Finding your groove: getting into vinyl with Audio-Technica
I’d like to think that I could’ve been friends with the late Hideo Matsushita, founder of Japanese Hi-Fi powerhouse Audio-Technica. If I could, I’d travel back in time to 1960’s Tokyo, where a young Matsushita curated “vinyl listening sessions” at the Bridgestone Museum of Arts, exposing visitors to the sounds and possibilities of high end audio and the warmth of vinyl records. I imagine sitting with him in a mod coffee shop, listening to the stories of what he witnessed in those sessions, the conversations he had with visitors, and what ultimately motivated him to head back to his small apartment above a ramen restaurant and start an audio company of his own. In the histories I’ve read regarding AT’s humble beginnings, Matsushita’s motives seem clear. Produce high end audio at affordable prices, bringing audio excellence into spaces and to customers that simply didn’t have access to it before. His first two products, the AT-1 and AT-3 phono cartridges did exactly that, and...
Dec 6, 2023
My favorites include: 1. Permanent Vacation (Aerosmith) 2. Thriller (Michael Jackson)
I haven't listened to all of the albums I own at this point, so I am still working my way around things... but since my cousins came over with their young children over the weekend I had to move my turntable somewhere it would be safe (I had just gotten it repaired and aligned too - but I wasn't going to risk the new cartridge/needle combination I had just installed on it). I have a "permanent" home for it above the garage when I build a vibration-resistant table for the record player to sit on top of, but I haven't had the chance to start that project yet.