Fans of The Rolling Stones will get a kick out of this!

How long have you been a Rolling Stones’ fan, well if the answer is”I can’t really remember”, than the chance is big that you have some vinyl carefully stacked away behind your CD cases. I love my records (I have 4..) much more than I love my CD’s, this has nothing to do with the sound quality or any hi-fi snobbism , no it’s about the fact that a record has character… A CD is basically an upscaled floppy disk, it’s digital, it’s cold, it’s the tin man from OZ before he met Dorothy…it lacks personality. You use old scratched CD’s to scare away pigeons.

Now how many folks hold on to their 45 rpm/33 rpm or 12 inch records, even though they skip or are scratched…I’m sure you can scare away the pigeons, hell even a freaking emu, with those black shiny circles, but we don’t…no we treasure our old records, put them in boxes and give them a nice place in the attic next to our old toys(well if they didn’t escape to some daycare center led by a grumpy teddy bear) .

People love  analog, it feels handmade and personal and that includes its shortcomings, a $40.000 Bell&Ross watch is truly a magnificent piece of art, analog, hand-made and every stockbrokers dream, but it loses one minute a day, while your $30,- Casio watch will keep perfect time.

Bell Ross BR01-92 Airborne 4.2 million yen

Phew that introduction was much longer than I intended it to be, I hope you’re still with me,  because I’m getting to the main story just now…     The problem with records has been that they damage easily, aren’t very portable and record players aren’t that cheap either or convenient or good looking (except the really expensive ones). A Technics   SL-1200 looks good in club or a bed room, but I’m sure the missus won’t see it as extension to her carefully arranged interior. Recent record players are quite complex to use and delicate, not something you let your 6 year old handle, well maybe except for this Record Runner…, the Record Runner is a battery-powered record player which  you place on your record, and the Record Runner will spin on the vinyl, and pushes sound out through the frankly awful speaker.record runner amazon link  

record runner

 

Well Japanese electronics brand Amadana has come up with the perfect record player, it really ticks all the right boxes; it’s of proper quality, it’s very easy to use, it’s very reasonably priced and it’s lovely to look at.

For those Rolling Stones fans there is this 27,000 yen, limited edition (1000) record player. Let’s see what this baby has to offer and why I think that this will make the perfect player for the casual listener. First up is its design, it’s beautiful in its simplicity, coming in acrylic black with the famous John Pasche designed “tongue”logo, a limited edition serial number plate, one knob a  tone arm and the platter is all what is present on the top, a slip mat with “the Rolling Stones” written on it and 　”smoke”cover are also included.

 

The single knob on top of the player is not to adjust the speed..no it’s a volume button! Yes this turntable can work as a stand alone player without the need for an amp and speaker system, the sound comes from two 40 mm full range speakers located in the front legs, it’s genius.  It has a RCA analog terminal which means that you can connect this player to your amp and use it as a conventional record player. It also has USB output so you connect this to a computer and turn your analog records into digital files. The speed selector is located beneath the player and you can pick from “33” for your regular records and “45” for your singles and 12 inch records there’s  even “78” for your grand father’s collection !　(reviews on Amazon Jp have revealed that this might not be the case, the switch is located beneath the player but it’s not so easy easy to find…a lot of reviewers complained that they couldn’t locate it at all..)

Included in the package is a   cartridge and stylus(needle), which is a good thing, but  for this price the included stylus will be crap(ish), and we highly recommend you to get a proper needle…yes it DOES make a big difference!

Audio-technica AT 100E/G  10,281 yen

This product is now up for pre-order with delivery scheduled on the  22nd of April, only a 1000 will be made so…..

If you don’t care about the Rolling Stones, then this “normal version” would do the trick too and that for 10,000 yen less.

 

Remember though that this Record player isn’t a substitute for an expensive one, the quality of construction and things like damping, the balance and quality of the tone arm, the perfect pitch, the power unit and even the quality of the RCA ports are non comparable to say a Teac TN-570, a record player with digital output as well, but that comes with a price….if I had the money, no children, no technologically challenged wife, a proper record collection (you don’t need great record player for Shakin’ Stevens), and most of all a great stereo than the Teac would be very high on my wish list….sigh. link

Teac TN-570-B  129,600 yen

 

If you don’t care about the digital part then the Denon DP-500 would make a great player.link

 

Denon DP-500 62,000 yen

The choice is yours with the exception that the Amadana players aren’t available outside Japan…that’s where you need our kind help.

 

Time to dust of your records and paint some black doors red again, no reason to shut out the past if the “now” has the ability to combine both.

The rolling stones turntable link

amadana web store

JWS request form for orders and inquiries

While you’re at the store check out these Bluetooth snow-globe speakers with led!

 

 

Serge Roso JWS