There's talk on reddit's /r/vinyl/ about a new Crosley turntable. There's always talk about Crosley in general there: they're cheap, they eat your records, wouldn't give one to my worst enemy, etc.
But what's all this? Adjustable counterweight? An Ortofon cartridge? What happened to the Crosley we all know and hate? It doesn't even have this table on its site yet. Is it a late April Fool's joke?
Judging from the number of hits I got about it on Google, there's a chance. But our tipster reports it's true because there's a link to a record presser that is apparently selling this suspiciously respectable turntable...like right now. Want a look for yourself? Here you go.
Rumor is - and again, it's just rumor at this point since like I said, Crosely itself is virtually mum about this table - it might be a rebadged Pro-Ject. Which is indeed a good table.
A new version of its Keepsake now sports an Audio-Technica cartridge and diamond stylus. So if there are any rumors about Crosley gaming up its overall quality, they might be true. And I, like a lot of others, would be glad to see Crosley finally changing its tune.
Showing posts with label tech. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tech. Show all posts
Sunday, August 23, 2015
Tuesday, March 4, 2014
Video Vinyl: RCA's CED System
It's been just about 30 years since we've seen the last of a format called CED. Capacitance Electronic Disc, as it's more formally known, seems s strange subject for a blog about records. But once you learn what a CED is (if you're not already familiar), it'll all make sense.
CEDs work the same basic way that records do: a diamond stylus reads the grooves on a disc and translates the information into audio (and in CED's case, video). There are two differences: first, the grooves are much smaller on a CED (over 9500 per inch) so it spins much faster (450 RPM as opposed to 33 1/3 or 45). Also, CEDs are in plastic caddies for protection. The player extracts the disc from the caddy for playing. To watch the second side of the disc, you put the caddy back into the player to get the disc back, then flip the caddy over and insert it into the player again. Put the caddy back into the player one final time at the end of the movie to retrieve the disc again and store it until the next time you watch. It's a quaint system, even by early '80s standards.
That could be one of the reasons it only lasted three years. CED was intended for original release in the mid '70s. A change in the top at RCA, the company that invented CED, coincided with the need for further testing and research, and the confluence of events held CED's relesase back until early 1981. By that time, families were fighting over whether their first VCR should be VHS or Beta. That was another thing: you could record on a VCR. You could only play a CED.
It didn't help matters that at the exact same time RCA was working on CED, MCA was doing its own disc-based thing with help from dutch electronics conglomerate Philips. It was called DiscoVision. First demonstrated in 1972, DiscoVision beat CED to the market by three years...and stayed viable until the after the advent of DVD in the mid '90s. You know it better as LaserDisc...the format that gave us Karaoke.
RCA closed the book on CED in 1984 after losing a reported $500 million on the venture. Not two years later, RCA was merged with GE and sold off bit by bit. Today, the TV operations of RCA are part of South Korea's ON Corporation. The rest of the brand is owned by Audiovox.
There's still a contingent of groovy CED collectors out there, and I count myself among them. I don't have the biggest or best collection, but I do have one of the last CED players made and a few dozen movies to watch on it....when I'm not spinning vinyl the other way.
For more than you ever thought there was to know about CED, spend an hour or two (I'm serious - there a LOT there) at Tom Howe's glorious CED Magic site. You'll find complete lists of every player made and every disc produced. There are notes from those present at the creation and even a forum full of people who still keep their machines going.
CEDs work the same basic way that records do: a diamond stylus reads the grooves on a disc and translates the information into audio (and in CED's case, video). There are two differences: first, the grooves are much smaller on a CED (over 9500 per inch) so it spins much faster (450 RPM as opposed to 33 1/3 or 45). Also, CEDs are in plastic caddies for protection. The player extracts the disc from the caddy for playing. To watch the second side of the disc, you put the caddy back into the player to get the disc back, then flip the caddy over and insert it into the player again. Put the caddy back into the player one final time at the end of the movie to retrieve the disc again and store it until the next time you watch. It's a quaint system, even by early '80s standards.
That could be one of the reasons it only lasted three years. CED was intended for original release in the mid '70s. A change in the top at RCA, the company that invented CED, coincided with the need for further testing and research, and the confluence of events held CED's relesase back until early 1981. By that time, families were fighting over whether their first VCR should be VHS or Beta. That was another thing: you could record on a VCR. You could only play a CED.
It didn't help matters that at the exact same time RCA was working on CED, MCA was doing its own disc-based thing with help from dutch electronics conglomerate Philips. It was called DiscoVision. First demonstrated in 1972, DiscoVision beat CED to the market by three years...and stayed viable until the after the advent of DVD in the mid '90s. You know it better as LaserDisc...the format that gave us Karaoke.
RCA closed the book on CED in 1984 after losing a reported $500 million on the venture. Not two years later, RCA was merged with GE and sold off bit by bit. Today, the TV operations of RCA are part of South Korea's ON Corporation. The rest of the brand is owned by Audiovox.
There's still a contingent of groovy CED collectors out there, and I count myself among them. I don't have the biggest or best collection, but I do have one of the last CED players made and a few dozen movies to watch on it....when I'm not spinning vinyl the other way.
For more than you ever thought there was to know about CED, spend an hour or two (I'm serious - there a LOT there) at Tom Howe's glorious CED Magic site. You'll find complete lists of every player made and every disc produced. There are notes from those present at the creation and even a forum full of people who still keep their machines going.
Monday, October 21, 2013
Sound On Film: The (Abridged) Story of 35mm Albums
I didn't quite get to AES in time to get to the story of the Peggy Lee album, but I did get to the story of 35mm film recording. And I learned a lot. For example:
- Classical music can be good. I liked an excerpt of a Mahler piece (Symphony No. 9 in D Minor) I heard during the demonstration.
- Queens may not be the cultural center of the world, but there was some fine music recorded there.
- I have to be more careful with what records I get rid of. One of the albums in the presentation was one I used to have.
The presentation was given by Tom Fine, whose parents both played significant roles in the history of 35mm recording: father Robert was an engineer who bought Everest's studio after Everest disbanded; mother Wilma worked for Mercury Records and oversaw its Living Presence series of classical albums from conception to its digital remastering in the '90s.
Cliffs Notes on 35mm sound: it started in the late '50s at Everest Records, a small label in Bayside, Queens. Its founders believed 35mm film was better because it was wider and thicker than standard audio tape of the day, and it ran faster (faster speeds = higher quality). It was also less prone to noise, like tape hiss.
Unfortunately, film was ridicuoulsly expensive, so Everest, which specialized in classical recordings, went under after only a few years. But bigger, better-resourced Mercury carried the torch for a few more years...and it blazed pretty brightly. Mercury's Living Presence albums were a marvel not only technically, but artistically.
On the heels of Mercury's success came 35mm albums from labels like Command, from the always-technically-forward Enoch Light, and Philadelphia-based Cameo/Parkway. Towards the end of the '60s, a turbulent time in general, things changed for 35mm..not the least of which was public taste. And the change in taste actually helped hammer the coffin shut for 35mm. The classical recordings typically done on 35mm, with their 3 microphones (or sometimes just one) over the orchestra, didn't need the editing, overdubbing or special tricks rock music did. Plus, improved tape formulations and the advent of technology like Dolby noise reduction rendered the advantages of 35mm moot.
But 35mm still lives on - barely. Time has not been kind to the reels of film recorded by Everest, Mercury, Command and Cameo-Parkway. Indeed, some have been lost forever, mainly due to improper storage conditions. There has been success in restoring Mercury's 35mm recordings. There are two sets of them now available on CD. The first might be out of print - it's now hideously expensive, but there's a second one available for a decent price, considering it contains about 50 CDs. But if you want it, you'd better act on it before the price goes up like it did with the first one. A few of the Living Presence albums have also been reissued on vinyl as well.
LINKS FOR FURTHER LEARNING
The story of Everest Records and Fine Recording Studios
Wilma Cozart Fine and Her Role in Mercury Living Presence
Mercury Living Presence box set at Amazon
- Classical music can be good. I liked an excerpt of a Mahler piece (Symphony No. 9 in D Minor) I heard during the demonstration.
- Queens may not be the cultural center of the world, but there was some fine music recorded there.
- I have to be more careful with what records I get rid of. One of the albums in the presentation was one I used to have.
The presentation was given by Tom Fine, whose parents both played significant roles in the history of 35mm recording: father Robert was an engineer who bought Everest's studio after Everest disbanded; mother Wilma worked for Mercury Records and oversaw its Living Presence series of classical albums from conception to its digital remastering in the '90s.
Cliffs Notes on 35mm sound: it started in the late '50s at Everest Records, a small label in Bayside, Queens. Its founders believed 35mm film was better because it was wider and thicker than standard audio tape of the day, and it ran faster (faster speeds = higher quality). It was also less prone to noise, like tape hiss.
Unfortunately, film was ridicuoulsly expensive, so Everest, which specialized in classical recordings, went under after only a few years. But bigger, better-resourced Mercury carried the torch for a few more years...and it blazed pretty brightly. Mercury's Living Presence albums were a marvel not only technically, but artistically.
On the heels of Mercury's success came 35mm albums from labels like Command, from the always-technically-forward Enoch Light, and Philadelphia-based Cameo/Parkway. Towards the end of the '60s, a turbulent time in general, things changed for 35mm..not the least of which was public taste. And the change in taste actually helped hammer the coffin shut for 35mm. The classical recordings typically done on 35mm, with their 3 microphones (or sometimes just one) over the orchestra, didn't need the editing, overdubbing or special tricks rock music did. Plus, improved tape formulations and the advent of technology like Dolby noise reduction rendered the advantages of 35mm moot.
But 35mm still lives on - barely. Time has not been kind to the reels of film recorded by Everest, Mercury, Command and Cameo-Parkway. Indeed, some have been lost forever, mainly due to improper storage conditions. There has been success in restoring Mercury's 35mm recordings. There are two sets of them now available on CD. The first might be out of print - it's now hideously expensive, but there's a second one available for a decent price, considering it contains about 50 CDs. But if you want it, you'd better act on it before the price goes up like it did with the first one. A few of the Living Presence albums have also been reissued on vinyl as well.
LINKS FOR FURTHER LEARNING
The story of Everest Records and Fine Recording Studios
Wilma Cozart Fine and Her Role in Mercury Living Presence
Mercury Living Presence box set at Amazon
Friday, October 18, 2013
Educational Field Trip to NYC
For once, I'll be on a trip where records aren't being purchased, but strictly learned about. I got late notice that the AES Convention is happening in New York this weekend (and of course, your notice is probably even shorter - sorry 'bout that).
If pro audio is a circle you travel in, AES needs no introduction. For the rest of you, AES is the Audio Engineering Society, an international organization of professionals dedicated to learning, teaching and innovating in all fields of recorded audio. They hold conventions twice a year, and they're massive - like an auto show for your ears. In fact, this AES is being held at a place where there's an auto show every year - the Jacob Javits Convention Center in Manhattan. Mnaufacturers will show their latest microphones, recording consoles, effects, and software. Some will even be hosting seminars. There are producers, engineers, and lots of big names in audio. One speaker manufacturer is even recruiting for jobs!
So what does this all have to do with vinyl?
Two things.
One is a presentation on an early stereo album. Peggy Lee's Jump For Joy was one of Capitol Records' first albums to be released in stereo. But it didn't originally get reissued to CD that way. Tomorrow, the mystery is revealed about how the proper stereo version of this album finally made its way to CD from the original tapes.
The other vinyl-centric feature deals with film. Yes, film. There was a time just after stereo was introduced when some engineers felt tape just wasn't up to the job of capturing evey detail of the dynamic performances they were recording. A small studio believed that 35mm film - the same type used for movies - could also be used to record music. The idea held promise...but tape made quick strides in quality during the '60s that left film behind. The rise and fall of 35mm film recording will be chronicled tomorrow.
AES runs through Sunday, October 21 at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in Manhattan. You can learn all about it at http://www.aes.org.
If pro audio is a circle you travel in, AES needs no introduction. For the rest of you, AES is the Audio Engineering Society, an international organization of professionals dedicated to learning, teaching and innovating in all fields of recorded audio. They hold conventions twice a year, and they're massive - like an auto show for your ears. In fact, this AES is being held at a place where there's an auto show every year - the Jacob Javits Convention Center in Manhattan. Mnaufacturers will show their latest microphones, recording consoles, effects, and software. Some will even be hosting seminars. There are producers, engineers, and lots of big names in audio. One speaker manufacturer is even recruiting for jobs!
So what does this all have to do with vinyl?
Two things.
One is a presentation on an early stereo album. Peggy Lee's Jump For Joy was one of Capitol Records' first albums to be released in stereo. But it didn't originally get reissued to CD that way. Tomorrow, the mystery is revealed about how the proper stereo version of this album finally made its way to CD from the original tapes.
The other vinyl-centric feature deals with film. Yes, film. There was a time just after stereo was introduced when some engineers felt tape just wasn't up to the job of capturing evey detail of the dynamic performances they were recording. A small studio believed that 35mm film - the same type used for movies - could also be used to record music. The idea held promise...but tape made quick strides in quality during the '60s that left film behind. The rise and fall of 35mm film recording will be chronicled tomorrow.
AES runs through Sunday, October 21 at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in Manhattan. You can learn all about it at http://www.aes.org.
Friday, August 16, 2013
1 7/8 Revelations Per Second
This may look like a record blog, but occasionally it turns into other things. I warned you that it would do that in the first post. Right now, this is a record blog about cassettes. Maybe you still have some. I know I do. I'm on some of them. For some wacky reason I saved some of the tapes I made back in my radio days. And for some other reason I now have my choice of three players to play them on.
This is the newest: it's an Akai GXC-570D II. Like most Akai units of the '70s, this one's got quite a reputation for quality. It also has quite the list of features. I'll translate its virtues to English as I go.
3 GX heads: one head to record, one to play, and one to erase. "GX" means the heads are covered in glass to make them virtually impervious to wear. Akai is the only company I know that did this.
Motorized door: this one's kinda simple. See all those controls on top? There's a door that covers them and opens when you push a button. There's a pitch control to adjust speed, recording bias adjustments to tailor EQ to the type of tape, a test tone, and controls for Dolby and tape type.
Sensi-Touch Controls: those buttons don't work like regular buttons. No clunking, no pressing. Just a quick, light tap and the tape does what you want it to.
Direct Drive: no belts to stretch (like on my Pioneer), no idler tires to go brittle (like my Nakamichi). The ultimate in low maintenance.
A flea market find from the weekend, sold to me by a music lover who was stationed in Sicily back in the day. Like most servicemen, he stocked up on gear like this. There's an issue or two, but with a little exercise and TLC this should shape up to be a fine deck.
3 GX heads: one head to record, one to play, and one to erase. "GX" means the heads are covered in glass to make them virtually impervious to wear. Akai is the only company I know that did this.
Motorized door: this one's kinda simple. See all those controls on top? There's a door that covers them and opens when you push a button. There's a pitch control to adjust speed, recording bias adjustments to tailor EQ to the type of tape, a test tone, and controls for Dolby and tape type.
Sensi-Touch Controls: those buttons don't work like regular buttons. No clunking, no pressing. Just a quick, light tap and the tape does what you want it to.
Direct Drive: no belts to stretch (like on my Pioneer), no idler tires to go brittle (like my Nakamichi). The ultimate in low maintenance.
A flea market find from the weekend, sold to me by a music lover who was stationed in Sicily back in the day. Like most servicemen, he stocked up on gear like this. There's an issue or two, but with a little exercise and TLC this should shape up to be a fine deck.
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