Sound Burger Portable Record Player Returns From the '80s With Bluetooth, USB-C (arstechnica.com) 62
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: According to the Recording Industry Association of America's Mid-Year 2022 report (PDF), vinyl is continuing a trend initiated in 2020, when vinyl revenue surpassed CD revenue -- a state of affairs we haven't seen since 1986, according to the RIAA [PDF]. The RIAA reported that vinyl revenue grew 22 percent in the first half of this year to $570 million, outpacing CDs ($200 million) and representing physical music's largest revenue share. Japanese audio brand Audio-Technica has seemingly taken note of this trend and has decided to rerelease its Sound Burger portable record player. The product is one of several that the company is releasing to celebrate its 60th birthday. Based on a plate on the player's side, the company is producing just 7,000 units.
Debuting in 1980, the original Sound Burger AT727 offered a way for people to listen to their 33-1/3 and 45 vinyl records outside of their homes. There were some caveats, though; records stuck precariously out of the unit and, as noted by SlashGear, the player needed to sit on a flat surface during operation. The new Sound Burger AT-SB2022 looks much like the old one, but Audio-Technica added Bluetooth 5.2 support, so you can listen to your vinyl through wireless headphones. There's also a 3.5 mm jack this time around instead of stereo RCA outputs, but Audio-Technica is also including a dual RCA adapter. Additionally, there's no longer a need for clunky batteries, as the refreshed portable record player charges over USB-C. Audio-Technica claims the record play will last for about 12 hours before needing a charge, which it says will take around 12 hours to complete.
As noted by Digital Trends, the original Sound Burger, also known as Mister Disc in some geographies, required user maintenance to make sure records continued spinning at the proper speed. But Audio-Technica's 2022 record player has a DC servo motor driving its belt-drive system for "stable rotation," the record player's product page says. "Designed for both portability and stability, the tonearm employs a dynamic balance system in which stylus pressure is applied through a spring," the page says. Audio-Technica says its ATN3600L stylus works with the new record player. Other specs for the Sound Burger include a 50 dB output and a 20-20,000 Hz transmission band. Audio-Technica is selling the 2022 Sound Burger for $200.
Debuting in 1980, the original Sound Burger AT727 offered a way for people to listen to their 33-1/3 and 45 vinyl records outside of their homes. There were some caveats, though; records stuck precariously out of the unit and, as noted by SlashGear, the player needed to sit on a flat surface during operation. The new Sound Burger AT-SB2022 looks much like the old one, but Audio-Technica added Bluetooth 5.2 support, so you can listen to your vinyl through wireless headphones. There's also a 3.5 mm jack this time around instead of stereo RCA outputs, but Audio-Technica is also including a dual RCA adapter. Additionally, there's no longer a need for clunky batteries, as the refreshed portable record player charges over USB-C. Audio-Technica claims the record play will last for about 12 hours before needing a charge, which it says will take around 12 hours to complete.
As noted by Digital Trends, the original Sound Burger, also known as Mister Disc in some geographies, required user maintenance to make sure records continued spinning at the proper speed. But Audio-Technica's 2022 record player has a DC servo motor driving its belt-drive system for "stable rotation," the record player's product page says. "Designed for both portability and stability, the tonearm employs a dynamic balance system in which stylus pressure is applied through a spring," the page says. Audio-Technica says its ATN3600L stylus works with the new record player. Other specs for the Sound Burger include a 50 dB output and a 20-20,000 Hz transmission band. Audio-Technica is selling the 2022 Sound Burger for $200.
Why? (Score:3)
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People have an emotional connection to their record collection, and people like signalling their nerdy-cool status with weird gadgets like this.
I kind of want one myself, just not sure if I would ever actually use it.
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It just looks like the kind of thing that winds up selling for $4 at a school fundraising fair in a few years.
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If you value your record collection then probably best to avoid playing it on something like this.
On the few occasions I've bought vinyl, mostly so I can frame the cover and hang it on my wall, if I want the recording I play it exactly once on my dad's Transcriptor turntable, and sample it into a laptop. To me the recording sounds just as good as the original, but with much less hassle.
I see there are lots of such rips on The Pirate Bay.
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Anyone that values their collection of vinyl would do well to avoid this device. Hey, let's spin up my treasured vinyl with absolutely no protection on either side of it, so I can listen to it via a bluetooth connection somewhere other than where I have all my records safely stored, and likely have far better equipment to use them with. And don't touch it once we've started it rotating, or it's very likely to skip and possibly scratch the album if you look at it the wrong way.
Just looking at a picture of
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Not only that, but as a producer's tool it can be very useful. MF Doom had one of these and he was on the road a lot. He told how he was in Brazil and was hitting up their record stores/thrift stores and had something like this and would just go back to his hotel room and sample them into his SP-303? and make tracks with them. Very small footprint, carry-on with the SP 303 and could just keep working. I think RAID is probably the most famous of his tracks that he did with this method.
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This is not made from "that" mechanism which makes Crosley players so bad. Those that are saying it will be bad for your records should watch Techmoan's latest video. Yes, he actually released a video on Thursday rather than Saturday! He measured the tonearm force, etc. and declared that it would not be bad for your records, and in fact was overall better than the original, aside from not having headphone jacks, and that whole limited edition thing that means they are already gone before you knew they were
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Re:Why? (Score:4, Funny)
And don't forget to only use O2-free cables and put that resonator wood block on your speaker. You can HEAR the difference, I swear!
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At least with an analogue system there is some theoretical benefit to signal integrity. It's the "CD demagnetizers" and "audio grade ethernet cable & switches" that really get me. Or platinum plated HDMI cables.
Techmoan reviewed a CD demagnetizer and found that the digital output of the player was, as expected, identical before and afterwards. Linus Tech Tips reviewed an $800 "audiophile" network switch, that is a rebranded D-Link with some glue and possibly a few capacitors swapped. Naturally nobody co
Re:Why? (Score:4, Insightful)
As shitty as LPs sound, one that's reasonably clean sounds way better than shitty BT audio.
The sound quality of LPs is highly dependent on the equipment. There's absolutely no conceivable world where this device will sound better than even a 8+ year old BT audio using the SBC codec, much less the many far better and very high quality choices of codecs and equipment we have on the market today.
And if your record is reasonably clean it will almost be certainly ruined by this device.
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I'm assuming all that sand won't do any real harm.
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I'm assuming all that sand won't do any real harm.
No worse than the needle of a cheap portable record player...
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... it will almost be certainly ruined by this device.
My thought too. You'd have to be a fool to put a prized record in it and expect this thing to take care of it.
It'll probably scrape the grooves clean or scratch the record as it's inserted or removed.
I grew up on LPs and they SUCK. Sorry to all the audiophiles out there, but they do. They're large, fragile, cumbersome, and consumable.
The near-overnight adoption of the CD was a watershed moment. It was AWESOME, and things just got better and better. I can carry my entire music collection around on a thumb d
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"BT audio" is not a thing. There are a variety of collection of codecs, most recently including completely lossless ones. Saying "BT Audio makes my ears hurt" is like saying "Food tastes bad".
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no dude (Score:1)
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This not only uses a proper Audio Technica cartridge pickup, but unlike the original it is currently in stock. And it is properly designed so that it will NOT ruin your records like the toy crap that infests the vinyl player market. You still want to set it down on a stable surface because it isn't built out of big springs and blocks of heavy granite.
And in reply to that other message above, this doesn't have a headphone jack, so you will mostly have to use BT and its codecs. But it does have a line out, s
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Non-Replaceable Battery = Planned Obscelence (Score:2, Insightful)
What were they thinking?
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What were they thinking?
They were thinking that someone would only use this kind of piece of shit once. After hearing the audio quality they wouldn't need to replace the battery.
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It's not going to be that hard to replace the battery in this thing, sound burger is not difficult to disassemble [blogspot.com].
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Here [youtu.be] is TechMoan's disassembly video of the new one. I was wrong, the battery is easily removable and looks like a standard-ish 18650 cell with a pigtail connector.
Turntable (Score:1)
If you are going the dumb ass route of vinyl, get real equipment. A turn table does two things. It turn and keep a tiny steady pressure between the needle and record. It will ideally float on a massive object that dampens the vibrations. The m
Re:Turntable (Score:4, Informative)
Most vinyl was childrenâ(TM)s music like Britney Spears.
Yeah nothing says "I don't know history" quite like equating vinyl to a pop singer who became famous after the vinyl era had completely ended, and became an obscure nobody before the vinyl revolution started.
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get a naked metal disc and spray tool dip on one side and dynashield on the other
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When people reminisce About vinyl, their experiences are mostly icees of crap like this. That is why for most of us the current music is better it can be engineered for small speakers and digital filters. Most vinyl was childrenâ(TM)s music like Britney Spears.
What are you talking about? There was plenty of incredible music released primarily on vinyl. Queen, Rush, Simon and Garfunkel, even Elvis, pretty much everything from the fifties until CDs became king (90s, I think?) Mind you, it wasn't incredible music because of vinyl; vinyl records have terrible sound quality and dynamic range. CDs are better in every possible way.
Actually, I bet that Britney sold more CDs than vinyl.
One reason that folks remember vinyl fondly is because it corresponds with a time w
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One reason that folks remember vinyl fondly is because it corresponds with a time when music was often (though not always) more complex and less formulaic, with more dynamic range, and artists who could write music and play but but often could not dance or look pretty.
The main demographic behind the vinyl revival are Gen-Zers who are buying the discs as collectables. It's not really a nostalgia thing for them, since most of them grew up with CDs and/or digital downloads.
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Also, go around to the resale shops and find a real speaker enclosure, one that will push a lot of air.
why? so you can listen to moving air?
Decent sized drivers, with moderate wattage and higher impedance driven by a decent amplifier will do so much more than moving air ... that's why almost every "home theater" system has the 90lb weather lady booming out of the speakers making your iced tea vibrate like its fuking Jurassic Park
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why? so you can listen to moving air?
The alternative to listening to moving air is something that'll transfer the vibrations directly to your ear drum. I do not recommend it.
Queefy Vagina? (Score:2)
That is what I think of when I think of a sound burger. Anyone else?
Does it work as a pizza cutter?
These devices are great (Score:1)
At completely destroying the vinyl record you pay for.
Some ideas are best left to the annals of history.
These were great... (Score:2)
for record shopping. Portable, battery-powered, two headphone outputs, and a carry strap! You could take it with you to a used record store and sample the records, plus a friend could listen at the same time.
Nowadays though, even if you're into record stores, it's simpler just to sample the music via streaming...
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But couldn't you just take the record into the listening booth or ask the clerk to put it over the speakers?
Stores with used vinyl often do not have a booth, or even any way to listen to music other than having the clerk put it on, assuming they're willing to do that. It's very common for people digging through basements of used vinyl to want to try dozens of records in a visit, so it's already very common for them to have portable record players.
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sweet (Score:2)
remember the sound burger (of course you don't it was a fuckin toy 30 something years ago for teens which moved on to compact cassette years before) now you can listen to your records on a ... ok to be honest, for what it was, not complete shit, but still pretty bad record player ... but with all the finest technical improvements to cut cost, and maximize profit
I predict a super fail (Score:2)
I predict a super fail.
The market for this kind of gadget is razor-thin. It has all the downsides and none of the upsides of either a decent MP3/4 player or a of a full-on analog record player setup.
It's got no external speakers, which takes it out of the usual party scene. If they were smart they'd have included two little detachable speakers that would hook onto and fold up over the player like a clamshell to protect it. (But I guess if you're carrying 12" vinyl records around with you, maybe practicality
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Anyway, I'm glad for the people that want one but this thing just seems pointless, pretentious, and impractical to me.
You mean like vinyl itself? How will they ever sell it!??!
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The market for this kind of gadget is razor-thin.
Yet they sold out of their 7000-unit limited production run in days. The only fail is if they never make more. Speakers? The original was designed for headphone use. It's got Bluetooth, and I hear you can get some nice speakers for that these days. It also has a line out.
And despite how hard you're trying to virtue signal as knowing more than you do, this actually has decent build quality, even a little better than the original. Go watch the Techmoan video.
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Like I said, "Anyway, I'm glad for the people that want one but this thing just seems pointless, pretentious, and impractical to me."
Enjoy your record scraper.
Sound of Vinyl (Score:3)
I don't know what most of the commenters are talking about.
I have lots of vinyl. As I converted much of my music to mp3, I ceased to play the vinyl, and over the years, began remembering vinyl to be less fidelity than CDs. Then I went back to my system, put a record on the turntable, and played it.
Simply fantastic. There is NOTHING wrong with the fidelity from LP's played on decent equipment. I was actually amazed. The big drawback, of course, is clicks and pops from dust and other dirt. But those mostly occur at the beginning of the record, while most of the rest of the record is quite pristine.
I don't play them on some portable POS, tho. I have always played my LP's on a turntable with a tone arm with 3/4 gram of tracking force. The early 90's Pioneer 125 watts per channel receiver exhibits extremely little distortion being played at reasonable levels that do not rattle neighbor's windows. The big Cerwin Vega speakers (95 lbs each, not some bookshelf thing) produce superb audio. There's no difference discernable between CD and the vinyl other than the clicks and pops. I imagine if one could keep the vinyl completely clean, clicks and pops could be overcome. But CD's only advantages are the lack of these clicks and pops, and their ability to play in moving vehicles. Some musicians have said they believe the vinyl audio is better than the CD audio. Don't know about that, but the vinyl audio at this address is very satisfying.
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Don't worry, by the looks of things, most of the commenters don't know what they're talking about either.
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I don't play them on some portable POS
Then it could be that your experience is completely irrelevant to the post and the discussion at hand.
me musicians have said they believe the vinyl audio is better than the CD audio.
Musicians aren't immune to being stupid either. There is simply zero backing for this claim, technical, measurable, theoretical, or even in the mastering of audio for the format. People who say it's better than CD audio are either biased, self deluded, or talking emotionally rather than scientifically.
I have a huge vinyl collection and still buy it to this day. I enjoy the theater of putting a record on, dr
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Whether people want to admit it or not, the attraction of vinyl is either the collectability, or the ritual of it.
Anyone can fire up the Spotify app and press play and get music out. With listening to vinyl, it's a much more purposeful act - first you spend a shitload of money on a turntable that isn't garbage, and an amplifier with enough wattage to drive the expensive speakers you also bought. Then you take the record out of the sleeve, blow it off or use one of those dust brush things, put it on the ex
It really is the 80s again, isn't it? (Score:1)
The world is on the brink of nuclear war, inflation is rampant and people with weird hair spend their money on short-lived plastic crap. Such a shame we won't be getting good music out of it this time around.
Waiting for a USB-C 8-track player (Score:2)
8-track is so much more portable than those reel-to-reel tape decks.
Especially those Akai tape decks break your back when you try to carry them around.
$40 (Score:2)
I recognize the guts of a $40 record player I bought a couple of last Christmas. It records to USB FAT drives and segments songs which has been great for digitizing the LP collection. 70's mixes were better than remasters we can download today.
Here's one [amzn.to] for $60 with battery. Dozens of Chinese vendors sell variations with the same platform and different cases and accessories.
Nostalgia is expensive, eh?
Defeats its own purpose (Score:1)
The resurgence in buying vinyl records is driven (mostly) by the higher quality of the sound from a clean vinyl album. The Sound Burger, by design, cannot deliver that.
First, the quality of the Bluetooth audio will suck unless they have a really good DAC (digital-analog converter), which it doesn't say anything about on the Sound Burger article in Ars Technica. Assume its conversion to the specified 48 kHz digital audio will not be super-accurate. See the Nyquist Limit on wikipedia for details.
In physics, w