Vinyl Countdown: No Love for Circuit City
When it comes to listening to music, I am one of those old fogies (or snobs, if you prefer) that would much rather listen to vinyl than to cds, mp3s, or anything digital. I find the tone to be richer, the sound to be smoother, and the distortion to be much less. My friend Kevin insists he can hear the sound of the sampling when he listens to cds, and I never agreed with him until I got my hands on a copy of Going Home, a recent compilation of tracks by Buzz Busby, an obscure bluegrass performer. I happen to have many of the tracks taped directly from the original vinyl, and the difference is stunning, as well as unflattering to the cd.
My one problem is that my current receiver has no jack for my record player, and it’s difficult to find a new receiver that does. Most people don’t listen to records anymore, and so the phono input has been steadily phased out. However, because phonographs generate a weaker signal than tape, cd, or digital playback devices, you can’t just plug your record player into any old auxiliary jack: if you do, you’ll get a very weak, distorted sound. If you want to listen to records, you either have to spend a lot of money on a high-end receiver, or very little money on a piece of shit. So when I heard Circuit City was going out of business, I checked online to see what they had in stock. BINGO: they had two different receivers with inputs for phonograph. I pulled some cash out of the bank and headed to Springfield ready to negotiate.
The store was a madhouse: all of us were like hyenas trying to scavenge the bones of the dead multinational corporation, grabbing cameras, laptops, cellphones, dvds, tvs, home theatre systems, all doubtless made in some slave labor camp in China.
,a href=”http://tribes.tribe.net/13thtribe/thread/593edf1e-bed7-4076-8651-a28b95d70523″>Dancing on the Ruins of Multinational Corporations, Casey Neill
I wandered into the area where Circuit City keeps the receivers and found my quarry. One was way too expensive: the asking price was $299. The other was $199. I found a store manager and tried to negotiate him down, but learned the most they’d take off was 10%. Twenty measly bucks?? From a store that’s liquidating its inventory? Even in its death rigors, Circuit City is STILL a bunch of greedy cocksuckers.
I walked back to the receivers and tried to decide if it was worth it to spend $175. That’s when I turned the chassis around and realized that, unlike the $299 model, there was no output for a subwoofer. I could spend $260 for good bass response or $175 for shitty bass response. What to do, what to do?, I wondered.
In the end, I got what i needed for less than $50.00. No, I didn’t steal the damn thing. And no, I didn’t go on craigslist or a pawnshop. Instead, i went to phonopreamps-dot-com and picked up this sweet little doohickey. It’s a phonograph pre-amp that boosts the signal into my existing receiver. The pre-amp arrives in just a few days from lovely Westfield Massachusetts, where this handy-dandy small business is located.
I have no love for Circuit City, and when my pre-amp arrives I hope to have much love for phonopreamp.com. I’m looking forward to throwing on some beethoven, some bach, or maybe even some hyperdramatic wagner. Kill the wabbit!
