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Read our privacy notice . The vinyl revolution is less of a revolution nowadays, and more of a new status quo. The format has comfortably carved out a place in today’s music market, growing since its late-Noughties revival and even outstripping CD sales.
A combination of factors is at play here, from the (at one time) counter-cultural vogue of crate-digging and charity-shop-hauling to the incredible investment artists like Adele and Taylor Swift have put into marketing collectable versions of their hit records. Either way, records are here to stay. As with many things, there are a few ways you can listen to records, some more prohibitive than others.
Regardless of the approach, there are fundamentals to a vinyl-friendly system: a turntable, an amplifier, and speakers. The turntable takes the physical grooves of the record and translates them into a minute electrical signal, which is amplified before being re-translated into glorious sound. Many set-ups treat these elements as individual and modular; you buy a separate turntable, hi-fi amplifier and set of speakers, enabling you to upgrade any one unit without needing to change the others.
This, though, can be costly, and a daunting project if you’re n.
