What We Can Learn About Craft From Turntable Design
Gideon Schwartz knows more about music than most of us. Images c/o Phaidon.
In 1921, Thomas Edison was asked to name his greatest invention–options included the incandescent light bulb, Kinetograph movie camera, and electric-power distribution. Instead, he chose the phonograph because it allowed someone to hear the great musicians, even if they could not afford the experience or had the time to attend concerts in person.
More than 100 years later, that response inspired Audioarts owner and author Gideon Schwartz to write his new photo-rich book, REVOLUTION, the History of Turntable Design. Turntables not only have a fascinating history that date back to at least the 1850s, but they are also enjoying a renaissance. U.S. vinyl sales have increased 14 years in a row.
Here, Schwartz shares the design and cultural impact of turntables, the value of analog in a digital world, and what we can learn from turntable makers about creativity and innovation.
The book captures the staying power of turntables.
Where does your passion for turntables come from?
I got turned onto high end audio and turntables specifically, when I was younger. It came from my father who interestingly was not an audiophile and wasn't a music lover, per se. But I think by virtue of the fact that he was a Holocaust survivor, and had a hard life growing up, he wanted to give to his kids the things he wasn’t blessed with. In that vein, one special thing he got me was an Aiwa Walkman. Now, back in the day, the Sony Walkman was the ubiquitous go-to model, but the Aiwa was considered the more sophisticated unit. Surprisingly, my father spent the extra bucks and got me the Aiwa. I was disappointed at first because I had my heart and soul set on the Sony.
But when I listened to the Aiwa, it sounded so spectacular and I was able to identify a tactile sophistication that the Sony could not approach. I found the industrial design very compelling – an idiot savant was born! Even at a young age, I developed the tools to discern differences in quality relating to audio design and fidelity. Duly sensitized, and as a budding music lover, I was naturally drawn to turntable design and its counterpart, vinyl. What always inspired me about turntables was how the same mechanical principle was applied in myriad designs and varied applications. The creativity in turntable-tonearm-pickup design always fascinated me, not to mention its ability to capture the human and sensorial musical message embedded in an LP’s grooves.
What made you turn that passion into a book?
That experience with the Aiwa was when the seeds were planted. It took years for me to manifest that passion. I was actually an attorney for many years, but then I decided to retire from that and pursue my passion for audio. About 13 years ago, I started Audioarts, an audio salon on Fifth Avenue in the Flatiron District. After starting Audioarts, I realized that audio, historically speaking, had failed to become identified as a distinct art form, deserving of examination and appreciation. My first book HiFi: The History of High-End Audio Design, was essentially an argument that audio is a legitimate art form with artistic, cultural, social and industrial design merit. Now with REVOLUTION, I wanted to narrow the focus on the turntable as it has come to represent the torch-bearer of the analog world and all its beauty. Apropos of course, is the current vinyl/turntable renaissance under way, and I want my readers to learn about the design culture which brought us to where we are today.
Here’s what turntables looked like in the 1980s and 1990s.
One detail that stood out in the book was how so many people from around the world – from the U.S. to Europe to Japan – contributed to the design of turntables over more than a century.
Turntable design has evolved as a truly universal endeavor because no one ever claimed exclusive rights to it. If you look at the history, going back to the late 1800s and early 1900s, you can see how even the Japanese embraced it, using the phonograph as a vehicle to introduce Western culture to theirs, which was until then a highly-guarded civilization. Therefore, the phonograph facilitated breaking down barriers between Japanese and Western cultures and I’ve always been fascinated by the power of the phonograph as a conduit of international adoration.
Interestingly, you can see how that influence is very much alive in Japan today. The only existing brick and mortar Tower Records is in Tokyo. To acknowledge that there is a physical and thriving Tower Records in Tokyo is amazing. Europe, with its deep-seated musical culture, embraced analog development as well, while figuring prominently in turntable and vinyl culture today.
When you look at the history of turntable design, what can we learn more broadly about creativity?
Let’s take a look at the cover of the book. I chose a Bang & Olufsen turntable from the early 1970s. Now if you look at turntables of the day, you had a lot of wooden plinth turntable designs essentially parroting each other. B&O, after rebadging the Thorens 124 turntable in the 1960’s, reinvented turntable design with its 4000 series, convincingly turning turntable design on its head. Inclusive within this genre is the Transcriptors turntable from the same period – which Stanley Kubrick deified by showcasing in A Clockwork Orange – another cultural catalyst helping to reinvent turntable design aesthetic.
It took guts for companies like B&O and Transcriptors to look at the landscape of the day, reevaluate and move forward with new and compelling designs. These are the turntable designs that have propelled turntable design to the dynamic turntable landscape we have today.
Turntables are both works of art and music players.
You noted how in 2019, vinyl sales overtook CD sales, a move many people would have not seen coming during the rise of CDs in the 1990s. Are you surprised by the resurgence of vinyl and turntables?
Absolutely, especially in the face of digital’s comprehensive onslaught of musical playback culture. Yet today, turntable design is not just an interesting footnote, but rather a thriving industry with interest in vinyl continuing to support this joint endeavor.
This is not to say that I don’t enjoy streaming and I reject any absolutist judgment calls of analog or digital superiority. I truly enjoy listening to Tidal, Qobuz, Spotify along with Internet radio. So I don't look at analog or digital mediums in a myopic fashion, thereby allowing me to enjoy the gifts of each medium. But in spite of digital's pervasiveness, it’s amazing how analog and specifically vinyl is thriving. For many, such as myself, collecting vinyl is not about hoarding (well…maybe just a little) but mostly about musical discovery as a great deal of music never made its way from vinyl to the digital realm. Finding these unknown treasures is incredibly fulfilling for me.
Turntables look great in a living room. They’re art.
I've always argued that audio is a distinct design art form, deserving the same attention and validation as a Corbusier chair, for instance. Up until I wrote Hi-Fi in 2019, audio had failed to penetrate sophisticated design circles. It seemed that audio had traditionally been relegated to the hobbyist or limited audiophile realm. There were audiophile magazines that focused on audio equipment, but audio, per se, was not something one thought to see in Wallpaper, Abitare, or Architectural Digest. It just wasn't part of that demographic. But over the past few years, turntables especially, have become a sophisticated design element that's welcomed in a living room. It's something to celebrate and not hide. A turntable’s beauty lies in its simplicity and mechanical nature, often countering modern sterility in its embrace of custom integration.
When you look at the current turntable models, what stands out to you in terms of their design?
I think about this question often. The design today, while it's very different from what Thomas Edison tried to do, essentially applies the same concept. Although we graduated from a cylinder to rotating platter thanks to Emile Berliner, a stylus still retrieves the delicate signal from the grooves of a record, and the delicate signal is transmitted to a photo stage, which amplifies that signal.
Although I reduced it to simple terms, that process is essentially the same as it was 100 years ago. How they're doing it now is obviously much more sophisticated. Interestingly, each turntable that I've listened to sounds different, every cartridge that I've listened to sounds different. Therein lies the beauty of today’s diversity in turntable design, allowing a great deal of subjective tastes to dictate a purchase.
One of your interview subjects predicted that in 2040, we’ll use our exercise bikes or some type of green energy equipment to power our turntables. What do you think the experience of using turntables will be in the future?
We already have turntables that operate off the grid and are battery operated. These existed way before it became fashionable to conserve energy. That trend will continue into the future but the fundamental physics in record playback will remain consistent. But what is critical to understand is that turntables will continue to thrive by virtue of the fact that music and its resilient agent, the LP, will continue to exist.
The special thing about vinyl is that it represents a messenger of music culture; you don't get that feeling from the fleeting flashes of light the internet offers. It's an entirely different experience that offers genuine engagement with music. I believe that we need physical objects to manifest culture and to transfer that culture. In the musical arts, that object is vinyl. With a record, you look at it, touch it, read the liner notes and soak in the artwork. You’re actually doing some work and there’s resistance in the process. While not the most convenient thing, it is a meaningful process that connects us with musical culture and, as long as musical culture continues to thrive, it’s going to go hand-in-hand with the enhancement of turntable technology and design.
What's on your turntable right now?
Nina Simone’s Little Blue Girl. It’s an original pressing of hers from 1958 that I picked up in Germany before prices got crazy (the one bad thing about vinyl’s resurgence!). It’s my favorite Nina and it affects me in ways that other records don't. It’s on constant replay.
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