Subj : cleaning old 78 vinyls ?
To   : Roy J. Tellason
From : Pascal Schmidt
Date : Sat Jun 18 2005 02:52 pm


Hi Roy!

[laser turntable]
 RJT> I saw that once,  way too much money!  If they can put a laser into 
 RJT> cdrom drives and other stuff they sure as heck oughta be able to do 
 RJT> that cheaper,  as well.  I guess no demand,  though,  or something.
I don't think it's too easy to read the audio "data" from a vinyl record with a 
laser. Records were not designed with that in mind, that's for sure. ;)

My guess would be they use the laser, carefully positioned, to get a surface 
scan of the depth of the record groove. Add a complex mathematical model of how 
that surface would influence a regual pickup unit and you can create a digital 
rendering of the original sound. Most of the records I own are not too even, 
they have bumps and sometimes even the middle hole is not really centered. I'd 
think it's difficult to keep the laser positioned correctly.

Plus as you say, I don't think there's much demand for what clearly is very 
specialized technology.

Ciao
Pascal

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