If you’re dipping your toes in the vinyl waters, you can get a good entry-level turntable for under €500 – such as a Rega Planar 1 (€359) or a Dual CS-418 (€499). Thankfully, you can get that decent turntable without breaking the bank, says Cloney. We’re not saying the clicks and the pops magically disappear, but because the signal-to-noise ratio is better, you’re getting actual relevant information off the groove, and you’re not as aware of the other stuff.” “People associate playing records with clicks and pops and surface noise, but as the turntables get better, this is not an issue. “As you go up the ladder in the price of good turntables, there is a clear, audible difference,” says Noel Cloney of Cloney Audio in Blackrock, Co Dublin. Like a well-crafted Swiss watch, a turntable is a finely tuned mechanical piece, and the more you spend on it, the better it will sound, and the longer it will give you good, reliable service. You can pick up a cheap turntable at your local electronics retailer, but to bring the best out of that platter, you have to be willing to invest in a decent turntable. Often, people don’t put enough thought into the equipment they’re going to use to play those shiny vinyl treasures. With special edition releases from a whole array of artists, from Blondie to Blur, Prince to Polica, and Joni Mitchell, along with releases from such Irish artists as U2, Phil Lynott and The Cranberries, Irish vinyl fans are spoilt for choice on Record Store Day.īut when you’ve snapped up that very collectible disc, you’re going to need something to play it on when you get it home, and that’s where it can all go a bit pear-shaped. The pop star will be releasing an exclusive seven-inch version of her song The Lakes, a bonus track from her acclaimed album Folklore, on the day that’s in it. No surprise then that this year’s Record Store Day global ambassador is Taylor Swift. Photograph: iStockĪnd it’s not just people of a certain vintage who are fuelling the vinyl revival kids are raiding their parents’ LP collections in search of nuggets, and when they write their letters to Santa, a new turntable is likely to be on the list. Several Irish record shops are participating in the event on April 23rd, including Golden Discs, Tower Records, Sound Cellar, Freebird and Spindizzy in Dublin, Steamboat Records in Limerick, Plug'd Records in Cork and Rollercoaster Records in Kilkenny.ĭue to supply chain issues, which will see some releases not ready for the day, an additional Record Store Day Drops Date has been set for June 18th.Īnd it’s not just people of a certain vintage who are fuelling the vinyl revival kids are raiding their parents’ LP collections in search of nuggets. Record Store Day has also certainly helped fuel interest in vinyl. In response to the renewed interest in vinyl, record labels are pressing up new, durable 180g vinyl versions of their artists’ albums, designed for hi-fidelity reproduction. This year’s Record Store Day global ambassador is Taylor Swift, who’s releasing an exclusive seven-inch version of her song The Lakes. That might be small beans to a mega-selling band like Coldplay, who have shifted 100 million units in all formats over the past two decades, but for a format that’s been declared dead, five million is a very respectable figure altogether. Last year was the biggest year for vinyl sales in the UK in 30 years, with sales of long-playing records hitting the £5 million (€6 million) mark in 2021. Many thought it was just a short-lived fad that would eventually tail off, but instead it has gathered momentum, and over the past couple of years of lockdowns, it has gained even more traction. Despite the dominance of CDs over the past 40 years, and the boom in music streaming services, there is a large cohort of music fans for whom LP records and turntables are the only way to listen to their favourite music. Eventually, everyone sees sense and accepts that eight-track cartridges (remember those?) are never, ever going to make a comeback.īut one thing that hasn’t faded away, and is unlikely to any time soon, is the vinyl revival. No getting away from it – those old warhorses couldn't compete with the superior sound and video quality of DVDs and CDs. Then, some time later, someone gets a bit nostalgic for the old tech, and wishes we could all go back to the way it was before.īut the poor picture quality on that vintage VHS player has got even worse over time, and the old Sony Walkman you dug out of the attic has chewed up your cassette collection. A shiny new invention comes along to replace some clunky old yoke, and everyone rushes to embrace the new technology, tossing out their old machines and charging into the future with nary a look back. It’s happened before and will happen again.
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