At one time in my life I owned a turntable that adorned my stack of shitty stereo components. It was nowhere near as nice as the Sony pictured above...not even close. Along with that I also had a few records that I collected along the way. For one reason or another I decided that I no longer needed those stereo components or I came to the realization that I could get a stereo about half the size with way better sound quality...and I ditched it all...except for a few Minor Threat records and few other treats.
I have always wanted to own another record player and advance my record collection to albums that I would actually want to listen to. Last year or so...Becki and Patrick scored a record player at the Swap Meet...which reminded me that I needed a record player back in my life.
On our way back from camping in Joshua Tree, coincidentally with Becki and Patrick, we hit up Old Town Temecula for lunch and stopped at a small record store to search through their $1 bin...we scored a good 8 or so LPs...which instantly rekindled my desire to own a record player again.
So I decided I wanted to take the plunge on a brand new Crosley model "vintage style" portable record player(Seen Below). I tracked one down at Target...which is a whole other story. Took her home...unwrapped her...threw on a record and fell back in love with listening to vinyl. Life was good.
The next day I ripped through a good 8 or so albums while I was cleaning the house. I was feeling very proud of my new purchase and luxury lifestyle. When my folks were down visiting on their last night I was going to throw on a little Elvis for my pops while we were relaxing around the house. But the ol Crosley didn't want to fire up. Which in turn really fired me up...I used the damn thing twice!?!
After a week or so of talking about returning the brand new record player that no longer worked I finally did it. Returning an item at Target without the original box...that is a whole other story. I ended up getting my money refunded and started the search for something new...then I realized I was searching the wrong direction and I started the search for something old and not so portable.
I kept my eyes peeled on Craigslist waiting for the right one to show up. I spotted the one and the price was a little too high for what I was looking for...then the post went away. Then it was back! And at a reduced in price...Perfect! I shot the poster an email telling him I was interested and later that evening with the help of Joe it was lovingly placed under our TV and belting out Elvis hits.
The people we got her from had done a little upgrading...Swapped out the old speakers for some newer Sony 6x9's mounted in truck boxes and removed all the fiberboard in front of the speakers and replaced the opening with a frame covered with vintage speaker cloth. She has seen a few days and she will probably need a little love in the near future...but we are back in action! Living our life of luxury Hi-Fi sound! I see digging through discount crates of records in our very near future!
