From: "Steven C. Barr(x)" <stevenc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Reply-To: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List <ARSCLIST@xxxxxxx>
To: ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Crosley Radio
Date: Fri, 20 Apr 2007 22:44:22 -0400
----- Original Message -----
From: "Craig Breaden" <breaden@xxxxxxx>
> Last year I bought a Crosley radio/record player for my little corner of our
> house. Everything about these units is cheap and flimsy, BUT:
> - It allows me to play, on the cheap, my already scratchy records I bought
> as a teenager in the pre-CD late 70s and early 80s, without all the hoopla
> and care I have to give to the recordings I work with as a professional (as
> fun as my profession can be, when I go home best practices stay, mostly, at
> the workplace).
> - It reminds me of a time when I put on a record and sat back and listened
> to it on my all-in-one Kmart special. Side A, then Side B. Sometimes I
> would get adventurous and listen to Side B first, and sometimes I
> unwittingly thought Side B was Side A (not until the CD reissue did I
> realize AC/DC's Back in Black started with "Hells Bells"). I like this
> because, as much as I appreciate the convenience of the downloaded iTune,
> there is absolutely nothing joyous about it for me (and something curiously
> depressing).
> Plus there's a fun lighted radio dial that my 1 1/2-year-old likes to play
> with. The radio sounds nice, by the way, and the thing will play 78s, but I
> probably wouldn't even let it cast light on a 78 -- damage by suggestive
> association.
> If you want an easy way to listen to your old LPs and 45s that were better
> listened to than fetishized, it's fun. If it's going to be your only way to
> play records, though, I'd probably hold off and shell out for a real rig.
>
Note that earlier-vintage "record players" still occasionally turn
up (though "baby boomers" have turned them into collectibles...!)
and can do the same thing (about the same level) as these "instant
collectible" reproductions. As well, there is now a properly-sized
needle available for the Crosley (et al) faux-vintage machines
(although those don't have "flipover" needles or cartridges,
making a session of listening to 78's and microgroove discs
rather a challenge...!).
Howsomever...by about the year 2025 (as the song goes...) analog sound recordings will only exist in museums and ancient archives, where manually-recreated "players" will allow their reproduction should there be anyone so interested! Meanwhile, 256-bit digital sound recordings will be distributed on fingernail-sized storage devices using altered-quanta technology...so the main danger will be your dog or cat accidentally swallowing your copy of the current hit...!
Of course, improved technology will make it possible to recreate accurately sound recordings that never existed...i.e. "Armstrong's Hot Five Play the Songs Of the Beatles"...
Steven C. Barr