i'm afraid it will seem as if i'm picking on molly olsen which i don't at all
mean to do, especially since her comments on the implications of various new
technologies are truly helpful and informed . . . but her post perpetuates, no
doubt inadvertently, a misconception that has surfaced over and over gain in
this and in related threads and that i think ought to be cleared up [though it's
possible that no one cares]
 
molly ends her message saying:
 
>- since the laserdisc media is so  similar to DVD in
> quality and ease of use, yet DVDs will be less expensive
> than laserdiscs (they are already on sale at Tower
> for ~$15-25), laserdiscs and laserdisc players will likely
> go the way of the turntable as DVD penetration increases . . .
 
which seems to imply that turntables for what we used to call records are no
longer available . . . and this is simply not true . . . in fact tunrtables are
now better than ever [they have to be to compete at all against the challenge
of digital] and are available not only for LPs but even for 78s . . . certainly
they're not mass marketed or mass produced as they used to be, and it's
probably true that it's no longer possible to buy a cheap or bad turntable . .
. but for those who care about vinyl [either because of the important inherent
advantages in linearity of analogue waveforms, or because there are still many
things that can be gotten on vinyl that have not yet been rereleased on
silver discs, and may never be] there is a wide variety of turntables available
 
this is an option that anyone with a collection of "records" really ought to be
aware of
 
mike frank
 
----
Screen-L is sponsored by the Telecommunication & Film Dept., the 
University of Alabama.