That might have been Veronica’s point, but she did say WAV instead of MP3.
The Creative Labs Jukebox 3 had an SNR around 93-98 dB (review), which is comfortably above vinyl. (You may be referring to a different model, but this was what I could find for an example.) As long as it was a lossless WAV file and not MP3, this exceeds the SNR of many modern stereo receivers. Early MP3 encoders were also not as good as modern ones, so lossy compressed files from that era were often worse than vinyl.
The laser players have always been very unreliable and not well supported. Better to stick with a well made bit of recent (last 40 years) product.
Man you really have to look hard to see the differences. The hinges and power button are a little refined and some corner tweaks.
I have a late 70s LP12 Sondeck and it looks basically the same.
Even if I went crazy with every “upgrade” Linn offers to bring mine up to date I dont think I could come close hit the asking price of the limited edition one.
One nice part of the sondeck platform is you can pick and choose how much snake oil you want to consume 
They are very configurable and there is a big community around them and you can buy other peoples used upgrades if you want to change anything. (for e.g. mine doesnt support 45s but I could buy a power supply that does). Its not a cheap turntable, even used vintage but it does work well and look nice. Mine pairs nicely with my also vintage Linn Isobarik speakers and old school Naim amps and the whole setup cost far less than the tax on this new edition.
ProJect also makes great bang for your buck turntables.
I have a debut carbon and it sounds great with almost any record. It has a few rare tracks here and there where I just can’t get it to track as well as my Linn but I have nothing to complain about with the sound quality. It’s just a great product for a reasonable price.
my Fisher Price turntable has pretty awful sound (despite the upgraded needle and cartridge I put on it) but it actually looks like something made by Apple; albeit something made by Apple in 1985.
Since we’re recommending, I love Fluance gear for bang-for-buck. It has no right to be as good as it is for what it costs. The turntables are really nice. All the controls are smooth and expensive-feeling, the balance on the tone arm is flawless, and it’s a joy to use. Even the hinges are nice, which they usually aren’t at this price point.
I have their home theater speakers as well, and they’re just as nice. All the reviews say the same- way too nice for the price (and Canadian prices, remember, so you Yanks can knock another 30% off).
Social signalling is important to social creatures. What’s interesting about humans is where and how they signal.
When I was working in Singapore in the 90s, I met people who were in a family scraping by living in a one-bedroom apartment above a shop, who also had a single expensive and immaculately-maintained suit, and who drove an expensive car. Nobody would do business with you if you didn’t look successful.
I’m not going to spend $60k to find out, but I’m sure I couldn’t tell the difference between this and a $500 turntable’s sound. But I could use it to signal to people I wanted to impress that I had $60k to spend on a turntable. If that was a signal I wanted to / could afford to send.
Personally, I think it’s bonkers and something we need to put a cap on if we’re going to make it as a species. Above a certain line, it should be shameful flashing that much wealth on toys instead of helping people. But that’s just my theory.
In fact, we have just such a system- progressive taxation. This is precisely one of the many many problems it solves. If we agree as a society that, say, $1m/year is the absolute most income anyone could ever need and still be happy, then tax away everything beyond that and put it back into society. No more pointless $60k turntables because at $1m/year you’ll buy a nice turntable if you want, but you’re gonna feel $60k so nobody would buy that. The excess wealth then goes to build hospitals, schools, social safety nets, etc. Everyone wins.
I know I’m preaching to the choir here on that, but unfortunately many democratic societies have forgotten (or chose to ignore) the basic lessons of progressive taxation and why it works.
All societies choose how to allocate excess wealth, either intentionally or not. Progressive taxation says “we want elected representatives to decide how to allocate that extra wealth”. The US has decided “we want billionaires and their egos to decide how to spend it” which generally means on themselves, with occasional vanity spaceship projects.
I know which society I’d rather live in.
I’ve idly glanced at too many trend pieces on “quiet luxury” to know this to be true.
True. And a lot of that signaling, including things like a $60,000 turntable or, say, a golden toilet, is obscene.
my Fisher Price turntable has pretty awful sound (despite the upgraded needle and cartridge I put on it) but it actually looks like something made by Apple; albeit something made by Apple in 1985.
Must be nice. You got the fancy model.
I recall Techmoan talking about them in passing. They don’t work with coloured or translucent vinyl and records have to be deep cleaned each and every time they are played.
So basically, pointless.
If you’re going to go Pro- Ject and yellow you might as well go all in
This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.
