There are endless arguments about vinyl, its sound quality, and whether its growth means it’s returning or if it’s a zombie format kept alive by snobs. That last argument may be settled sooner than we think: There are turntables all over this year’s Consumer Electronics Show, including some bids for the high-end connoisseur.
The biggest news is Panasonic finally bringing back Technics. The Technics SL-1200, the original “wheels of steel,” is coming back to shelves, in both a standard and a 50th-anniversary edition with a limited run of 1,200 units. The Technics was beloved for Matsushita’s clever engineering that made it great to play back records in clubs; if you hear a record scratch on a classic rap or hip-hop track, it was probably done on a Technics.
Contrasting the old school is Sony’s expensive analog-to-digital turntable the HX500. While the benefits of “hi-res” digital audio are under dispute, there’s no denying that the HX500 is a professional piece of gear for translating your records to digital. The built-in converter will either render files in Sony’s proprietary DSD, or in the format most people will use, 24-bit WAV files. It won’t be out until spring, and it won’t be cheap, but it’ll likely be popular.
Most interesting, though, are the consumer units. Cheap but excellent Audio Technica has a new Bluetooth-enabled turntable, for example, and even lifestyle brands are getting into the field. There’s reason for this: Vinyl is rapidly growing as a format. The main question now is how many turntables the market can support, and whether owning records will shift from being an audiophile and music fan hobby to a mainstream phenomenon.