New Vinyl Playback Technology

I was wondering the same thing. In theory it might be a cool technology - especially if it doesn't digitize. But there are certain to be a lot of surprises in developing something like this, and I've never met anyone who's heard one of these things...

It is a 15 year old development. It has some very strong points, but the record needs to be immaculately clean for it to work well. It doesn't digitize, and you get an analog signal out the back. I haven't heard it, but I've researched it. There are supposedly 1000 of these things out there, but I have yet to hear from anyone that has actually heard one. For a product with 1000 units in the field, it is amazing that nobody seems to really know much about it. The lack of record wear is probably the main asset to the design.

There's a group of engineers at Syracuse University who are developing a newer laser system. They devised it primarily to recover the sound from wax cylinders, but are expanding to vinyl. They use two laser beams, then synchronize them, to get a true stereo image. I don't know if it will ever be commercialized, but I guess it would be, as it's of interest to museum conservators.

I would think that you could also adjust the tracking system to better handle warped records, etc. And who knows - I sure don't - if it's possible to get a more accurate read of the grooves with a smaller reading mechanism. I'd have to expect that a low-power laser could be focused on a smaller spot than a stylus's contact area, for example.

On the other hand, I'nm surprised that there are 1000 of them out there. (Or are there 1000 of various designs, and this one now being advertised is new? It seems to be, since I don't think it's shipping until next month.)