Anatomy Of A Turntable

Vinyl has made a comeback and my LP collection is cool again. Now if only beer can collections can come full circle.

LPs and Vinyl are cool for a number of reasons. One of my theories is also because of the tactile qualities and manual interaction with a player and album. You don’t just push buttons, there is a delicate art and a science to a turntable.

First off it is important to understand the anatomy of a turntable, how it works and what the controls actually do. You need to know what a cartridge is, how to control speed or “Pitch” and a whole host of other pieces, parts, buttons and doodads. See illustration below.

Wiring a Turntable is fairly straight forward (watch that ground wire)

Below you will also see the differences between a “Direct Drive” and “Belt Drive” technologies

If you purchase an old turntable or used turntable be sure you can find a “cartridge” for that model. We will supply some links in the future as we research and experiment with some older turntables ourselves. Other things to look for are obviously make sure the motor works but on belt drive units be sure that the belt has not dry rotted, if it has make sure you can find a replacement belt which is a good idea anyway.

There are some new interesting technologies available and we have even seen some cool new retro all in one designs that would be great for the youngsters.. And those of us who are still young at heart. There are also USB turntables that allow you to play your vinyl and record them to digital audio formats when hooked up to a computer, with the correct software running. We will post some links to these as well, once we check them out.

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.

What’s the difference between balanced and unbalanced cables, do balanced cables make a balanced connection?

 A quick review of XLR, TRS, TS RCA, Midi and USB Cables and connectors. It’s a great visual guide to audio cables.