Hot wired: The turntable

Here's one for da old skool. When writing about home entertainment, it is almost impossible not to pepper paragraphs with the "d" word. Digital technology has merged the previously separate television and stereo into the basis of a modern home theatre system.

And it's the digital packaging of material which makes it all so spectacularly convenient - witness the CD, the DVD, multiple channels on pay TV and, of course, internet file-sharing.

So it was surprising to hear that the recurring star of the British Hi-Fi and Home Entertainment Show, which filled a couple of hotels near Heathrow recently, was that most analogue of stereo devices, the turntable.

Apparently at the New York Home Entertainment Show held earlier this year two-channel was also predominant, so maybe it shouldn't have come as a surprise.

John Vivian of the Shore Hi-Fi Company went to the British show to check out the latest offerings from the 150 mostly British hi-fi brands.

He reports that though there were plenty of 5.1 home theatre systems in evidence, wherever high-end speakers or amplifiers were being shown off, there too was a turntable. He reckons the most sublime listening experience he enjoyed was with a new vinyl Crosby/Nash LP.

When the stylus hit the groove everyone around went silent. "There was a magic in the room - it was unbelievable."

Now it's easy to dismiss Brit audiophiles as being stuck in some two-channel time warp not unlike that repetitive pause-click you wake up to at the end of a record.

But it turns out that turntables and vinyl are enjoying a renaissance here. Storage depots, garages and attics are being raided and the dust blown off old album collections which define the owners' musical heyday and pre-marital hedonism.

In some cases it is the kids who have initiated the investigation into mum and dad's musical journey, themselves attracted to the lure of vinyl via the dance and hip-hop DJ scene where turntables rule.

There are not so many new mainstream vinyl releases available locally, but born-again turntablists looking for fresh vinyl are often happy to buy half a dozen LPs at a time through Amazon.

A typical spend for a decent quality turntable set up is only around $1200, though it would be easy to be seduced into spending more. Some of today's turntables look more like a work of modern art than simply a means to spin plastic, and the most exotic can stretch your wallet beyond the $12,000 mark.

If you are thinking of resurrecting your old turntable or buying new, the key thing to remember is that a quality turntable-tone arm-cartridge combination will track more accurately into the record's grooves. This means it will actually avoid the surface scratches which cause pops and crackles, and retrieve more musical information.

And just what is it about the turntable experience? Well there is the nostalgic aspect of getting back to your hi-fi roots and the ritual of unsleeving, wiping and cueing albums brings, but there is more.

Unfortunately even experts struggle to define the difference in sound quality between CDs and vinyl, but it exists. In the interests of expediency, I'll settle for refreshing. It's so old, that it's new again!