To be honest, six months ago we did not think that we would study record players with an enviable regularity. On the one hand, there is a noticeable interest in both the plates themselves and the devices for reproducing them for a certain class of people who are able to invest certain amounts of money on "right" record players, rare albums, press releases and picture discs. On the other hand, modern fashion revives interest in retro-devices from a young audience that is not burdened with enough finances. It is possible that it is for them to come decisions like the heroes of this text: and .
Many readers are probably familiar with cardboard envelopes, in which vinyl circular discs with cleverly stamped grooves are waiting for the pickup needle. For the most part, they remained a memory from the past, a fragment of childhood, or simply imprinted in memory by an old grandmother's radio, which has long since migrated from a summer cottage to the nearest landfill.
But there are also those who rotate the disc, a slight hoarse sound from the speakers and familiar flaws of reproduction due to planted a couple of decades ago, even in childhood, the scratches on the path are enthralled.
We will start with a younger, but very interesting model . I am firmly convinced that it is difficult to accuse me of audiophilia, therefore this text conveys emotions rather than technical parameters of the device. By the way, experts say that this model belongs to the initial level of inexpensive devices, but the price of 23,000 rubles makes one wonder whether it's worth to go deeper and get on the track of warm lamp music denser.
After all, before us is a "turntable-automaton", which is able to do everything itself, from the user it will only need to perform the role of disk changer. Well, listen to music, too, will have to you, AT-LP60BT itself can not do this.
And what can Audio-Technica AT-LP60BT do? Playback of records with speeds of rotation of 33 or 45 rpm is supported, switching by the button on the front panel is activated. But this is not the most important thing.
The most important skill of this player is the automatic installation of the pickup needle at the beginning of the disc. Yes, for many, the task may be trivial, but ... You would have known how many needles were broken and how many plates were scratched in the case of elementary, seemingly, operation.
For this (in part) and serves as a lever to switch the diameter of the plate - 7 or 12 inches. Because the record itself is not always just a "normal disk". Often the format of the plate varies for various purposes. With a larger diameter, you can accommodate both a larger number of tracks on the side and the entire plate as a whole, and place wider tracks, which will simplify the sound removal process and raise the playback quality.
But this information is for more or less advanced fans of vinyl discs. Typical user of this knowledge is not required. Because the AT-LP60BT is as simple as possible.
They opened the lid, which covers the arm and the turntable and protects them from dust, set the plate, chose the rotation modes and the diameter of the plate, the clever device lowered the tonearm and ... everything. Nearly. Because we still have to understand how we will listen to music. Because we have only two options.
The first is an analog miniJack output on the back, next to the phono stage. Connected headphones, amplifier, speakers, music center in 1995 release (underline) - and that's it. More from you will not be required. But it's boring and out-of-date. Although we talked about vinyl ...
The greatest interest is the possibility to connect any speaker or headphones via Bluetooth to the AT-LP60BT. Madness or progress? We are for the second option. This allows you not to wrap up the rack with the player a tangle of wires and quietly move around the apartment in wireless headphones without fear or break the cable, or pull off the rack player or amplifier.
Those plates that were at hand - and Aquarium, and Armstrong, and Joe Dassin, and many others - sound so familiar and familiar on the Bluetooth-speakers, that just marvel at. Vinyl does not have to be "imitated," the needle moves in the same way with soft rustling on the surface of the plate, all the flaws of a concrete copy of the vinyl disc are audible, but there is room for a sound quality.
The sound does not mix, the porridge from the frequencies, too, was not found, so that the player of the "entry level" copes with the task correctly. I readily believe that thick cables made of oxygen-free copper (it seems so called, yes?) And growth speakers with separate speakers for each band, with an amplifier, can squeeze out a lot from the AT-LP60BT, and also demonstrate the need to purchase a completely different player, but before that you have to grow. And here you will only need headphones or speakers and a stock of vinyl.
Someone will think that it is not audiophile, it's a matter of chasing the sound of radio waves. But we are beginning audiophiles and advanced geeks, and not vice versa. So I want to have the usual comfort and to touch the music on black discs from large envelopes to see if it makes sense to "grow" further and where, in fact, grow.
And there is a lot to grow. For example, the hero of the following paragraphs is the player . He, though also from the initial segment (again, if you believe the experts) , but already more complicated and more interesting.
Externally, this player looks very solid (although we saw a more impressive device) . For many, it turns out, it is important information whether the drive is directly to the turntable from the engine, or not. So, here the drive is straight, which in practice minimizes the fluctuations of the table and removes unnecessary jerking during playback. True, the drive through the passive, as it is organized in the AT-LP60BT, seems to have to slightly distort the background image and make a noise, but we did not find any problems with this in the devices under study. Again, with the surface of the player adjoins four impressive legs, which due to the design will extinguish most of the parasitic vibrations.
Manage AT-LP5 is offered with a single vernier, which is responsible for everything - for the speed of rotation of the plate (33 or 45 rpm) , and for stopping the disc. The second control element is only the tumbler activation phono stage on the back of the device. But not so simple!
If you believe people familiar with the world of vinyl, the main thing in the player is a tonearm, a pickup and a needle, and not what's inside the case itself. Immersed in the question, I realized that with this the guys from Audio-Technica have a complete order. Because cartridges of pickups they make long and stably high quality.
So the user is waiting for a curved arm with a counterweight, which allows you to pick up the pickup head to the user's taste in a fairly wide range. As it turned out, the heads alone are the whole world, so the influence of their weight (!) On the downforce (!) Must be carefully rebuilt. I'm more a fan of racing than vinyl, but I realized perfectly well that in such a simple device as a turntable of vinyl records, technology and a variety of physics - a huge amount.
To get into this world of "moving magnets", which are also double, and can go out for specific types of plates - it's dangerous, since you can stay in it forever and surround yourself with a soft wave of warm tube sound. So let's get to the more familiar figure.
Because she also found a place in the AT-LP5. Knowingly on the back panel near the typical RCA-connectors is located and USB? Many stocks of records stored in the country house are expensive, first of all, by the fact that there is still much to be found in the digital form, and the owners of such collections keep thinking of ever digitizing it all. So why postpone? Everything is extremely simple and a lot of work will not even be for a person who does not understand anything in such processes.
Special software will help to cope with the transfer of dusty plates to digital view for further listening on the road, but in fact, if you have a player, you can still listen to your favorite vinyl records?
True, there is one but. There is such an entrance ticket to the world of analog sound is quite significant money, about 34 thousand rubles. With the presence of crazy universal hybrids in the stores radios and a music center for 5-7 thousand rubles to someone this price tag will seem redundant. But in reality in the world of vinyl players and related products Audio-Technica in this case offers solutions affordable, if not "budget." Of course, in a good way, because we are talking about full-fledged devices designed for the reproduction of records. Everything that can drive wheels with an equally serious approach is much more expensive, and we will not dive into that world yet.
But in fact, the difference in sound will be noticeable even with the simplest speakers, because Audio-Technica AT-LP5 is a device, each of which elements were first created with the expectation of listening to music, and not that you get another dust collector with slots for memory cards, in which there is a kind of tonearm and rotary table. Because even with a mark-up for the brand, quality components are quality components.
What happened in the end with Audio-Technica with their and ? The first model is a great starter for beginners, which can last for long, because it will not necessarily grow - he already knows everything that a beginner needs in the field of vinyl and a lover of modern technologies. But AT-LP5 - this is a more serious device, which later will want to buy amplifiers, speakers, "correct" wires and the like. Because the analogue is an analog: the classic goes into fashion, goes out of fashion, goes against fashion, but always remains a classic. AND It turned out perfectly.
The article is based on materials .
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