Laser on Vinyl, the ultimate turntable?

[NA4BH]

I Agree With You Completely. If there are more than 20,000 stair steps passing every second, you ain't gonna notice them.

If your ass is on cardboard, you will notice every one of them.

[W1GUH]

Guess people still haven't heard of a dude named Nyquist.

If your CD player or other digital media device sounds crappy, you've got one with really, really bad processing. Spring a few buck for a good one.

OK, so suppose this idea of doing transcriptions of vinyl with lasers catches on and in the future you can get a turntable with a laser instead of a stylus without Ft. Knox. It'd probably sound really, really good, and your vinyl will last forever (how long does it take viny records to degrade? Seems like it's longer then an individual lifetime by now).

But you'll be missing:

1) The sound of the needle hitting the record and the "lead in" sounds.
2) The sound of the needle leaving the record.
3) The absolulte sexiness of watching a good turntable work, especially with the tone arm tracking the warps in the record, etc.

e.g., all the "great" things about listening to vinyl.


I say, if you're really, really serious about getting superb vinyl sound, the absolutly very first thing to spend your money on is a good quality phono preampl. No matter how much you spend on your control preamp or integrated amp or receiver, the phono preamp in it is probably an IC that cost them about a buck. And that includes those "USB turntables." A dedicated phono preamp will have as close to perfect RIAA curve as can be achieved....absolutely flat in the passband (e.g. perfectly matched to the RIAA curve) with very sharp cutoffs at either end. And that makes all the difference in the world when it comes to listening. One of the biggest benefits is you will NOT need a scratch filter or a rumble filter. The RIAA curve handles those functions beautifully. I promise you that if you go out and spring two or three bucks for a good preamp, you won't regret it. It's amazing how much you have to pay to get "nothing!"

IMHO...what to do is get a good setup, and make the very first playing of a new or used disk the one that you record. If you pay attention to how you record it, you'll have a superb digitization of the vinyl to listen to while the record stays in its jacket staying almost pristine.

[n2ize]

Hello.

Why would it read an analog record as ones and zeros? remember that the record is analog to begin with.
The laser is used to provide a light source and is reflected off the walls of the record to an analog pickup, a phototransistor.
This is somewhat like how optical motion picture sound works.
The only reason a laser is used is that allows for the pinpoint accuracy of light needed to focus on the record walls.

It's sort of like the old movie projectors that read a sound track using light. the only read ones and zero's. lasers can only work in ones and zero's. A lkaser is a digital device. It can't work any other way. Think of the atoms in the laser. They are either on (in an exited state) or off (in the decayed state)...ones and zeros.

[KA5PIU]

Hello.

A few of the good pickup cartridges have the preamp already inside.
But one can easily reproduce the RIAA rolloff in an equalizer.
I saw the thing on a laser record player and was impressed.
The car record player? now that was wild!

[WV6Z]

That is pretty sweet Rudy, I remember our neighbor in Virginia back in the mid 70's had a similar set up in a big red early 60's Ford convertible. He said it worked quite well as long as the road didn't get too rough, but would wear a record out rather quickly due to the tension against the vinyl being rather stout.

The only thing I don't understand is why the hell the jerk off who made the video of his rig actually cut off Patsy Cline to play that gay roller disco shit. What the fuck was that second tune?!?!? Was that by Frankie Goes To Hollywood? ;)

[W1GUH]

Hello.

A few of the good pickup cartridges have the preamp already inside.
But one can easily reproduce the RIAA rolloff in an equalizer.
I saw the thing on a laser record player and was impressed.
The car record player? now that was wild!

"But one can easily reproduce the RIAA rolloff in an equalizer."

Keep telling yourself that to save a few bucks. All the while, you're missing out.

[X-Rated]

... Nyquist.

....

Like when my head is ready to explode and I have all kinds of post nasal drip, and I feel achy, I usually will take some Nyquist to help me sleep.

[KC2UGV]

You are incorrect. The laser can only read the analog groove as a series of ONES and ZEROS.

It's sort of like the old movie projectors that read a sound track using light. the only read ones and zero's. lasers can only work in ones and zero's. A lkaser is a digital device. It can't work any other way. Think of the atoms in the laser. They are either on (in an exited state) or off (in the decayed state)...ones and zeros.

Close, but no cigar:
http://markbowers.org/home/AM-laser-transmitter

[KG4CGC]

eVEN THOUGH i DON'T KNOW WHAT i'M TALKING ABOUT, i DID MAKE THE BOARD AND STAIRS ANALOGY SO ... cap lock fail aside, I win through superior skirt blowing.

[KC2UGV]

eVEN THOUGH i DON'T KNOW WHAT i'M TALKING ABOUT, i DID MAKE THE BOARD AND STAIRS ANALOGY SO ... cap lock fail aside, I win through superior skirt blowing.

Capslock is cruise control for cool :wink: