This post is more for fun Nostalgia than a long explanation and history of DUAL turntables.

Chances are if you grew up in the 70’s, 80’s and even the 90’s you either owned one or had family and friends that did. Not having a turntable back then was a lot like not having a cell phone today.

Take a look at the graphic below and see if you recognize any of these models. I know I do!

Did you know that Thomas Edison was the first person to record the human voice, and that the recording could only be played back once?

Or did you know that the first “Record Player” was called a “Gramophone”?

What about the fact that it wasn’t until 1948 that the first Vinyl LP was introduced by Columbia?

Want to learn more interesting facts about the Evolution of Home Audio?  Read On…

1910 – Nataniel Baldwin invented the headphones in his kitchen and later sold them to the United States Navy.

1949 – AKG introduces a comfortable Space Age Design as they release the classic K120’s.

1968 – Koss introduces the st U.S. manufactured Electrostatic headphones, the ESP-6.

2000 – Bose releases the noise cancelling earphones.

It might be obvious that I have a fascination with Headphones, probably because I’ve been using them since I was a kid and my discovery or tape recorders to listening to my favorite albums. I realized how handy they were for quietly practicing my guitar and my midnight experimental recording sessions.

In later years I appreciated more studio quality headphones both in the recording studio and for video production in the field and during editing.

I find the history of this technology extremely interesting and I enjoy sharing these great graphic visuals.

In 1877 Thomas Edison changes history when he plays “Mary’s Little Lamb” with tinfoil wrapped around a rotating cylinder. It was the birth of the Phonograph. 10 years later Emile Berliner patents the gramophone, a flat-disc invention making multiple duplication possible.

Gramophone, Kinetophone, Vitaphone, Blattnerphone may be names you’ve never heard of, but these were technological breakthroughs and of course industry buzzwords / trademarks of the times. They were all advances that led to what we know of today as modern Audio Engineering.

It’s been a very interesting journey…

1877 Invented by Thomas Edison the “Phonograph Cylinder” was the earliest commercial solution for recording sound.

1892 Gramophone or the “Disc Record Gramophone” was invented by Emile Berliner. It is technically described as a flat polyvinyl chloride disc featuring an inscribed , modulated spiral groove.

1948 The Long Play Vinyl LP was introduced by Columbia Records. It became the standard in the record industry and was improved with the addition of “stereophonic Sound”.

1954 Transistor Radio that becomes the most popular electronic communication device in history.

Learn more below.

1877 – Photograph Cylinderp

1883 – Music Roll

1895 – Gramophone Record

1930s – Reel-to-Reel

1963 – Compact Cassette

1965 – 8 Track Tape

1982 – Compact Disc

1993 – MP3

1997 – DVD

2006 – Blu-ray Disc

1958 – Stereo Disk

1962 – Time Code Format

1963 – Compact Cassette

1965 – Noise Reduction

1972 – Digital Tape

1978 – CD – Compact Disc

1980 – Multitrack Recorders

1982 – Recording Equipment

1986 – Digital Consoles

1994 – Promix 01

1999 – Audio DVD

Note – A post “Digitalized – A Visual Representation Of The Evolution Of Audio Formats” notes that the CD was invented in 1982. I’m checking into more details on the invention of the CD. The fact that it was invented so long ago and did not become affordable enough to become main stream is extremely interesting.