Analogs: Joel Scilley's "Audiowood" turntables

Joel Scilley is a thinking man's carpenter, having grabbed an MA from Carnegie Mellon and a PhD in media studies from Pitt before heading back to the Bay Area to make handcrafted turntables. Like you do.

Scilley makes some out of his "Audiowood" players out of burlwood that has a more organic feel. Others look more modern. Having grown up in the Ozarks, I'm somewhat inured to the charms of burlwood crafts, so I prefer the modern ones, but "Barky", the model below made from a cross-section of a trunk, it downright cute.

The Audiowood designs will be shown off in Oakland starting the 14th. [via Mocoloco]

[#1 posted by Anonymous , March 11, 2009 2:53 PM]

reminds me of 'hottest year on record' @

http://www.vodstrup.com/bbw/work/hottest_year.htm

[#2 posted by obi1kenobi1 , March 11, 2009 3:39 PM]

I'm all for turntables looking good, but when it comes down to price I prefer audio quality to design. There are many turntables that are ridiculously expensive simply because they "look cool." The most extreme example I have seen:

http://www.needledoctor.com/Clearaudio-Statement-Turntable?sc=2&category=347

That being said, however, I do think turntables should look good, like my current turntable, a Pro-Ject Debut III: a simple minimalist slab with great audio quality.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/obi1kenobi1/2848429961/

Those wood turntables do look very cool, though, and I have to say I have never seen any pieces of electronic equipment that look quite like the tree trunk turntables. I guess if you can afford a custom turntable and want something different, there is nothing wrong with buying one of these. But seriously, the $150,000 turntable I linked to is insane by any stretch of the imagination.

[#3 posted by efnord , March 11, 2009 7:16 PM]

"Barky" there looks to be made out of the guts of a Rega Planar 3 / P3 turntable:

http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&rlz=1C1GGLS_enUS291US304&q=rega%20p3&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi

[#4 posted by LightningRose , March 12, 2009 10:10 AM]

The second one could have been inspired by the back cover of the Jethro Tull album, "Songs From the Wood".

http://tralfaz-archives.com/coverart/J/jethro_tull_wood.html

[#5 posted by sparkdale , March 12, 2009 1:27 PM]

...Or Jurassic 5's "Quality Control".

http://tinyurl.com/c4kkbf

[#6 posted by LightningRose , March 12, 2009 3:49 PM]

Except "Songs From the Wood" predates "Quality Control" by a couple of decades. :)