After a couple of months I returned to my typewriter for a short typecast and a video of the red Selectric II and a yellow italian portable record player, the Lesa Mady 2.
In italian we call these "mangiadischi" (record eater), I don't know exactly why, maybe because the slot for the records is like a mouth... or maybe because this device really eats vinyl because of the high needle pressure needed to play the records in every position, even turned upside down or while driving the car.
I love playing new and pristine records with my Thorens... but I must admit that I really enjoy playing old 7" scratched records with this Lesa, the more they are scratched the more they sound good, it remembers me when I was a child listening to Grimm's tales on my orange Penny (probably the most known italian mangiadischi). I even do not have a standalone mp3 player, I use my mobile: nowadays everything is focused on devices that do everything, photos, videos, music listening and recording, internet browsing and so on...
Welcome back, Andrea!
ReplyDeleteI've never seen a mangiadischi before! Interesting device.
ReplyDeletethey were pretty common, at least here in Italy; in this website there are some of them with internal photos:
Deletehttp://www.ca.astro.it/web-1/web-gallery-new/Mangiadischi/mangiadischi.html
Very simple devices with ceramic/piezo cartridges and very heavy needle pressure, some can play 45 rpms only, others both 33 and 45 rpms, and some of them have a built in AM radio receiver too!
Okay, that Lesa Mady 2 totally upstaged the Selectric. Interesting how it loads like a CD but plays 45's. I want one!
ReplyDelete