Photos Courtesy Montegiro & Ion Audio

The lusso turntable from Montegiro retails for $47,000

Photos Courtesy Montegiro & Ion Audio

Photos Courtesy Montegiro & Ion Audio

Intricately crafted parts are a trademark of lusso turntables

Photos Courtesy Montegiro & Ion Audio

The LP 2 FLASH can convert music from vinyl records into digital USB files

Experience innovations in vinyl player technology

While CD sales have been on a downward spiral, and most music is sold in a digital format for use on mp3 players (i.e. iPods), vinyl, the original music disc, could be making a quiet comeback. According to a Time magazine article earlier this year, 990,000 vinyl albums were sold in 2007, as opposed to 858,000 units in 2006. Furthermore, in October 2007, Amazon.com launched a vinyl-only store, attempting to meet some of the demands of vinyl lovers.

Belonging in the hands of the most discriminating vinyl collectors, Montegiro recently released the lusso, a fine piece of German musical engineering. It is built upon layers of aluminum and black acrylic, including a topsy-turvy cone for the aluminum platter, and fitted with an acrylic plattermat.

The lusso is driven by a newly developed, extremely precise high-end synchronous motor suspended within one of the cones. The three height-adjustable cones made of black acrylic and aluminum connect to each other. The mounted carbon tonearm emphasizes the piece’s high style.

A typical lusso configuration consists of a 10-inch carbon arm Da Vinci (model Nobile), and the MG1, also from the Montegiro family, and is a state-of the-art pickup system from titanium. The top-of-the-line model with four cones includes a 9-inch SME, model 5009 tonearm. Other armboards are available upon request.

With prices starting at $47,000, be the first in Hawaii to own a lusso. Contact Montegiro directly (www.montegiro.de) or its distributor Koetsu USA (www.koetsuusa.com), to arrange an exclusive purchase.

A different, more practical, yet modernized approach to a vinyl collection is Ion Audio’s LP 2 FLASH turntable - the turn-table with a twist ($228). It’s a fully functional turntable with line level output to easily integrate with any home stereo system, yet it has the capability to record direct to USB thumb drives, SD cards and computers.

“LP 2 FLASH is the culmination of our efforts in turntable innovation,” says Gregg Stein, director of marketing at Ion Audio. “Not only is it a fantastic analog turntable, it empowers anyone, regardless of technical level, to update their old music to today’s portable, flexible formats and enjoy it anywhere: on cell phone, iPod, mp3 player, computer or in the car.”

As the LP 2 FLASH captures vinyl records, it automatically turns the entire record into a track so the user does not have to manually separate albums. Removable devices can then be connected to the user’s computer and imported into iTunes automatically using the included EZ Vinyl Converter (PC) or EZ Audio Converter (Mac) software. The pops, crackles and hiss noises on worn-out records can be minimized using the included audacity editing software.

In addition, a front panel input jack enables users to convert other music sources such as cassette tapes, MiniDiscs and eight-tracks. The advanced turntable makes better-than-CD quality recordings at high-resolution samples up to 192kHz.

LP 2 FLASH is currently available to be shipped from the United Kingdom to your home. For more information, visit www.ion-audio.com.