After the Ion rig left, I determined I would set up my Vibe rig for permanent use. The stereo rack that my current equipment was on was no way going to hold it. It was not deep enough. I hardly ever really used the stereo for anything but playing one of the few CD’s I had left, or hooking my I-Pod to. I also wanted to hook my reel-to-reel. I decided to switch my stereo for Cindy’s, which could do all the same, and move mine downstairs.

Cindy was glad to see her rig in use again.

It played my “The Black Keys – El Camino” CD just fine and there is an AUX cord hanging on the right for I-Pod connection. Functionality is still there. Plus, it has a working dubbing tape deck. Bonus.

I moved all the component equipment downstairs to a table, found a piece of furniture I thought would hold it all and brought them over one by one until I had recreated the whole rig.

Since I only set this thing up every 10 years or so I had to invest some time, particularly to remember how to run the wires for the equalizer and tape deck. Ugh. My least favorite of stereo love.

I had it all set up then brought over the Vibe rig. I had a problem. This was a USB turntable. There was no power cord to plug in. I had run it off of my laptop before. Hmm… I guess I hadn’t really considered that. The one Abbey had and the Ion rig had power cords. This one was strictly USB. It was only a momentary setback. I thought about the huge bin of cords and power adapters and misc computer equipment I have. There was a USB hub, one that plugged into the wall. Could that possibly work? It did!

Th USB Vibe record player was plugged into the USB hub that was plugged into the wall. Perfect. Then I went to the same bin for an RCA cord. I hooked it to the Vibe unit and then to the stereo PHONO sockets. I powered it up and hit the PHONO button on the receiver.

WWWWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMMMMMMMM. Holy! I turned off the volume.

Perhaps the USB to wall was causing some grounding issues. The hum that was happening was just from it being powered on. No way a record was going to play over that noise. I unplugged it and thought for a while. I really had no other power option other than to have a laptop down there to plug it into whenever I wanted to play a record. That was not going to happen.

On a whim, I hooked the stereo end connection to the TV sockets. Switched the stereo to TV and turned up the volume. It was quiet! No way. I would work like that.

It worked. I had a record player hooked up again.

What followed was a record filled couple hours of working in the basement (still lots of projects down there) fueled by the few records of my past. I listened to “Queen – News Of The World”, Jimi Hendrix – War Heroes”, PeterFrampton – Frampton Comes Alive” and ended with “Van Halen – Van Halen II”.

It was awesome. The whole time I was marvelling at the sounds of the record player and the crackle and pop and all the organic sounds that the player and grooves were making. The sound was not bad in the basement, and I was able to crank it up. Joey who was down there watching and playing dug it too. He knew the Queen album from Abbey playing her copy on her record player. We sang, I sorted stuff and he played. Having to go switch the album side was nostalgic. The whole event was was a cool throwback. I loved it, and it was mine! I was playing records on my stereo. One of the cool kids again. I’m not saying I am going to become a vinyl junkie, but I will check out the resale shops and if I see something good, I will buy it and spin it on my Vibe rig.

Maybe I should buy a fruit crate.