The man, the 50,000-times is listening to the same record
"I'm totally under pressure": Albert Lukascheks work is in demand worldwide. (Video: Dominique Meienberg, Jean-Yves Mertenat)
From Lynn Scheurer
09/14/2014
When the phone rings for the second time, Albert Lukaschek pulls the plug. He has Feierabend and short needs rest. Before the merchants who push for replenishment, and the customers who are waiting for repairs.
Albert Lukaschek poses with his company manufactures Benz Micro Cartridges for turntables. The die at the end of Plattenspielerarms, in which the needle lies. He is a few grams and crucial for the sound: The needle samples the groove of the disc from, the pickup converts the mechanical vibrations into electrical voltage to, in audio signals to the speakers. Some music lovers are willing to pay 5000 francs for a good conversion.
In Neuhausen Rhine Falls Lukaschek displays the devices ago, he sold all over the world: USA, Germany, France, South Korea, Ukraine, Turkey, Philippines, Brazil, South Africa - it would be easier to list the countries that does not provide in the Lukaschek. Traders speak of the "very large elite". For hi-fi editor Helmut Hack count the pickup "in the high-end range of the best systems in the world." According to highly respected they would in audiophile circles. The company has repeatedly won awards. Moreover, the record is experiencing a renaissance. Between 2006 and 2012, sales increased fivefold almost - it increased from 36 to 171 million dollars worldwide. Lukaschek sold mostly more expensive pickups that cost between 2000 and 4000 francs. He does so about a million francs in sales per year. It could not be better.
Customers want more
Albert Lukaschek holds her breath, then he sighs: "I'm totally under pressure.» The 69-year-old Austrian-born is a qualified radio technician and was five years ago for the last time during the holidays. While speaking, he spreads his arms, his blue eyes fix the Opposite repeatedly insistently. The reason for his stress: No pickups will be sold before it Lukaschek has not been intercepted and found to be good.
This is his most important - and in addition to the management of the company - its only job. For hours he controlled every day, whether a pickup cause harmful resonances, delays or reverb. For over 20 years he used this same disk. A jazz album of the year 1977 on the basis of serial numbers Lukaschek know that he has now produced over 42,000 pickups. "At least as many times have I heard this record," he says. The consequence of the single control: Benz Micro can annually produce only about 3000 pieces. Far too little from the perspective of traders and vinyl fans. Hence the many calls, therefore the pressure.
On a Friday evening, Albert Lukaschek takes time and leads through the small production space in Neuhausen, reminiscent of a watchmaker exchange. Not quite by chance: Benz Micro belonged until 1994 to the entrepreneur and watchmaker Ernst Benz. He died in the summer, his picture hangs on the wall. The workspaces are reminiscent of a watchmaker's workshop: microscopes, forceps, tweezers and container full of tiny screws. Nine women work for Lukaschek and assemble the pickups on hand. There are housewives who Lukaschek itself has formed.
When he took over the company on 1 April 1994, they had two people and a turbulent history. Until the early 80s Ernst Benz had successfully made diamond needles for turntables and employs around 40 people. With the advent of the CD record sales plummeted, Benz rose to the production of pickups. But according Lukaschek the quality control was not yet so sophisticated: "At the end of the price-performance ratio agreed no more."
In addition Benz had emptied the camp and sold all pickups before the company gave Lukaschek. "A resinous start." Lukaschek set to work to improve the quality of the products, he had no investors. But the vinyl lovers wanted to continue good sounding turntable, and were empty as the stock of dealer for nine months, they bought supplies. Lukaschek was over the hill.
Today, at 69, he says that he would like to work as long as he can. At the same time he is worried about who could take over the company once and ensure the quality of the pickups. Until that someone found, he continues to work 80 to 90 hours per week. If you ask him why he does this job, says Lukaschek that he music love. He wants them to sound as good as possible. But also that he "a slave of his company" is. At the end of the day he must be high only stairs to get to his apartment, where he lives alone.
Hours of Tests
"Going Home", so called the plate Lukaschek hours every day listening for two decades to test the pickups. "I like the album still.» The grooves of the plate are worn out after all these years, which is an advantage. The older the plate, the better needle and cartridge must be in order to feel their groove exactly - and absorb the acoustic subtleties. So Lukaschek sets several times a day before the record player in the middle of the room, her headphones on and the needle gently on the plate. It is gentle jazz saxophone, bass, flute and guitar come and go. Lukaschek is the only one who hears the music. Its ups and downs, their blurring and their precision. He, who gesticulates over again and gets upset then sits there for hours, very quiet - and listen.
(Tages-Anzeiger)
Resurrection of a presumed dead
Vinyl discs experience since the recession a comeback. Hardly a coincidence plates are comprehensible and appear durable.
No one has the fascination of the vinyl disc better recognized and taken to a shop as Jack White. The indie rocker has his label Third Man Records aligned completely exclusive, and obscure plates. They are much sought-after. His latest LP "Lazaretto" is the best selling album in the United States in 1991 onwards.
Jack White is from Detroit and still breathes the spirit of the old industrial region. He presses not only the plates with his own works, but makes it a historical, saved from scrapping devices. He captures the spirit of the younger generation. She has grown up with digital recordings and downloads, but investigates the harsh, hard quality of the disc. Indie-rock fans are the ones who buy the plates of Whites group White Stripes and make the last recordings by Beck, the Arctic Monkeys and Black Keys to vinyl disks on the best-selling. A second group of buyers are nostalgic fans of the 1960s and 1970s. You buy records by Led Zeppelin, the Beatles or The Who, who has owned the original and now want to buy in improved and expanded reissues.
White consciously plays with the rarity and exclusivity of the disk: He has published rare recordings of blues legends such as Charley Patton, Blind Willie McTell and the Mississippi Sheiks as nostalgic designed pressings. Fans pay already high surcharges for out-pressings.
More than a niche market is still not vinyl. Worldwide last year plates for $ 171 million were sold. This corresponds to slightly more than one percent of total sales of the music industry (recordings and concerts) of $ 16.4 billion. Loser, however, is the CD. In the largest music market in the USA about the CD sales in 2013 fell by 15 percent year on year, sales of the plates climbed by 33 percent. Online streaming is and will remain in demand. Revenue has risen by 42 percent.
The LP-selling has accelerated dramatically since the recession. In the United States about a growing number of independent shops last year implemented over six million records, six times more than before the recession. This year already four million records were sold until July. This points once again to a record year. The resurrection of a declared dead is real. Walter Niederberger
(Tages-Anzeiger)
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