Can the tactile nature of vinyl playback fix Jake's inability to finish an album?
Jake Spencer shares his journey from streaming-only listener to inveterate needle-dropper.
I think my brain is broken.
I love reading, but I can’t finish a book. I love movies, but I can’t watch one without staring at my phone. I love music, but I listen to half a song before skipping to the next one. Social media and streaming have killed my attention span and my ability to sit still and critically engage with my media. In an age of having everything instantaneously, I feel like I have nothing.
But, I am not going down without a fight.
Let me introduce myself. My name is Jake Spencer. I am 30 years old, married, have three cats, and have worked at Upscale Audio for over four years. I started as an entry-level intern on the sales team, answering the door and moving gear. When I graduated with a degree in marketing, I grew into my current role on the marketing team, handling YouTube and e-commerce.
Jake Spencer in his living room.
My job is now fully remote, and I spend at least eight hours a day staring at a screen. Staring at social media. By the end of the day, I can’t even passively watch television without phone in hand.
I finally broke down and told my wife I need to fix my brain. So we came up with a plan. I got a wall-mounted holder in the kitchen, and I keep my phone in "landline mode." (I may be only 30, but I remember landline phones.) I can use my phone for whatever I want as long as I use it standing in the kitchen. I ditched my smartwatch and got a Seiko watch. I started collecting physical media such as 4K Blu-ray movies and vinyl records.
Jake was so hooked to his phone that he started using it in "landline mode."
Then I went to Upscale with my big pitch: to let me document a journey from being a streaming-only listener to an analog listener. Yes, I wanted a cool turntable, but more importantly, I wanted to be able to listen to music—something that I believe is deeply important to my well-being—without needing my phone, or choosing from a million songs. I got the go-ahead, and with our analog manager Sean-Paul Williams overseeing my setup, I brought home a starter turntable, cartridge, and phonostage.
My Sound Setup
My current system is not in a dedicated listening room. It lives in our living room, pulling daily double duty for music and home theater. I’m running a pair of MartinLogan ElectroMotion ESL loudspeakers with a REL T/7 subwoofer, powered by a PrimaLuna EVO 300 Hybrid integrated amp. For streaming, I use a Cambridge Audio CXN100, and the system is also tied into an Integra DRX-5.4 AV receiver with a MartinLogan center channel for movies and TV.
Jake's system features PrimaLuna and MartinLogan.
So what gear did analog manager Sean-Paul, known as SP, choose for me? He started me with something iconic and classic: a Rega Planar 2 with Nd3 cartridge and a MoFi StudioPhono MM/MC phonostage. While my PrimaLuna Hybrid has the ability to add on a phonostage, SP explained the benefits of buying a standalone component, and I tried my best to remember all the advantages while explaining to my wife why we needed an extra box.
A Rega Planar 2 with Nd3 cartridge and MoFi StudioPhono.
Rega is a brand with a legacy of providing great value for performance. SP explained that while the Planar 2 comes with the very able Nd3 cartridge, a logical upgrade further down the line would be to swap out the cartridge, depending on the kind of sound I wanted to pursue.
Importantly, because this turntable is $895 and just above the $800 cutoff for Upscale Audio’s pre-mount option, I got to watch the expert setup, which is available free to every customer who requests it. The only catch, as expected, is a longer wait for your new table. As we say on our website: Add expert pre-mount & testing (at no cost). Setup takes 72 hours and saves countless hours of pain and suffering.
I watched Dylan Oberbeck on the analog team unbox the table and meticulously check everything from rotation speed to bearing oil levels to tonearm and cartridge alignment.
Dylan Oberbeck performs our free expert setup option available on tables above $800.
If the table was being shipped, Dylan would have marked all settings with tape and then dismantled it just enough for safe transit. But I was driving my Rega back, so all I had to do when I got home was take off some tape, put the dust cover on (which is very necessary when you have cats), and make sure it was level on the shelf.
Playing with Intention
With the table ready to go, I realized the only missing piece in this analog journey was intention. Putting on a record requires you to care about the small details before the music even starts. You cannot just tap a screen and let the algorithm take over. You have to choose, prepare, listen, and stay with it.
And that is the real goal of this project. It is not just about owning records or building a better system. It is to make music feel like an event again. I want to be able to sit down with my wife, put our phones away, and listen to an album from beginning to end without treating it like background noise.
For me, going analog is less about chasing nostalgia and more about rebuilding my attention span, one album side at a time. If I can sit through a full record with my phone in the other room, that feels like a win. If my wife and I can make music part of our night instead of just something playing in the background, that feels even better.
Jake has already built up a collection of hi-fi standards, as well as his and his wife's favorites.
So that is where this journey begins. The turntable is home, the system is ready, and the first stack of records is waiting. I start with the obvious hi-fi classics such as Fleetwood Mac's Rumours and Steely Dan's Aja, but I also grab albums that feel personal to us, including Daft Punk’s Random Access Memories, Porter Robinson’s Nurture, my wife’s favorite Olivia Rodrigo album, Guts, and the soundtracks of her two favorite musicals, Wicked and Hamilton.
In the next installment of this series, I will write about our first proper experience of listening to a record together. You’re going to want to be there because, get this, it will recount the very first time my wife listened to The Dark Side of the Moon!