Triple Inchophone plays 3-inch records and doles out street cred
By Paul Miller 
posted Oct 14th 2005 7:30AM
posted Oct 14th 2005 7:30AM
In the grand tradition of people putting up with crap to get ahold of their precious indie rock, we have the Triple Inchophone. The White Stripes have just started selling these 3-inch vinyl spinners exclusively on their live tour, along with their major singles in the rather odd format. They're also releasing a 3-inch only original titled "top special" that should make the Sub Pop singles club proud. They originally planned to put about 3,000 of these players into the hands of rabid hipsters, but that number got narrowed down to 400 so good luck obtaining one.
This is just an idea, I don't know if it's possible or not.
It would be interesting if you could encode MP3 onto a vinyl, and then be able to play it back on one of these. Of course, that would mean you would need an MP3 vinyl writer. I can see the limitations however. You would lose alot of the sound if you got even a hair or a scratch on the vinyl as MP3 is compressed WAV. It wouldn't just sound like a blip.
Can you imagine the hip factor if something like this came out. It would be cooler than owning a "video" Ipod.
that already exists. http://www.rane.com/scratch.html
its used for bigger turntables but i bet it would work for that.
Talk about mad style.
#2 the serato scratch live doesn't write mp3's to vinyl, it manipulates an mp3 using a timecoded vinyl.
very different.
I think it feasable to put digital information on vinyl, but can you imaging the size the records would have to be! Let alone the rotation speed...actually scrub that... I'm not sure you would be able to play in real time. You'd have to load the song like "old skool" data cassettes for c64's etc.
I think that's why CD's came about..lol
What I'm afraid of is when they start getting nostalgic about 8-track players.
You can make your own mini vinyl player with a straight pin, some construction paper, scotch tape, and a lazy suzan spinning-type thing. And it works, too.
McGuyver it, yo.
Vestax Vinyl Recorder:
http://www.vestax.com/v/recorders/recorders.html
I own a turntable and collect vinyl records, and I find this silly. Is there any point to this other than the, "I'm more indie than you!", angle?
I saw this thing at the White Stripes show in Maryland. I can't remember the exact figure, but I believe they were going for around $125 including a few of the records.
If it had been around $60 I might have considered it. I love vinyl, and it looked pretty cool in person, but I also doubt how many more of those discs will be released.
Check out...
http://cgi.ebay.com/White-Stripes-Triple-Inchophone-7-singles-TOP-SPECIAL_W0QQitemZ7553183852QQcategoryZ86011QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
Looks like you can order the HMV-badged version of the player for $45 shipped from a seller in Hong Kong: http://cgi.ebay.com/BANDAI-HMV-LIMITED-PORTABLE-RECORD-PLAYER-RECORD_W0QQitemZ6543862579QQcategoryZ1442QQssPageNameZWD1VQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
Um, I just can't believe that you referenced the Sub Pop Singles Club.
For all you youngsters, here's the link:
http://www.subpop.com/singlesclub
There's a history section on the bottom.
The "Triple Inchophone" is actually the Bandai "8 Ban", and while it's still hard to find, it should cost you a lot less than $125.
Those singles, on the other hand.... the sky's the limit, at least as long as anyone cares about the White Stripes.