Few folks remember 1948 anymore. Bing Crosby was the richest entertainer in Hollywood, and Cadillac had just launched its first car with tail fins in a stylistic tribute to US fighter planes. And as the world rebuilt itself after the trauma of World War II, most people didn't immediately realise the significance of what Columbia Records launched in June of that year – a brand new music format called the 'microgroove LP'.

The Long-Playing record is arguably one of the most culturally significant inventions ever because, like so many technologies—from the personal computer to the mobile phone—it went on to shape society around it. It made the pop explosion of the nineteen fifties and sixties possible because music was, for the first time, easily accessible to the masses. Before records existed, people played music from brittle 78RPM shellac discs on wind-up gramophones, with disposable needles that had to be replaced almost daily.

Ask yourself whether Elvis Presley or The Beatles could ever have been so popular if the world was still playing 78s? Could the teenage youth culture explosion ever have happened without 45RPM singles? Would we have had successive generations of young people loving music in the way that they did, from rock'n'roll to disco, punk, soul and techno? Vinyl was the mainstream music format of choice for revellers from the nineteen fifties to the nineties, which is a remarkable feat.

The benefits it brought were huge. Few remember how poor 78s sounded, now. They were noisy, muffled and had little in the way of bass or treble, rather like those nasty, early low bitrate MP3 files. When the LP first arrived in 1948, it was a vast sonic improvement over everything else around. Capable of proper full-range sound – in digital terms, its bandwidth approaches 96kHz files – it also had a superb resolution that, in theory, is limited more by the turntable, tonearm and cartridge than the format itself. Chord Electronics DAC guru Rob Watts once told me that we need to go right up to 32-bit, 768kHz PCM before digital truly betters vinyl records qualitatively.

STEREO

In 1958, ten years after Long Playing records were first launched, the format evolved to deliver 2-channel stereophonic playback. Again, this revolutionised music – dramatically improving reproduction of classical in particular, and opening up new studio production possibilities for pop, rock and jazz. Then, in the early seventies, quadraphonic LPs appeared, which together with special pick-up cartridges and decoder boxes allowed startlingly spacious 4-channel (4.0) sound. By the end of that decade, the best analogue replay equipment was able to deliver stellar audio quality.

Ironically, though, this was just at the time that the electronics industry was gearing up to replace LPs with the (then) brand-new digital audio Compact Disc. Microgroove records were cut off in their prime. By 1982, when the CD arrived, the industry had almost perfected the format – with high-quality vinyl formulations beginning to appear in audiophile and Japanese market pressings. The replay equipment was getting seriously good too, with turntables such as the Technics SP10 Mk2 and Linn Sondek LP12 offering superlative sound.

By the early nineties, LP sales were falling fast. In the UK, vinyl's best year sales-wise was 1975, with smash hit albums like Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells powering its success. But the popularity of the Compact Cassette, and then Compact Disc, began to erode sales to the point that most experts thought that vinyl would be totally obsolete by the new millennium. Somehow, though, it didn't happen. Instead, a new generation of music lovers began to pick up on the format, and sales actually increased. In the UK, they've been rising slowly for well over a decade now…

In the past ten years or so, we've seen a raft of new turntables, tonearms and cartridges appear on the market – alongside a plethora of phono stages. At the same time, many indie and some major label artists are releasing their albums on the format again, often in pretty coloured vinyl or as picture discs. The LP story really is remarkable, then, as it's the 'too cool for school' music format that refused to die.

HOW VINYL WORKS

Record players make sound by dragging a tiny diamond through a vinyl groove that spins at 33.3 or 45 revolutions per minute (RPM). This stylus has a tip radius of less than 25μm and follows the groove's undulations with immense precision. At the same time, the tonearm carrying it is dynamically balanced to ensure the cartridge tracks at around 2 grams, as the turntable spins the platter very close to the correct speed.

Arguably, the really clever stuff happens inside the phono cartridge – which produces a low-level electrical signal (of roughly 0.3mV to 5mV, for moving coil and moving magnet cartridges respectively) that's amplified up to what we today call 'line level' (2V) by a preamp or phono stage. This is then further amplified by the power amp before it goes to the speakers. The cartridge converts the motion of the cantilever – to which the stylus is affixed – into this signal by the use of either magnets or coils. It's a simple idea but must be done precisely to work.

THE BASICS

Because we're talking about a minute stylus tracking a tiny record groove, the system is obviously prone to outside vibrations. That's why turntables have two main jobs: to isolate the record-playing surface and tonearm from ground or air-born vibrations and, secondly, to consistently spin at the correct speed. They also need to have a good-quality, correctly aligned tonearm that's able to track a decent pickup cartridge so that the records being played are not damaged.

SUSPENSION

Turntables generally use one of two approaches to isolation – a suspended subchassis or isolating feet. The former system, found in decks like the classic Thorens TD150, Michell GyroDec and Linn Sondek LP12, usually have three springs fitted between the deck's plinth or base, and the subchassis holding the main bearing and tonearm. This is generally very effective, and superior to the second type of deck which simply has isolation feet underneath it; these can work well but often require more careful placement of the deck.

Clear sonic benefits come from placing non-suspended sub chassis decks such as the Rega Planar 3 or Technics SL-1200G on a special isolating shelf or, better still, a wall-mounted turntable shelf. If a turntable can't sift out air and ground-borne vibrations, it's going to sound muddy, ponderous and confused. A well set up deck should sound fast, pacy, snappy and fun. If you get a blurred or slurred bass, then all is not well with your set-up, and you should immediately look at where you have placed it. Whichever type of deck you choose, it must sit on a rigid, level surface that's as far away from the speakers as possible.

DRIVE SYSTEMS

Debates have raged about the best way to spin a turntable platter for many decades. The two main systems are belt drive and direct drive. Both have been around for a long time, and before this idler (rim) drive was the norm. Each system has its strengths and weaknesses. In the case of belt drive, it's relatively simple to produce and works well if properly designed – which is why most turntables use this system these days. The drive belts can stretch or break, however, and even when new, the belt can act as a kind of slipper clutch that causes subtle speed instability. This manifests in the bass sounding soft or spongey.

Direct drive doesn't suffer from this, and normally delivers audibly tighter bass. It employs a motor that's wrapped around the main bearing and spindle assembly which spins the platter directly, without belts. When this type of system is well implemented, it offers excellent performance and better speed stability figures than belt drive. It can also theoretically be quieter too, with excellent modern designs such as those from Technics. The downside is that cheaply done direct drive systems sound harsh and opaque because of the poor motors and plinths they employ.

TONEARMS

The pick-up arm, as it used to be called, plays a vital role. It's the mechanical interface between the record being played, and the cartridge playing it. It needs to offer as low friction as possible as it tracks across the disc, and the least amount of play as it must let the cartridge's stylus sit firmly in the groove. It's also got to be able to allow the cartridge to track as low as 1.5g (occasionally even less) reliably, and trace the undulations of the groove accurately. It also provides a means of aligning the cartridge accurately.

There are two main types of tonearm, conventional designs and so-called unipivots. The latter refers to the bearing arrangement, and each type has its strengths and weaknesses. Broadly speaking, arms with conventional bearing sets offer a more grippy bass, while unipivots usually sound slightly softer at the bottom end. At the same time, many enthusiasts like unipivots for their subtly more fluid, musical sound, especially in the midband. It's highly subjective, of course, but that's the joy of vinyl!

Most decks come with tonearms already fitted, but if you buy a so-called 'motor unit' – i.e. a turntable without a tonearm or cartridge – then you'll need to buy an arm separately. Unless you're a real hobbyist or DIY'er, fitting it is best left to your supplying dealer, who will also advise on the type of tonearm and cartridge to buy. Rega's RB330 is a fine place to start, offering high performance and durability for a lowish price, but you can spend over twenty times that for use on really high-end decks. Most have aluminium armtubes as per the Rega, the more exotic and expensive designs use materials like titanium nitride, magnesium or carbon fibre. Dealers are there to advise prospective purchasers on what's best for them, or you can ask for advice on StereoNET's own forums.

CARTRIDGES

These come in three types, moving magnet, moving coil, and moving iron – at a wide range of prices. The most popular cartridges are moving magnets (MM), due to their relative cheapness and ease of use. They come with long-life diamond styli, which can be replaced when needed. Often, there's a range of different stylus profiles available, so you can actually upgrade when changing. Their high compliance suspension systems mean they work best when fitted to low to medium mass tonearms – the Rega RB330 falls into the latter category. They generally track at a lower weight than other types of cartridge, as a result – often 1.5g or so. They give good sound; the best ones can be excellent, as good as the more expensive moving coil types. Examples of popular MMs include Audio-Technica's AT-VM95 (£40), right up to Ortofon's Black 250 LVB (£830).

Moving coil (MC) cartridges have fixed styli and cantilevers, so must go back to the manufacturer for refurbishing when the stylus wears out. Instead of having heavy magnets on the upper end of the cantilever like MMs, they have tiny, super-light coils, which move around more freely inside the field of magnets affixed inside the cartridge body. This gives better sound, with more low-level detail plus superior dynamics and transient speed. However, the downside is that they output low levels – around 0.5mV compared to 5mV for the average MM. That's why you need to buy an additional MC phono stage if your amplifier doesn't have one. The sound is generally superior to MMs, but they're more hassle and more expensive to run. Examples include Audio-Technica's AT-33PTGII (£510) at the lower end to Lyra's Atlas Lambda (£9,935) at the high end; good general phono stages include the AVID Pellar (£950), which offers both MM and MC compatibility.

Moving iron cartridges attempt to give the best of both worlds, so to speak. They have fixed coils like MMs, but instead of having magnets at the top end of the cantilever, they have lighter permalloy pieces, which generally deliver better tracking and detail retrieval while not requiring an MC phono stage. It's a niche design but has a strong following. Examples range from Nagaoka's MP-110 (£150) to Soundsmith's X (£10,000).

Stylus profiles begin with conical (also called 'spherical') types, which are fairly rounded and don't track deep inside the groove, but are inexpensive. These are widely used on entry-level hi-fi decks and DJ decks, where stable tracking in higher friction tonearms is normal – it's normal for some to work at 3.5g, such as Audio-Technica's entry-level AT-3600L (£30). Elliptical styli are the norm these days, with a better profiled diamond that sits deeper in the record groove; they give a smoother and more detailed sound than conical styli, and tend to track nearer to 2g.

The suffix on many cartridges denotes the type of stylus – i.e. Audio-Technica AT-VM95E means it has an elliptical stylus. Expensive MMs and mid-price MCs tend to have more elaborate stylus profiles, such as Microline, Shibata, Gyger, etc.; these are different ways of getting more information from the groove, and are inevitably more expensive, and some have poorer wear characteristics. Yet they offer a significant quality hike, especially in midband and treble definition, so are deservedly popular.

Most cartridges – including almost all MMs – come with aluminium cantilevers which don't track quite so well as more exotic types such as boron, carbon or even diamond. The latter have much lower mass, and often less resonance and/or greater strength – which translates to a sound quality dividend. Generally speaking, any cartridge with a boron cantilever and Microline stylus will better one with an aluminium cantilever and elliptical stylus – the quality of materials really counts.

ACCESSORIES

The joy of vinyl is an endless list of tweaking and upgrading possibilities. Turntables are basically ultra high precision analogue measuring instruments (they 'measure' the moving record groove), and the better you can isolate and calibrate them, the more performance you get. So after you've got your preferred turntable, tonearm and cartridge, it's worth investing in a proper isolation platform and – depending on your deck – a record clamp or record weight. Aftermarket turntable mats such as those by Origin Live can bring about considerable improvements, especially with older type mazak (metal) platters. It's well worth auditioning these if you can.

Last but not least is your record hygiene regime. Every time you play a record, take it out of its sleeve without touching the playing surface. Place it on the platter and gently wipe it with a carbon fibre brush as the platter rotates. After playing, put it back in its sleeve immediately. Also, I recommend that you invest in good-quality polythene-lined inner sleeves, as these are less abrasive than standard paper or cardboard inners and so reduce micro-scratches.

CONCLUSION

In 2024, there's a vast range of turntables, tonearms and cartridges on sale – plus a thriving accessory market. If you buy sensibly, preferably having auditioned several types at your friendly local hi-fi dealer, then you'll get loads of listening pleasure from this venerable format – one that is fast approaching eighty years old! Great as digital audio may be, vinylistas generally agree that there's something quite magical about playing music the analogue way.

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