🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <72811@cup.portal.com>, Chris_F_Chiesa@cup.portal.com writes:
|> By now we all (hopefully) know that lasers are used to read signals from
|> CDs and videodiscs, but last weekend while visiting friends over Christmas
|> I heard of a new application for the same (or similar) technology: reading
|> good ol' vinyl records by contactless laser pickup.  Has anyone here heard
|> of this, and can anyone provide any details on HOW it is being done?  This
|> is one of those ideas that, to me, seems obvious in retrospect, and "it's
|> a wonder nobody thought of it sooner."
|> 
|> Chris Chiesa
|>   Chris_F_Chiesa@cup.portal.com

Early in 1991, a company in the US called Carillion released a vinyl disc
with laser pickup machine called the Finial.  The company when bust, and
were bought out (this company's name escapes me at the moment).  The Finial
re-appeared at the Las Vegas CES show early last year.  If you're thinking
of buying one, they're asking $USD35,000 for a player with 33 1/3, 45 and 78
speeds, or just $USD25,000 for the 33 1/3 and 45rpm model.

There is a major problem with this machine though, in that a normal stylus
will push dust away from the grooves as it plays, but with the laser, you hear
every snap crackle and pop.  Definitely a machine for fanatics.  But for 
analogue freaks, they will be comforted to know that there is no digitisation
anywhere in the machine.

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