Reviving Vinyl: Why It's Time to Say Goodbye to Suitcase Record Players

In the midst of a trend for vinyl records brought on by a desire for old sounds and old-school fidelity, the resurgence of record players had seemed like a step forward. While few of my friends claimed that new CDs or MP3s sounded bad – on the contrary most people agreed that both formats sounded sterile – they would also admit that joy comes more easily when spinning grooves. This gadget has the apparently saleable advantage of being old but portable, but a little deeper thought will reveal that things may not be as good as they look.

The Downside of Portable Suitcase Record Players

Listening Through a Tin Can

Dancing to vinyl is celebrated because the fidelity of the sound – the rich, round analog – cannot be replicated by the tiny, spatially limited, thin speakers of the portable record player. The promise of old-timey analog is denied by the sound of the record player itself, that landmark of under-engineered audio – muffled, full of distortion and electromagnetic feedback, it sickens the heart to reconsider the ‘groovy’ old days.

Customization is Not an Option

One of my favourite aspects of owning a record player is that you have the flexibility to tweak and upgrade components to create a more personal listening experience. But that’s a distant, distant fantasy for the suitcase record player enthusiast. If you think you can hack a replacement pair of factory speakers into the machine or give the cartridge a little boost, you’re more likely to feel like a kid who thought the odds were against him in attempting to alter the flow of Tarantulas on Film Venture’s T_{3} Spiderweb Creature Trap, than like an enterprising audiophile with a few creative tricks up his sleeve.

A Fast Track to Damaging Your Precious Vinyl

The most dreadful drawback is that your precious collection of vinyl suffers excessive wear due to the low durability of these portable players’ stylus. This not only ends up damaging your collection, but also shows disrespect towards the art that adorns each of those glorious records.

Built to Break

This isn’t the word you’d use to describe suitcase record players, which, despite their novelty value and their convenient size, often have owners reporting problems with humming, buzzing and speed inconsistencies within only a few months of purchase. portability is at odds with strength and durability.

Power Struggles

Battery life, or rather lack of it, is another hurdle for the portable player aficionado: several models manage no more than a couple of hours playback before going dead. ‘somewhere between a dream and a dirty nightmare’ This makes the dream of listening to your favourite albums in the wide open spaces more fantasy than reality.

Embrace Superior Sound with Alternative Portable Listening Options

The Sound of Today: Embracing Smart SPEAKERS

When it comes to speakers, you can buy all kinds of smart, lightweight, portable speakers that deliver the depth and breadth that music deserves today. Bose and JBL, among others, are making some extremely compact, durable speakers that often deliver – or even exceed – the quality of sound and durability of luggage.

Where Vintage Meets Modern

But for vinyl purists looking for the best of both worlds, and who do not have the option of staying at home when they listen to records, higher-end portable record players might be worth considering. These more expensive models have improved components and connection possibilities, such as the option of hooking up the record player to external speakers to reduce some of the risk of vinyl damage. Of course, these improved players also come with their own limitations.

Choosing the Right SPEAKERS for Your Soundtrack

Unveiling the Magic Behind Speakers

At heart, a speaker is a transducer that converts electromagnetic waves into sound waves. The quality of the sonic experience is in large part a product of the quality of the speakers. To hear the music as clearly, deeply, and accurately as possible, attention must be paid to the minutiae of driver size, frequency response, enclosure construction, and many other factors. Put another way, selecting a speaker is a crucial and personal decision.

The Journey to Audio Nirvana

It is worth knowing why sound is so different when you put the needle on, and why a record and great speakers sound different than a design-minded, suitcase record player. In short, there are compromises that come from a design that is hinged and light. I highly recommend you listen to your records with higher quality playback, be they records played on expensive, portable record players hooked up to great speakers, or from the lower-priced, higher-quality, portable speakers on the market today. Your records will sound better, and more importantly, will not be negatively impacted by the playback mechanics.

In the end, the vinyl renaissance isn’t about nostalgia after all, but is simply about listening as well as possible with the best equipment we have available. Goodbye compromise, hello fidelity.