Now this is classy.

My grandma (who lived about a 12 hr. way) had one of these growing up and I always loved it. I was disappointed one year to find that it had been replaced since it quit working.

I'm also reminded of my mother who, no joke, brought one of these home from the landfill. It didn't work, but she gutted it and turned it into a bed for our little dog we had at the time. In hindsight, she's probably very lucky she didn't hurt or poison herself in the process.

I would love to get one of these to use in like a multi-purpose gaming setup. Like use this as the TV stand for the newer TV so I can play newer and older games in the same place.

I only see a TV stand without a TV.

The dawn of LCD's sucked. They were inferior to CRT in most ways, they were bigger and lighter. They eventually got better and cheaper and that is when they took off.

DVD was a day 1 upgrade over vhs for watching movies.

Was, "Be kind, rewind" really that much of a hassle?

VHS wasn’t the best format even when it came out. VHS was specifically designed to be a middle ground between quality and affordability. That’s partly why it succeeded in the consumer market, both the tape and the player were cheaper than the other formats of the day. Beta and LaserDisc both had better picture and sound quality but both had their own drawbacks as well as cost. CEDs were cheaper than LaserDisc and predated VHS by several years but didn’t have the industry acceptance of the other formats and had similar drawbacks.

Better than CD is a pretty bold claim. That format is near perfect for listening quality.

A VHS physically can’t be better than CD audio. The tape would have to move faster than the VHS equipment is designed for. The Hi-Fi VHS audio system can come close to CD’s frequency range, but there is still about 70 dB signal-to-noise (compared to CD’s 98 dB), and there is always loss when writing to and reading from analog tape. CD is not destructively read, so any signal up to 22KHz will be reproducible the exact same way every time.

Hi-Fi VHS audio is nearly as good as CD audio (the best consumer analog audio format, in fact), but it’s not as good. The simple fact is that an appropriately comparably sampled digital PCM recording will always beat an analog recording. You can read about the Nyquist-Shannon theorem for an actual proof, but basically CD audio is near-perfect for almost every human’s hearing range (most people can’t hear above 20KHz).

Video games have been doing that for over a decade at this point

Yeah, there's something about the physicality of a record player and records that changes the experience. At least for me it encourages more focus on the listening. Even if you just put something on while you do something else, you're going to be interacting with again before super long.

The record, the part you interact with, has size and weight. It's definitively a "thing". And choosing a record is a choice. You can't just press some buttons on a remote and change to whatever else (unless it's a full music system setup).

Plus the beautiful art on the sleeves, and the time it takes to get the record out forces you to spend at least a little time with that art.

With a CRT TV, you're using a remote and there's a lot more abstraction and layers between the physical object holding the content and your actual consumption of it.

VHS tapes are physical, but the moving parts that make it all work are hidden away in the VCR and the magnetic tape isn't really touchable. Playing one on most TVs required another device plugged into the TV and pressing some buttons on one or two remotes that could just as easily bring you other content without ever leaving your seat.

There is art on the VHS case, but it's not like it takes time to get the tape in and out, so you're not as likely to look at it for long.

Most importantly, people are still making new record players and records. There was a long while where it was a very niche thing, and there weren't a lot of new records coming out, but there were still new players coming out. And the technology is simple enough that the average person could at least keep a player in working order or fix the most common issues themselves. Enthusiasts could even "fix" an old machine with modern parts that are readily available, as long as they function the same. It's not like people are going to stop making electric motors anytime in the next century.

CRTs simply aren't manufactured anymore. Depending on the issue they aren't end user servicable for the average person, or even most enthusiasts. Maintenance is potentially dangerous to the person doing the work. The parts have limited lifespans with no replacements available for the main bits. If the electron guns start to go, you can potentially rejuvanate them with special equipment, or you can end up breaking a damaged one entirely (see 10:32 of this video about restoring an old arcade cabinet).

It's the same (sans danger to the person doing the repair) for VCRs. No new stock, specialized parts that can't be swapped for more readily availble modern components, you get the picture.

And that's also not considering the fucking weight of a good size CRT compared to a record player.

Don't get me wrong. I love CRTs. Pretty sure I still have my childhood one in my basement, complete with some discoloration from when my 8 year old self had some fun with magnets.

I was legitimately distraught when my wife talked me into only keeping one of the three CRT TVs we had gathering dust, and I think I still have one or two CRT monitors stashed away somewhere.

I spent multiple weekends years ago looking up and configuring the best CRT shader for emulators so it looked like an idealized version of that childhood TV.

But I entirely get why records and record players are such strong and well thought of "nostalgia bait" and CRTs and VHS tapes are not.

Degaussing a CRT is also a magical experience

You don’t need any electricity to play a record

Are we talking about the hand-cranked players from the olden days?

Yes. I really do.

Don’t expect anything sexy or nothin’, I’m genuinely in this for the Trinitron. Do you have retro consoles or should I bring mine?

Meanwhile the hardcore smash community never left crt because latency.

yeah, especially any made this century. complete shite.

My first thought too. I love records, my record setup is where nearly all of my hobby money goes into, but I’d never recommend a suitcase player to anyone. I don’t have a ton of hobby money to spend so my setup isn’t super expensive or anything but I did make sure to get a nice player at least. Low-to-mid range speakers and pre-amps and stuff can still be okay, especially these days the lower end is getting a lot better, but a cheap player can do actual damage to a record over time.

If someone reading this is looking to get into the hobby, do yourself a favour and save up a bit for the player. You can get cheap speakers and all that and upgrade later but a bad player can ruin your records over time, especially if you spin them regularly. I personally have a Pro-Ject Debut III, you can switch between a built-in pre-amp or an external one, so you can start with the built-in one and then get a dedicated one later on to help with initial costs, and Pro-Ject makes excellent players. Zero plastic anywhere except the dust cover, European company and hand made in Europe, so you’re not supporting American business if that’s important to you, and even their lower end players are still very well made with all the features you’d want (adjustable anti-skate and counterweight, switch between 33/45/78 rpm, soft drop for the needle so it doesn’t hurt the record, high quality materials, comes with a pretty decent diamond cartridge, etc) plus they tend to be pretty easily upgradable. Audio-Technica is also supposedly pretty good at that price range but I never found one I loved, meanwhile every Pro-Ject I’ve messed around with has been a genuine pleasure to operate. I’m not an expert but I do have a bit of a hobbyist knowledge and experience if anyone has questions.

I've been thinking for years now about picking up one again that can run RockBox. Used to live out of an iPod nano with that, and didn't have to carry flash drives. Just plug the usb cable into a computer and use it as one. A lot of modern music apps still aren't as fully featured when it comes to on the fly playlist creation.