than a novelty-store chain? I looked at the website of "Newbury Comics, a chain of 29 music and merchandise stores in New England, has sold 400 turntables since it started selling them in June..." and they sell one turntable, the Ion @ $99 a pop.

Now, I'm not suggesting that people new to vinyl spend thousands on a turntable/arm/cartridge/phono preamp combination, but if there is one thing that will sink any interest in vinyl from the perspective of its superiority to digital audio, will be listening to records on a $99 'table. Why didnt they ask Audio Advisor or Music Direct, how many turntables they sold in the past year?

At least they could have mentioned the Pro-Ject SUB turntable, which at $399 costs little more than a top of the line iPod, and probably sounds dozens of times better than the uber-plastic ion.

Then again, the article looks at it more as fad than as a better sound.

Any attention is good, I suppose.