Did you grow up with a record player/console in your house, did your family listen to much music? 

I was an 80s baby so I grew up with cassette tapes mostly. For my 3rd birthday all I wanted was a pink tape player and a Bon Jovi tape. I can’t help but think that this moment was where my love of music and quirky design came in. As far as the music in my family, my dad was a huge Zeppelin, Van Halen, Lou Reed fan so those are some of my earliest musical memories. My mom loved people like Queen, Bowie, Skynard, and Aerosmith. However, I think my the person who had the biggest impact on my musical taste was my older brother, Jason, who sparked my love for a lot of weird alternative and indie bands. He taught me about The Pixies & Frank Black, Nirvana, all of Steve Albini’s projects, My Bloody Valentine, Magnetic Fields (Stephin Merritt), Jesus & Mary Chain and so many more that I could go on about this question alone for 10 pages! Also, I’m from Texas and have a lot of family members who play country music so there was a lot of Willie Nelson and classic country music happening during family festivities!

FUN FACT: I one time got hired for a job assisting a famous Japanese rock star because I told him that my favorite music was Nirvana and Garth Brooks. He hired me on the spot because he thought it was so ridiculous!

What was the first vinyl record LP that you purchased?

I believe it was Queen “A Night at the Opera” for .99 at Goodwill.

Do you have a listening room in your house, what’s your current setup like?  

We have about 10 “listening rooms” at our house thanks to Dan. Every room in our house has a record player/audio system of some sort. Even our bathroom has some sort of hybrid tube amp contraption Dan set up. Our living room has a Soundburger / Mister Disc portable record player that comes through our surround sound. Our bedroom has a Barbie Disco suitcase style record player I got at Goodwill that we refurbished and it actually sounds fairly good all things considered. Our office has a U-Turn turntable that Dan uses to test out a lot of our new speakers and listen to when he’s working. Last but not least, we finally just brought home one of our KC27 consoles that lives in our dining room. It sits at the end of our 12 foot dining table so it’s the perfect entertainment and conversation piece. (We would have brought the EGB2 but it didn’t fit properly, that thing is a beast!) We even currently have it voice activated so you can yell at it to play stuff for you which is pretty fun after a few cocktails!

What did you do before you started LUNO?

I moved to Los Angeles from Texas in 2003 to go to acting school – isn’t that why everyone comes to LA?! After a year of that, I realized that it wasn’t for me and I really like being behind the scenes. My boyfriend at the time was in a band and his manager also managed The Killers so I started helping him out occasionally. Also, all of my friends that I had met when I moved out here were musicians. I wasn’t even really aware of the “the industry” side of things before moving to LA nor had I considered it a career option, but found it fascinating and it seemed like everything was pointing me in that direction. I enrolled in MI and studied music business and interned at Interscope Records. From there, I went on to do radio promotion, marketing for a startup music platform, promotion for live venue, assisting a famous rock star, and artist relations for a guitar company. I dabbled in a bit of everything on the marketing side of the industry and absolutely loved it. It’s still my dream to someday own a beautiful live venue that I can design and Dan can do sound – future LUNO Lounge idea!? Working on the live side of things was by far my favorite experience. Everyday was something different and it was never boring. I loved being able to create experiences that allowed people to have a good time, which is something we try to do with LUNO. After I got laid off from my last industry gig, I had decided that I didn’t want to work for anyone ever again – it was natural for me as I’m stubborn as hell and both of my parents are entrepreneurs so it is in my DNA. While I was working on a startup I’d wanted to do for a while called BandPass (similar to MoviePass but for music) and trying to figure out my plan, I started painting vintage furniture in my garage as a hobby. I ended up putting some of it on Craigslist for fun and it sold. So I did more, and it sold. BandPass soon took a backseat. People soon started asking me for custom pieces, then started asking me build stuff for them (WTF) so I just sort of figured it out by being extremely obsessive and persistent! It was a very organic process and nothing I ever intended to do, but I fell in love with the design process. I studied and stalked everyone I could who knew anything about it sometimes hanging out at paint stores for hours on end. Just a few years later, we now have 2 successful furniture lines and LUNO has allowed me to combine my love of music & design. We’re planning on launching new products at ICFF 2019 and talking about doing a design show in NY this October, as well.

It sounds like you’ve met a lot of celebrities in your work, any stories you can share?

I think it’s inevitable that living in Los Angeles, you’re going to meet and know celebrities especially when working in the entertainment industry. One that stands out in my mind is when I met Paul Stanley of KISS when I was working at Daisy Rock. It was Halloween and I had no idea he was coming by and I was wearing a Kurt Cobain costume, as I would. He was not in a costume. It was such a random experience and he was super nice! I also got to meet Shonen Knife, who I had been a fan of for a while. We ended up becoming friends and they sent Dan and I a wedding gift that we still have, a beautiful Sake Set! Meeting Davey Havok from AFI deserves an honorable mention too because he’s one of the nicest people on the planet.

If you could make a custom hifi console for anyone, who would it be, describe the style and design for us?

My original intention of doing a lot of the custom designs (such as Prince, Bowie, etc) was to make them for the artists, sadly they never came to fruition. I really love the design and customization process and the ability to make something so wild that totally reflects a specific person’s style. I’m currently obsessed with trying to make a Yeezy console for Kanye. Dan and I are HUGE Kanye fans and Kanye is also a huge interior design and furniture fan and I recently read that he’s opening up a Yeezy architecture branch so I think it’s in the realm of possibility?!

What speaks to you about mid-century modern style?

Mid Century Modern style evokes a nostalgic feeling. When we launched at ICFF almost every person that came into our booth (one of them being Terry Crews) immediately would smile and say “this brings back some memories.” This is the exact feeling we wanted to create and the Mid Century Grandma aesthetic brought that to the table.

If you could choose one record to describe yourself, what would it be and why?

Neil Young’s ‘Harvest’ because damn near every song on that record is perfect and relatable.

“Think I’ll pack it in and buy a pick-up

Take it down to L.A.

Find a place to call my own

and try to fix up.

Start a brand new day”

Can you explain to someone what the experience of having one of your record consoles is like?

From someone who doesn’t know much about audio, I can say that they sound like being at a live concert. Dan is a phenomenal live sound engineer and really makes it feel like an immersive experience. We even had a customer once say as soon as we turned up the volume “Sounds like a concert!” – there is a video to prove it! In terms of the design, we tried to take a lot of aspects of the vintage players that we liked and clean them up a bit. I used Marshall Grill Cloth to really make it feel as authentic to the old stereo cabinets as possible. For our custom consoles, the sky’s the limit, you want me to wrap one in hundred dollar bills or add a mini-fridge – let’s do it! The funkier, the better! I’m up for the challenge.

What was your first concert, who did you see and what impression did that have on you?

The first concert I saw alone with friends was The Smashing Pumpkins Zero Tour in 97 or 98, I believe. I was hooked from that day forward. I remember going to the after party at a local club called Numbers hoping they would be there (they weren’t.) I’m still upset about that. Call me, Billy.

Can you tell us about the creative process of making one of your record consoles? Where do you take your inspiration from?

Typically it starts out with me seeing something I like and trying to incorporate it into one of our pieces somehow. No matter if our cabinet makers tell us it’s not possible, we always figure out a way! I’ll send my sketches to our designer and he’ll make them actually look good (and realistic) not like a 5 year old drew them. From there, my cabinet makers and I figure out what is and isn’t doable – the former always wins if I have anything to say about it! Dan spent a lot of time developing the audio components and sound quality of the consoles so we do have certain restrictions we’re working with but in terms of the cabinets & design aspect, we can get pretty funky (within reason) as long as the materials don’t affect or hinder the sound in any way. It’s a bit of trial and error when working on new designs. Most of my inspiration comes from pop culture, I would say, I’ve always been fascinated by it.

You’ve designed a lot of very unique custom hifi record consoles, can you tell us about a couple of your favorites?

My favorite to date by far is the new Limited Edition piece we just designed. I can’t get too much into it until we announce it but it’s stunning and was an extremely complicated process. It took multiple people with various skills to pull it off.  Besides that, I did a really cool Louis Vuitton piece that I’m in love with, and the Bowie was very interesting because the base had a welded constellation pattern which looked really amazing.

Can you tell us a little about what’s coming up for LUNO?

We have a new Limited Edition console coming up that we collaborated on with a famous artist so keep your eyes peeled for that! I’m extremely proud of the design, it was a long  process but the end result is phenomenal and some of the best work we’ve done. We also have a desktop/portable type console that we’ve been working on for a while that will be announced soon, as well as several cabinet designs sans equipment. We also collaborated with a whiskey company on multiple pieces that they’re using for a giveaway so you may have a chance to win one! Lastly, we’re in the process of moving our listening room aka “LUNO Lounge”, production facility, showroom, all under one roof so that’s really exciting! We’ll be able to hold inventory, have listening parties and all that cool stuff that’s been difficult to do so far.

I hear you’re also a musician, can you tell us a little about that and your current project?

I wouldn’t really call myself a “musician” per se. I learned to play bass for a band called Ghostel than Dan, I, and our friend Bryce had for a little while. It was super fun and our song “Buckley Get Your Gun” got a placement in the trailer of an Oscar nominated film called “Mustang” so that was pretty wild and got us a decent amount of attention. I’m not formally trained on any instruments and pretty much only know how to play our songs! I sort of made up my own tablature and Dan worked with me and taught me in a way that I understood.  It’s a really fun experience and I love the rush of being on stage and hope to do it again soon. The full album entitled 1414 was just released on Spotify. Currently, we’re so busy with LUNO and MVV that Dan and I write some songs here and there for fun and hope to turn those into a new project at some point in the future and release it on vinyl!

If you could give anyone a single piece of advice what would it be and why?

My dad always told me you gotta spend money to make money! So basically buy one of our damn consoles and it’ll make you rich!!!! No, but seriously, in the words of one of my favorite professors “Try to make one room in your house as beautiful as possible.”

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Electrohome Apollo 711

Electrohome Record Console – Mid-Century Modern Hifi Record Consoles

These bubble-domed record consoles proved to be a lasting style icon of the 1960’s, with its futuristic sci-fi design, it could blend in your typical mid-century modern home or on the deck of a interplanetary space craft. Electrohome, was well known for having manufactured the first phonographs in Canada, and would later go on to become a television broadcaster in their country. By 1965 after a period of tremendous growth Electrohome products would be available in 23 countries around the globe, and they would become very well known for producing the Electrohome Apollo 711, named for NASA’s famed launches. During the lounge music revival of the 1990’s this striking record player from space would end up on album covers, magazine photo shoots and featured in films that wanted to reference this incredible era of style and design.

David Bowie’s Custom Brionvega Record Player

david-bowie Brionvega turntable – Mid-Century Modern Hifi Record Consoles

This custom record console, made for Mr. Stardust, was conceived as a “musical pet.” This incredible turntable was able to fetch a whopping $324,000 at a recent auction. Brionvega an Italian company that also produced other notable designs, including the “Cubo” television, which is on permanent display in the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Clairtone Project G

Clairtone Project G – Mid-Century Modern Hifi Record Consoles

One of the most unique designs from the mid-century modern era of stereo consoles is this series of players, known as Clairtone Project G. With its instantly recognizable globe shaped speakers, and space aged minimalism. This was an extremely high end console when it sold originally, with a price tag around $2000 in the mid-1960s. Clairtone, a Canadian company, became an extremely well known design of the day, even though only less than 400 units were ever made. It gained notoriety from features by celebrities like Frank Sinatra and a feature on the set of The Graduate.

PAAM Tube Turntable

PAAM TUBE TURNTABLE – Mid-Century Modern Hifi Record Consoles

Europe provided of the most interesting designs of the mid-century modern era of style, with this French design from 1968. The aeronautics-trained designer created this eye-catching cylindrical stereo turntable, with built-in speakers on both sides.

Weltron 2007

Weltron 2007 – Mid-Century Modern Hifi Record Consoles

Appropriately referred to as the “spaceship” this unit added an AM/FM radio and cassette deck built into one compact unit, it is said that the Weltron 2007 was inspired by Stanley Kubrick’s masterpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey. The Weltron 2007 made it’s debut at the Consumer Electronics Show in 1975, and sold for $399, which today is equivalent to over $1,800 adjusted for inflation.

If you enjoyed this tour through some of our favorite turntables and record consoles of the space age mid-century modern era, take a look at our versions of their modern day counterparts, such as our EGB2 Record Console,  KC27 Record Console, J2B2 Record Console, and the beautiful standalone cabinet (without turntable) THE SHELL.

The post TOP 5 VINTAGE MID-CENTURY MODERN RECORD CONSOLES appeared first on Luno.

Dear LUNO,

I’ve been looking into purchasing a vintage mid-century modern record console from the 1960s, and some of the models I’ve considered look like they’re in excellent condition, but are selling way above what I’ve noticed the original price tags were. Are vintage vinyl console record players worth the price, and how do they stack up against just investing in a new stereo console? What should I look for in a record console beyond the basic style that I’ve been seeking? 

Thanks in advance for your response,

“Confused Console Shopper”

~~~~~~

Hi “Confused,”

Where to begin? There are so many options out there for vintage record consoles, and a wide variety of quality. Depending on the brand you’re looking at, the price for some of the rarer heirloom vintage stereo record consoles, or collectors pieces, can be astronomical.

Here’s the main issue, most vintage 1960’s consoles weren’t known for impeccable sound quality, so depending on whether you’re looking to use the piece as a decoration, or as an actual daily use working hifi stereo system, should help you decide if you should look for a brand new versus a vintage unit. Consoles like our EGB2, and other brand new mid-century modern style consoles have significantly better components than they put into their classic 1960’s predecessors.

You should also check to see if the console you’re looking into has all of its original components, or if they’ve been updated to new equipment, which in many cases will give you much greater fidelity. For the money, purchasing a new unit can give you exactly what you’re looking for, and in many cases with LUNO’s consoles, you can customize some of the features, so you find exactly what you’re looking for.

Another suggestion is to look for units that are entirely analog, many new record consoles have equipment that allows you to output to a digital signal, and other digital equipment, which compresses the full original analog signal into a digital signal, and kind of defeats the purpose of listening to a vinyl record. LUNO’s record consoles are 100% full analog from stylus to speaker, giving you the warmth and fullness that analog records are so well known for.

If you have a specific console that you have questions about drop us another line, and we’re always glad to help out!

Yours truly in interior design,

LUNO

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THREE CLUBS

This may not sound like a complement, but Three Clubs seems like a place that Leonard Cohen and Nick Cave would meet up to shoot heroin. It’s very dark, it embodies the style and comforts of another era, but it has a version of class that is almost so out of place in 2018 that it becomes a little seedy. Their jukebox is CD based, but its selection is fantastic and covers some bases that really suit their environment, and put them on the map as one of our favorite Los Angeles jukebox landmarks.

THE 101 COFFEE SHOP

There’s no better place to get the old school Los Angeles coffee shop experience, and play some incredible music, than The 101 Coffee Shop. An institution for generations of hipsters, but in this case the hipsters got it right. Hanging out here you get to touch a bygone that we all seem to long for, a simpler time that was richer in many ways, but somehow we keep pushing further away from into the complexity of technology. Great food, awesome jukebox, need we say anymore?

SWINGERS

Another great fixture of the classic Los Angeles coffee shops, Swingers is well known for having a very eclectic jukebox. Their selection over the years has included titles from artists as diverse as Bjork, The Smiths and Link Wray. After a night out at Hollywood clubs, most likely listening to some form of the current top-40 music being blasted at a volume that makes it almost impossible to realize how bad it really is, Swingers lets you unwind over some great food, conversation with your friends with a background of incredible music.

SEVEN GRAND

A whiskey bar that is as luxurious and handsomely decorated as you could possibly hope for, with the added bonus of an amazing selection of tracks on their jukebox. Some nights they have a live jazz combo, which is always a great night out too. But my favorite nights here are those when you get to pick out tracks from the albums you love, enjoy some incredible whiskey cocktails and just talk about music.

JOHNNIES PASTRAMI

Not the first place that may come to mind when you think of jukebox, but they have them, and the also have a pastrami sandwich that’s so good, it could make many vegetarians rethink their stance on eating meat. This place is caught in a time-warp, but in the best way possible. When you’re here enjoying one of the best late night food spots anywhere in the world, listening to Elvis, you start to realize what a special place Los Angeles is, and how lucky those are who explore it and discover its secrets.

The post The Best Los Angeles Jukeboxes | LUNO appeared first on Luno.

The Hidden Whiskey Bar

Let’s get started with a bang, easily our favorite feature of LUNO’s mid-century modern style record console, the discrete whiskey bar. It’s your own hidden turntable powered speakeasy, and comes with 4 beautiful gold rimmed whiskey glasses. It has the capacity to hold 4 full average sized whiskey or wine bottles, just in case you want to change it up. It really is the perfect complement to your favorite classic vinyl LP, check out the whiskey bar on one of our most popular consoles The EGB2.

Standard Marshall Salt & Pepper Grill Cloth

One of the coolest things to know about LUNO’s record consoles is that they come with the standard Marshall salt & pepper grill cloth, it doesn’t get more classic than that, Marshall amplifier grill cloth! You actually have one of the most iconic elements from the history of rock & roll music built in as part of the DNA of LUNO’s record consoles.

Apple & Airplay Compatibility

Airplay compatibility means you can connect your other Apple compatible devices and stream them on your high quality LUNO stereo console, giving you an extremely full and rich audio experience. One of the comments people frequently make is how impressed they are by the enveloping sound that comes out of our consoles. Which actually gets at another feature that we didn’t have room to include, which is high quality audio components, that are hand-wired by our in-house audio gurus.

Deceptively Large Vinyl Storage Capacity

When you slide open the cabinet doors, you will see a perfectly measured space to store your copious vinyl collection. This baby holds 150 standard size vinyl records, and believe me you’re going to need after you hear one of these record consoles in person. Every record you currently own in any other format, you will begin a mad hunt to track it down in its original pure analog format.

Line-In Other Media & Audio Sources

The thing I love most is being able to connect other older analog tape players through the built-in amp and console speakers. It makes even these old tapes sound rich and warm, and the EQ controls it gives you, allow you to adjust for some of the deficiencies and decay that can be found as tapes age. Also, if you want to have the coolest looking home theater setup known to man, this unit can act as the core of your surround sound, and then some.

The post Coolest Features of a Mid-Century Modern HiFi Record Console | LUNO appeared first on Luno.

EGB2 RECORD CONSOLE

KC27 RECORD CONSOLE

The Shell Stereo Cabinet

• 2 Door Options
• 2 Leg Options
• 2 Finish Options

The post LUNO Guide To Record Cabinet Customization appeared first on Luno.

IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER THE BEST YACHT ROCK VINYL RECORDS EVER MADE

STEELY DAN – AJA

One of the funkiest albums ever recorded that you could also fall asleep to. This apple falls closer to the smooth jazz tree, but these ice cold jams will treat you real nice when when you’re out for a dinner with that special lady at the Bonaventure hotel, or taking an ocean drive in your metallic blue Lamborghini Countach, coked out of your mind. There are a lot of great Steely Dan records, once you fall down the SD rabbit hole, most fans never resurface and become raving evangelists of this incredible band.

ROXY MUSIC – AVALON

Many would want to strangle me for including this on a yacht rock list, but it ticks all of the boxes of our nautical genre. Not only is this album front to back flawless, it blends the sophisticated synth sound that brought Roxy Music into the 1980s. From its timeless classic “More Than This” to the etherial fantasy of “True To Life,” this album has some of the best studio recordings translated to vinyl I have ever heard.

THE DOOBIE BROTHERS – MINUTE BY MINUTE

All I have to say about this one is four grammys, count ’em 1, 2, 3, 4.  If that’s not enough for you, my secondary evidence is “What A Fool Believes.” Michael McDonald has one of the most distinctive and beautiful male voices of the 70s and 80s, he went on to achieve some of the greatest achievements of the Yacht Rock genre, this entire post could be dedicated to this somewhat under appreciated genius.

MIAMI SOUND MACHINE – PRIMITIVE LOVE

This album has almost all of the tracks that you love but may not know are performed by Miami Sound Machine. This album is a monster, I call this record soft proto-freestyle, but where it gained popularity was in the safe spaces that smooth jazz and adult contemporary provided during 1985. Gloria Estefan absolutely kills it on “Bad Boys,” “Conga,” and “Falling In love (Uh-Oh),” how did albums in the 80s each contain an endless amount singles?

DOUBLE – BLUE

A song that was un-escapeable between the years of 1986 and 1989, “Captain Of Her Heart,” was soothing yet haunting, and as beautiful and reassuring as the yacht itself. What many did not appreciate at the time, mostly because they were a one hit wonder in the US, was how great Kurt Maloo’s voice came across on every single track of their magnum opus Blue. This record could be the dictionary definition of what smooth jazz is, and defined the mellow sound of the elegant 80s, so much so that you’d swear this album was recorded on a yacht.

HALL & OATES – H2O

You can’t have this list without Hall & Oates, and it’s an extremely difficult decision as to which of their albums most deserves to be on this list. This one edges out Private Eyes primarily for how incredible this vinyl record sounds, and the diamond pristine production that went into making this one of the most iconic albums of the 1980s.

STEVE WINWOOD – BACK IN THE HIGHLIFE

Winwood has been a part of so many great music projects, but it’s hard to see any resemblance between the LSD traveler who sang “Dear Mr. Fantasy” with Traffic in the 60s reflected at all in the peak of his commercial success, Back In The Highlife. If you don’t think you know Winwood, you most probably do, his songs “Higher Love” and “The Finer Things” still haunt waiting rooms until this very day.

CHRISTOPHER CROSS – CHRISTOPHER CROSS

The only thing more impressive than McDonald’s 4 grammys with The Doobie Brothers, are the 5 that Christopher Cross won for his extremely impressive debut, that many refer to as the blueprint for yacht rock, referring to his timelessly smooth classic “Sailing.” His voice is as clear and beautiful as a horn, clearly an angel walking among us.

FLEETWOOD MAC – TANGO IN THE NIGHT

If you thought you couldn’t make Fleetwood Mac into an 80s band, think again. Lindsay Buckingham lead this incredible band into some of the most complex productions, and vocal arrangements of their career. This album is so smooth, there are literally almost no words to describe it. Every convention that 1980s production came to be known for is distilled here into one record. If you need to put on something to come down from listening to all of Christopher Cross from front to back, this could be one of the few records worthy of that challenge.

Please make sure that you listen to these albums responsibly on a quality hifi stereo record console.

The post The Best Vinyl Records Ever Made – Yacht Rock Edition | LUNO appeared first on Luno.

“In April 1968, the unique and very special Beatles movie „Yellow Submarine“ came into the cinemas. It was one of their most famous pieces in history. Now, fifty years later Apple Corps Ltd and Universal Music Group are reintroducing this movie, restored in 4k digital resolution. In order to offer Beatles fans of all ages the enjoyment of watching this one of a kind experience. The movie will be released across many cinemas in Northern America with remixed 5.1 stereo surround sound.”

“As big fans of the work of the Beatles, we are proud to introduce this collaboration and number five of our Beatles series. The Yellow Submarine turntable has a unique shape and is sure to attract a lot of attention from Beatles fans. By adding a glass platter to the turntable it has been made sure that this masterpiece won‘t get covered and can be enjoyed in its full glory.
The supplied cartridge comes from Ortofon. Especially for this edition, Ortofon has created a yellow Concorde cartridge, called Sonar. The S-shaped aluminum arm adds a touch of harmony to the sound. Special decoupling feet make sure that the turntable is safely standing on its ground.”

• Unique special Yellow Submarine look
• Belt-drive with synchronous motor
• Ortofon Concorde quality pickup
• Vibration absorbing feet
• Glass platter
• Rigide MDF chassis
• Highly precise and light aluminium tonearm
• Saphire-tonearm bearing
• Gold-plated contacts
• Silicon belt with optimum dampening
• Hand-made in Europe

Speed 33,45 (manual speed change)
Principle Belt drive
Speed variance 33: 0.60% 45: 0.50%
Wow & Flutter 33: 0.19% 45: 0.17%
Platter 300 mm glas with felt mat
Main bearing Brass with teflon plate
Tonearm 8.6” aluminium
Effective arm length 218.5 mm
Overhang 18.5 mm
Effective tonearm mass 6.0 g
Counterweight for mass 2 – 5.0 g
Tracking force range 0 – 25mN Power consumption 4.0 Watt max
Dimensions 500 x 120 x 400 mm (WxHxD)
Weight 4.5 kg netto

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