There's an Audiophiliac/Steve Guttenberg imposter scamming my viewers, There’s no FREE gifts. DON’T respond! I don't do giveaways or ask for money (except for my Patreon).
1978 Bruce Springsteen, Darkness on the Edge of Town . My step father had a Denon 900 very tall speakers he had these headphones that were I believe what the pilots used at that time mind you I am in junior high school this time something about the bosses lyrics racing in the street got a sixty-nine Chevy with a 396 Fuelie heads and a Hurst on the floor She's waiting tonight down in the parking lot Outside the Seven-Eleven store Me and my partner Sonny built her straight out of scratch. I could picture myself driving this vehicle racing in the streets. The whole album was awesome. Anyway, thanks for your show brother.
@@YoungbloodVlog It was that song that really grabbed me. I've been collecting lp's since I was 10 years old. I first heard Racing in the Street in my university dorm room played by my next door neighbor, through a cinderblock wall, and I was MOVED! I'll never forget that moment over 40 years ago...
This is a pretty horrible review. You don't even actually show the usage of Turntable, at all, just screenshots. It's basically a guy rambling for 19 minutes without actually showing any practical use of an object. I'd rather watch Steven Hawkins discuss Theoretical Physics. Maybe next review, you actually put on a record and show the turn table in use.
In early 1967, my sister was dating a guy who was in the Navy. He had bought an album at the BX and decided he didn't like it, so he asked me if I wanted it. Being 16 and broke most of the time, I grabbed it up. It was my first album. I had never heard of the band but the cover was cool. It was a quaint little rock group called "The Jimi Hendrix Experience" and an album called "Are You Experienced", and it literally blew me away. I don't believe they were playing any Hendrix music on American stations at the time, and I had never heard anything like it before. To this day, when "Purple Haze" starts up, I am instantly transported back to that first time I heard it on the crappy little player I had at the time, one of those fold open portable record players. It's an album that will always be in my collection.
The single, Purple Haze, only made it to #65 on the US charts, versus #3 in the UK. The album, however, was a huge hit, and made it to #10 in the US and #2 in the UK. I, too, was 16 at the time, and was making a huge $1.25/hour from my first job!
My SL-100C came yesterday 1/20/24 and I replaced the C stylus with the ML I had just purchased. A superb table with all the adjustments anyone can need including the arm pillar adjustment. It sounds superb and wish I had made the jump sooner. I did not care about the strobe or speed adjustments. Love the auto lift at the end of play.
A couple of months ago, bought the SL-100 from Amazon and upgraded the Audio Technica stylus to the very reasonably priced Shibata. Couldn't be happier with this combo.
Chicago 25 or 6 to 4. i was in the 5th grade, in the school orchestra, playing baritone horn. during the course of learning the arrangement, our instructor played the record for us. Terry Kath's guitar solo was magic. Chicago is still a desert island band for me. CTA and VII have become my favorites, and i go back to them again and again.
My twin! The first album I bought was their second. Then I discovered Transit Authority. I moved on after those, but those are fond memories. I always loved music though. Beatles, Blood, Sweat and Tears, Stones, even Mitch Ryder. Those were other people’s music though. Chicago was MY money 🙂 The one album I still revisit though, is Tommy.
When I was 16 my friend gave me a tape with two Al Stewart albums, Year of the Cat & Modern Times. Growing up in a British household in the early 80s where feelings and emotions were considered an unnecessary weakness, I was blown away by the expression of complex feelings woven into beautiful melodies. I found the music profoundly freeing and comforting. He's still one of my all tume favourites.
For me it wasn’t a band but a DJ. I first heard Carol Miller’s show on WNEW when I was 4 years old. I was a lonely, nervous, introverted kid and her beautiful voice kept me company at night. I hid a small radio underneath my pillow and used one of those little white ear plug headphones to keep it a secret from my parents. She introduced me to all of the great music of my youth and instilled in me a love of live radio that will never die.
I purchased the SL-100C and i'm using a Pro-Ject Tube Box DS with a Yaqin 40 watt EL34 tube amp driving a pair of Quad ESL 57 speakers and it is an epiphany in sound quality..
When I was 12 years old I got my first stereo for Christmas. I was taken to a record store and my folks told me they would buy me 1 stereo album to go with the new stereo. After about an our of looking at rock and roll albums, I saw a soundtrack album to one of my favorite TV shows. Peter Gunn soundtrack by Henry Mancini. I got it home and played it over and over. It changed my life It gave me a love of Jazz I still have today.62 years later. I showed me there is a whole world of music out there. Love your show! Steve King
Telstar by the Tornados. I heard it first on an old "furniture all in one" stereo around 1964 when I was 6 years old. I was being "baby sat" that summer by some people and they had one. That was the first time I had heard anything like it. From then on, music and how well it sounded was a part of my life. I think I hummed that melody all summer long.
Billy Cobham - Spectrum. I got it from my uncle on my 8th birthday. He had heard that I have started taking drum lessons, so he went to a record store and ask for a record with the best drummer around. Spectrum had just been released. My uncle had no idea who Billy Cobham nor what fusion was but that record changed my life. I stopped listening to Sweet & Slade and started spinnin´ Mahavishnu Orchestra and other fusion/jazz rock band. Eventually I found Miles Davis. The first time I heard Agharta is an experience I never will forget. I went on from there. Coltrane, Pharoah Sanders, Albert Ayler, AACM and all that lovely free form music. Then I went out into the rest of the world: Bishmillah Khan and the journey continued. Nowadays I find fusion rather boring, but Spectrum is something special to me. An odd consequence of starting to listen to fusion and then free jazz soon after, at such an early age, is that I never have understood the concept of pop music. But that is another story.
The first time I heard Suite: Judy Blue Eyes by Crosby, Stills & Nash on the radio in the 8th grade, it absolute blew me away. I had never heard thrilling harmonies like CSN produced on that record. It directly lead to my passion for music - which continues to this day 53 years later.
It was Harry Nilsson's 'Nilsson Schmilsson' album that did it for me 50 years ago, and since then I have been a Nilsson fan, so much so that last year I had the privilege of writing a book 'Harry & Me'. His is a fascinating story, and his music so diverse, with incredible vocal range and extraordinary song-writing.
We moved from farm to the inner city and i befriended a middle school neighbor that turned me onto Jimi Hendrix, "are you experienced" album. I still got the original i bought back in 1970. I cant remember the model numbers but my first turntable was a fully automatic Dual belt drive w an Audio Technica cartridge. Today i have an AR turntable with a Linn Basik tonearm and a Signet TK10ML cartridge and very pleased with the performance.
The album that changed my life, and got me into hifi, and at the time, headphones, was Mike Oldfields Tubular Bells. Heard it in 1978, aged 13. My first non-hitlist favourite.
I've loved music all my life. This request brought back the sweetest memories of dancing around the kitchen with my mother, listening to the monster channel WLAC in Nashville when I was 4 years old. Later, they would incorporate rhythm and blues and I heard Chuck Berry for the first time and my skin tingled in awe. I was 7 years old when I saw Jail House Rock, three times, just to hear the song so that was the song that sent me to the Stratosphere and still rockin every day. Thank you.
Michael Hedges - Live on the Double Planet. Bought when I was maybe 14 in a quirky little new age shop while visiting my grandfather in San Francisco and had idea what I was buying. Took it home and it blew my mind and challenged all of my assumptions about what was cool and what music could be when everything else I was listening to in the 80s was Punk and New Wave and electronic. I can honestly say that it changed the trajectory of my life and prompted me to seek out the stuff none of my friends were listening to in the SoCal in the 80s. The Blue Nile's "A Walk Across the Rooftops" was another.
In 1978(ish) I went to an “Ice Cream Social” at my school where they had a tag sale to raise some funds. I picked up a vinyl copy of “Frampton Comes Alive” that someone had donated for $0.25. It was the first album that I actually bought. Pretty good deal, even for the late ‘70s! I was learning to play the guitar at the time, and it made me stop and say, “this guy is doing something a bit unique”. The roar of the crowd - the sound of his guitar: what I would eventually learn was a Les Paul through a Marshall- but most of all the NOTES he chose. It hit me hard. It was actually “Lines On My Face” and “Penny For Your Thoughts” that struck me first, and not “Do You Feel Like We Do”, though I still love that. It all just made me want to dig in and learn to play Rock and Roll. I guess I noticed that Frampton had an approach to guitar that was slightly different from what I was used to hearing- and that sort of paved the way to jazz and fusion over the next few years. I still have that record to this day. It is in pretty poor condition, so it is hanging on the wall in my music room. Luckily, I have the 180g Reissue on order so I can enjoy it again on vinyl!
As a child in the mid sixties I found a 45 rpm of Papa's got a Brand New Bag by James Brown laying in the street next to the house. For a Chipmunks fan, this was a big step up in rhythmic, instrumental, and vocal intensity that had a big effect on my ears. It was weird and funny (see ya latah alligatah) and it gave me a taste of the crazy world outside my sheltered life.
I would say it was Pink Floyd's The Wall. I was a young teenager in 1982 and it was a tumultuous time in my life when I bought that album. That record was my companion during girlfriend breakups, divorcing parents, and moves across country. That album will always bring back intense memories for me - both good and bad.
I was 12 years in 1996. That was when I first heard the Beatles. It was Abbey Road. The story, the rythm, the singing…..it was so different from what was on the radio or MTV at the time. I’m from Denmark, and though I knew some english, there where still so many things I didn’t get being 12. But it sounded so awesome, like it was multiple levels above anything I’ve heard at the time. None of my friends understood me. So for about two or three years, I was known as “beatles” in my school. It didn’t really bother me😂😂😂
Two albums, really. First, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. Such a superbly recorded double LP with such a variety of songs. It let me know the possibilities of pop music beyond the 3-minute single on the radio. Next: Wings, Venus and Mars. I first heard it on a true high fidelity system owned by a neighbour, and this exposed me to the importance of the right equipment. Before this, I didn't even know there was such a thing as a 'soundstage' or deep bass. Those two albums turned me into both a music fanatic and a music equipment fanatic. Does that make me an audiophile?
When I was young, it was equipment that got me into music and started my journey in hifi. It was actually a car system, made up of Alpine Digimax system with D/A convertor and time alignment, Orion amplifiers, Polk separates, and Punch subwoofers. As for the music, NIN always blew my mind listening on that system. So good.
I’ve use 1200s for 20 years. Bought used in the early 2000s. Best deck ever. Would love to hear a review of the old school and new school 1200s. Big fan. Thanks
Talking Heads 77 changed the world for me. I didn't know anything much apart from my parents jazz and Elvis. From that day I sought out "alliterative" music and have never looked back. Totally changed my outlook on life. Still doing it.
I just placed my order for the 100C and it will arrive Thursday, very excited to get it. I've had probably every modern DD at some point all the hanpin offerings, but they just all fell short of my expectations. So, I bit the bullet and bought the technics, buy once cry once.
Out of the blue with ELO from 1977 is one of the first records that has meant a lot for me. I remember playing this on my parents turntable when I was 10y old.
The very first one was Prince's Around the World in a Day. But my love for music went even deeper later with NIN's Pretty Hate Machine, Dead Can Dance's Towards the Within, Pick Floyd 's Final Cut.
Thanks for the review Steve.. the album that changed my whole perspective to how i listen to music and drove me down the rabbit hole was "You Can Do Magic" by a band called America.. that was some time in the early 2000s when i was still in high school and it was on cassette.. from there I went on really listening to music and not just something that played in the background.. i then discovered classic rock and jazz and many more things about music and learned to appreciate different music genres for the art of composition and playing..
Hip Hop was my first love and De La Soul's "Three feet high and Rising" is what got me hooked. 1st album I bought as a kid. But it was the Digable Planets album, "The Blowout Comb" is what got me hip to Jazz and sound in general. The song "Black Ego" was a polyphony of jazz instrumentation and mixed in such a way that panned from left to right throughout. I heard this on my friends vintage stereo system and starting saving for my own. My little boombox could not reproduce the sound I was hearing and I needed more!
Dear Steve First, I would like to tell you about my first Album , that connected me into music in a deeper way, In the Court of the Crimson King. Blew me away , with a mix of emotions and unexpected notes and time signarures. And this Melotron, wow, tons of enotion. Second , the comparison you made using the SPU is kinda a mismatch. The SPU cart is intended to be matched with heavier arms, its compliance is 8.while Technics arm is light around 10grams.so you dont get the full potential of the Cart. Thanks for a great Video, this turrttable is probably best VFM now.
The David Grisman Quintet debut album changed my life; it inspired my lifetime love of all things mandolin; I have listened to this album hundreds of times and have spent decades learning to play every song; Thanks!
In 1969 I was walking across the courtyard of my junior highschool during lunch hour and someone, somehow managed to blast Good Times Bad Times through the school Tannoy system. Holy Sh*t! It absolutely caught me out and to this day remains one of my favorite songs.
When I was 12 years old I was visiting my cousin and he had a nice record player console with a 12 inch speaker, possibly coaxial. He played Jimmy Smith Slaughter on 10th Avenue and that changed my life forever. I’m 76 years old now and I always think about that first recording that penetrated my soul and made my whole body emotionally electrified.
In the mid 60's I was a young teen into AM radio, penny loafers & crew cut hair cuts. Then, came the Beatles. I did 180 degree turnaround, Long hair, Beatle boots & tie dye t shirts. Turned into a rocker!. I bought a Technics SL 1200GR after your review of the 1200G. Very,very happy w/ it. My last turntable!
The Beatles' White Album. It was one of the first albums I received. Also received Stand! by Sly and the family Stone. Loved both of those albums and played them many times! I received an Arvin portable stereo for Christmas that year. Body and speakers made of green plastic. The speakers attached overtop of the turntable to make a case and could be removed and separated to get stereo. Definitely lo-tech but my first stereo. I loved it and still have fond memories of it.
In 1968 i was laying on my aunts bed with a headboard radio. On the radio they played Janacek's Sinfonieta. I missed the description and thus missed the titel. It took and additional 8 years of searching with no idea what I had heard. I was totally motivated to find it. What a search! It changes my life as it made me listed to as much classical music as I could get my hands on and finally when I found it I bouth 3 interpritations. And, due to my search I discovered my life's musical direction. There really are those special music pieces that drive us to new hights! YEA.
Great video and review Steve!!! Really enjoyed it. For me, it was the "Carpenters", I will never ever forget I was about 10 years old and the song "Close To You" was played on the radio in the car with the one speaker and I heard Karen's voice and I was floored. I could not believe what I was hearing. The most spectacular and gorgeous singing voice I ever heard still gives me chills down my spine when I hear Karen sing today. And I remember when I got my first all in one stereo system in the late 70's the sound was better, a Pioneer all in one system but it was only 4 watts per channel. And then in the late 80's I bought my first REAL stereo Component system, All Technics, and the sound is way better then anything I ever owned. Let's just say I hope this system outlives me!!
As I look back, I have a number of musical phases marked by, what are for me, milestone albums. Allman Brothers, Live at Fillmore East; Roxy Music, Flesh and Blood; The Verve, Urban Hymns; and currently, all of Elbow’s albums.
For me, the LP has got to be Dark Side of the Moon (Pink Floyd). I had heard the LP before but didn't really get into it until I heard a demo at Griffin Audio in Birmingham in the early 1980's on an LP12/Naim stack/Isobariks. I was blown away by the recording - the detail, the soundstage I was broadly familiar with but not to the degree portrayed by this system. What followed was a regular and steady journey to (almost) all the specialist hifi dealers in the Midlands at that time over the course of the next decade during which I put the "hobby" on hold to go to university. The demos were replaced by gigs. I didn't get back into hifi until I heard Talk Talk's "The Colour of Spring" LP - similar thing - I was blown away by a chance demo at Otley Audio in Leeds (Yorkshire). During the 90's-present day my appreciation of artists was gauged not only by the music heard but also by the sound quality of the recording during playback. Consequently I have accumulated small collections of copies of particular LPs but on a variety of formats spanning vinyl (including different pressings - Japanese particularly favoured); cd (including HDCD, MFSL, SHM-cd, blu-spec, DTS disc); SACDs (stereo & multi-channel versions; SHM-SACDs); the odd quadrophonic disc; DVD-audio; and the odd blu-ray audio. All the time/expense in the pursuit of finding the "best" version of particular LPs (I have at least 5 different formats for Fleetwood Mac's Rumours; 4 versions of "The Colour of Spring; 4 versions of DSOTM). Whilst I would not call this an obsession, friends have commented on noticing multiple versions of particular LPs which I have. I will admit I am always intrigued when a new version of a favourite LP is released.
Hi Steve my most pleasant discovery was in 2002 when I saw Robyne Dunn live for the first time. Her style is adult contemporary....a mix between pop folk and Jazz. Her best album for mine is Spindrift from 1997. This wonderful singer lived only 500m from me growing up. I was a very late fan of her but probably one of her biggest. Later Kate Miller Heidke...Nighflight from 2012 is her most critically acclaimed work. But Last Day On Earth is the song which blew me away. So many more though but these ladies are top of mind. Love the Technics direct drive turntables.... I use Sl 1200. Sl120 and Sp10.
'68. My 16th birthday. My aunt gave me an album she bought after walking into a record shop with no idea what to buy and saw this "Far out" looking jacket. So she bought it for me. Canned Heat "Living the Blues". Interestingly I was just starting to transition from my "greaser" days with James Brown, Wilson Picket, ... R&B/ Soul music to my hippy days. I had bypassed the Beatles/ English Invasion to that point. "Parthenogenesis" and "Refried Boogie, Part I&2", along with some newly discovered herb, changed my life. I had a DYI Knight Kit amp, Garrard turntable and DYI 12" 3 way speakers at the time.
I can remember it so clearly....Its 1973 and I'm finishing up my first year of collage, party hopping with some friends. Having a fun time drinking and talking, and then Dark Side of the Moon starts playing. I turned away from the conversation and focused on the music. I didn't know who the band was but was drawn to the music like a moth to a light. It was a religious experience :) Yes a slight exaggeration but never had I ever wanted to go out and buy a record album asap!
Ziggy Stardust, Hunky Dory (Bowie) were life changing. Also Electric Warrior (T.Rex), Machine Gun Etiquette (The Damned), Los Angeles (X) and The White Album (no caption needed). I listen to them all constantly to this day.
I was 8 years old in 1980 and I heard the Beatles REVOLVER album. Ok, game over. I hear those songs now and still have ALL the magic. That record changed everything in my world.
Great review, I'm looking at turntables up to £2k and it's down to listening and belt vs direct drive really. Probably the 1200GR or the Thorens TD 1500. I must say that I currently have a RigB ATVM95NE which is a BIG upgrade over the conical stylus, there's a micro line and a shabita too. Making the SL100C more of a bargain.
Nitty Dirty Dirt Band, both the Will the Circle be Unbroken and the album with a huge safe on it. One was historically significant. They recorded most of the top bluegrass people. Some that were born in late 1800s. Great recordings, too.
My first EUPHORIC connection to modern music was at 11-years old (1965)…listening (REPEATEDLY) to a 45RPM of the San Fransisco band "We Five"'s cover of "You Were On My Mind"…on a "suitcase" all-in-one RCA "Record Player". 😀 I am sure that thoughts of a cute girl (Collette) in my 6th-grade class accompanied my emotional response to the music! THANKS for that memory, Steve! My older brother convinced my Dad shortly after to buy a Lafayette Stereo System. Pure Bliss!
When I was about 10 years old, I put my uncle's Iron Maiden's Purgatory EP on my Grandma's 1960s (?) one-box-stereo (radio, record player and mono-speaker in one box/furniture-like) and was sold. >30 years later, I still love Maiden.
I was a young 17 year old appretice printer in 1963. An guy who i worked beside asked me to go to his appartment at lunchtime to listen to some of his records. He played a few songs and then he said listen to this album. It was Sinatra on Songs for swinging lovers / Ive got you under my skin. It blew me away, and this was at the time when the beatles were huge in UK. I never looked back.
Growing up in the 60's, Mom and Dad played Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass records on a big console stereo in the family room ... loved it then, still love it today. Years pass, and as a teen, I get the console in my room. My system in my room was an 8-track deck/amp and a pair of 5" full range sealed speakers. I add silk dome tweeters to the full range 5" boxes, divided it with an off the shelf cross-over, used the consoles big oblong LF cones for the bass. Placed the modded tops up on shelves... supported by the LF drivers in the console... it rocked! Seriously The oblong woofers in that big cabinet had punch! My guess today is those thin lightweight cones had to be pretty efficient.
Talking Heads 77 is the first album that I remember ever profoundly affecting me as a young teenager. Still one of my favorite bands and so great live!
I got the Kid A by Radiohead CD from a friend when I was 16 and it changed the way I listen to music. It’s till one of my favorite albums 20 years later.
Supertramp Crime of the Century! this got me into wanting better equipment and started my audiophile journey when the only media was tape and vinyl! Much later I found my true calling Relaxin' with the Miles Davis Quintet which pretty much changed everything!
Crime of the Century blew me away ! It changed my life forever ! Zepplin 2 and Dark Side are right up there, but Crime of the Century was so thought provoking, and substantial. Music has never been the same !
Thanks for the all the different reviews, Steve please keep them coming. The first album that changed my whole perspective to how I listen to music was in the spring of 1969, with Led Zeppelin I vinyl album. No more radio sounds for me, it needed to be on vinyl. Today I still enjoy music on vinyl albums. I have the Audio-Technicas AT LP 120 and it's a direct drive turntable. With an A1 tube preamp by Ampapa.
I was 15 in 1986 sitting in a student canteen, when I heard a instrumental song that was like nothing I had heard before. I went and ask who or what it was, and they said it was Genesis - invisible touch album. The song was the last track called “Brazilian” I had heard of Genesis but didn’t know much about the band. I went out a bought it on cassette tape. I have been a massive fan ever since and have all the albums from the 70’s and onwards. They are an Incredible band and incredible musicians.
0:30 I don't have an album or specific song that got me into serious listening. I started playing vinyl because it was the cheapest way for mixing and DJing back in high school - records were "old crap" so they were dirt cheap. Every month, I looked at the Hardstyle Top 40 and bought those tracks on vinyl. Later on I discovered there was more than just one genre of music and slowly my DJ setup evolved into a HiFi setup. Mixing music and pumping the subwoofer evolved into focused listening to music and all of its details. I still play those DJ records from time to time... for their sentimental value. Btw, my reference turntable is a SL-1200G too!
Another great review Steve, I have a sl 1200g which is everything you say it is and I agree , but if I were much younger and money was tight I would go for the technics 100c they are a great TT well made and something you would be proud to own .
Hi Steve! The album that did it for me was called replicas. It was Tubeway Army that featured Gary Numan upfront. It sounded amazing, and I was only nine years old, back in 1978, it took me to a whole new strange world and I still listen to it a hell of a lot even now.
Hello Steve, thanks for sharing. May I ask a question? If 100c and 1500c and 1200gr use the same cartridge and phono amp, will they sound significantly different? Thank you again.
I would say it was Elvis for me that made me live music as much as I do. I’m sure it must have been from watching a movie as a child and he’s been a constant in my life since then up to now at 56. I never get tired of his music, same as The Beatles. I still get goose bumps listening to certain songs. Now it’s mostly from Apple Music, but I still have all my LPs, cassettes, and CDs. 😊
Hello Steve from Yorkshire England. In the early 70s when I was 6 or 7 my dad had a Grundig reel to reel tape recorder. He used to record music on it and messages to my Uncle. He recorded The Beatles collection of oldies and side one of Yellow Submarine. I wore the tape out over time, I knew the track list and the songs that were cut off when the tape ran out. On my 11th birthday my parents bought me the red and blue albums. I heard lots of music on the radio and I developed a love of different genres of music.
Toccata by Mannheim Steamroller. I heard it at the high end stereo store down the street from my job while I was in high school. That was back in 1982. I don't recall the speakers or turntable. But I definately remember the blue meters on the Mac amps. The sound blew me away.
My earliest memories are from the early 70s when I was in junior high. My parents had a Sony reel to reel with a Columbia house reel subscription. They had a Gerrard TT, and a Fisher tube receiver. Tapes came in the mail all the time. I remember Credence, Janice Joplin, James Taylor, Rolling Stones, Simon and Garfunkel, Bob Dylan and other new releases at that time. I became obsessed with that sound at a very early age. I remember recording albums and splicing mix tapes at age 12 or so. Every Xmas and b-day after was albums, 8 tracks and gear for my bedroom system. As a young teen, I was turned on to the Grateful Dead by some friends. That ended up being a life changing audiophile rabbit hole. I became obsessed with recording shows, collecting tapes and building playback systems to try and replicate the GD sound as I heard it live. Fast forward 50 years and I am still on that quest but with better resources and a much broader appreation for music of many genres. The appreciation of all analog front end and tube gear has never changed but just this year I took the leap to try digital. Adding a DAC / streamer to the system for live webcasts and Amazon HD has been exciting. I have learned to appreciate digital after many years resisting. It has to be done early in a listening session though. Once the LPs start spinning, there is no going back to digital for the rest of the session. The adventure has been so incredible. There is a projector for live music webcasts in the listening room but no TV in the house. Time spent watching a TV is missed musical experiences. Life is too short for that.
For me it was Elvis, Jailhouse Rock. Got it in 1993 for my first Sony Stereo with CD. Still love it to this day and managed to get an Elvis Collections on vinyl a while back. Sent me back memory lane right away! Another important Single for me would be Rolling Stones living in a ghost town. That LP got me back into Vinyl!
Tchaikovsky* / Beethoven* - Antal Dorati, London Symphony Orchestra* - 1812 Festival Overture, Op. 49 (Original Scoring) / Wellington's Victory In 1977 just 11 years old. Played on my fathers Dynatron (Garrard deck) mostly Tchaikovsky's brilliance - re:issue Label: Philips - SAL3461 Amazed, enthralled, loved vinyl and all musical genres ever since.
I'm in my late 50s, so....in the late 70s, I'd ride my bike to the main street record store, and with my allowance for mowing the lawn, I'd get Donna Summer and ELO 45s. By high school, I'd discovered albums after I got my first Radio Shack shelf stereo (BSR turntable!!!). Then I discovered Rush Moving Pictures..... DAMN. That started it all, really. Since then I've loved things from a lot of genres. Lately I've been into 1957-59 jazz on vinyl. Anyway, thanks Steve for the question. I had never thought of it like that. Moving from singles to albums as I got older decades ago......
1989. Quincy Jones released Back On The Block. I was around my sister's dad's house. He & his brother were listening 2 it & it has become my favourite album of all time.
Sometime during junior highschool there was a music teacher (cool guy with long hair who played guitar in a band) who gathered a couple of students that could play instruments (quite well I must add), and they performed War Pigs by Black Sabbath at a gathering before a holiday break or something. That song blew me away and shaped my music interest like nothing I had ever heard before. I can't say I wouldn't end up liking music like that anyway, but it was i pivotal moment and an experience I'll never forget. Still one of my favourite songs. As for the review, I recently bought this turntable and I quite like the fact that they included a pretty inexpensive cartridge. Firstly, the TT is ready to play records almost straight out the box, and secondly it helps keep the price of the TT as low as possible. It might be worth adding that you can buy replacement styluses for that cartridge from the whole VM95-line, and that provides an easy and quite inexpensive way to upgrade. I replaced the included conical (vmn95c) stylus with a micro line (vmn95ml) stylus, and that was a huge improvement in sound for roughly 150$.
We all have special albums we loved as teenagers. But Diana Krall - live in paris ... change me from audio enthusiast to audiophile. My first album that showcased deep sound stage and depth in music.
That is interesting, the sole reason why I keep my SP-15 is to be able to use the SME 3009 (non-improved) tonearm so that I can adjust the arm back and forth to accommodate the demanding TSD-15. I have been contemplating about switching to a more modern (reliable electronics) of SL-1200, but that fixed arm position was giving me nightmares. How could you be able to use the EMT with the SL-1200?
For me the album that got me into music was Willie and the Poor Boys by Creedence Clearwater Revival. I heard it at school during a study hall. The monitor was cool and let us play records toward the end of the school year. After I heard it, I went out and bought it. It was the first album I ever bought. I had some 45's before that but this was the first album. I still have it although the cover has seen better days.
Great question about the music. A freind of mine had given me a taped copy of "the wall". I was 12 years old a the time. The first time I played it I was sat in the back of my father car listening to it on my Sony Walkman ( a blue one :) ). I listened in awe but when it came to the guitar solo from Dave Gilmour I suddenly got goosebumps all over my body. It was almost like losing ones virginity.. amazing experience..
The first U2 album "Boy" released in 1980 caught my attention but the one that made perfect audio sense (with booming 15" pioneer woofers I had at the time) was the album by the British band The Beat called "I Just Can't Stop It" which was their debut studio album from the same year.
RUSH 2112. Pushed in my brothers new 8-track album 2112, headphones on and lay down to my first listen. Well, cuz that slick new 8 track could play over and over and over again without noticing it, I listened to that album begining to end 3 time before I realized. Fell in love with RUSH at that point, but more importantly, I started listening to everything my brother had at that point. I was addicted to music and then HI-FI from that point on.
Back in the ‘60s, when I was a pre-teen verging on teenager, the Beatles and their contemporaries - Animals, Monkees, etc, tickled my eardrums. During this time, I was also engulfed in Motown - Stevie, Temptations, Aretha, Sly, Marvin and everything I heard on Top 40 school bus AM radio. Then my friend’s cousin gave me worn out copies of Sgt Peppers & Magical Mystery Tour. A year or so later my sister brought The White Album back from California. After that, it was a decade long wallow in AOR starting with Prog (KC, Yes, Genesis, Moody Blues, Floyd, Gentle Giant, etc.) with healthy doses of Zeppelin, Stones, Kinks, and assorted garage rockers of the day. It went on from there with a deep dive into Jazz Fusion, classical, be-bop & modern jazz, Zappa... And Steely Dan (they get their own special mention). Parts 2 and 3 of this journey would take way too long, but yeah it really all started with three Beatles records back in the 60s.
For a more involved music interest, it was Joshua from Four and More by Miles Davis....the odd rhythm by Ton Williams with Ron Carter and Herbie Hancock just captivated me at 11 years old. For audiophile interests, it was the Prokofiev Piano Concerto Nr. 2 by Malcolm Frager on RCA Living Stereo AS REISSSUED by Classic Records on 180 gram vinyl pressed at RTI and all tube remastered by Bernie Grunman....now, I've hunted down most of those 180 gram Classic Records RCA Living Stereo reissues and LOVE THE ALL MADLY ! For me, there is a certian warm MAGIC in that reissue series that just sounds RIGHT !
There's an Audiophiliac/Steve Guttenberg imposter scamming my viewers, There’s no FREE gifts. DON’T respond! I don't do giveaways or ask for money (except for my Patreon).
Oh yeah I got several of those dupes claiming to be you. I remember even letting you know.
Got it. Thank you.
1978 Bruce Springsteen, Darkness on the Edge of Town . My step father had a Denon 900 very tall speakers he had these headphones that were I believe what the pilots used at that time mind you I am in junior high school this time something about the bosses lyrics racing in the street
got a sixty-nine Chevy with a 396
Fuelie heads and a Hurst on the floor
She's waiting tonight down in the parking lot
Outside the Seven-Eleven store
Me and my partner Sonny built her straight out of scratch. I could picture myself driving this vehicle racing in the streets. The whole album was awesome. Anyway, thanks for your show brother.
@@YoungbloodVlog It was that song that really grabbed me. I've been collecting lp's since I was 10 years old.
I first heard Racing in the Street in my university dorm room played by my next door neighbor, through a cinderblock wall, and I was MOVED! I'll never forget that moment over 40 years ago...
This is a pretty horrible review. You don't even actually show the usage of Turntable, at all, just screenshots. It's basically a guy rambling for 19 minutes without actually showing any practical use of an object. I'd rather watch Steven Hawkins discuss Theoretical Physics. Maybe next review, you actually put on a record and show the turn table in use.
In early 1967, my sister was dating a guy who was in the Navy. He had bought an album at the BX and decided he didn't like it, so he asked me if I wanted it. Being 16 and broke most of the time, I grabbed it up. It was my first album. I had never heard of the band but the cover was cool. It was a quaint little rock group called "The Jimi Hendrix Experience" and an album called "Are You Experienced", and it literally blew me away. I don't believe they were playing any Hendrix music on American stations at the time, and I had never heard anything like it before. To this day, when "Purple Haze" starts up, I am instantly transported back to that first time I heard it on the crappy little player I had at the time, one of those fold open portable record players. It's an album that will always be in my collection.
The single, Purple Haze, only made it to #65 on the US charts, versus #3 in the UK. The album, however, was a huge hit, and made it to #10 in the US and #2 in the UK. I, too, was 16 at the time, and was making a huge $1.25/hour from my first job!
@@christophernoto Those were the heady days of R&R. I think we grew up in the generation of the best music ever.
Thank you for sharing this. Jimi was so far ahead of his time he basically changed the World.
My SL-100C came yesterday 1/20/24 and I replaced the C stylus with the ML I had just purchased. A superb table with all the adjustments anyone can need including the arm pillar adjustment. It sounds superb and wish I had made the jump sooner. I did not care about the strobe or speed adjustments. Love the auto lift at the end of play.
A couple of months ago, bought the SL-100 from Amazon and upgraded the Audio Technica stylus to the very reasonably priced Shibata. Couldn't be happier with this combo.
Chicago 25 or 6 to 4. i was in the 5th grade, in the school orchestra, playing baritone horn. during the course of learning the arrangement, our instructor played the record for us. Terry Kath's guitar solo was magic. Chicago is still a desert island band for me. CTA and VII have become my favorites, and i go back to them again and again.
My twin! The first album I bought was their second. Then I discovered Transit Authority. I moved on after those, but those are fond memories.
I always loved music though. Beatles, Blood, Sweat and Tears, Stones, even Mitch Ryder. Those were other people’s music though. Chicago was MY money 🙂
The one album I still revisit though, is Tommy.
I'd heard that song from the time it came out and only found out what it was about ten years ago. Gotta love the Internet...LOL...
Rubber Soul affected me, as did Tommy. I revisit Tommy more often.
The lift feature on the Technics is required for us napping old codgers.
Why is auto-lift at the end of play SO cool? Seems to me it should be a standard feature on every modern TT these days. It was 40 years ago.
When I was 16 my friend gave me a tape with two Al Stewart albums, Year of the Cat & Modern Times. Growing up in a British household in the early 80s where feelings and emotions were considered an unnecessary weakness, I was blown away by the expression of complex feelings woven into beautiful melodies. I found the music profoundly freeing and comforting. He's still one of my all tume favourites.
Miles Davis. Miles Smiles. When the first track Orbits kicks in, it was such a rush that I knew jazz would always be a big part of my life.
For me it wasn’t a band but a DJ. I first heard Carol Miller’s show on WNEW when I was 4 years old. I was a lonely, nervous, introverted kid and her beautiful voice kept me company at night. I hid a small radio underneath my pillow and used one of those little white ear plug headphones to keep it a secret from my parents. She introduced me to all of the great music of my youth and instilled in me a love of live radio that will never die.
I purchased the SL-100C and i'm using a Pro-Ject Tube Box DS with a Yaqin 40 watt EL34 tube amp driving a pair of Quad ESL 57 speakers and it is an epiphany in sound quality..
Chuck Mangione. Feels so good. After 50 years I till listen to that album with great pleasure.
When I was 12 years old I got my first stereo for Christmas. I was taken to a record store and my folks told me they would buy me 1 stereo album to go with the new stereo. After about an our of looking at rock and roll albums, I saw a soundtrack album to one of my favorite TV shows. Peter Gunn soundtrack by Henry Mancini. I got it home and played it over and over. It changed my life It gave me a love of Jazz I still have today.62 years later. I showed me there is a whole world of music out there. Love your show! Steve King
Telstar by the Tornados. I heard it first on an old "furniture all in one" stereo around 1964 when I was 6 years old. I was being "baby sat" that summer by some people and they had one. That was the first time I had heard anything like it. From then on, music and how well it sounded was a part of my life. I think I hummed that melody all summer long.
Billy Cobham - Spectrum.
I got it from my uncle on my 8th birthday. He had heard that I have started taking drum lessons, so he went to a record store and ask for a record with the best drummer around. Spectrum had just been released. My uncle had no idea who Billy Cobham nor what fusion was but that record changed my life. I stopped listening to Sweet & Slade and started spinnin´ Mahavishnu Orchestra and other fusion/jazz rock band. Eventually I found Miles Davis. The first time I heard Agharta is an experience I never will forget. I went on from there. Coltrane, Pharoah Sanders, Albert Ayler, AACM and all that lovely free form music. Then I went out into the rest of the world: Bishmillah Khan and the journey continued. Nowadays I find fusion rather boring, but Spectrum is something special to me. An odd consequence of starting to listen to fusion and then free jazz soon after, at such an early age, is that I never have understood the concept of pop music. But that is another story.
The first time I heard Suite: Judy Blue Eyes by Crosby, Stills & Nash on the radio in the 8th grade, it absolute blew me away. I had never heard thrilling harmonies like CSN produced on that record. It directly lead to my passion for music - which continues to this day 53 years later.
It was Harry Nilsson's 'Nilsson Schmilsson' album that did it for me 50 years ago, and since then I have been a Nilsson fan, so much so that last year I had the privilege of writing a book 'Harry & Me'. His is a fascinating story, and his music so diverse, with incredible vocal range and extraordinary song-writing.
We moved from farm to the inner city and i befriended a middle school neighbor that turned me onto Jimi Hendrix, "are you experienced" album. I still got the original i bought back in 1970.
I cant remember the model numbers but my first turntable was a fully automatic Dual belt drive w an Audio Technica cartridge.
Today i have an AR turntable with a Linn Basik tonearm and a Signet TK10ML cartridge and very pleased with the performance.
The album that changed my life, and got me into hifi, and at the time, headphones, was Mike Oldfields Tubular Bells. Heard it in 1978, aged 13. My first non-hitlist favourite.
I've loved music all my life. This request brought back the sweetest memories of dancing around the kitchen with my mother, listening to the monster channel WLAC in Nashville when I was 4 years old. Later, they would incorporate rhythm and blues and I heard Chuck Berry for the first time and my skin tingled in awe. I was 7 years old when I saw Jail House Rock, three times, just to hear the song so that was the song that sent me to the Stratosphere and still rockin every day. Thank you.
WOW! José's system is soooooo visually pleasing!!! …as well as gear-impressive! SWEET! 👍🏼
Michael Hedges - Live on the Double Planet. Bought when I was maybe 14 in a quirky little new age shop while visiting my grandfather in San Francisco and had idea what I was buying. Took it home and it blew my mind and challenged all of my assumptions about what was cool and what music could be when everything else I was listening to in the 80s was Punk and New Wave and electronic. I can honestly say that it changed the trajectory of my life and prompted me to seek out the stuff none of my friends were listening to in the SoCal in the 80s. The Blue Nile's "A Walk Across the Rooftops" was another.
Brubeck and “Blue Rondo “ got me involved about 65 years ago and I am still listening and involved at 81.
In 1978(ish) I went to an “Ice Cream Social” at my school where they had a tag sale to raise some funds. I picked up a vinyl copy of “Frampton Comes Alive” that someone had donated for $0.25. It was the first album that I actually bought. Pretty good deal, even for the late ‘70s! I was learning to play the guitar at the time, and it made me stop and say, “this guy is doing something a bit unique”. The roar of the crowd - the sound of his guitar: what I would eventually learn was a Les Paul through a Marshall- but most of all the NOTES he chose. It hit me hard. It was actually “Lines On My Face” and “Penny For Your Thoughts” that struck me first, and not “Do You Feel Like We Do”, though I still love that. It all just made me want to dig in and learn to play Rock and Roll. I guess I noticed that Frampton had an approach to guitar that was slightly different from what I was used to hearing- and that sort of paved the way to jazz and fusion over the next few years. I still have that record to this day. It is in pretty poor condition, so it is hanging on the wall in my music room. Luckily, I have the 180g Reissue on order so I can enjoy it again on vinyl!
As a child in the mid sixties I found a 45 rpm of Papa's got a Brand New Bag by James Brown laying in the street next to the house. For a Chipmunks fan, this was a big step up in rhythmic, instrumental, and vocal intensity that had a big effect on my ears. It was weird and funny (see ya latah alligatah) and it gave me a taste of the crazy world outside my sheltered life.
I would say it was Pink Floyd's The Wall. I was a young teenager in 1982 and it was a tumultuous time in my life when I bought that album. That record was my companion during girlfriend breakups, divorcing parents, and moves across country. That album will always bring back intense memories for me - both good and bad.
I was 12 years in 1996. That was when I first heard the Beatles. It was Abbey Road. The story, the rythm, the singing…..it was so different from what was on the radio or MTV at the time. I’m from Denmark, and though I knew some english, there where still so many things I didn’t get being 12. But it sounded so awesome, like it was multiple levels above anything I’ve heard at the time. None of my friends understood me. So for about two or three years, I was known as “beatles” in my school. It didn’t really bother me😂😂😂
Blood Sweat & Tears. Rock! Jazz! Blues! Nothing was the same after that
Two albums, really. First, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. Such a superbly recorded double LP with such a variety of songs. It let me know the possibilities of pop music beyond the 3-minute single on the radio. Next: Wings, Venus and Mars. I first heard it on a true high fidelity system owned by a neighbour, and this exposed me to the importance of the right equipment. Before this, I didn't even know there was such a thing as a 'soundstage' or deep bass. Those two albums turned me into both a music fanatic and a music equipment fanatic. Does that make me an audiophile?
Yes it does, incurable 🤪😁
When I was young, it was equipment that got me into music and started my journey in hifi. It was actually a car system, made up of Alpine Digimax system with D/A convertor and time alignment, Orion amplifiers, Polk separates, and Punch subwoofers. As for the music, NIN always blew my mind listening on that system. So good.
I’ve use 1200s for 20 years. Bought used in the early 2000s. Best deck ever. Would love to hear a review of the old school and new school 1200s. Big fan. Thanks
Talking Heads 77 changed the world for me. I didn't know anything much apart from my parents jazz and Elvis. From that day I sought out "alliterative" music and have never looked back. Totally changed my outlook on life. Still doing it.
I just placed my order for the 100C and it will arrive Thursday, very excited to get it. I've had probably every modern DD at some point all the hanpin offerings, but they just all fell short of my expectations. So, I bit the bullet and bought the technics, buy once cry once.
Out of the blue with ELO from 1977 is one of the first records that has meant a lot for me. I remember playing this on my parents turntable when I was 10y old.
The very first one was Prince's Around the World in a Day. But my love for music went even deeper later with NIN's Pretty Hate Machine, Dead Can Dance's Towards the Within, Pick Floyd 's Final Cut.
Thanks for the review Steve.. the album that changed my whole perspective to how i listen to music and drove me down the rabbit hole was "You Can Do Magic" by a band called America.. that was some time in the early 2000s when i was still in high school and it was on cassette.. from there I went on really listening to music and not just something that played in the background.. i then discovered classic rock and jazz and many more things about music and learned to appreciate different music genres for the art of composition and playing..
Hawkwind, Warrior on the Edge of Time. Blew me away when I bought this in 1984 and still does today (with or without chemical enhancement 😜)
Not a huge Hawkwind fan, but I have and like that album!
Hip Hop was my first love and De La Soul's "Three feet high and Rising" is what got me hooked. 1st album I bought as a kid. But it was the Digable Planets album, "The Blowout Comb" is what got me hip to Jazz and sound in general. The song "Black Ego" was a polyphony of jazz instrumentation and mixed in such a way that panned from left to right throughout. I heard this on my friends vintage stereo system and starting saving for my own. My little boombox could not reproduce the sound I was hearing and I needed more!
Dear Steve
First, I would like to tell you about my first Album , that connected me into music in a deeper way, In the Court of the Crimson King. Blew me away , with a mix of emotions and unexpected notes and time signarures. And this Melotron, wow, tons of enotion.
Second , the comparison you made using the SPU is kinda a mismatch. The SPU cart is intended to be matched with heavier arms, its compliance is 8.while Technics arm is light around 10grams.so you dont get the full potential of the Cart.
Thanks for a great Video, this turrttable is probably best VFM now.
I have the SL-100C with the Nagaoka MP150/MP200…. OMG, what a work of art…..I’m hooked forever!
The David Grisman Quintet debut album changed my life; it inspired my lifetime love of all things mandolin; I have listened to this album hundreds of times and have spent decades learning to play every song; Thanks!
Dawg is among the best for sure.
In 1969 I was walking across the courtyard of my junior highschool during lunch hour and someone, somehow managed to blast Good Times Bad Times through the school Tannoy system. Holy Sh*t! It absolutely caught me out and to this day remains one of my favorite songs.
When I was 12 years old I was visiting my cousin and he had a nice record player console with a 12 inch speaker, possibly coaxial. He played Jimmy Smith Slaughter on 10th Avenue and that changed my life forever. I’m 76 years old now and I always think about that first recording that penetrated my soul and made my whole body emotionally electrified.
In the mid 60's I was a young teen into AM radio, penny loafers & crew cut hair cuts. Then, came the Beatles. I did 180 degree turnaround, Long hair, Beatle boots & tie dye t shirts. Turned into a rocker!. I bought a Technics SL 1200GR after your review of the 1200G. Very,very happy w/ it. My last turntable!
The Beatles' White Album. It was one of the first albums I received. Also received Stand! by Sly and the family Stone. Loved both of those albums and played them many times! I received an Arvin portable stereo for Christmas that year. Body and speakers made of green plastic. The speakers attached overtop of the turntable to make a case and could be removed and separated to get stereo. Definitely lo-tech but my first stereo. I loved it and still have fond memories of it.
In 1968 i was laying on my aunts bed with a headboard radio. On the radio they played Janacek's Sinfonieta. I missed the description and thus missed the titel. It took and additional 8 years of searching with no idea what I had heard. I was totally motivated to find it. What a search! It changes my life as it made me listed to as much classical music as I could get my hands on and finally when I found it I bouth 3 interpritations. And, due to my search I discovered my life's musical direction. There really are those special music pieces that drive us to new hights! YEA.
It all started in 1958 when my father bought a big stereo console. As a 10 year old, I was hooked.
It’s not the match, it’s the mix.
My older brother bought Changesonebowie, I’m hooked.
Great video and review Steve!!! Really enjoyed it. For me, it was the "Carpenters", I will never ever forget I was about 10 years old and the song "Close To You" was played on the radio in the car with the one speaker and I heard Karen's voice and I was floored. I could not believe what I was hearing. The most spectacular and gorgeous singing voice I ever heard still gives me chills down my spine when I hear Karen sing today. And I remember when I got my first all in one stereo system in the late 70's the sound was better, a Pioneer all in one system but it was only 4 watts per channel. And then in the late 80's I bought my first REAL stereo Component system, All Technics, and the sound is way better then anything I ever owned. Let's just say I hope this system outlives me!!
Two recordings that changed my life, RUSH-2112, and Brian Eno- Another Green World.
As I look back, I have a number of musical phases marked by, what are for me, milestone albums. Allman Brothers, Live at Fillmore East; Roxy Music, Flesh and Blood; The Verve, Urban Hymns; and currently, all of Elbow’s albums.
For me, the LP has got to be Dark Side of the Moon (Pink Floyd). I had heard the LP before but didn't really get into it until I heard a demo at Griffin Audio in Birmingham in the early 1980's on an LP12/Naim stack/Isobariks. I was blown away by the recording - the detail, the soundstage I was broadly familiar with but not to the degree portrayed by this system. What followed was a regular and steady journey to (almost) all the specialist hifi dealers in the Midlands at that time over the course of the next decade during which I put the "hobby" on hold to go to university. The demos were replaced by gigs. I didn't get back into hifi until I heard Talk Talk's "The Colour of Spring" LP - similar thing - I was blown away by a chance demo at Otley Audio in Leeds (Yorkshire). During the 90's-present day my appreciation of artists was gauged not only by the music heard but also by the sound quality of the recording during playback. Consequently I have accumulated small collections of copies of particular LPs but on a variety of formats spanning vinyl (including different pressings - Japanese particularly favoured); cd (including HDCD, MFSL, SHM-cd, blu-spec, DTS disc); SACDs (stereo & multi-channel versions; SHM-SACDs); the odd quadrophonic disc; DVD-audio; and the odd blu-ray audio. All the time/expense in the pursuit of finding the "best" version of particular LPs (I have at least 5 different formats for Fleetwood Mac's Rumours; 4 versions of "The Colour of Spring; 4 versions of DSOTM). Whilst I would not call this an obsession, friends have commented on noticing multiple versions of particular LPs which I have. I will admit I am always intrigued when a new version of a favourite LP is released.
I was a regular at Griffin Audio, Bob Griffin was a great hi Fi guy and sadly missed.
Hi Steve my most pleasant discovery was in 2002 when I saw Robyne Dunn live for the first time. Her style is adult contemporary....a mix between pop folk and Jazz. Her best album for mine is Spindrift from 1997. This wonderful singer lived only 500m from me growing up. I was a very late fan of her but probably one of her biggest. Later Kate Miller Heidke...Nighflight from 2012 is her most critically acclaimed work. But Last Day On Earth is the song which blew me away. So many more though but these ladies are top of mind. Love the Technics direct drive turntables.... I use Sl 1200. Sl120 and Sp10.
Beatles, Abbey Road "B" side. I was 13 when this album was released, and it bowled me over.
'68. My 16th birthday. My aunt gave me an album she bought after walking into a record shop with no idea what to buy and saw this "Far out" looking jacket. So she bought it for me. Canned Heat "Living the Blues".
Interestingly I was just starting to transition from my "greaser" days with James Brown, Wilson Picket, ... R&B/ Soul music to my hippy days. I had bypassed the Beatles/ English Invasion to that point. "Parthenogenesis" and "Refried Boogie, Part I&2", along with some newly discovered herb, changed my life.
I had a DYI Knight Kit amp, Garrard turntable and DYI 12" 3 way speakers at the time.
I can remember it so clearly....Its 1973 and I'm finishing up my first year of collage, party hopping with some friends. Having a fun time drinking and talking, and then Dark Side of the Moon starts playing. I turned away from the conversation and focused on the music. I didn't know who the band was but was drawn to the music like a moth to a light. It was a religious experience :) Yes a slight exaggeration but never had I ever wanted to go out and buy a record album asap!
Whiter Shade of Pale. The organ line made my teenage eyes cry .
I listened to my brother's Meet The Beatles repeatedly, I absolutely loved it, and still do to this day. It's one of my earliest musical memories.
Ziggy Stardust, Hunky Dory (Bowie) were life changing. Also Electric Warrior (T.Rex), Machine Gun Etiquette (The Damned), Los Angeles (X) and The White Album (no caption needed). I listen to them all constantly to this day.
I was 8 years old in 1980 and I heard the Beatles REVOLVER album. Ok, game over. I hear those songs now and still have ALL the magic. That record changed everything in my world.
Great review, I'm looking at turntables up to £2k and it's down to listening and belt vs direct drive really. Probably the 1200GR or the Thorens TD 1500. I must say that I currently have a RigB ATVM95NE which is a BIG upgrade over the conical stylus, there's a micro line and a shabita too. Making the SL100C more of a bargain.
Nitty Dirty Dirt Band, both the Will the Circle be Unbroken and the album with a huge safe on it. One was historically significant. They recorded most of the top bluegrass people. Some that were born in late 1800s. Great recordings, too.
Cream-Wheels of Fire
Jaw dropping innovation
My first EUPHORIC connection to modern music was at 11-years old (1965)…listening (REPEATEDLY) to a 45RPM of the San Fransisco band "We Five"'s cover of "You Were On My Mind"…on a "suitcase" all-in-one RCA "Record Player". 😀 I am sure that thoughts of a cute girl (Collette) in my 6th-grade class accompanied my emotional response to the music! THANKS for that memory, Steve! My older brother convinced my Dad shortly after to buy a Lafayette Stereo System. Pure Bliss!
When I was about 10 years old, I put my uncle's Iron Maiden's Purgatory EP on my Grandma's 1960s (?) one-box-stereo (radio, record player and mono-speaker in one box/furniture-like) and was sold. >30 years later, I still love Maiden.
I was a young 17 year old appretice printer in 1963. An guy who i worked beside asked me to go to his appartment at lunchtime to listen to some of his records. He played a few songs and then he said listen to this album. It was Sinatra on Songs for swinging lovers / Ive got you under my skin. It blew me away, and this was at the time when the beatles were huge in UK. I never looked back.
Growing up in the 60's, Mom and Dad played Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass records on a big console stereo in the family room ... loved it then, still love it today.
Years pass, and as a teen, I get the console in my room.
My system in my room was an 8-track deck/amp and a pair of 5" full range sealed speakers.
I add silk dome tweeters to the full range 5" boxes, divided it with an off the shelf cross-over, used the consoles big oblong LF cones for the bass.
Placed the modded tops up on shelves... supported by the LF drivers in the console...
it rocked! Seriously
The oblong woofers in that big cabinet had punch! My guess today is those thin lightweight cones had to be pretty efficient.
Talking Heads 77 is the first album that I remember ever profoundly affecting me as a young teenager. Still one of my favorite bands and so great live!
I got the Kid A by Radiohead CD from a friend when I was 16 and it changed the way I listen to music. It’s till one of my favorite albums 20 years later.
Supertramp Crime of the Century! this got me into wanting better equipment and started my audiophile journey when the only media was tape and vinyl! Much later I found my true calling Relaxin' with the Miles Davis Quintet which pretty much changed everything!
For me it was Alan Parsons and their I Robot album. Wow wow wow, life changing. Still love their sound to this day
Well, side one of that album certainly.
Crime of the Century blew me away ! It changed my life forever ! Zepplin 2 and Dark Side are right up there, but Crime of the Century was so thought provoking, and substantial. Music has never been the same !
Thanks for the all the different reviews, Steve please keep them coming. The first album that changed my whole perspective to how I listen to music was in the spring of 1969, with Led Zeppelin I vinyl album. No more radio sounds for me, it needed to be on vinyl. Today I still enjoy music on vinyl albums. I have the Audio-Technicas AT LP 120 and it's a direct drive turntable. With an A1 tube preamp by Ampapa.
I was 15 in 1986 sitting in a student canteen, when I heard a instrumental song that was like nothing I had heard before. I went and ask who or what it was, and they said it was Genesis - invisible touch album. The song was the last track called “Brazilian” I had heard of Genesis but didn’t know much about the band. I went out a bought it on cassette tape. I have been a massive fan ever since and have all the albums from the 70’s and onwards. They are an Incredible band and incredible musicians.
0:30 I don't have an album or specific song that got me into serious listening. I started playing vinyl because it was the cheapest way for mixing and DJing back in high school - records were "old crap" so they were dirt cheap. Every month, I looked at the Hardstyle Top 40 and bought those tracks on vinyl.
Later on I discovered there was more than just one genre of music and slowly my DJ setup evolved into a HiFi setup.
Mixing music and pumping the subwoofer evolved into focused listening to music and all of its details.
I still play those DJ records from time to time... for their sentimental value.
Btw, my reference turntable is a SL-1200G too!
The Jimi Hendrix exp bold as love; Exile on Main St; LZ III; Woodstock Soundtrack (3 LP). In 73. I was 12 I felt like this connected to the music🎙
Another great review Steve, I have a sl 1200g which is everything you say it is and I agree , but if I were much younger and money was tight I would go for the technics 100c they are a great TT well made and something you would be proud to own .
Hi Steve! The album that did it for me was called replicas. It was Tubeway Army that featured Gary Numan upfront. It sounded amazing, and I was only nine years old, back in 1978, it took me to a whole new strange world and I still listen to it a hell of a lot even now.
That’s great, thanks for sharing. And watching.
Hello Steve, thanks for sharing. May I ask a question? If 100c and 1500c and 1200gr use the same cartridge and phono amp, will they sound significantly different? Thank you again.
I guess that would depend on what you consider significant. A better turntable will have improved clarity, bass definition, and dynamics
OK, I get it. Just getting the 1200GR will solve my problem. Thank you so much.@@SteveGuttenbergAudiophiliac
I would say it was Elvis for me that made me live music as much as I do. I’m sure it must have been from watching a movie as a child and he’s been a constant in my life since then up to now at 56. I never get tired of his music, same as The Beatles. I still get goose bumps listening to certain songs. Now it’s mostly from Apple Music, but I still have all my LPs, cassettes, and CDs. 😊
I’d like to add that I’ve picked up a lot of cool music recommendations from you and Rick Beato over the last few years. Thanks!
Hello Steve from Yorkshire England. In the early 70s when I was 6 or 7 my dad had a Grundig reel to reel tape recorder. He used to record music on it and messages to my Uncle. He recorded The Beatles collection of oldies and side one of Yellow Submarine. I wore the tape out over time, I knew the track list and the songs that were cut off when the tape ran out. On my 11th birthday my parents bought me the red and blue albums. I heard lots of music on the radio and I developed a love of different genres of music.
Toccata by Mannheim Steamroller. I heard it at the high end stereo store down the street from my job while I was in high school. That was back in 1982. I don't recall the speakers or turntable. But I definately remember the blue meters on the Mac amps. The sound blew me away.
Viewer systems are terrific. Good stuff Steve.
My earliest memories are from the early 70s when I was in junior high. My parents had a Sony reel to reel with a Columbia house reel subscription. They had a Gerrard TT, and a Fisher tube receiver. Tapes came in the mail all the time. I remember Credence, Janice Joplin, James Taylor, Rolling Stones, Simon and Garfunkel, Bob Dylan and other new releases at that time. I became obsessed with that sound at a very early age. I remember recording albums and splicing mix tapes at age 12 or so. Every Xmas and b-day after was albums, 8 tracks and gear for my bedroom system. As a young teen, I was turned on to the Grateful Dead by some friends. That ended up being a life changing audiophile rabbit hole. I became obsessed with recording shows, collecting tapes and building playback systems to try and replicate the GD sound as I heard it live. Fast forward 50 years and I am still on that quest but with better resources and a much broader appreation for music of many genres. The appreciation of all analog front end and tube gear has never changed but just this year I took the leap to try digital. Adding a DAC / streamer to the system for live webcasts and Amazon HD has been exciting. I have learned to appreciate digital after many years resisting. It has to be done early in a listening session though. Once the LPs start spinning, there is no going back to digital for the rest of the session. The adventure has been so incredible. There is a projector for live music webcasts in the listening room but no TV in the house. Time spent watching a TV is missed musical experiences. Life is too short for that.
For me it was Elvis, Jailhouse Rock. Got it in 1993 for my first Sony Stereo with CD. Still love it to this day and managed to get an Elvis Collections on vinyl a while back. Sent me back memory lane right away! Another important Single for me would be Rolling Stones living in a ghost town. That LP got me back into Vinyl!
Tchaikovsky* / Beethoven* - Antal Dorati, London Symphony Orchestra* - 1812 Festival Overture, Op. 49 (Original Scoring) / Wellington's Victory
In 1977 just 11 years old. Played on my fathers Dynatron (Garrard deck) mostly Tchaikovsky's brilliance - re:issue Label: Philips - SAL3461 Amazed, enthralled, loved vinyl and all musical genres ever since.
I'm in my late 50s, so....in the late 70s, I'd ride my bike to the main street record store, and with my allowance for mowing the lawn, I'd get Donna Summer and ELO 45s. By high school, I'd discovered albums after I got my first Radio Shack shelf stereo (BSR turntable!!!). Then I discovered Rush Moving Pictures..... DAMN. That started it all, really. Since then I've loved things from a lot of genres. Lately I've been into 1957-59 jazz on vinyl. Anyway, thanks Steve for the question. I had never thought of it like that. Moving from singles to albums as I got older decades ago......
Thanks for sharing that Qobuz Playlist. Interesting stuff in there! 👍
Listening to the complete Pepper's via AM radio in a car started my music passion. That adventurous DJ changed my life.
1989. Quincy Jones released Back On The Block. I was around my sister's dad's house. He & his brother were listening 2 it & it has become my favourite album of all time.
Sometime during junior highschool there was a music teacher (cool guy with long hair who played guitar in a band) who gathered a couple of students that could play instruments (quite well I must add), and they performed War Pigs by Black Sabbath at a gathering before a holiday break or something. That song blew me away and shaped my music interest like nothing I had ever heard before. I can't say I wouldn't end up liking music like that anyway, but it was i pivotal moment and an experience I'll never forget. Still one of my favourite songs.
As for the review, I recently bought this turntable and I quite like the fact that they included a pretty inexpensive cartridge. Firstly, the TT is ready to play records almost straight out the box, and secondly it helps keep the price of the TT as low as possible. It might be worth adding that you can buy replacement styluses for that cartridge from the whole VM95-line, and that provides an easy and quite inexpensive way to upgrade. I replaced the included conical (vmn95c) stylus with a micro line (vmn95ml) stylus, and that was a huge improvement in sound for roughly 150$.
We all have special albums we loved as teenagers. But Diana Krall - live in paris ... change me from audio enthusiast to audiophile. My first album that showcased deep sound stage and depth in music.
That is interesting, the sole reason why I keep my SP-15 is to be able to use the SME 3009 (non-improved) tonearm so that I can adjust the arm back and forth to accommodate the demanding TSD-15. I have been contemplating about switching to a more modern (reliable electronics) of SL-1200, but that fixed arm position was giving me nightmares. How could you be able to use the EMT with the SL-1200?
For me the album that got me into music was Willie and the Poor Boys by Creedence Clearwater Revival. I heard it at school during a study hall. The monitor was cool and let us play records toward the end of the school year. After I heard it, I went out and bought it. It was the first album I ever bought. I had some 45's before that but this was the first album. I still have it although the cover has seen better days.
Great question about the music. A freind of mine had given me a taped copy of "the wall". I was 12 years old a the time. The first time I played it I was sat in the back of my father car listening to it on my Sony Walkman ( a blue one :) ). I listened in awe but when it came to the guitar solo from Dave Gilmour I suddenly got goosebumps all over my body. It was almost like losing ones virginity.. amazing experience..
The first U2 album "Boy" released in 1980 caught my attention but the one that made perfect audio sense (with booming 15" pioneer woofers I had at the time) was the album by the British band The Beat called "I Just Can't Stop It" which was their debut studio album from the same year.
For me it was the "Rise" album by Earth, Wind & Fire. I think it was played on a Pioneer PL-530... I could be wrong 😊
RUSH 2112. Pushed in my brothers new 8-track album 2112, headphones on and lay down to my first listen. Well, cuz that slick new 8 track could play over and over and over again without noticing it, I listened to that album begining to end 3 time before I realized. Fell in love with RUSH at that point, but more importantly, I started listening to everything my brother had at that point. I was addicted to music and then HI-FI from that point on.
Back in the ‘60s, when I was a pre-teen verging on teenager, the Beatles and their contemporaries - Animals, Monkees, etc, tickled my eardrums. During this time, I was also engulfed in Motown - Stevie, Temptations, Aretha, Sly, Marvin and everything I heard on Top 40 school bus AM radio. Then my friend’s cousin gave me worn out copies of Sgt Peppers & Magical Mystery Tour. A year or so later my sister brought The White Album back from California. After that, it was a decade long wallow in AOR starting with Prog (KC, Yes, Genesis, Moody Blues, Floyd, Gentle Giant, etc.) with healthy doses of Zeppelin, Stones, Kinks, and assorted garage rockers of the day. It went on from there with a deep dive into Jazz Fusion, classical, be-bop & modern jazz, Zappa... And Steely Dan (they get their own special mention).
Parts 2 and 3 of this journey would take way too long, but yeah it really all started with three Beatles records back in the 60s.
For a more involved music interest, it was Joshua from Four and More by Miles Davis....the odd rhythm by Ton Williams with Ron Carter and Herbie Hancock just captivated me at 11 years old.
For audiophile interests, it was the Prokofiev Piano Concerto Nr. 2 by Malcolm Frager on RCA Living Stereo AS REISSSUED by Classic Records on 180 gram vinyl pressed at RTI and all tube remastered by Bernie Grunman....now, I've hunted down most of those 180 gram Classic Records RCA Living Stereo reissues and LOVE THE ALL MADLY ! For me, there is a certian warm MAGIC in that reissue series that just sounds RIGHT !