Audio-Technica: outside of DJ-mainstay brands like Technics, probably the most dependable turntable brand in the world. If you’re getting an Audio-Technica record player, whether it’s a bare-bones budget spinner or a full-featured direct-drive workhorse, you’re guaranteed to be getting something somewhat good. It speaks to the brand’s storied history with turntables – one of tradition, innovation, and… burgers?
The Audio-Technica ‘Sound Burger’ (sold in the US as the ‘Mister Disc’) was a 1983 invention, a short-lived but surprisingly good portable record player, doomed by coming along just as other, infinitely more portable audio formats started to take the centre stage. Despite this relative impracticality, the Sound Burger gained a cultish fandom of its own in the intervening years – a combination of its strikingly ‘80s design and trademark Audio-Technica smarts. And now it’s back.
