![](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0672/2283/1394/files/roberts-ad-from-martin.jpg)
Fit for a King (Marilyn King of the King Sisters, that is): the Roberts 990 stereo tape recorder. Courtesy of the Museum of Magnetic Sound Recording.
![](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0672/2283/1394/files/c-david-hewitt-sony-manual.jpg)
Recording engineer and TEC award winner David Hewitt's personal manual for the Sony PCM-1610, an early digital recorder. He recounts a story about the early Sony machines: "It was at an early Sony digital display at an AES Convention in New York. They were playing what I dimly remember as a live digital recording I had done on a Sony PCM-3324, when a well-known engineer started a rant about digital recordings 'instantly damaging your hearing!' The 3324 was out of his sight behind some other display. We let him blather on for a while before exposing the rolling digital tape. We didn’t ask how his hearing was... Sometimes it’s better to do like the Frank Zappa album says: Shut up and play your guitar!"
![](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0672/2283/1394/files/harman-kardon-turntable-3.jpg)
A stunning harman/kardon ST-6 turntable circa 1977 – 1981, complete with Rabco tangential tracking arm! Photo by Howard Kneller, from The Audio Classics Collection.
![](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0672/2283/1394/files/c-rca-magic-brain-1940.jpg)
Our heads are spinning over this 1940s RCA Victrola record changer ad.
Howard Kneller’s audio and art photography can be found on Instagram (@howardkneller, @howardkneller.photog) and Facebook (@howardkneller).