Filled with full-color photos of phonographs throughout the ages, a book such as Revolution: The History of Turntable Design might seem to mostly pitch toward the latter variety of vinyl enthusiast. However it would be short-sighted to dismiss Gideon Schwartz's new book as mere audiophile porno. While the photos that seem to be the main feature of this book will certainly scratch all the itches of anyone looking to drool over big-horned gramophones, luxury consoles, art-deco jukeboxes, peachy portables, Rube-Goldberg-esque modern players, and the sci-fi awesomeness of the Electrohome Apollo, the photos really support Schwartz's text rather than the other way around. Revolution is a borderline academic history of the turntable with writing closer to what you'd expect from a monograph than a coffee table book.
Schwartz tracks the record player from its earliest days as a blueprint on the desk of Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville in 1857 through its current high-end/high-tech iterations. He explains how the stereo cartridge came to be, how the microgroove disc revitalized the industry and helped the LP to usurp the 78, and how the tonearm evolved in the seventies, with no shortage of technical detail. For those looking for fun, you'll mostly get it from the photos, which are appealingly presented, well-sized, and as varied as the subtopics Schwartz addresses, but his main motivation is to educate, and he does a very effective job of that.
