Category Archives: album

Al Jazeera on Vinyl Records

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by Joe Wallace

I was pleasantly startled to find this video clip posted by Al Jazeera on vinyl records. Having never seen anything of the network at all, I don’t know what I was expecting, but since the majority of the exposure to Al Jazeera in the USA has a lot to do with political, war, and terrorism coverage, I suppose I had an impression that Al Jazeera is more of a breaking news service along the lines of HLN.

But they do features, too. This one is pretty interesting but it’s a bummer that it’s all from an American perspective. I’d love to get a glimpse at the record industries of other countries and what its like to buy or sell vinyl in places Al Jazeera bureaus call home.

The central conceit of this 2011 clip is a bit misguided–it’s really late in the game to say vinyl is making a “comeback”–but overall this is pretty interesting and well-done.



My one question–who is the Jeanne Moos of Al Jazeera? I’d love to see some of those quirky culture style pieces in a completely different cultural context.

WTF Album Covers: Swinging Singles In the Enchanted Forest?

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Double entendres are one thing (or would that be TWO things?). Unintentional kink is quite another–it’s much more amusing when you know this guy did NOT want us to think about a bunch of naked guys playing spin the bottle in an enchanted forest.

Yet, for some STRANGE reason that cannot be understood without the aid of special scientific apparatus, that is EXACTLY the picture I get in my head when looking at this album cover by Dennis Faron. Drop trou, oil it down, and GET FREAKY!


–Joe Wallace

ION Audio Profile Flash Turntable

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Here’s another consumer-grade turntable you can use to convert vinyl to MP3 portability. The ION Audio Profile turntable has a slot for a USB or flash drive, and the entire process seems as simple as starting the turntable and hitting “record” to get the process moving.

The chief draw for the ION Audio Profile turntable is that you don’t need a computer to record the audio. I haven’t used one of these yet, but in doing my research on this unit I discovered several favorable reviews stating that the audio quality is good for the average user. Some complain about rotation speeds on this unit and others like it being different that “true” 33RPMs, but typical listeners won’t complain, based on what I’ve read.

My main complaint with all these vinyl-to-MP3 recorders is that a degree of babysitting is needed to make them work properly. There’s either no silence sensor to split an entire album side into separate tracks without user intervention, or what is there isn’t really accurate or even able to be calibrated. I’m naturally coming at this from a busy/lazy person’s perspective–most users probably don’t mind the small amount of manual labor needed to break the recordings up into tracks.

All in all, I’ve seen this model get mostly favorable reviews and I’m contemplating a purchase of this simply because it’s got the computer-free recording feature. The built-in preamp lets you connect to most RCA stereo line/aux inputs, and it’s got a handy 1/8in stereo line in for recording from other sources–a nice touch.

What I’m most interested in is a hands-on, top-to-bottom review of this unit and others like it from a hard core vinyl junkie (not necessarily an AUDIOPHILE, mind you). If that’s you and you want to contribute a review of this or any other model turntable, please get in touch as I’d love to have some guest blog posts or even regular contributions from passionate vinyl lovers.

Drop me an e-mail at jwallace (at) turntabling (dot) net.

–Joe Wallace