Vinyl records are definitely making a comeback, at least for those who see their evolution from a secondary perspective. So far this year, almost eight million records have been sold in the United States alone, and all indicators suggest demand will continue to grow. I imagine there are many people interested in entering this particular world, but before that it's necessary to absorb some technical details, starting with a simple question: How does a turntable work?
The first step is to understand how data is stored on a vinyl record. Physics teaches us that sound is a series of vibrations that propagate through a medium (air being just one of them) in the form of sound waves.
When "cutting" a record, the machine marks on the vinyl surface a visual and three-dimensional equivalent of those sound waves. The process is limited to a group of masters that serve to "print" the grooves on the vinyls that reach stores, but in the past we have explored alternatives such as 3D-printed vinyl records, and secondary services like Qrates.
Exploring how a turntable works
The turntable, in very relaxed terms, simply goes in the opposite direction. The grooves on the vinyl record cause the needle to vibrate (also known as a 'stylus') as it moves. The vibrations alone don't help us much, so they are converted into electrical signals with the help of two magnets and two coils inside the phono cartridge.
Those signals are amplified and finally sent to the speakers. The shape of the needle, the material it's made from, the angle of the tonearm, and a long list of details can alter the fidelity of reproduction, and that has caused audiophiles in hundreds of forums to already be at World War XIII with their discussions.
The video we've shared will be especially interesting if you want to see the whole process in action, because on the Applied Science channel they used nothing less than an electron microscope. In fact, in his example he explains that the coding is stereo (that is, there are two channels encoded in a single groove) and compares vinyl with other formats, including CD-ROM.
