Vinyl Microscopy!

I think he said he got it from a used bin, so it may have been cheap.

 

The opening titles to the TV series Vinyl includes microscope video images of a style tracking and jumping the record groves.
To view you will need to click on the window and it will open in a new tab on YouTube.

 

CGI or a mock-up perhaps? Didn't look real to me.

 

I bought one of these from Amazon for $50 and all I can say is "major disappointment". Do they make a different version? I got nowhere near the zoom of yours, even with setting the scope directly on the vinyl and the pics I took had lots of compression artifacts in them. I'm just gonna give the scope to my kids and seek out something better.

 

It's hard to say. There would be lots of advances in recent years in micro photography which could realize this type of photography. It would be easier for special effects people to make a large-scale model and film that. It does look reasonably realistic. On review, the curve of the grooves may look greater than to be expected on an actual record at that magnification, which may suggest a model. Whatever it is, I think it looks cool whenever I see it, but I'm always excited by vinyl.

 

I thought the same initially as well, the instructions aren't very clear. The trick is to keep twisting the knob way out of focus and then eventually it will appear at a much greater magnification. Trust me on this!

 

Ok, that did the trick. Thanks.

 

That's the weirdest foreplay I've ever heard of........

 

I've ordered an open-box one for $15 on Amazon! Let's hope it works as good as your pictures!

 

I don't think we need to start advocating clean rooms for listening to records. that would be a new level of audiophile craziness.

 

I mean, most records are not pressed in anything approaching clean rooms. I guess QRP claims to use clean room practices, but plenty do not. And I don't think they did in the past either.

It is actually one of the cool things about vinyl that it works so well despite all the ways it can get bodged up.

 

Gheeez sublemon, All I'm saying, working in a clean room raises awareness of just how dusty the typical living environment is. I did not say we all should build a level 5 clean room, and wear full regalia clean room suit? (with two holes cut out for the ears)

Knowledge is power. Practical applications would be an air filtration device/ionizer (turned off when listening to music) and not wearing high shed clothing (just a regular polyester/ cotton dress shirt sheds lint like mad, imagine a wool sweater or flannel?) Believe this or not, most of the junk that attracts to a record comes from our clothing.

What we do not normally see isn't usually an issue, We human beings are visual creatures. It's different in the micro world... records are pretty much borderline micro. If we could see, then maybe a few of us would be very surprised and horrified... no wonder our vinyl sounds so crackly and poppy? Down in the record groove, micro-dust is largely unseen, especially after a few swipes of a carbon brush>

Think that record's clean? It looks clean! Nope!

rock on,
Steve VK

 

Is there any rule that states, the discerning audiophile should be dissatisfied with background noise, and then keep doing things the same way?

 

I just got the same microscope but am not getting as sharp pictures as yours. Also you have some really zoomed in pics of the grooves. Is that using the digital zoom from the software? Here are some pics of what I took:

grooves
groove2

 

Interesting/fun thread that serves as a reminder for even the seasoned vinyl fan. I have learned much of this over the years but am reminded again every time I remove/return a record to it's translucent poly sleeve and see the "oil-print" from my fingers or see the oil deposited when I change a turntable belt. even washing with soapy water, your fingertips are "clean" for about 15 seconds until the oil starts flowing. Cotton gloves are good for the belt change but not so much for handling records. Nitrile gloves are starting to make a lot more sense to me!!

 

but you have increased the amount of dead skin pieces, hairs, and dust mites that fall on the records...

 

Unfortunately, some things are inevitable whether we have clothes on or are semi clothed. All my LPs get a good deep cleaning before and after.

 

LPs and turntables belong in P3 labs, or semi-conductor clean rooms...