Keep listening to my records – Style – Kommersant

Vinyl records and turntables are experiencing a new boom. Most artists release collectible versions of their albums, and audio manufacturers have paid special attention to record equipment. According to the Avito service, in 2022, the sale of vinyl players increased by 10% compared to 2021, and the sale of records – by 44%. We turned to one of Russia’s leading audiophiles, journalist and Elektromonteur frontman Mikhail Borzenkov, to find out what you should pay attention to when choosing a turntable.

First you need to decide which player you need. To get acquainted with vinyl, you should turn to affordable models in terms of price. They are easy to use, so thanks to these players you can get to know the audio technique better and understand it better. Yes, and with sound they will not have problems.

Mikhail Borzenkov: “There are two companies that make budget (and not only) turntables for vinyl – the Austrian Pro-Ject and the English Rega. They have younger models that cost around 20-30 thousand. This thing looks like a board with a platter on it (a record is placed on it) and a tonearm on the side – a simple and minimalist device. This is a very simple and orthodox construction that has two giant advantages: first, no additional elements of the player interfere with its playing, second, it is so simple that it almost never breaks. I had these kind of players, they work for years. I bought my Pro-Ject 15 years ago at Avito. Three times cheaper than in the store – and it was almost new. Worked faithfully for me for five years. Almost 20 years have passed, and he continues to work and there has not been a single breakdown during this time.

Some manufacturers present models that do not require additional equipment – they play the record and output the sound, all in one “box”. With the seeming convenience of such players, it is better to bypass them. You can’t expect a quality sound from them, but they can ruin a record.

Mikhail Borzenkov: “The player that you need to buy should by no means play by itself. It needs to be included in something – some kind of speaker, music center, Hi-Fi system, etc. The point of the player is to create maximum decoupling from any vibrations that would come to the pickup needle. And if a box is taken and a speaker is inserted there, the meaning of which is to create vibrations, this is basically evil. From any phone the sound will be better than from such a player.

As a rule, these same “games”, that is, players with a built-in speaker, are the cheapest. They cost about 7-10 thousand. And this plastic g **** has one most unpleasant property – it ruins your records. A turntable is an electromechanical system in which the word “mechanical” is the main thing. Accordingly, if you have a box made of plastic that costs a penny, this means that there are no exact mechanics there. Due to the fact that all these mechanics are very rough, her movements are rigid and she “cuts down” the records. On such a player, a dozen plays of the record can lead to noticeable damage to the track and deterioration of its sound. Therefore, I warn you, first of all, against buying a cheap player that plays itself: in no case should you buy all these Crosley, Ion, Watson, because you will not get any pleasure from communicating with vinyl, no sound quality, and even ruin your records “.

For many, the issue of novelty is important – to buy from hand or go to the store for a new, untouched model? If the previous owners handled the player with care, its condition will be no worse than in the window. Much more important is the generation of the model, and not whether it was used by someone before.

Mikhail Borzenkov: “There is a dividing line between new turntables and vintage turntables – that is, those that were made before the 1990s. Vintage turntables are in many ways an interesting and beautiful thing, but I would by no means advise you to start with this. Maybe you’ll be lucky and it won’t break. But my experience is that everything breaks all the time. You still have to drag him to the master for prevention. Plus, there can be such breakdowns that a beginner does not even know. For example, a malfunctioning motor, due to which the speed of the player turns out to be defective – it spins faster or slower than it should. And you, for example, have no experience of listening to records – and they will continue to play slower or faster. Problems can be with the pickup head, with the setting – it is also quite complicated. Pro-Ject and Rega – you don’t need to do anything there at all, you take it out of the box and listen. And the vintage models, created in the era of vinyl greatness… All these counterweights, anti-skating and stuff like that. Some tonearms even I can not adjust right away. Serious instructions are required, and you buy a vintage turntable from your hands – there, of course, there will be no instructions in 99% of cases. In general, there is no need to get into this vintage story, because it is for those who have already dived in, figured it out and are ready to face difficulties.”

Ilya Petruk