The miracle of the turntable?


This afternoon I was finishing up reprogramming my Proceed AVP after the AVP2 upgrade, and I was playing an album to check that I had set up the analog pass-through correctly. As I did, my 8 year old son was watching. He gazed in wonder at the spinning black disc and said:

"I still don't understand how that can make music."

I started to explain the principle of the mechanical movement of the stylus in the grooves, and how the cartridge turned that into electrical signals, and then I stopped and asked: "Do you know how a CD makes music?" He shrugged his shoulders to indicate "No."

It got me to wondering...how is it that a new generation just accepts the fact that they can feed a shiny plastic disc into a tray on a black box and get music, and yet they are dumbfounded by the technology of the LP?

Am I just getting old, or what?
rsuminsby
Hey, when you get right down to it, I still can't believe that a speaker can sound like a violin. I think that sense of wonderment was one of the reasons we all gravitated to this stuff at a (usually) young age in the first place. If the kid's got a birthday coming up anytime soon - or even if he doesn't - I say get him a turntable and let him run with it. :-)
son sounds like an ideal candidate for a close-n-play turntable?
Maybe next - try him on a basic electronics learning lab kit. I was doing these myself at a very young age. The kid is already curious & asks good questions. Nurture his achievements; someday maybe he'll be designing the stuff!
I agree with Zaikesman (again). Acoustic Sounds has those old folding portable phonographs on sale. That would be perfect. (Of course don't let him even think of touching your vinyl!) Then its off to the used record store to buy him a few good, but probably well used records!

Have Fun with it!
Nice story and nice thoughts Zaike! My audiophilia started when I was three. That was in 1936. I had one of those "grammophones", which you had to wind up with a handle and a few shellac disks, which I used to cherish. I still remember my wonderment and getting hurt by the needle, which drew blood, the playing-head, which was quite heavy, having fallen on one of my clumsy fingers. I used to crank and sit enthralled for hours. That has not changed to this day, not even the cranking. Only it is the grindstone this time, the one I have to keep my nose on, in order to finance an occasional audiophile convulsion. Cheers,