Just because I'm a big fan...

[Harry P.]

Now all my vinyl is in the hands of my three sons (in their twenties) and my musical tastes have largely been passed on to the next generation.

That's very cool.

[Ace-Garageguy]

First album I ever bought was Led Zeppelin II. Still have it, in pristine condition. I was always kind of a nut in regards to keeping my albums in good shape... always used one of those grooming/cleaning brushes with the fluid before every time I played one. I was fanatical about that.

I still own every single 45 and album I ever bought. And yes, I still have an old-fashioned turntable to play them on (among all of the new stuff, of course, like a DVD player, etc.). In fact, I still have my original Laser Disk player! How many of you can say that? And I still have my college days high-end stereo system, including my Crown amp and pre-amp, Sanyo tuner, and the now-collectible Dahlquist DQ-10 speakers.

Pretty sure the first album I bought was the Beach Boys "Little Deuce Coupe". Figures.

I lost most of my vinyl over the years, but I still have a pristine Dual 1219 turntable and a 4-channel Fisher 414 tuner-amp. Now running through slightly hot-rodded Fusilier model 5 speakers.

Edited May 4, 2014 by Ace-Garageguy

[Tom Geiger]

Dark Side of the Moon is one of those albums you have to own if you were alive in the 20th century.

My father's hobby was high end hifi so we always had the best equipment and I was trained on proper care of lps from the beginning. So I still have all the albums I bought as a kid in perfect condition. Since we lived in Europe until 1973, some of my albums are Euro releases. A buddy-0-mine saw my German release Let It Be and I thought he'd pass out. No he couldn't have it!

Of course I have Dark Side... once pulled a copy out of a bin at a garage sale, opened it up and seeds fell out!

Many years ago I did some car repairs for my sister in law. She wanted to buy me something, mentioned getting me a CD so I said something like, Okay just get me "Dark Side.." A few weeks later she shows up with a gift bag with John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band Album in it.. I must've made a funny face, but was gonna just suck it up, but she noticed. So I just said, I thought you would've understood "Dark Side.." Her husband just moaned and put his head in his hands!

[Harry P.]

Pretty funny!

[Rob Hall]

I'm a long time Floyd fan, since high school..too young and missed out on seeing them with Roger Waters (though I've seen him twice on his solo tours). I saw them in Akron in '94 on the Division Bell tour--incredible experience. The Division Bell CD was my soundtrack of my mid-20s...listened to it so many times around '94-95. Later in '04 I saw Gilmour on his 'On an Island' tour with Richard Wright at a small venue in LA--was an incredible show. Listening to Pink Floyd is my benchmark for testing home and car audio...

First album I ever bought IIRC was U2's 'War' on cassette. First concert I attended was Van Halen 1984 in Miami..

I recognize those Dahlquist speakers--an audiophile friend of mine has a set along w/ a late '60s Marantz receiver and some '90s vintage Dunlavey towers and separate amps for the front and back speakers.

Edited May 8, 2014 by Rob Hall

[Harry P.]

I paid $750 for them (bought new) when I was in college. That was big money for a college kid back in the late 70s, let me tell ya! But I was an audiophile nut back then... all of my stereo components had to be high-end stuff. But the cool thing is, I still have them. So you could say I really got my money's worth out of that investment. I could probably sell them today for more than I paid for them back in the day... they're pretty collectible.

[Rob Hall]

Cool...my friend got his '60s-70s audio equipment around 8 years ago from his Dad who bought them new and was upgrading when he bought a new house.

I've got a decent surround sound system (mostly Sony and Yamaha equipment I bought in the late 90s after grad school) in my current house, but want to build up something more powerful in my next house, set up a home theatre room..

[Harry P.]

Fun stuff. I've always been a fan of that sort of thing.

[mnwildpunk]

Comfortably numb is one of the few songs I like from the wall along with goodbye blue sky. Not a huge fan of that album or the final cut because waters overbearing presence on them but Animals w.y.w.h. dark side. Are all three in my top 25 Animals and wish are top ten. Dark side is a bit lower only because the first version of it I owned was 8-track and the click half way through every song bothered me in fact I still hear it to this day when I listen to it on record or cd.

[1972coronet]

I much prefer their earlier sound :

(1967)

(1967 . Its working title , Massed Gadgets of Hercules / Celestial Voices became the title track to A Saucerful of Secrets )

(1967)

(1969)

[Harry P.]

When Syd Barret was still the driving force behind PF, they were definitely verrrrrrry trippy. I admire the musical talent and innovation of early PF, but to be honest, for me they didn't really hit their stride until after Syd flipped out and went his own way... wherever that was!

Having said that, I do like the song "See Emily Play," which Syd wrote.

[Tom Geiger]

Cool...my friend got his '60s-70s audio equipment around 8 years ago from his Dad who bought them new and was upgrading when he bought a new house.

My father's hobbies were photography and high end audio. Since he died, I have all of his equipment, much of which was swapped out and put back in the original boxes. I've checked prices on the Internet and eBay and I could cash it all in for a few grand.

One of the cool things he got for both of us was a programable turntable. At about the same time CDs debuted, the industry had introduced these. Very cool. Just like a CD you can say you want to play the 1st and 3rd track of an album side. The stylus first goes and scans the entire side, looking for the breaks between songs. Then it plays what you asked for in that order.

The only drawbacks were that live albums, with clapping and talking between songs will confuse it. Still, it was pretty awesome at the time. Since he's gone, I have two of these. And I have over 500 albums. Nothing like vinyl!

[DPNM]

HEY YOU Great topic Harry. Pink Floyd is my favorite band. At the top of the list for me is the Wall. I have an engraved Zippo and I've made my own cremation box (just being prepared). They both say "and the worms ate into his brain..." The box is made from aromatic cedar and it is shaped like an old west casket. Kind of a moot point on the cremation box, I know.

I haven't been to more than a handful of concerts but I have seen Pink Floyd live twice (Alice Cooper twice too but that's a different topic).

Dave gets my vote as best guitarist, hands down. Now I gotta put on that CD .

[Harry P.]

One of the cool things he got for both of us was a programable turntable.

I remember another fad back then regarding turntables... the kind where the tonearm was straight, and traveled across the record in a straight line from outside to inside, because it ran on a track in the back of the turntable, not pivoted from one point like a "normal" tonearm. I guess the idea was that since the needle was always perfectly parallel to the groove, you got more accurate sound reproduction. But I doubt you could actually hear any difference in real life... more of a selling gimmick to die-hard audiophiles.

[Rob Hall]

I never really got into turntables, though I bought one about 10 years ago..don't use it much, most of my collection is on CDs..I started collecting music as a teenager in the last 80s, right as CDs were becoming popular. I did have cassettes for a while. Though I do occasionally buy vinyl for the album art and limited edition releases from artists I like.

As far as PF, I got into them in the mid '80s after the Waters breakup, dug into their back catalog (my older siblings introduced me to Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, The Wall).. I especially like A Momentary Lapse of Reason and The Division Bell--more of a Gilmour fan than a Waters fan, though I like The Final Cut quite a bit.

By having two Baby Boomer siblings I got exposed to quite a bit of music of their generation--I love the Rolling Stones, The Who, Cream, Led Zeppelin, Free, Crosby Stills & Nash and many other '60s-70s artists and bands..

(though there is a lot of music from the '80s-90s I love from my own youth, as well as some of today's artists)

Edited May 10, 2014 by Rob Hall

[D. Battista]

hehe, it's weird, I was not a Floyd fan back in the day, but something compelled me to get that album. you just had to have it. (same with physical graffiti from Zepplin)....

Always been a Pink Floyd fan..! one of the few bands I didn't get to see that came through the Cleveland area back in the late 70's and Led Zepplin was another..

[Ace-Garageguy]

I remember another fad back then regarding turntables... the kind where the tonearm was straight, and traveled across the record in a straight line from outside to inside, because it ran on a track in the back of the turntable, not pivoted from one point like a "normal" tonearm. I guess the idea was that since the needle was always perfectly parallel to the groove, you got more accurate sound reproduction. But I doubt you could actually hear any difference in real life... more of a selling gimmick to die-hard audiophiles.

One thing I always wondered about with those is HOW they tracked.

I mean, it's pretty obvious that a pivoted swinging tone-arm needle simply follows the groove in the record. But dragging all that sliding mass SIDEWAYS on the unit you pictured seems like it would take some kind of motor-driven carriage. Otherwise the side loads on the groove would be horrendous for as tiny as they are, and rapid record wear would result...assuming it would even follow the little groove at all.

So, the question is HOW is the sideways motion of the carriage synchronized with the inward spiral of the record groove? As you know, not all records are the same length, so there would be resulting differences in spacing between groves, making it necessary somehow for the machine to read that and compensate.

[Harry P.]

One thing I always wondered about with those is HOW they tracked.

I mean, it's pretty obvious that a pivoted swinging tone-arm needle simply follows the groove in the record. But dragging all that sliding mass SIDEWAYS on the unit you pictured seems like it would take some kind of motor-driven carriage. Otherwise the side loads on the groove would be horrendous for as tiny as they are, and rapid record wear would result...assuming it would even follow the little groove at all.

So, the question is HOW is the sideways motion of the carriage synchronized with the inward spiral of the record groove? As you know, not all records are the same length, so there would be resulting differences in spacing between groves, making it necessary somehow for the machine to read that and compensate.

You're right, the carriage was motorized. But how it exactly synched up with the record groove, I have no idea! Some sort of laser, I assume. Seems to me to be more trouble than it's worth, engineering-wise.

[Harry P.]

Here's another one from the Danish Bang & Olufsen, a "Beogram." These "tangential arm" turntables were all the rage among the audiophile crowd back in the late 70s...

Found online... "The Beogram 4000 actually has two arms. They are side by side, about a centimetre apart. The inner arm is a control device. It carries a photocell which recognises the presence of a record on the turntable. The photocell senses light reflected from the surface of the turntable. Radial ribs on the turntable mean that the reflected light is pulsed at a rate depending upon the speed of the turntable. The Beogram’s electronic circuitry recognises these pulses. This arrangement can locate the edge of a record and tell the pick-up arm to lower itself at the right place and start playing the record. The tone arm is driven by a servomotor. A light beam and photocell arrangement controls the movement of the pick-up arm, which is kept at a tangent to the record’s groove. The arm can deviate from its tangential line by a few degrees. At the arm s base, where it swivels, two photocells look through a pair of slots. When the slots are aligned an electronic bridge circuit is balanced. Misaligned slots unbalance the bridge, which is a sign that the pick-up arm is not at a tangent to the record groove. When this happens the turntable’s servomotor comes into action, moving the arm’s pivot so as to realign the two slots. The positioning mechanism is accurate to within one groove (0 2 mm), and with a slightly eccentric record the servomotor can be seen making a correction to the arm position every rotation."

That's a whole lotta technical overkill vs. a conventional turntable with a pivoting tonearm, if you ask me!

[maltsr]

IIRC, original vinyl masters are cut with a parallel arm. These turntables were meant to reproduce (sic) that motion. However, the fact that the arm was motor driven meant that the stylus didn't follow the groove any better than using a regular arm, hence their demise.

Around that time I had insufficient funds for a high end system but read the hifi mags every month - a system built around the Linn Sondek turntable was my dream at the time!

[maltsr]

Always been a Pink Floyd fan..! one of the few bands I didn't get to see that came through the Cleveland area back in the late 70's and Led Zepplin was another..

Luckily, being from the UK, I got to see Led Zep in January 1973 at a local concert venue which probably held less than 2,000 (before the days of arenas). I was still at school at the time. Saw them again in 1979 at Knebworth with 100k others, just before Bonzo's passing.

As with some other posters, never got to see Pink Floyd back in the day, turned down a chance to see The Wall at Wembley in 1980 - doh!

[Harry P.]

IIRC, original vinyl masters are cut with a parallel arm. These turntables were meant to reproduce (sic) that motion. However, the fact that the arm was motor driven meant that the stylus didn't follow the groove any better than using a regular arm, hence their demise.

And their high price probably didn't help much, either.

[Ace-Garageguy]

That's a whole lotta technical overkill vs. a conventional turntable with a pivoting tonearm, if you ask me!

Yup, and a perfect illustration of why technical complication and "sophistication" is not always better...contrary to much of popular belief.

KISS rules. And I don't mean the rock group.