with Spoon’s seventh full-length, Transference.

“I think it’s a valid consideration that we unconsciously react to the way we feel about the album before,” notes Spoon frontman and songwriter Daniel. “For instance, for Kill the Moonlight, I felt like the one before, Girls Can Tell, was all about traditional songwriting, like oldies radio type[s] of songs. So, for Kill the Moonlight, without really knowing exactly why, I think we gravitated toward the more new wave, weirder, sort of bizarre arrangements and demo-like recording quality.
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Not long ago, I wrote about the death of high fidelity. However, all is not lost. For those of us who care about listening to music in the best quality possible, there are many viable options.

For the digitally inclined, high resolution downloads are gaining popularity. One of my favorites in the Bowers & Wilkens Society of Sound. This is a complete treasure trove of fresh, new unique music available in various lossless formats like Apple lossless, FLAC (including 24 bit) at an affordable annual price. An excellent introduction to basic high rez files and a way to an instant hifi, is to load up your iPod with Apple lossless downloads, then connect it to one of the B&W Zeppelin iPod speaker docks.

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Buying gifts for people isn’t always the easiest thing in the world. It’s the thought that counts they say, but sometimes you have to wonder what the gift giver was thinking. Thankfully, there is no second guessing vinyl purchases as a gift. Provided you know the musical tastes of the person you are shopping for, then this should be a breeze. Of course, you aren’t limited to my selections. The sky is the limit with vinyl, but these albums are the standouts in their respective genres in my opinion. They would all make fine gifts.
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Miles Davis needs no introduction to jazz fans, or music fans for that matter. Whether you like Miles or not, just about everyone has heard a cut from his landmark album, Kind Of Blue.

While Kind Of Blue is a great album, Miles has much more to offer than that. Miles fans know this, but the casual fans who have Kind Of Blue and nothing else from Miles should definitely delve deeper into his library.

For the vinyl aficionado, now is the perfect time Continue Reading »

Norah Jones gained national recognition and critical acclaim with her debut album ‘Come Away With Me‘. The album garnered her five Grammy awards. She’s gone on to sell millions of albums and a slew of awards.

In mid 2007, she performed a concert for the Austin City Limits program. It was released on DVD. The concert was also released on vinyl as Live From Austin, TX. This is Norah at her best. In a relaxed setting, grooving with her band, singing all her classics.

In terms of fidelity, this LP is superb. It’s a 180 gram double LP edition. Any fan of Norah who has a turntable owes it to themselves to purchase this album. It’s a must have.

Keep spinning.