Turntable Snobbism: A Nostalgic Journey

Some manufacturers are marketing affordable "suitcase turntables" with built-in amplifier & speakers. The invective poured upon them by the audiophile community is unbelievable. So I was tempted to write about my forays into turntables.

The advent of the LP & EP records in the early 1960's, also saw the emergence of equipment to play them, mostly of the "suitcase variety", both made by HMV. They had ceramic cartridges, sapphire styli & idler drives, all spares being easily available & inexpensive. I also started buying records (classical) & played them on these equipments with enjoyment. Later Philips also started making stereo versions but with same styli & idler drives. 

This continued till the beginning of the 1980's when separate amplifier & speaker systems by specialised audio manufacturers arrived & HMV & Philips also made turntables with magnetic cartridges, diamond styli & belt drives. I switched over to these with stereo pre & power amplifiers & speakers with woofers & tweeters. Still the spares were easily & cheaply available. It should be noted that my records, played & enjoyed for 15 years on the detested suitcase turntables had no audible damage.

But when CDs arrived towards the beginning of the 1990's, the Indian manufacturers decided to shut down plants making records & turntables, even as the rest of the world was continuing to make them.

Now in the beginning of the 21st Century, we are importing both records & turntables because of our foolishness in scrapping them in a hurry. The imported stuff costs the earth & spares being difficult to get. The Marantz turntable & the 2.1 MMS system with a sub- woofer which I have now sounds great, but earlier also the "suitcase" systems gave undiluted pleasure for many years.