If there are national days for spaghetti and cleaning your room, then it's only right for there to be one for the oldest and most popular audio format in history. And thankfully, there is.
National Vinyl Record Day is celebrated in the United States every year on 12th August to commemorate the day Thomas Edison invented the phonograph in 1877. (Because, as detailed in our brief history of the turntable, the phonograph really was the founding father of turntables as we spin them today.)
So what better time to learn all about turntables and vinyl? We've prepared a handy guide that includes everything from the best ways to set up your turntable and hear your records at their best, to our pick of songs that sound best on vinyl and the record stories to visit before you die...
The history of vinyl...
- A brief history of the turntable and vinyl records
- How does a vinyl record make a sound?
- How a turntable is made
- How a vinyl record is cut at Abbey Road
- 12 of the weirdest vinyl records ever made
Hear your records at their best
- How to set up a turntable
- How to replace the cartridge on your turntable
- How to get the best sound from your turntable
- 14 of the best turntable accessories for better vinyl sound
The best turntables
- Best record players
- Best budget record players
- The best 15 turntables of What Hi-Fi?'s lifetime
- The best turntables of the 21st century
- 3 great music systems for playing vinyl
Record round-ups
