The Special Experience Of Playing A Record

It starts with the itch to go to the record store.....a most special place....and sort through the plethora of albums on display.....this in itself is part of the fun......what will I find?.....and then it happens....that special memory.....and finding something that feels right.....to soothe the psyche and scratch that itch....you kinda don't know where it comes from.....but it feels right.That album that is going to take you to that special place.....and only vinyl can take you there completely.....with it's atmospheric sound.....it helps you find that special space....and then there is the gatefold cover.....a true artistic experience.Even the handling of that 12"  and the fact that it only plays for 20 odd minutes before you have to get up and flip to the other side has its own attention grabbing experience....it involves you.Those that grew up in the 1970's and 1980's and experienced the excitement of saving up enough money to buy your next LP record....a truly joyful experience of going to the record store and finding that special album that would create that great listening experience and ....memories of where you were when you listened to that not only geographically but in life..........it unconsciously created a bookmark.....of great times that are remembered in fondness.An album,particularly on vinyl is a story from the artist to be enjoyed in its entirety unlike an MP3 download track and it comes in a way that grabs your attention and you have an experience of atmospheric sounding music.....and that's kinda special.....enjoy your next record!

To quote Audio Esoterica magazine...."We are approaching one and a half centuries of using the gramaphone,the phonograph with it's crippling mechanical and inherent vibrational challenges,yet the turntable still holds so much....music.Perhaps not despite,but because of the physical aspects and apparent limitations,and their interralation as a music-playing system,the modern turntable can be tonally,spatially and dynamically accurate.Despite dissenting futurists,even if the digital futurist's pure mathematics may seem on paper to be superior to the mechanisms driving the needle and groove,analogue playback can be undeniably and resoundingly satisfying,even when within the most ambitious of playback systems.

So here in the 21st century we are seeing the revival of the turntable,spawning more manufacturers and new players at all price points,and increasingly at the highest levels.And vinyl reproduction  has not stood still - today's decks may even be eclipsing the best choices available from the format's golden years."

What's mystifying to us at Stereophonic is the number of young people circa 16- 30......who were born after the halycon days of LP records coming in knowing they need a turntable to enjoy their music.....they get it....and we are happy to help them enjoy this special space....

Whatever the case enjoying music is what it's all about....and we wish for more people to get it.....