Revolution: The History of Turntable Design provides entertaining insight into the many ways that designers have shaped the simple record player over the decades
Beogram 4000C Turntable, Jacob Jensen, Bang & Olufsen, 1972 (re-created limited edition by Bang & Olufsen, 2020). Image: courtesy Bang & Olufsen
Phaidon’s new monograph offers a welcome insight into a technology once considered lost without cause. The humble turntable was the dominant form of music media for much of the 20th century. Revolution: The History of Turntable Design picks up the story in the post-war era, just as the first chords of rock’n’roll sounded out to completely reshape music’s relationship with youth culture.
The book is written by Audioarts founder Gideon Schwartz, author of Phaidon’s earlier tome on Hi-Fi design (2019). As a dealer in high-end systems old and new, Schwartz knows his stuff, and many of the stunning devices on display come from well-known brands such as Bang & Olufsen, Braun, and Technics.
Portable Gramophone (with Geisha Reproducer, C. H. Gilbert & Co.), c.1920. Picture credit: Auction Team Breker, Cologne, Germany
There are also forays into the more unusual, whether they are cult-classic portable players for the newly liberated youth of the era, or fiendishly complex arrays of belts and drives for the discerning audiophile.
There are over 300 images in this excellent book, with examples taken from companies all over the world, back when electronic manufacturing was an integral part of every country’s industrial infrastructure.
Key record players – whether they were film props personally picked by Stanley Kubrick (the Electrohome Apollo), or were instrumental in the creation of an entire cultural movement (Technics SL-1200 turntables) – are placed alongside timeless classics. §
phaidon.com
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