Review: Music Hall USB-1 Turntable

When my wife told me she wanted a turntable for Christmas I knew this was going to be one of those gifts that I would enjoy just as much as she does.  When it came time to pick a turntable though I was confronted with a broad range of prices and products for what is a metal platter that spins a piece vinyl around in a circle. I immediately decided that  I had no use for a $2000 turntable.  Fortunately there were many in the $80 to $300 range from reputable companies that have made turntables for decades.

Another feature that  I didn’t need was the built in ability to transfer to a computer, though an astute reader will notice by the name of the review I ended up with that anyway.  I did want a built in phono pre-amp though since my receiver does not have a pre-amp and I didn’t want yet another component in the entertainment center.

It was Chris who suggested that I look at the Music Hall USB-1. The price was in the range I was looking at, it had a nice look to it and it included all of the features I wanted.  It also had positive reviews online so I decided to go for it.

It’s available on Amazon Prime (free 2 day shipping for Prime members) for $249.

We unboxed it immediately on Christmas day since I wasn’t about to have that thing sit unopened. Unfortunately we were at the mother-in-law’s so I had to improvise a hookup to her Sony soundbar setup. The turntable comes in a couple easy to assemble pieces and includes an Audio Technica AT3600L moving-magnet cartridge which locks easily into the tone arm.

The box includes a short RCA style stereo cable pair, USB cable and software for transferring music to a computer (which I haven’t used). The power cord is a standard 110V, two prong, polarized cord which is permanently affixed to the unit.

When we were able to get the unit home and I had time to hook it up I replaced the included RCA cables with longer gold tipped ones since I needed more reach and had an extra set in a drawer. The turntable is hooked up to a Pioneer VSX-9040THX receiver. The back of the turntable has a selector switch for sending the signal without modification or sending the signal through the built in pre-amp.

Aside from the receiver not having a pre-amp another bit of the past that is gone from the home entertainment center is the clearance necessary in a cabinet to lift the dust cover.  For this reason I had to install the turntable on a stand next to the main entertainment center. Fortunately the table was already there and being used for a phone and photo albums.  The photographs were replaced with the phonograph.

The first test album was Pet Sounds in mono.  My brain uses Sloop John B as a reference song for everything so this was handy.

The album is mono and goes to a stereo input so it plays only through the two main front speakers.  Setting a playback mode on the receiver will force it through the center channel as well, though this should be done with caution since it can add sound effects that are undesirable.  The turntable spins up quickly after the power switch is set to on and the start/stop button is pressed.

The sound quality is was great and the unit has a nice fluid operation to all of the functions. The second test album was Iron Maiden’s Number of the Beast. This album was used but in nice condition.  Additionally it was recorded in stereo and has a nice range. You really can’t go wrong with Bruce Dickinson either. The sound reproduction was outstanding. The output level is a little lower than some of my other components so the listening level is a bit higher than for the TiVo.  The other thing that becomes immediately apparent is that these albums were released before the Loudness War.

The third test album was Abbey Road which sounded the best of all three. The sound was quit rich and carried nicely throughout the house.

We have purchased a few more modern albums since and await their arrival.

Rompies with Ruby

6 comments

Hi cats and kitties!!  Here I am on our Christmas Eve rompies.  We escaped the family hahaha.   Anyway, it was really hot, but that’s cool.  It’s better than the rain we had for the last week.  My rompies were not at all excellent last week.  But!  Like I said, today was hot and sunny, and we rompied for three miles, which was not really enough but Codename:Stabby got lazy last week and it’s all she could manage.  Whatever.

Anyway, we met a nice man in a Jeep coming down the mountain when we we’re going up and he said I was “nice” which was nice of him.  Then I sat in the river which was really cold, which surprised me.  But I got a good drink, and then we left and came home and I took a little nap then we went to Burger King for dinner, which I love.  I had a Whopper Jr., which I love.

Ok, so have a great Christmas my fellow doggies!!  I hope you get chewies and tennis balls!  I’ll check in later.

Daily free music from Minnesota Public Radio

3 comments

Inspired by the other NPR post, my local and hearted public conglomerate has a music station that has a free song every day, downloadable in podcast form on the iTunes store.

It’s wonderful.

Song of the day

And you’re welcome to freely utilize our public radio awesomeness unless you say mean things about Minnesotans being snobby about our awesomeness. You can still utilize it, but you have to debase yourselves by saying we’re at least a little bit awesome.

Mental Weather Report

Completely fogged in. Visibility: Zero.
Chance of skull-pounding headache: 100%. Persistent dry-heaves thoughout the morning commute. Possibility of sunshine: .08%.

Guy Bourdin

8 comments

Guy Bourdin is the photographer that all modern fashion photographers should be judged off of.  A protégé and close friend of Man Ray his work is part surrealism, part pin-up, part fashion.  His eye for color, framing, and negative space makes his photography absolutely extraordinary.

Somewhat NSFW images below the cut. Continue reading →

Want Free Music from iTunes and NPR?

4 comments

NPR has compiled its annual list of the year’s best new music. Some may be to your taste, some may not, but you can’t knock free. Download 12 tracks from iTunes with a free redemption code on NPR’s site here.

2012 Is Fiction

12 comments

2012 has become the Unified Field Theory of apocalyptic scenarios.  Every other theory, from tales of Planet X colliding with Earth to the Rapture, have coalesced under the umbrella of the 2012 myth.  This unification of apocalypse scenarios seemed to happen within the past few years,  with rumors spreading that the Mayans predicted the end of the world on December 21, 2012.  That date caught on in the public’s imagination, most likely because of how close and specific it is.  Every theory comes back to the Mayans.

And it’s all bullshit.  For the moment, let’s put aside the assumption that the Mayans must have known things about the universe we don’t since they were ancient and therefore wiser than modern society could ever hope to be.  Let’s pretend the Mayan religion is the one true religion.  2012 theories would still be bullshit.

First we should cover the origin of this belief.  The Mayan calender was incredibly advanced for its day, and envisioned time in cycles not unlike our concepts of weeks and months, with the same patterns endlessly repeating. While our longest unit of time is the year, theirs was  the b’ak’tun, a period of 394.3 years.  They kept count from when they believe creation began, roughly 3114 B.C.  From that point, we are in the 13th b’ak’tun, which is set to end on December 21st (or 23rd depending on the translation) 2012.

That’s actually about it.  It’s sort of the Mayan equivalent of a new millennium.  Not really significant in and of itself, but fairly novel in that few people ever live to see the calender flip over to so many zeroes.  But don’t take my word for it, ask an actual Mayan elder from Guatemala who educates people on his heritage.

Now, aside from the testimony of real Mayans alive today, how did anyone ever come to the conclusion that the end of this b’ak’tun would be the end of time?  It was found on one tablet.  Just one.  It was badly damaged difficult to read.  Nothing on that tablet said anything about the end of time, it was just as far as the calender went.

The cartoonist who drew that probably thought he or she was just being a wiseass.  That’s really the main argument all Mayan scholars make against 2012 theories.  It was one tablet, and odds are that whoever made it figured that by 2012 someone could afford another stone and continue the calender.

Nowhere in Mayan mythology does an apocalypse even appear.  They never believed that time ends, they believed it was cyclical and eternal.  By all accounts, the very concept of a “Mayan apocalypse” is a pure modern invention that comes with assuming all religions are like Christianity.  It’s as absurd as talking about a Christian rain god.

If you’re still not convinced, you should also know that a Dutch scholar of Mayan history recently pointed out our Mayan translations may be off, and introduced a new codex that would put the end of the 13th b’ak’tun in 2220.  So please feel free to enjoy the next 2 years.