Members rasputin1963 Posted September 14, 2015 Members Share Posted September 14, 2015 This is an interesting gadget, coming out of Japan: A turntable that can "read" a vinyl disc's grooves... without touching the record. Be sure to watch the video near the bottom, and give a listen to it. Does the resulting audio have the "warmth" we remember with vinyl records? (What I hear, in the vinyl selection he chose, is how the music has been compressed within an inch of its life... something I never, ever noticed as a teen listening to vinyl). Oh, and the unit costs $15,000 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members 1001gear Posted September 14, 2015 Members Share Posted September 14, 2015 Long as it can airbrush the rice crispies. Hey, you could have a player that uses a picture of a recording. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members techristian Posted September 14, 2015 Members Share Posted September 14, 2015 I posted about this 6 months to a year ago. From what I read it is a very finicky system. Records must be pristine, without warps ,dirt or scratches, or this will skip or distort. http://www.harmonycentral.com/forum/forum/Forums_General/acapella-50/31482471-laser-turntable-plays-records-without-touching-them-only-15000 ................and I just found out that someone else posted about this in 2006 , so I wasn't the first either ! Dan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members 1001gear Posted September 14, 2015 Members Share Posted September 14, 2015 I know I asked about the possibility years ago and Craig answered with the info. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blue2blue Posted September 14, 2015 Members Share Posted September 14, 2015 Ha... I just saw a FB thread on this yesterday and spilled all I knew from when Dan posted about these earlier (at length, and you know how that goes). In Dan's thread, I think it was, I'd got caught assuming laser phonos were digital (having largely forgotten how the very similar Laserdisc was analog). Oops. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser_turntable As we discussed previously, while they do pretty much eliminate record wear (no word on how much the laser might heat the vinyl -- certainly needle-moving-in-groove does, which is part of the wear process) -- laser phonos, particularly early designs, are actually more sensitive to noise, 'playing' every little fleck of dust, where a conventional physical needle would push some of the dust out of the way (but also grind it against the vinyl, as well, increasing wear). To perfect the system, they used multiple lasers, with an array to measure the groove depth and position the reader beams to hopefully 'optimal' positions on the sides of the groove. These units are really for people who simply cannot find enough ways to fritter away their money -- it's a fascinating application of technology, but the only advantage it has is as a way to play a grooved record without any appreciable wear. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Hard Truth Posted September 14, 2015 Members Share Posted September 14, 2015 I suspect that the turntables could be designed so that they can better separate the signal from the noise, but that would probably require a digital conversion to be practical, which would make it unattractive to the high end audiophile$. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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