Kirill Vorobyov November 20, 2023 01:05
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How Kir Vorobyov entertains himself with a needle.
In 2022, my friends gave me a vinyl record player for my birthday. This Alive Vintage – a simple and visually pleasant option for 9 thousand rubles. Its main feature is that it is columnar. That is, there are speakers installed right in the box through which the sound comes. This is both an advantage and a disadvantage. What’s cool about this is that you don’t need anything for sound to come out of the player (except, of course, an outlet and a record).
The downside is that the speakers inside the player create vibrations that can shake the record, causing it to move around the player in waves, and the sound is interrupted and even sometimes skips time. In addition, this affects the sound quality, which is already mediocre due to the mediocrity of the speakers: if you suddenly turn the volume up louder, noise and interference spoil the listening pleasure.
Many people advised me to buy a record player and a stereo system to output sound to them. But it’s expensive, and I didn’t bother with it. In addition, I would have to change the player – for example, from the same Alive I would take something like this: Maybe someday I’ll come to this, but for now I’m relatively satisfied with the device given to me.
In addition, external speakers (or an entire stereo system) can be connected via both AUX and the RCA port included in the player, but I don’t want to look into this in more detail yet.
The second major drawback of the turntable is that, compared to other, more expensive options, it does not have adjustable anti-skating (to put it simply, a system that reduces wear on the stylus and records by creating anti-skating technology). Because of this, the needle and, worse, the records deteriorate faster. However, I console myself by not turning on the record player very often and alternating records.
The rare use of vinyl is a consequence of the fact that from day one I decided that listening to records was an additional ritual, and not the main option for satisfying my musical hunger. If I want to get high with my favorite tracks, I’ll play music in my headphones or on a speaker, but vinyl is more about creating a special mood.
Situation: a guest comes to you in the evening, you order delicious food or cook dinner together, turn on the not-so-bright lights, lay out the tables and play some music on vinyl. This is, first of all, about the atmosphere, and not about listening to music on a regular basis.
When I got vinyl at home, the studio where I live was gradually filled with additional elements of the ritual: a set of various records, of which I already have about 20, a special handmade box for vinyl, a brush and spray for cleaning records.
The ritual of listening to vinyl is not limited to placing a needle on a black surface: it includes choosing an album, caring for the record, and discussing songs with your interlocutor. It’s a bit like lighting candles in a room – although candles don’t generate as many topics of discussion as albums by Travis Scott, NRKTK and Lana Del Rey.
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