Everyone knows that vinyl records are having a renaissance. We all know, too, that there are limitations, the largest of which is that a single side of a standard album lasts around 20 minutes.
The record industry has been working hard to think of a way forward and it turns out that looking back brings the perfect strategy. People of a certain age will recall that we once had sixteen and two thirds RPM. The faster 33 RPM was considered preferable but, with modern cartridge developments, it is possible to achieve a very high level of audio quality with double the playing time.
16 RPM records are now starting to appear in the shops and the turntable manufacturers are rolling out upgrades accordingly.
Linn have been amongst the first to enable this speed. If you double tap on the speed button on new Linn Lingo 4 equipped turntables, the yellow LED comes on, denoting 16 RPM, so some buyers are already able to play music for longer.
Rega, Project, Nottingham and many more brands are following suit with new products and adapter kits. Some may feel that some other makes seem to have been sounding this way for years.
Certainly, there is a slight drop of quality at the slower speed but cynics might argue that this has hardly hindered developments in the past.
I need hardy say that this has been our April 1st 2018 spoof.