It showcases some of the most famous optical illusions, which in my opinion, is a pretty clever approach and unique way of making a music video. Anyway, see for yourselves…

I also find the music pretty good, never heard of the band before though. I’ve done some quick research and it seems that the band formed in 2003 and they released their first album, titled Dreams, in 2006 on the Asound/Bubbles label (it’s also available on LP).

Their homepage doesn’t say much about the band, as well as their album. One thing that it does say is that the band started out as an electronic dance music project, which is kinda strange as they seem to be playing some restrained, relaxed and pretty mellow indie rock now if you ask me. It seems that they’re touring Mexico at the moment. The site also features a guestbook and has a link to a merchandise shop, where you can buy some band-related clothes or order the album.

In my opinion their music has a Coldplayish kind of vibe to it. I’m planning on looking into the other tracks from their album, as I’m pretty tempted to buy it.

Comments on both the video and the music will be appreciated.

ATTENTION, ATTENTION, TIME FOR A PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT!

I’d like to point-out something really important for both you and me. I really appreciate every comment that I get from you people. I’m the kind of guy who likes to get in touch with people who have problems, some doubts or simply are knowledgeable. That’s why often, instead of replying to your inquiries here as a reply-comment, I write an e-mail reply to you. BUT! Most of you seem to be afraid of typing in your real e-mail address. Why? Probably most of you are scared of spam-bots or other such “web monstrosities”…

Well then let me assure you, right from the start of this here blog I made certain that spammers won’t get to your e-mail addresses. How? It’s simple. Nobody (and no “thing”), but me, the site administrator, can see your e-mail addresses which you leave in the comment fields. The addresses are stored in the blog’s comment database and not somewhere directly on the website, so the spam robots aren’t able to find them.

So to sum things up, I’m not forcing anybody to write your real e-mail address, but if you’d like to get some direct feedback from me (especially when you’re in need of help) then please don’t be afraid to use your real address. That’s all. Thanks in advance!

Oh and yes, it’s a rather negative rant and it kinda involves national economics, so don’t say that I didn’t warn you…So, what’s the problem you ask? After all, people sell stuff online all around the world. The prices for each product in most cases vary from country to country, from continent to continent, mostly according to their age, availability (or in some cases rarity) and the national economy state (e.g. when the economy’s growing strong, prices of products often go up, simply because people can afford it and the opposite when the economy is weak). That’s normal and of course in Poland the same simple pricing rules for used goods exist… except, in my humble opinion, for people who sell audio stuff, especially the vintage kind.

So, what do they do? I’d divide Polish audio sellers into 3 groups:

The first one respects the price rules as for any other product. They’re OK.

The second one are guys who have bought their precious items personally abroad a few years back and now they won’t sell them for less than half the price for which they’ve originally bought them and boast in the item’s description something like: “I’ve payed for this 2000 marks/franks/rubles!”. In most cases these people omit commenting at since when they actually own the item. These people also don’t seem to know anything about inflation and similar economic mechanisms.

The third group is what I’d like to call the “genius group”. Those are guys who are virtually changing the country’s economy for the better, bringing it up to the same level as Germany, the United Kingdom or even the United States. How do they manage to do that? Simple. They first check how much they would get for their stuff if they’d live in, for example, the USA. Clickety-click they go online to ebay.com and others to check the prices. They look at the maximum possible amount. Never mind if the sold item is like in mint condition or comes with the original manuals and packaging and all that extra stuff, in most cases the Polish seller’s item doesn’t meet any of these qualities. They also check the prices at places in other countries, just to make sure if they really found the highest possible price. Then, when they’re satisfied with the prices of the foreign sellers, they convert the highest price to Polish currency (the Zloty) and put it on an online auction in Poland for that price. Makes sense? Not the least in my opinion.

Sometimes the “geniuses” start out by playing “smart” and set the starting price lower and setting their “foreign price” as the bid criteria. I also have found several sellers who write in their item descriptions statements like this one:

“Many people have been asking me what price would interest me in order to close down the auction/sale early. The price that interests me is the one which I would get on foreign sales websites and nothing less.”

So what should the potential buyer do now? Should he/she him-/herself check-out the prices on the mentioned “foreign sales websites” before bidding? Probably so, if he/she finds himself with such a lazy and sneaky seller.

I hope that you guys catch my drift here about this issue. I can understand the guys from the 2nd group, but I seriously despise of the “geniuses”. They seem to live in their own imaginary world where Polish average wages and salaries are equal to those earned by wealthy Western countries, cause only if we take such a thinking scheme into account do those “price huntings” make sense. Unfortunately, Poland is not and for a long time (if ever) won’t be in the top ten GDP countries list, so such a pricing policy is nothing less than smart-ass stupidity.

I’m not saying that those guys don’t sell anything, they do, because people in most cases don’t know how much in Polish money is the given item worth, so they trust the seller’s pricing policy and judgment. I know this is unfair, but do people have a choice? In most cases, shipping from foreign countries is pretty expensive by Polish standards, thanks to which the Polish audio sellers can easily setup an oligopoly, meaning that there is small competition and they can dictate unfair prices in their specific market.

That’s all I guess. I know that most people who visit and read my blog are not from Poland so I’d like to ask you guys this: Have you ever observed or experienced such or similar selling behavior in your country? I’m asking not only about audio stuff here, any kind of item market would do good as an example.

Also, maybe I’m wrong in my opinions and what the “geniuses” do is perfectly normal and understandable? If that’s the case then please correct my reasoning.

PS: Till this moment I was sure that the proper spelling of the word judgment is “judgement”. It’s good that my web browser has a built-in spell checker. Thanks spell checker!

Now first and foremost, last.fm is a great tool to let people get to know what music you like listening to. It also enables you to easily find people who have similar musical tastes. It also gathers statistics according to your music and presents you with your own weekly, monthly or yearly music charts. I guess it’s also much more than that, but I’ll let you find it out for yourselves.

Anyway, how does it work? Either you download their own music player or use special software plugins for your favorite music players, like winamp, xmms, audacious (my player of choice on Linux) and many others. Some players have such plugins already built-in and so you’re ready to use them right out of the box. The software sends data about the tracks that you play back to last.fm, which in return uses it to populate your music profile. Easy as pie and you only need to spend a couple of seconds to set it up (in most cases you only need to enter your user name and password in the software).

These are the basics and I recommend that you give last.fm a try. It’s really a fun way to share information about your personal music tastes. I hope you’ll like it as much as I do.

You don’t need to register in order to see people’s profiles so if you wish to check-out my music profile, simply click here.

OK now as for the blog, in-between exams I managed to make some technical changes here. First and foremost, I abandoned my old hosting service and moved everything to a new one, which is (yeah, I’m sure of it already) faster, more stable and has better support than the old one. The next thing is that I’ve updated both the blog and the forum software. You’ll probably won’t notice anything new thanks to the blog update, but I can’t say the same about the forum, it changed quite a bit (new layout and all). I hope you’ll like the new look and functionality.

So, is that all? Nope. There’s one more change that I’ve made, probably the most substantial of them all. As planned before, I’ve made a second blog for all my posts that aren’t directly related to audio (which is the main focus of this here blog). The address to the second blog is: wojtek.younghifi.com. Expect mostly personal stuff there, so if you’re interested in what’s going on in my life aside from all the audio and music stuff, then that’s the place to go. I’ll probably put up a link to it somewhere here on the homepage, but I haven’t decided where yet, but rest assured that it’ll be quite visible.

I know that there have been such non-audio related posts before here and for now on I’ll leave them here, but I’ll probably move them to the second blog in the future in order to keep the integrity intact.

I guess that’s all for now. Stay tuned for the continuation of the turntable posts series and expect some more posts about vinyl records. This time with hands-on photos!

UPDATE (4th April 2008):

I’ve brought down the other blog after all, so the above mentioned link has been made redundant. I’ll stick to posting non-audio stuff on this blog too.

So what the hell was I doing? Well, for starters I finally got a turntable here in Warsaw, so I’m back on the old vinyl collecting band wagon (yay!). One can also say that I did a lot of audio research, for instance I’ve found out a great recipe for an inexpensive, but very effective vinyl record cleaning fluid. Also, the turntable that I bought had an old cartridge on it so I bought a new one and replaced it (for the first time on my own). I’ve also had to re-adjust the table, so now I’m on the fresh with how it should be done (and not just recalling it how I did it several months ago back home). This is just a taste of the material that I’ll be showcasing here on the blog real soon.

So, tomorrow I’ll be leaving Warsaw for Easter and I plan to be back here on Wednesday. The thing is that I’m not going straight home to Lebork, but to Wrzesnia, a little town in central-western Poland (the so called “Greater Poland” region), because I’ll be spending the holiday at my grandparents’ place this year. That’s why don’t expect any input from me till next week.

In other news, it would sure be great to own a digital camera… I’ve skimmed through all the posts that I wrote here and they surely look bleak without photos… (well one of the Vinyl Collecting 101 posts has some, but they didn’t come from me). I don’t want anything fancy, just something with which I could do some snapshots of my HiFi gear, records and anything which I’d deem useful to show you guys. Problem is that I don’t know much about digital cameras, so I’m open for tips and recommendations regarding this matter.

Well, I still have some packing to do, my train leaves at 10 a.m. so I can’t stay up late either. Happy Easter to all of you!

PS: The title for today’s post comes from a Steppenwolf song :)

Every turntable consists of a base, a motor, a platter with a spindle, signal cables, a tonearm and a cartridge with a needle. They can also be full of additional useful mechanisms and control functions. There are also different methods of operating a turntable. The components of a turntable also require maintenance and sometimes even replacement. The goal behind this guide series is to showcase and explain all the different aspects of owning, using and keeping our turntable (and at the same time our vinyl records) in best shape.

In this part I’ll focus on explaining all the different types of turntables and turntable drives…

1. Basic types of turntables

The type of the turntable is determined by the way in which it can be operated by the user.

a) Manual

In a manual turntable, all functions must be done manually by the user. In most cases, you will find only the most important switches on your manual turntable, that is the cue button/lever (you use it to put the arm/cartridge over or onto the record or the so called “armrest”) and the playing speed control. Most manual turntables operate as follows:

In order to start playing a record, you have to put the tonearm in cue, manually move the tonearm so that the needle is above the desired point on the record from which you’d like to start playing it and then lowering it onto the record by disengaging the cue. The turntable’s motor should engage in the moment the arm’s over the turntable platter.

If you wish to stop playing, you have to put the arm in cue again and move it back to the armrest and then disengage the cue. The motor will disengage the moment the arm leaves the space over the platter.

Also, when the record side that you’re playing comes to an end, you’ll have to manually stop it as described above. If not then the motor will keep running and the needle will stay on the record’s inner empty grooves.

Some older manual turntables also have start/stop buttons which are used to start or stop the turntable motor. Such turntables won’t automatically engage or disengage the motor depending on the arm’s position.

Most modern and expensive “audiophile” turntables are manual ones.

b) Semi-automatic

Semi-automatic turntables operate similarly to the manual ones, except for one difference. Such turntables have a built-in automatic mechanism that enables them to do one of the following tasks when the played record side comes to an end:

- disengage the motor,
- put the arm in cue over the end of the record, then disengage the motor,
- put the arm in cue, move it automatically back to the arm rest, disengage the cue and then disengage the motor.

You can find the first two automatic shutdown function variants mostly in older (60’s and prior) semi-automatic turntables. Most of the newer ones employ the last, full-cycle shutdown function, also known as the auto-return.

Some semi-automatic also have a stop button, which enables us to engage the auto-return function at any time while the record’s playing.

Most turntables that you may find will be semi-automatic.

c) Automatic

Automatic turntables work like semi-automatic ones with the auto-return function, but they can also automatically start playing the record.

On such turntables there’s always a start and stop button. The stop button works like the one we may find on a semi-automatic turntable. The start button on the other hand engages the automatic start mechanism, which works in such a way that it starts the motor, puts the tonearm in cue, moves it automatically over the beginning of the record and then disengages the cue, after which the record starts playing.

Early automatic turntables had the auto-start mechanism coupled with the playing speed control. It was done so, because back then 12” LPs were played only with the 33 rpm speed setting, while 7” singles had to be played under 45 rpm. Because the playing speed was directly in relation with the record’s size, the auto-start mechanism was set so that, depending on the set playing speed, it would move the tonearm onto the appropriate beginning of a single or LP.

Later, record companies began to publish so called “Maxi singles” (which had the size of an LP, but played under the 45 rpm speed), EPs (10” records) and 7” singles that played under 33 rpm.

It became obvious to turntable companies that coupling the auto-start mechanism with the speed control wouldn’t make much sense from now on, so they started to put record size controls next to the speed controls, with which you could set the size of the played record, so that the auto-start mechanism would know where the actual beginning of the record is.

On most automatic turntables, the start button can be also used to automatically stop playing and start playing the record side from the beginning.

Automatic turntables can also have an auto-repeat function. It works in such a way that after the auto-return mechanism kicks in, the auto-start function starts, so the record side can be played continuously. In such a case, even pushing the stop button or even trying to manually stop the record won’t help. You need to turn the repeat function off in order to shutdown the turntable. Some turntable brands like Technics have used more sophisticated auto-repeat mechanisms in some of their automatic turntables, in which you could define the number of repetitions (in most cases up to 5 or 6) or set it to a continuous playing loop.

2. Other turntable types

There are also several other, more exotic types of turntables. Those worth mentioning are:

a) Tangential/Linear turntables

Such turntables are automatic and in most cases controlled by a microprocessor. The tonearm in such a turntable is not placed under an angle like in regular turntables. It’s a straight arm with a moving base located in the rear of the turntable, which has it’s own separate motor. It works in such a way that the tonearm and it’s base moves across the record in a linear fashion, just like the record’s master disc has been cut in the manufacturing plant (some people say that they sound better just because of that).

Tangential turntables operate just like automatic turntables, except that you can’t manually move the tonearm. It is done by special buttons which control the position of the tonearm (you use them to move the arm left or right over the record).

b) Programmable turntables

These are very rare and expensive 80’s machines. They employed a special tonearm and cartridge which had a small laser on it. The laser was used by the turntable to see how many tracks are on the record’s side and where are the track gaps located.

Thanks to that, one could use such a turntable like a CD player, by selecting the track from which it should start playing or even program the order of tracks in which the record should be played.

c) Record changers

Those were turntables which worked similarly to a jukebox. They were special automatic units which had a special long spindle on which you could stack up to 4, 5 or 6 records. The turntable would then play them one at a time (only the sides that were pointed upwards, of course) and shut itself down.

Most record changers could also be used like normal, single-record turntables.

3. Turntable drive systems

There are 3 common types of turntable drive. All of them use some kind of speed regulating mechanism (in order to keep the playing speed as constant as possible) about which I’ll write in one of the next parts of this guide series.

a) Belt-Drive

The most basic turntable drive. It uses a low-speed motor with a pulley on it. A rubber belt goes around the motor pulley and the outer or inner rim of the lower portion of the platter. Thanks to that the motor’s torque is transferred to the platter.

The advantage of such a drive is that it’s quiet and the motor doesn’t have any acoustic impact on the turntable’s audio output signal.

The weakness main is that the rubber belt deteriorates over time or from heavy-duty use and needs to be replaced.

Most modern “audiophile” turntables are belt-driven.

b) Idler wheel-drive

This turntable drive system can be usually found in record changers. It uses a high-speed motor with a stepped pulley on it. A so called idler wheel moves on the inner rim of the platter and the motor pulley, thus putting the platter into motion.

c) Direct-drive

The most sophisticated type of drive, invented by Technics. It uses an electronically controlled motor, which sits directly under the platter and moves the spindle on which the platter resides.

The main advantage of such a drive system is that it rarely needs any maintenance and the doesn’t have any parts which you’d need to eventually replace over time. It also guarantees precise and stable platter rotation.

The biggest disadvantage of a using such a drive is that if poorly engineered, the motor can become a source of acoustic feedback on the turntable’s audio output signal.

In the 80’s, the market became flooded with cheap Japanese direct-drive models, which used poor components and were of poor design. Because of that, most people (even today) tagged the direct-drives as being always of lower quality than belt and idle wheel drives. That’s not entirely true, because a properly designed quality direct-drive (for example a Dual 701/721 or a top-of-the-line Technics, like the famed 1200/1210 series) can surpass in quality most other turntables.

Every DJ turntable uses a direct-drive.

That’s all for now. Stay tuned for the next installment of the “Turntable 101″ post series. I also plan to make a “Glossary” page in which you will find definitions of the most common technical terms used while talking about audio components.

As for recent blog-related stuff, I’ve updated the blog software to the newest version, so it should run a bit more smoother now. I’ve also added the “Guides” page, where you can find direct links to all the guide posts that I wrote. You can also think of it as a “featured posts” page.

The recently established forum is slowly becoming more popular (at the time of writing, it’s 6 members strong out of which 3 members are most active). I wonder when will it hit the 10 member milestone…

Now let me explain a bit more. The main idea behind the forum is to have a place where people new to the whole audio biz and those who don’t have much experience, can ask questions about whatever problems they may have or simply state their thoughts and discuss them with others without any risk of getting laughed at from other, so called “elite” people. If you’re a frequent on any forum, I’m sure that you know what kind of people I’m talking about. I myself have been recently laughed at when I asked a novice-type question about speaker cables on a Polish audio-oriented forum. It took about 20 replies till I finally got the answer to my query and most of them where totally not on-topic. Later a fight started on that single thread of posts between the “all-knowing elitists” and people who felt that it was wrong to laugh at a potential newcomer and discourage him. I really must confess that if I would start my hobby by frequenting such a forum, I would surely be discouraged if people would be making fun of my lack of knowledge while I’d just be trying to learn something new from them. I guess that most people would.

That’s what got me thinking and this new forum is the result.

You can visit the forum by going directly to it’s address: http://forum.younghifi.com or by clicking on the “Forum” link, which is located above in the blog’s header and right on the blog’s sidebar under the “Pages” listing. I still got put a link on the forum that would bring you back to the blog though.

As for the technicalities, the forum runs on the new phpBB3 system (which is actually still in “beta” stage, as in “not-yet-final-version” state, but it’s already very stable) with the standard layout. The forum’s structure is still not-solid, as I’m thinking about new stuff and implementing new ideas on the go and of course I’m also open to any suggestions that might come from you. I still have to write and put up some forum rules there, but I hope that this feature will become useful and profitable in a number of ways to both you guys and me.

Now I still have some exams ahead of me and I hope that after I pass them I can get back to writing some new audio-related stuff here on my blog. So please stay tuned and do visit both the blog and the new forum from time to time.

I promise I’ll get back to some writing right after the examination session.

Furthermore, I’ve decided to slightly divide my blog. As you probably know, I sometimes also post strictly personal posts, sometimes not even related to audio (just like this one here) and I’m not too comfortable with that, because I want this blog to be only about my audio experiences and not all my personal experiences…

That’s why I decided that when I’ll have some more free time on my hands, I’m going to put up a personal blog next to this one. I dunno if I’ll be also using the Wordpress platform for that purpose, but the main idea is to have a place where I can post about stuff completely unrelated to audio, so to not clutter up the content you may find here.

There’s also an idea of starting a “Young HiFi” forum, a discussion board where people who are new to the whole HiFi biz or any other audio hobby have some questions. I’ve noticed that most popular audio forums out there don’t have a “newbie corner” and sometimes the new guy gets ignored or laughed at just because he’s not one of the “elite”…

That’s it for now, tell me what you think about the forum idea, because maybe I’m wrong and such a place isn’t even needed in the big WWW :). I’ll keep you posted when something comes up…