Turntable museum?

Hifi Sound

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I'm not sure if this is breaking forum rules or not but here it goes.

The owner of our company has always been a bit turntable mad and has amassed a large collection (over 150) of turntables over the years. The turntables range from mass market, but important to represent in a collection i.e. Dual CS505 to the obscure, rare and exotic i.e. Alphason Symphony, Ariston RD90, Impulse Mosquito, Michell Prisma Twin, Micro Seiki RX1500, Technics SP10 Obsidian Plinth, Townsend Rock REF, Transcriptor Round and a Trio LO7D are a few examples.

Rather than squeezing them all into his house we're thinking of opening a turntable museum. The decks would all be displayed in a dedicated room which would be free for people to come and browse around and have a chat about the decks. We are planning to have a different turntable playing each week, perhaps with a contemporary system that visitors can play there own records on or choose from one of the thousands of records he also has.

Is this someting you would be interested in visiting? and if so, are there any turntables in particular that you think we should have in the collection

I must stress that there is no entrance fee, you're free to look and leave and you won't be pressured into buying anything and none of the turntables or records are for sale. We will run it purely as a museum.

Any comments are greatly appriciated.
 

jjbomber

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Hifi Sound said:
I'm not sure if this is breaking forum rules or not but here it goes.

Is this someting you would be interested in visiting? and if so, are there any turntables in particular that you think we should have in the collection

Linn Sondek has to be there, otherwise it's a car museum without a Rolls Royce.

Section on direct drives would be good.

I can't see there being many visitors, but I guess it would need a good cafe to pay for the upkeep.
 

Hifi Sound

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The Linn would be well represented and may even have it's own section.

The museum would be a room next to our shop so we can provide coffee but cakes may be a bit of a stretch I think.

Separating the belt and direct drive decks is an interesting idea thst I'll certainly raise.

Thanks
 
Of that.

I would definitely pop in for a look around.

Turntables, arms, carts, phono stages,

if you were interested in buying your first or first upgrade, it would be an excellent place to visit.

I say go for it..
 
I'd love to see such a museum. Turntables are by far the most fascinating hifi product to me.

Near where we used to live in the Cotswolds is a wonderful mechanical music museum. They play the media for each of their curiosities, the most moving if which for me was Rachmaninov's own performance of one of his famous Preludes.

Its in Northleach, on the A40.

www.mechanicalmusic.co.uk
 

MajorFubar

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Sounds a nice idea, but it's very niche so it would probably need to be run for the love of it rather than expected profit, and if I'm being honest I wouldn't travel very far to visit it.
 

steve_1979

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Hifi Sound said:
Is this someting you would be interested in visiting? and if so, are there any turntables in particular that you think we should have in the collection

Sounds interesting. I would definitely visit if it were local.

Hope he's got a Technics 1200 or 1210 Mk2 there. You just couldn't have a record player museum without one of those.
 

Hifi Sound

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MajorFubar said:
Sounds a nice idea, but it's very niche so it would probably need to be run for the love of it rather than expected profit, and if I'm being honest I wouldn't travel very far to visit it.

That's exactly what it will be, it's not about making money it's just purely for the love of turntables.
 

Hifi Sound

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plastic penguin said:
Sounds like there could be a need. I brought the subject up a few years ago, but a audio museum.

It could maybe be expanded to include other hifi in the future but I'm not sure we would have the space or money to create a full audio museum.

Each week there would be a conteporary system playing with one of the turntables so there would be some older hifi on show.
 

Hifi Sound

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steve_1979 said:
Sounds interesting. I would definitely visit if it were local.

Hope he's got a Technics 1200 or 1210 Mk2 there. You just couldn't have a record player museum without one of those.

I'm sure we must have one somewhere. It's a shame we missed the chance t add the new Technics to the collection, if only they'd made more.
 
Hifi Sound said:
plastic penguin said:
Sounds like there could be a need. I brought the subject up a few years ago, but a audio museum.

It could maybe be expanded to include other hifi in the future but I'm not sure we would have the space or money to create a full audio museum.

Each week there would be a conteporary system playing with one of the turntables so there would be some older hifi on show.

It's a good idea but a very niche concept. I don't see you getting that many visitors if it's stuck away in Stockton upon Tees.
 

Benedict_Arnold

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Stockton might be an odd place to put it, but you could pull in a fair selection of anoraks like us lot from the greater northeast.
I'd combine it with a boutique hi-fi shoppe and a good selection of quality vinyl pressings to make a bit of money to pay the rent and electricity bill. You could even expand the business into repairing and upgrading older turntables as well. At least you would have a few units to act as go-bys readily at hand.
 

steve_1979

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Al ears said:
It's a good idea but a very niche concept. I don't see you getting that many visitors if it's stuck away in Stockton upon Tees.

I agree. You will have a lot of people here who are keen but we're weirdos who post on hifi forums so we're only a tiny and very biased representation of the general public.

A record player museum sounds interesting to us and I hope you do it but I'm not too sure how many other people will share the same view.
 

paulkebab

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I think the concept is really good, especially with the upsurge in interest of vinyl. I think you need to target a good geographical location, or maybe show off your collection and concept at dedicated HiFi shows across the country. Doing that might invite some people to join in and loan/lend some old amps, speakers etc and have a really good show, and have a sideline in good used/new vinyl. I've had a few turntables in my time, nothing cutting-edge but me old Goldring GL78 was great in its versatility to accept different cartridges, but everyone used to gawp when I turned my Technics SL6 on its side while it was playing! I won't ever go back to vinyl but it's always good to have a blast to the past, some of the engineering was fascinating. I wish you luck and hope to hear how you go on.
 

Hifi Sound

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Benedict_Arnold said:
Stockton might be an odd place to put it, but you could pull in a fair selection of anoraks like us lot from the greater northeast. I'd combine it with a boutique hi-fi shoppe and a good selection of quality vinyl pressings to make a bit of money to pay the rent and electricity bill. You could even expand the business into repairing and upgrading older turntables as well. At least you would have a few units to act as go-bys readily at hand.

Apart from selling vinyl, we do all of the other tings you mentioned at the moment.

Selling vinyl is something that a few people have mentioned, but we have a superb local record shop around the corner and we simply couldn't match their inventory or knowledge. Plus we really like them and wouldn't want to take any of their business away.
 

Hifi Sound

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paulkebab said:
I or maybe show off your collection and concept at dedicated HiFi shows across the country. Doing that might invite some people to join in and loan/lend some old amps..

This is a great idea and something we hadn't thought of, although the cost of a room at some shows my be prohibitive.
 

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