A funny thing happened on the way to the scrap-heap for the LP record: to paraphrase Edgard Varese, “it refused to die.” All over the world, on college campuses, in basements, in Goodwill stores, the LP is being rediscovered.
In a world which becomes more and more virtual, the LP is an artifact of the material world, a Rolex in an iPod world. An LP is a concept that can be grasped, a technology that can be understood, touched, and used.
Against all odds and expectations, the digital age is the best-ever time for analog lovers. More and better turntables, arms and cartridges are available than ever before; and you’ll be able to see a lot of them in Denver at
Rocky Mountain Audio Fest, October 2nd-4th, at the Marriott Denver Tech Center and the Hilton Garden Inn.
Two amazing new releases are the TTWeights Audio “Christine” (named, one hopes, after the opera singer in Phantom of the Opera, and not Stephen King’s haunted Plymouth), and the Lumen White “Mystere” (and it’s a mystery if it should be pronounced “mys-TEER” or “mys-ter-AY”).
TTWeights Audio is the side-job of Larry Denham, of Newmarket, Ontario; his company LJT Manufacturing is an aerospace-grade manufacturing facility which makes component parts for Boeing, amongst other clients. His girl Christine has more unusual design features than can be absorbed in one session.
How about these bullet-points? EIGHTY pound platter, solid carbide bearing shaft with out of roundness not exceeding .00005”, sub-platter rim-driven by high torque DC servo motors? The quantity of material in this device is nearly as impressive as the quality of finish; this 180-pound table looks torquey enough to drive a lathe. Presumably,the task of rotating a sliver of vinyl beneath an arm and cartridge will be no challenge at all.
If the sound-quality is in the same league as the finish-quality, this table could be a bargain, even at the price-range of $45,000- $60,000. Go take a look and a listen at rooms 441 and 514 at the Marriott, and tell Larry we sent you.
Tomorrow: the Mystere deepens....
