"In The Groove"—The Vinyl Record And Turntable Revolution
oh my, what a mess
A publicist recently pitched me this just released book, describing it as a celebration of the 75th anniversary of the first commercial LP and claiming it to be an "authoritative, highly illustrated, and multi-faceted look at the history and culture of vinyl record collecting and turntables." Five authors are listed: Gillian Garr, Martin Popoff, Matt Aniss, Richie Unterberger and Ken Micallef.
I'd heard of two: Richie Unterberger and Ken Micallef. Unterberger is a well-published music writer who's produced books on The Beatles, Bob Marley and The Wailers and others and he's a contributor to Mojo and other magazines. Micallef reviews for Stereophile and of course I know him beyond his byline: he's visited me and shot a few very good videos. He's a drummer and so his timing is excellent and it shows in his editing skills. He also has a popular YouTube channel.
Popoff is a Canadian writer who has written more than 100 rock related books but I've never heard of him. Anniss comes from the DJ side of things and Gaar has written for major publications including Rolling Stone, Mojo and Goldmine. She's also written books about Elvis Presley, a history of women in Rock and Roll, and a few other books including one on the rise of Nirvana and both Elton John and Springsteen at 75. If she owns the "at a 75" franchise she'll be kept busy. She's apparently the book's "author/editor" but that's not completely clear.
In the blurb, Micallef is listed as a "top hifi journalist", but his credits in the book are the thinnest. I'm sorry, but Ken is a very nice fellow and knows music well but he is not a "top hifi journalist". He's relatively new to this. Clearly whoever made the decision didn't do her "due diligence". Yes, I'm thinking it was Gaar's lazily researched choice.
I could name a dozen "top hifi journalists" with many decades of experience, especially regarding turntables, myself included. I've forgotten more about this subject than Ken will ever know. Damn, that's obnoxious but it's true—and if you don't think so now, you will by the time you get to the conclusion of this review— and at this point in my career, I really am more interested in truth than in being "nice". And the "I've forgotten more" thing is what I told the publicist in turning down a review copy of the book.
So why am I now reviewing it? Because I got a call from a fellow audio reviewer who told me that I must read it because I will not believe some of the things I will l see published in this book. So I downloaded the Kindle version.
The book is divided into five "cute" sections: "The Birth of Cool" The rise of the LP (and other vinyl formats), "Dropping the Needle" Turntables and other Hi-Fi equipment, "Something Up the Sleeve" The Art of the LP, "Shop Around" Down at the Record Store, and "Bringing It All Back Home" Record-Collecting Culture.
Unterberger's contribution opens with an odd assertion in a book celebrating the 75th anniversary of the LP record—something a savvy editor would have caught. Unterberger writes, "Although the 12-inch LP didn't start to catch on until the late 1940s...." What? The LP debuted in June of 1948. How could it have even "start to catch on" in the late 1940s? Not a great start but from there is gets better and his section covers in excellent detail the international development of disc based sound reproduction accompanied by a good choice of photos interspersed with repeated one page text and photo sections like "Remarkable Record Stores", "Iconic Covers" and "Legendary Labels" that continue throughout the book.
Unterberger credits "Columbia Records" with introducing long playing microgroove records, without mentioning Peter Goldmark, the man behind the invention, which is a shame. Overall though, Unterberger's contribution is excellent though of course, we audiophiles are left in the ghetto and not one, not a single audiophile authority is quoted or referred to, even though he's got a section called "Post-1960s Audiophile Formats". Honestly i'm f**king sick and tired of the entire audiophile community being shortchanged and ignored in these kinds of books, though The Electric Recording Company and Mobile Fidelity do get mentioned.
Ken Micallef's section "Dropping the Needle" Turntables and other Hi-Fi equipment gets second billing so perhaps you are thinking audiophiles are getting some love. His introductory paragraph is fine. Then it goes completely off the rails. Do you think anyone picking up a book about cars—even an introductory one— needs to be told that cars have steering wheels, engines, tires, transmissions, seats and a trunk? Of course not. So why does Ken think readers need to be told that a turntable has "a platter with mat", "a set of three or four feet (sometimes adjustable)", "a dust cover" etc. Not at all necessary, but ok.
Then in the "Phono Cartridge" section we learn that a phono cartridge's interior contains "the coils or magnet". Uh oh. He tells readers that the "coils or magnet...amplify the signal from the stylus" and he notes the four small output pins at the back of the "cart" marked "left/positive, right/positive, two negative. The imprecision of his understanding or total lack thereof has just begun to manifest itself.
We learn that the "electrical signal generated by a phono cartridge creates a small signal that is equally low in volume, much lower than a compact disc signal." His editor at Stereophile would have saved him from this but not here. Then for some reason, in the cartridge section, he gets into solid state or class-D amplifiers. We learn that "A cart's volume level will also depend on whether it's a moving magnet (MM) or moving coil (MC) type. In an MM cart, the signal from the stylus causes its internal magnet to vibrate to produce a signal. In an MC cart, the magnet is static, while the internal coils move to produce signal."
He goes on: "MC carts are typically lighter in weight and use finer wire, making them more sensitive to stylus tracking—and more expensive than MM carts (often with more nuanced sound)."
In "The Tonearm: Turntable Workhorse" section we learn that "Tonearms employ different designs, such as gimbal or uni-pivot, depending upon how they are attached to the turntable's plinth and the sonic goals of the designer." Yes, that is a sentence in this book.
We also learn that "Though in use since the 1930s, the main purpose of a tonearm remains the same: to align the cartridge with the vinyl on the platter, part of an all-in-one system with critical setup parameters."
The section called "Platter: Steel Wheels" opens with "The platter is the large, circular shaped disc that dominated the appearance of the turntable and spins the record." And that's where I'll almost stop because I realize that some of you may think it unfair to be quoting this stuff.
I need to inform you of a few "factoids" I learned in this section. I learned that "A cartridge can be screwed into a universal headshell, such as that on the Technics SL-1200 turntable (but originating with Swedish company SME). And here I thought Ortofon invented the headshell and that SME was located in the United Kingdom! Live and learn.
This is also on that page: "A protractor aligns the cartridge to the tonearm, following one of three alignment scenarios developed by 1950s designers Baerwald, Stevenson and Lundgren". I've had Dolph over to help me align a cartridge or three but that Löfgren guy is a thief and he's not coming back!
There is some really good advice on that page though, and I'm being serious: "Again, consulting a pro is a wise move." Had Ken asked me or his editor at Stereophile to look over his manuscript none of this would have been published but he didn't, nor did he check his facts on the Internet so Dolph Lundgren invented a "scenario" in 1950 to set up a cartridge and SME is located in Sweden and Pro-Ject is a Slovenian company. And of course the book's editor was in way over her head.
I'm not going into the rest of the book but I'll conclude by writing that my original obnoxious quip to the publicist was 100% true.
