Vintage 1979 Microsonics MS-501 Portable Miniature Turntable - Before iPods

Wow! This is a rare device! Long before music could be captured digitally (mp3s/CDs) music was analog (tape/records). But tape decks and turntables were huge, heavy, and far from portable. “Portable” turntables did enter the market, but often were the size of suitcases. And 1 foot diameter vinyls weren’t exactly easy to tote around either.

That’s when a little known company, named microsonics sought to disrupt the status quo by introducing what would essentially be the “Worlds Smallest Turntables,” the MS line of portable pocketable battery operated turntables. Here’s how they worked.

A card with a plastic miniature vinyl record was slid into the device. The album made contact with a tiny arm with a needle on it. The needle read the peaks and valleys of stored sound on the “record”. Unlike a normal turntable, where the record spins and the needle tracks the grooves, this turntables arm moves to track the stationary “record.”

This works but you’ll need to find an album card to test