The Laser Turntable

The real way to do this would probably not involve lasers, but instead a set of tiny high-resolution cameras mounted on something like a linear tracking tonearm. You'd take microscopic high-resolution 3D photos of the groove as the record slowly spun by, stitch them together in memory, process out any obvious dirt or damage, then convert the results to audio in software at 24 or 32-bits, 192kHz.

Totally do-able using today's technology I'd imagine. None of the downsides of the laser turntables, and likely much cheaper. Should be able to play absolutely anything, regardless of condition, and recover a relatively clean signal off even badly-degraded vinyl.

A turntable like this would eliminate a lot of the major problems with vinyl, at least on the playback side. Wow and flutter could be eliminated I'd imagine, no rumble, no audio feedback, none of the high-harmonics a stylus and cartridge throw off (at least on the playback side - the cutter would have imparted its own, but there's nothing you could do about that), no static to worry about, perfect stereo separation (on playback), no analog amp distortion, no tracking issues, warps and off-center spindle holes would be largely irrelevant, and of course completely touchless so the vinyl itself would be perfectly preserved.

The analog purists would never go for it of course, since it kills their fetish.

 

Looks interesting, but if I had 16,000 to spend on audio equipment, that isn't how I'd spend it.

 

Been done. Such a system is being developed for the Smithsonian and Library of Congress to preserve old recordings.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way...atest-macarthur-geniuses-include-sound-savior
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/09/130925-genius-macarthur-carl-haber-sound-bell/
http://irene.lbl.gov/

 

Neat. Now someone just needs to commercialize it.

 

I have also given this a lot of thought too.
In my daly work with safety system for the Swedish railway, where we have a system using radar and lasers to scan for obstacle in railway crossings.
These scanners are designed with very high resolution and some sort of artificial intelligent software. So they can tell de different between humans, cars, animals, snow, trees, and other things.
It's possible to distinguish a small stone from a mouse or a cat from a child.
So I've been thinking that it wouldn't be very hard for a company like sony, pioneer, etc. to invent a laser/radar TT that can scan the grove and filtering out the anomalies like dust, scratches with high enough resolution.
This is 2014 isn't it? Just asking!

/F1

 

NO, it's """LaZerBeams"""
the beave

 

Manufacture 50 of them and sell them on QVC. Worked for George Foreman.
the beave.

 

Ha! I think they'd be a little beyond the QVC price range...

Still, I could see something like this selling for under $1,000, if mass produced.

 

I'd be game for that. Just to know I could buy almost any record in nearly any condition. I'd still have to buy the record though; because, I'm all about the fetishes. (That could be taken wrongly.)

 

I saw a demo at a show in nyc a few years ago. they were showing how it could play records in
bad condition. imo there was nothing special about the sound. seemed like a novelty at the time.

 

This is a total gimmick as far as I'm concerned.. Vinyl playback is special and completely fine the way it is. Sure it's not perfect but that's part of its charm.

 

I always marvel at comments like this. "Gimmick" implies that it can't actually do what they say it can do; that it's trickery, smoke and mirrors. Oddly enough, this table does exactly what they say it can do. Where's the gimmick? I don't see it.

 

It can't play coloured records, records need to be cleaned every time you play them and from all reports it doesn't sound very good.

Given the fact that normal turntables can do all of these things I'd say it's a gimmick. Or we can use a different description such as 'complete waste of time and money'..

 

It's not a gimmick. It's a tool to play rare records that might not play any other way. A gimmick is that bird on the Flintstones that works as a record player....

 

Get the price down to $1k and I'd buy it in a heartbeat.

 

They tell you it can't play coloured discs. They tell you your records should be as clean as possible. How many threads are there on cleaning records... ...for those, the overwhelming majority here who only own conventional tables?? "All reports"?? I don't think so. Aaaaaaa... nevermind.

One day we'll separate our prerogative to like or dislike something from the facts of what something is and what something can and does do.

 

That's not ever gonna happen. The Japanese guy who makes them is getting old. When he's gone, odds are that nobody will make them. The Japanese guy took a step towards mainstreaming his laser turntable some years back when he contracted Smart Devices, in Atlanta, to be the U.S. service station. Keep in mind, that the lasers need to be readjusted/serviced fairly regularly. Add to that, it's friggin' expensive to ship the decks to and from Japan for each service. The Japanese guy backed out of the deal when his servicing revenue dropped.

The talk above about new technology doing what the laser turntable does is far more encouraging than the laser turntable's prospects.

 

I wasn't necessarily confining my comments to the current manufacturer--rather, if some other mainstream consumer company could/would produce them for $1k, I'd buy in a heartbeat!

 

It's doubtful that they could serve it up for $1000. It takes either 3 or , preferably, 5 lasers to read the grooves. The lasers come out of alignment rather easily. This isn't a cheap or durable, without regular service, machine. I'd have one for problem records if it was cheaper and more reliable. I just think some other type of vinyl, no-touch, technology will emerge before the Laser Turntable does. Well, even that doesn't seem especially likely.

I've been hearing about the laser turntable for 30 years now. It's always just over the next hill, and the next one, and the next one.....

 

The original patents are closing in on 30 years now. They're all expired.

This seems like a really cool toy, and when I first read about them in the '80s, I wanted one badly. But the truth is that the painful process required to play (clean every time) combined with the mediocre sound means that it's just a toy.

 

Seems like there's no need for a laser turntable - with all the advances in digital imaging, it would be a lot simpler just to take 3D photographs of the groove and convert those to sound... I'm betting the camera sensors found in the average smartphone these days could be repurposed for the task if fronted with the correct optics, and those sensors go for just a few bucks...

 

That is being done. It requires some research-level stuff. Samples at http://irene.lbl.gov/

 

Yeah that was quoted elsewhere here recently. But the research began years ago - camera costs have plunged and their resolution skyrocketed since that initiative began. Time to start over...

 

But... the needle is my favorite part of a record player.

 

I'd love to see a system where you could optically scan a record, do any repair to defects or surface contaminants visually as an image then output the final product to a cutting head to create a master lacquer. I'm not sure if you could keep it all in the analog realm or if you'd have to go digital at some point.