Needle Tracks

A very nerdy thing I’ve enjoyed doing is listening to the many different combinations of inexpensive phono preamps and cartridges presented on YouTube. Here is how the setup in my home office sounds. Listen quick, in case YouTube decides to yank it, despite many other unofficial copies of the song already being there.

The cartridge is a Grado Black ($75), the preamp a Behringer PP400 ($25), and the turntable is a Technics SL-BD20D. The Technics was the last of the P-Mount (T4P) models, and it was purchased new for $99 from J&R Music World, an outstanding retailer and mail-order service that is gone, but not forgotten.

Be Vewy, Vewy Quiet, I’m Pwaying Wecords

I first mentioned Deep Purple’s superb 1968 recording of “Hush” almost — hoo, boy — eight years ago. “Hush” is one of my Top 10 all-time favorite songs, of which I probably have 100. It’s sort of a rotating Top 10.

I’m sure glad that Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood came out last year, before we got clobbered by the Chinese diet, which is nothing like the Japanese Diet. Here’s “Hush” as it’s heard in the movie soundtrack.

Dare I say that it’s WRONG, because it is. This is how the track is supposed to start, as played on a Technics SL-1500 MK2 turntable with a Stanton 680 cartridge. An excellent setup from the late 70’s.

The stereo mix has a fainter wolf howl intro. It’s the second track on Shades of Deep Purple, a super strong debut album that’s worth hearing all the way through, as this playlist will do.