RECORD FROM LP TO CD WITHOUT A COMPUTER - YES!

As a famous politician admitted recently, many members of the older generation who have to live daily in a technological world that has long outdistanced their electronic skills … still don't know beans about computers. And what's more, they don't care to. Yet that computer-illiterate segment of the boomer-and-older group often looks longingly at PC email capabilities and LP-to-CD recorders that transfer old vinyl record albums to a CD format--both generally dependent on computer technology. That conflict, says firstSTREET, a direct marketing company quartered near Richmond, Va., accounts for the success of their all-in-one music duplicating system that records a boomer's favorite albums and cassettes directly to CDs, without the need for a computer.

Chris Fawcett, COO of firstSTREET, says the strong point for the company's LP Saver Phono CD Recorder is twofold: "One, you don't need a computer to use it; it's a self-contained unit. And two, you don't need an engineering degree to operate it." Fawcett says the LP Saver is one of the easiest-to-use systems that firstSTREET has found anywhere. "Basically, to record an LP to CD, you'd press the Phono button, lower the tone arm onto the edge of the record or onto the song on the album you want on CD, and press Play. I don't think it gets any easier than that." firstSTREET says there are probably hundreds of thousands of music lovers who still have closets and shoeboxes full of record albums and cassettes around the house, some unlistened to for 30 years or more but containing music still significant and memorable to the ones who purchased it long ago.

"It's pretty much impossible financially to rebuild your LP collection by going out and buying new CDs of all those old albums," says Fawcett. "A simple, fast and reasonably priced unit that transfers those records and cassettes to a crisp, clean CD format, without computer involvement, is really meeting a need for the demographic that grew up buying 45s, albums and cassettes."

Those who no longer even have a phonograph or cassette deck in the house will appreciate the LP Saver's three-speed turntable, cassette deck and CD player. The complete system is housed in an attractive rosewood-finish cabinet, and Fawcett says the sound quality is quite good. He says one customer told him she hasn't owned a car with a cassette player in 10 years. "She's having a ball now listening to all her old cassettes, in between her 'recording sessions.' She said her grown children were even listening to her old albums now that there's a turntable in the house again."

Fawcett points out that music was and is an incredibly important part of life to the baby boomer generation, as well as to those who grew up in the big band, swing and jazz eras. "It's a great joy to those devotees to be able to bring the music of their time into the present and into a present-day format that makes it easily accessible. This is the kind of thing firstSTREET focuses on--we're always looking out for ways to make life easier and more enjoyable for our baby-boomer-and-beyond customer base."