I have sinned...

[BillH_NJ]

I used to have a Numark, but the Fons is set up with an SME arm. I still tend to use one of my Credenzas or the Sonora Philharmonic for early electricals.

[bigshot]

When you start going down the rabbit hole of perfection, things can get too complex. The point of the school phono for me is to have something simple, cheap and available to use to audition records. If I want to go to the full effort of a transcription, I'll use my digitization gear. This packs up in a suitcase and fits in a closet. I can pull it out, set it on a TV tray and play a stack of records- then pack it up and tuck it away without a lot of effort and diddling. Plus it plays just about anything reasonably well and fills a room with sound.

[bigshot]

I set it up and tried it out on an old beat up Gennett. I've found that clean and full range records sound good on anything, but beat up acoustics are how you tell how well a record player works. I'm pretty pleased. In this video, you get a good look at all the patches and controls, the stylus light, and I demo the pitch control and strobe speed indicator.

(Double-click the video above or click this link to go to the video on YouTube.)

[Inigo]

It works nicely! I also use an old 1970s portable record player for 78s. Mine had no pitch variation, so I worked it out from the motor regulating circuit. Ceramic cartridges make 78s sound great, iisn't it?