Read in Record collector about a new Laser Turntable that will cut out scratches when playing old vinyl - it was compared favourably with top end linn but at c. £10k it should - any one know if this technology is likely to come down in price quickly?

The article is probably referring to the ELP laser turntable. The technology has been around quite a while – in prototype form since the late eighties, but had the misfortune to be formally launched after vinyl was being replaced by digital carriers like compact disc.

I doubt if it will ever become a mass market (and therefore affordable) product since most (non audiophile) consumers are perfectly happy with the performance they get from a modest turntable (if they own one at all). Lets face it, most of them are happy with low bit rate MP3!

Besides, a laser turntable would rob us of one of life’s greatest pleasures – spending hours faffing about with arm and cartridge geometry to eke out the last ounce of performance from our record players… :-)

BTW - I forgot to mention that (years ago) Garrard used to produce an analogue box of tricks that removed pops and scratches from the musical signal. A modern digital version of that would be most welcome for those of us who collect second-hand vinyl...

I agree - i spend all my time and most of my cash on old vinyl!!

I'm sure there's some irony in the lengths people go to eliminate pops and scratchs from old vinyls and the fact the alot of new music pressed to cd has a fake vinyl grit sound added to it. Gorillaz latest single for example.

The never ending search for perfect distortion! Just try the track 'Happy Man' by Sparklehorse. No matter what you play it on – Audio Research & Wilsons or Binatone AM pocket radio, it sounds *exactly* the same. Ahh, that wonderful no-fi sound… :-)

Here's something that may interest you old vinyl lovers, a system that rips vinyl to cd in one box:

http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000937046312/

There have been a couple of laser players over the years but if the information on the record is damaged then there is no way and player will be able to retrieve something that isn't there, it would probably use an error correction system to smooth out the differences in signal (the same result as those old analog scratch filters). A good cartridge with a fine stylus will avoid most surface noise and scratches as well as cleaning the record groove effectively in the process.

That’s an interesting point made by Henley Designs regarding loss of information in a damaged record, but I can't agree with the statement that a fine stylus will avoid most surface noise and scratches, since that’s totally dependant on where the stylus rides in the groove.

I have a selection of cartridge/headshell combinations and when I come across a damaged record I find swapping to a different stylus profile often improves things. In my experience, a lot of the fancy profiles make a dogs dinner of really badly damaged records.

Strangely enough, in addition to my 'hi-fi' moving coil and moving magnets I have Stanton's 680HP and Shure's 'White Label' cartridges (these are 'DJ' models for those of you not in the know) that both have relatively large spherical stylus and while they loose a bit of detail they reduce surface noise and 'grunge' significantly. Very handy when I am forced to archive vinyl to tape.

Then again, theoretically you could have the laser beam focus at any level in the record groove allowing you to seek out the quietest, least damaged part of the recording. Dream on, James…

On a brighter note, I was recently told that Marantz made a LP record noise suppression system (digitally based, apparently) in the '90's. I am hunting ebay as I write...

Sorry james but we don't agree. Most damage to records is on the surface or outer edges of the groove (hence the term surface noise). A fine stylus will reach further down into the record and retrieve information from parts of the wall that have not been damaged. In simple terms, the percentage of music versus noice is greater and the noise becomes less apparent.

Information is recorded across the entirety of the record groove so reading only a part of it will not reveal all of the recorded information. Many DJ cartridges do this and sound less "scratchy" but in reality they are missing a large part of the recorded sound.

The only way to extract information accurately from a record is to retrace the path of the cutter head without recutting your records, only a fine stylus can achieve this.

With all due respect, 'surface noise' refers to the part of the record groove that the stylus is traversing - it has NOTHING to do with the 'front' surface of the record.

Damage on the front surface (ie, the 'front' we see when we take a record out of the sleeve and look lovingly at it) that interferes with the groove is generally accepted as a 'scratch'. You know, the 'click, click, click,' sound as the record rotates.

I am confused by your statement 'information is recorded across the entirety of the record groove so reading only a part of it will not reveal all of the recorded information'. Err - if that was true (and thankfully, it is not) - then ANY stylus, no matter what the profile, would include the noise.

Do you claim that your stylus can read only the 'undamaged' parts of the record? Err, no sorry again.

But I do agree with you that 'DJ' (in other words 'Spherical') profiles miss out on some detail. But then they ride very high in the groove. And that often means less damage.

Oh! Just the place that other stylus profiles ignore!

Having re-read my reply, I realise it may be a bit confusing. Blame the six cans of Theakston’s Old Peculiar I had consumed, not me. ;-)

What I was trying to explain was that the record groove carries the same signal, no matter where you read it within the groove (oh, for the ability to provide graphics at this point!)

Different stylus profiles ‘read’ the information at their own unique ‘level’ within the groove. Since most (reasonably well kept) records are damaged by the stylus that played them, changing cartridges can make a big difference to the sound quality, since it will be reading a different level of the groove.

In my last post I may have given the impression that ‘spherical’ diamond’s read the groove differently. That was not my intention, nor is it true. Fact is, that while they follow the valley as faithfully as they can they are simply too large to track some of the finest detail the groove has to offer.

But the fact that almost every cheap stereo since 1978 has featured an elliptical stylus, almost wilfully designed to wreck the groove means that most second hand records are best played on a stylus with a different profile…

Hope that makes everything clear!