Lasers! I thought it was pretty cool!
I really wanted one until I saw How Much it cost.
I’ll deal with the new light needles that no longer scratch or wear like the old ones used to do.
kc8gpdsays
cost as much as a mid sized cost as much as a mid sized car!!!
RFBsays
Like New Like everything else that is new, it costs at first, till the market gets saturated a bit, then costs go down.
Don’t any of you remember how much those first round of VCR’s cost?? Big…bulky…noisy…click and bang loading, manual rotary tuning, and weighing in a good several pounds not to mention was a weight on the wallet.
The first CD players were expensive. The first CD drives for computers were expensive. The first CD burners were REALLY expensive. The first Blu-Ray players were expensive. The first Blu-Ray recorders were expensive!
Oh forgot all those blanks to those formats too. First rounds were expensive too.
Or we can go WAY WAY back to the time of the hand cranked phonograph player and how much that thing cost when it was first put on the market!! They were for a time considered a “luxury” item and only the wealthy could afford them at the beginning.
Wow…did that apply to the first radios and televisions too?
YES!
Now if this touchless phonograph player had all its issues resolved and then marketed 30 years ago, then today that thing would be no more expensive than a 150 buck DVD/CD/MP3/Divix/HD battery operated portable player sporting a 7 inch LCD wide screen.
RFB
mighty1650says
but but… But BUt… The Laser Players have been out since the 80s.
RFBsays
Reflective Vs Physical Well the primary problems with the laser vinyl player is that it has to overcome the fact that the vinyl media is not exactly as reflective as a CD. The content on the vinyl must be perfectly centered along the disc, just like that of a CD or DVD. The tolerances are far more precise on a CD/DVD than that of a vinyl record.
Plus there is no focusing or tracking data pits on a vinyl, just wavy groves cut into a vinyl surface, so that makes the job even more difficult for the laser reader devices of the time (80’s).
Their focusing ability was limited as was the beam width emitting from the laser diode and wavelengths, plus the laser diodes back then would burn themselves out in short time because of the materials used at that time to make the laser diodes had impurities which would degrade the performance of the diode right off, as well as over operational time.
The thing probably would work really well today using modern re-sampling techniques and the finer beams from the longer lasting blu-ray lasers. Even if they get it to work perfectly..the initial units marketed will no doubt still be quite expensive for the average audio buff.
A Little Late
Bout time…but a bit late, though good to prevent further wear on the old collection.
RFB
the technology has
the technology has problems
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser_turntable
Lasers!
I thought it was pretty cool!
I really wanted one until I saw How Much it cost.
I’ll deal with the new light needles that no longer scratch or wear like the old ones used to do.
cost as much as a mid sized
cost as much as a mid sized car!!!
Like New
Like everything else that is new, it costs at first, till the market gets saturated a bit, then costs go down.
Don’t any of you remember how much those first round of VCR’s cost?? Big…bulky…noisy…click and bang loading, manual rotary tuning, and weighing in a good several pounds not to mention was a weight on the wallet.
The first CD players were expensive. The first CD drives for computers were expensive. The first CD burners were REALLY expensive. The first Blu-Ray players were expensive. The first Blu-Ray recorders were expensive!
Oh forgot all those blanks to those formats too. First rounds were expensive too.
Or we can go WAY WAY back to the time of the hand cranked phonograph player and how much that thing cost when it was first put on the market!! They were for a time considered a “luxury” item and only the wealthy could afford them at the beginning.
Wow…did that apply to the first radios and televisions too?
YES!
Now if this touchless phonograph player had all its issues resolved and then marketed 30 years ago, then today that thing would be no more expensive than a 150 buck DVD/CD/MP3/Divix/HD battery operated portable player sporting a 7 inch LCD wide screen.
RFB
but but…
But BUt… The Laser Players have been out since the 80s.
Reflective Vs Physical
Well the primary problems with the laser vinyl player is that it has to overcome the fact that the vinyl media is not exactly as reflective as a CD. The content on the vinyl must be perfectly centered along the disc, just like that of a CD or DVD. The tolerances are far more precise on a CD/DVD than that of a vinyl record.
Plus there is no focusing or tracking data pits on a vinyl, just wavy groves cut into a vinyl surface, so that makes the job even more difficult for the laser reader devices of the time (80’s).
Their focusing ability was limited as was the beam width emitting from the laser diode and wavelengths, plus the laser diodes back then would burn themselves out in short time because of the materials used at that time to make the laser diodes had impurities which would degrade the performance of the diode right off, as well as over operational time.
The thing probably would work really well today using modern re-sampling techniques and the finer beams from the longer lasting blu-ray lasers. Even if they get it to work perfectly..the initial units marketed will no doubt still be quite expensive for the average audio buff.
RFB