Gramophone record Did You Mean Gramophone?

The normal commercial disc is normally engraved with two sound bearing concentric spiral grooves, one on each side of the disc, running from the outside edge towards the centre. However, a small number of early phonograph systems and radio transcription discs, as well as in some cases entire albums, such as Goodbye Blue and White by Less Than Jake are played from the centre out, rather than the edge of the disc. A small number of novelty records were manufactured with multiple separate grooves to differentiate the tracks. Since the late 1910s, both sides of the record have been used to carry the grooves.

Common formats

Less common formats

The majority of records are pressed on black vinyl. The colouring material used to blacken the transparent PVC plastic mix is Carbon Black, the trade name for the finely divided carbon particles produced by the incomplete burning of a mineral oil sourced hydrocarbon. Without this, the record would be transparent and would show the dirt collected in the grooves, the scratch marks and other damage to both sides of the record. Carbon Black also increases the strength of the disc.

Some records are pressed on vinyl dyed other colours than black, or with pictures in them. These are relatively rare and tend to become collectors' items. In recent years, the release of records on high quality, colour vinyl — often with large inserts that can be used as posters — has been seen as an attempt to make records competitive with compact discs.

Vinyl record standards for the United States follow the guidelines3 of the RIAA (the Record Industry Association of America). The inch designations are nominal, and are not accurate indications of the diameter. The actual dimension of a 12 inch record is 302 mm (11.89 in), for a 10 inch it is 250 mm (9.84 in), and for a 7 inch it is 175 mm (6.89 in).

Records made in other countries are standardized by different organizations, but are similar in size. The record diameters are typically 300 mm, 250 mm and 175 mm in most countries.

There is usually an area around 10 mm (¼″) wide at the outer edge of the disk where the groove is widely spaced and silent. This section allows the stylus to be dropped at the start of the record groove, eliminating the risk of damage to the recorded section of the groove when the stylus head is dropped carelessly onto the LP. Towards the label centre, at the end of the groove there is another silent section known as the "Run-off" where the groove joins itself to form a complete circle. When the stylus reaches this point, it circles repeatedly until lifted from the record. Automatic turntables rely on the sudden change of direction of travel of the arm as it reaches these more widely spaced grooves to trigger the mechanism that raises it.

To allow for auto-changing turntables, records typically have a raised outer edge and label area. This allows records to be stacked onto each other without the relatively delicate grooves coming into contact, reducing the risk of damaging them. Auto-changing turntables do not have the ability to play both sides of an LP without the user having to reload them, though jukeboxes with their more sophisticated loading systems could do this.

In between each track on the recorded section of a record there is usually a short gap where the groove is widely spaced. This space is clearly visible so it is easy to find a particular track.

Early history of the medium

A sound recording and reproduction device utilizing what were essentially disk records was described by Charles Cros of France in 1877 but never built. In 1878, Thomas Edison independently built the first working phonograph, a tinfoil cylinder phonograph, and the phonograph cylinder dominated the recorded sound market starting in the 1880s. Disc records were invented by Emile Berliner in 1888, and were used exclusively in toys until 1894, when Berliner began marketing disk records under the Berliner Gramophone label. In the mid-1910s, disk records overtook cylinders in popularity, and would dominate the market until the 1990s.

History of the materials

Early disc records were originally made of various materials including hard rubber. In the early 20th century earlier materials were largely replaced by a rather brittle formula of 25% "shellac", (a material obtained from the excretion of an Indian beetle, a natural plastic), a Filler of a cotton compound similar to manila paper, powdered slate and a small amount of a wax lubricant. The mass production of shellac records began in 1898 in Hanover, Germany. Shellac records were the most common until about 1950.

In the 1890s the early recording formats of discs were usually 17.5 cm (~seven inches) in diameter. By 1910 the 25 cm (~10-inch) record was by far the most popular standard, holding about three minutes of music or entertainment on a side. 30 cm 12-inch records were also commercially sold, mostly of classical music or operatic selections, with five minutes of music per side.

Such records were usually sold separately, in plain cardboard sleeves that may have been printed to show producer of the retailer's name and sometimes in collections held in paper sleeves in a cardboard or leather book, similar to a photograph album, and called record albums. Also, empty record albums were sold that customers could use to store their records.

While a 78 rpm record is brittle and relatively easily broken, both the microgroove LP 33⅓ rpm record and the 45 rpm single records are made from vinyl plastic which is flexible and unbreakable in normal use. 78s come in a variety of sizes, the most common being 10 inch (25 cm) and 12 inch (30 cm) diameter, and these were originally sold in either paper or card covers, generally with a circular cutout allowing the record label to be seen. The Long-Playing records (LPs) usually come in a paper sleeve within a colour printed card jacket which also provides a track listing. 45 rpm singles and EPs (Extended Play) are of 7 inch (17.5 cm) diameter, the earlier copies being sold in paper covers. Grooves on a 78 rpm are much coarser than the LP and 45 - roughly as wide as a fingernail is thick.

In 1930, RCA Victor launched the first commercially-available vinyl long-playing record, marketed as "Program Transcription" discs. These revolutionary discs were designed for playback at 33⅓ rpm and pressed on a 30 cm diameter flexible plastic disc. In Roland Gelatt's book The Fabulous Phonograph, the author notes that RCA Victor's early introduction of a long-play disc was a commercial failure for several reasons including the lack of affordable, reliable consumer playback equipment and consumer wariness during the Great Depression. A good outline of this unsuccessful product launch can be found here.

However, vinyl's lower playback noise level than shellac was not forgotten. During and after World War II when shellac supplies were extremely limited, some 78 rpm records were pressed in vinyl instead of shellac (wax), particularly the six-minute 12" (30 cm) 78 rpm records produced by V-Disc for distribution to US troops in World War II.

Beginning in 1939, Columbia Records continued development of this technology. Dr. Peter Goldmark and his staff undertook exhaustive efforts to address problems of recording and playing back narrow grooves and developing an inexpensive, reliable consumer playback system. In 1948, the 12" (30 cm) Long Play (LP) 33⅓ rpm microgroove record was introduced by the Columbia Record at a dramatic New York press conference.

History of the speeds

Earliest speeds of rotation varied widely, but by 1910 most records were recorded at about 78 to 80 rpm. In 1925, 78.26 rpm was chosen as a standard for motorized phonographs, because it was suitable for most existing records, and was easily achieved using a standard 3600-rpm motor and 46-tooth gear (78.26 = 3600/46). Thus these records became known as 78s (or "seventy-eights"). This term did not come into use until after World War II when a need developed to distinguish the 78 from other newer disc record formats. Earlier they were just called records, or when there was a need to distinguish them from cylinders, disc records. Standard records was also used, although the same term had also been used earlier for two-minute cylinders.

After World War II, two new competing formats came on to the market and gradually replaced the standard "78": the 33⅓ rpm (often just referred to as to 33 rpm), and the 45 rpm. The 33⅓ rpm LP (for "long play") format was developed by Columbia Records and marketed in 1948. RCA Victor developed the 45 rpm format and marketed it in 1949, in response to Columbia. Both types of new disc used narrower grooves, intended to be played with a smaller stylus, than the old "78s", so the new records were sometimes called Microgroove. In the mid-1950s all record companies agreed to a common recording standard called RIAA equalization; before then each company had used its own preferred standard, requiring discriminating listeners to use preamplifiers with multiple selectable equalization curves.

The older 78 format continued to be mass produced alongside the newer formats into the 1950s (and in a few countries, such as India, into the 1960s). The Beatles recorded some of the last commercially-released 78's.

The commercial rivalry between RCA Victor and Columbia Records led to RCA Victor's introduction of what it had intended to be a competing vinyl format, the 7" (17.5 cm) / 45 rpm Extended Play (EP). For a two-year period from 1948 to 1950, record companies and consumers faced uncertainty over which of these formats would ultimately prevail in what was known as the "War of the Speeds". (See also format war)

Eventually, the 12" (30 cm) / 33⅓ rpm LP prevailed as the predominant format for musical albums, and the 7" (17.5 cm) / 45 rpm EP or "single" established a significant niche for shorter duration discs typically containing one song on each side. The EP discs typically emulated the playing time of the former 78 rpm discs, while the LP discs provided up to one-half hour of time per side, but typically 15 to 20 minutes was normal. Extended play was only achieved at the expense of heavy compression or attenuating the bass (as the groove actually visibly followed the wave-form, loud, low frequency sound consumed more width per revolution than quiet sounds).

From the mid-1950s through the 1960s, in the U. S. the common home "record player" or "stereo" would typically have had these features: a three- or four-speed turntable (78, 45, 33-1/3, and sometimes 16-2/3 rpm); a combination cartridge with both 78 and microgroove styluses; and some kind of adapter for playing the 45s with their larger center hole. The large center hole on 45s allows for easier handling by jukebox mechanisms. Deliberately playing records at the wrong speed was a near-universal childhood amusement.

As late as the 1970s, some children's records were released at the 78 RPM speed.

Progress, and the War of the Speeds

vinyl, while most 45 rpm discs were made from polystyrene. All speeds of records were made in various sizes, mainly 17.5, 25, 30 cm (~7, 10 and 12 inches diameter; the 17.5 cm (~7-inch) being most common for the 45 rpm, the 25 cm (~10-inch) for the 78 (and the first few years of 33⅓ production), and the 30 cm (~12-inch) for the 33 from the mid 1950s on. The sound quality and durability of vinyl records is highly dependent on the quality of the vinyl used. During the early 1970s, as a cost-cutting move towards use of lightweight, flexible vinyl pressings, much of the industry adopted a technique of reducing the thickness and quality of vinyl used in mass-market manufacturing, marketed by RCA Victor as the "Dynaflex" process. Most vinyl records are pressed on recycled vinyl.

New "virgin" or "heavy" (180-220 g/m²) vinyl is commonly used for classical music, although it has been used for some other genres. Today, it is increasingly common in vinyl pressings that can be found in most record shops. Many clasic rock albums have been reissued on 180 g/m² vinyl, such as The Residents' Meet The Residents and catalogues of The Clash. Modern albums like Shellac's and Mission of Burma's latest are also commonly pressed on 180 g/m². Many collecters prefer to have 180 gram vinyl albums, and also, they have reported to have a better sound than normal vinyl. These albums tend to withstand the deformation caused by normal play better than regular vinyl.

Since most vinyl records are from recycled plastic, it can lead to impurities in the record, causing a brand new album to have audio artifacts like clicks and pops. Virgin vinyl means that the album is not from recycled plastic, and thus, will not have the impurities of recycled plastic.

While most vinyl records are pressed from metal master discs, a technique known as lathe-cutting was introduced in the late 1980s by Peter King in Geraldine, New Zealand. A lathe is used to cut microgrooves into a clear polycarbonate disc. Lathe cut records can be made inexpensively in small runs. However, the sound quality is significantly worse than proper vinyl records, and lathe cut records tend to degrade further in quality after repeated playing.

Stereo and beyond

In 1958 the first stereo two-channel records were issued – by Audio Fidelity in the USA and Pye in Britain, using the Westrex "45/45" single-groove system. On stereo records the stylus moves vertically as well as horizontally.

One could envision a system in which the left channel was recorded laterally and the right channel was recorded with a "hill-and-dale" vertical motion, and such systems were actually proposed, but not adopted. In the Westrex system, each channel drives the stylus at a 45 degree angle to the vertical. During playback, the combined signal is sensed by a left channel coil mounted diagonally opposite the inner side of the groove, and a right channel coil mounted diagonally opposite the outer side of the groove 4.

It is, however, helpful to think of the motion in terms of the vector sum and difference of the two channels. Effectively, horizontal stylus motion carries an L+R sum signal, and vertical stylus motion carries an L-R difference signal. The advantages of the 45/45 system are:

greater compatibility with monophonic recording and playback systems. A monophonic cartridge will reproduce an equal blend of the left and right channels instead of reproducing only one channel. Conversely, a stereo cartridge reproduces the lateral grooves of monophonic recording equally through both channels, rather than one channel.
a more balanced sound, because the two channels have equal fidelity (rather than providing one higher-fidelity laterally recorded channel and one lower-fidelity vertically-recorded channel);
higher fidelity in general, because the "difference" signal is usually of low power and thus less affected by the intrinsic distortion of hill-and-dale recording.

This system was invented by Alan Blumlein of EMI in 1931, and patented the same year. EMI cut the first stereo test dics using the system in 1933. However it was not exploited commercially until a quarter of a century later.

Stereo sound provides a more natural listening experience where the spatial location of the source of a sound is, at least in part, reproduced.

The development of quadraphonic records was announced in 1971 - which recorded four separate sound signals. This was achieved on the two stereo channels by electronic matrixing, where the additional channels were combined into the main signal. When the records were played, circuits in the amplifiers were able to decode the signals into four separate channels. There were two main systems of matrixed quadrophonic records produced, confusingly named SQ (by CBS) and QS (by Sansui). They proved commercially unsuccessful, but were an important precursor to later 'surround sound' systems, as seen in SACD and home cinema today. A different format, CD-4 (by RCA), encoded rear-channel information on an ultrasonic carrier, which required a special wideband cartridge to pick it up. Typically the high-frequency information wore off after only a few playings, and CD-4 was even less successful than the two matrixed formats.

Other developments

In 1951, under the direction of C. Robert Fine, Mercury Records initiated a minimalist single-microphone monaural recording technique named “Mercury Living Presence.” In 1961, Mercury enhanced this technique with three-microphone stereo recordings using 35mm magnetic film instead of half-inch tape for recording. The greater thickness and width of 35mm magnetic film prevented tape layer print-through and pre-echo and gained in addition extended frequency range and transient response.

In 1973, on Monty Python's Matching Tie and Handkerchief LP, they made a record that (sort of) had three sides. One side was perfectly normal (labelled "Side 2"). The other side (also labelled "Side 2", but with "SB" written on it) had two parallel grooves, so that depending on where the needle was dropped, one of two different tracks would be played.

In the late 1970s, "direct-to-disc" records were produced focusing on an audiophile niche market, which completely bypassed use of magnetic tape in favor of a "purist" transcription directly to the master lacquer disc. Also during this period, "half-speed mastered" and "original master" records were released, using expensive state-of-the-art technology.

The early 1980s saw the introduction of "DBX-encoded" records, again for the audiophile niche market. These were completely incompatible with standard record playback preamplifiers, relying on a sophisticated DBX noise reduction encoding/decoding scheme to virtually eliminate playback noise and increase dynamic range. A similar and very short-lived scheme involved using the CBS-developed "CX" noise reduction encoding/decoding scheme.

Also in the late 1970s and 1980s, a method to improve the dynamic range of mass-produced records involved highly advanced disc cutting equipment. These techniques, marketed as the CBS Discomputer and Teldec Direct Metal Mastering, were used to reduce inner-groove distortion.

The record mastering and pressing process

Recording the disc

For the first several decades of disc record manufacturing, sound was recorded directly on to the master disc (also called the matrix, sometimes just the master) at the recording studio. From about 1950 on (earlier for some large record companies, later for some small ones) it became usual to have the performance first recorded on audio tape, which could then be processed and/or ed, and then dubbed on to the master disc.

A record cutter would engrave the grooves into the master disc. Early on these master discs were soft wax, later on a harder lacquer was used.

The mastering process was originally something of an art as the operator had to manually allow for the changes in sound which affected how wide the space for the groove needed to be on each rotation. Sometimes the engineer would sign his work, or leave humorous or cryptic comments in the run-off groove area, where it was normal to scratch or stamp identifying codes to distinguish each master.

Mass producing records

The soft master known as a Lacquer would then be electroplated with a metal, commonly a nickel alloy. {This and all subsequent metal copies were known as Matrices ( singular Matrix).} When this metal was removed from the Lacquer (Master), it would be a negative master since it was a negative copy of the Lacquer (and incidentally of the finally to be produced record).(in the UK this was called the Master; note difference from soft master/Lacquer disc above). In the earliest days the negative master was used as a mould to press records sold to the public, but as demand for mass production of records grew, another step was added to the process.

The metal Master was then electroplated to create metal Positive matrices, or "Mothers". From these negatives or stampers Stampers would be formed. The Stampers would be used in hydraulic presses to mould the Lp discs. The advantages of this system over the earlier more direct system included ability to make a large number of records quickly by using multiple stampers. Also, more records could be produced from each Master since moulds would eventually wear out.

Since the Master was the unique source of the Positive, made to produce the Stampers, it was considered a Library Item. Accordingly, Copy Positives, required to replace worn Positives were made from unused early Stampers. these were known as Copy Shells and were the physical equivalent of the first Positive. The "Pedigree" of any record can be traced through the Stamper/Positive identities used, by reading the lettering found on the record run-out area.

Packaging and Distribution

Singles are typically sold in plain paper wrappers, though EPs are often treated to a cover in similar style to an LP. LPs are universally packaged in cardboard covers with a paper liner protecting the delicate surface of the record. Also, with the advent of long-playing records, the album cover became more than just packaging and protection, and album cover art became an important part of the music marketing and consuming experience. In the 1970's it became more common to have picture covers on singles. However, many singles with picture sleeves (especially from the 1960s) are sought out by collecters, and the sleeves alone can go for a high price. LPs could have textured cover art (with some sections being raised); something that is rarely done on CD covers.

Records are made at large manufacturing plants, either owned by the major labels, or run by independent operators to whom smaller operation and independent labels could go to for smaller runs. A band starting out might get a few hundred disks stamped, whereas big selling artists need the presses running full time to manufacture the hundreds of thousands of copies needed for the launch of a big album.

Records are generally sold through specialist shops, although some big chain-stores also have record departments. A lot of records are sold from stock, but it's normal these days to place special-orders for the less common records. Stock is expensive, so only large city center stores can afford to have several copies of a record.

Record Labels

Record companies organised their products into labels. These could either be subsidiary companies, or they could simply be just be a brand name. For example, EMI published records under the His Master's Voice (HMV) label which was their classical recording brand, Harvest for their progressive rock brand, home to Pink Floyd. They also had Music for Pleasure and Classics for Pleasure as their economy labels. EMI also used the Parlophone brand in the UK for Beatles records in the early 1960's.

In the 1970's, successful musicians sought greater control and one way they achieved this was with their own labels, though normally they were still operated by the large music corporations. One of the most famous early examples of this was the Beatles Apple label.

In the late 1970's, the anarchic punk rock movement gave rise to the independent record labels. These were not owned or even distributed by the main corporations. In the UK, examples were Stiff Records who published Ian Dury and the Blockheads and Two Tone Records, label for The Specials. These allowed smaller bands to step onto the ladder without having to conform to the rigid rules of the large corporations.

Disc limitations

Shellac 78s were extremely brittle and would break into several pieces if dropped. Typically, they would break into several wedge-shaped pieces; if the glued label did not tear, they might remain loosely connected by the label. In some cases, they are actually still playable if the label holds the pieces together, although there is a loud 'pop' with each pass over the crack, and breaking off the needle is highly likely.

Breakage was a very common accident, but one that usually induced a sharp pang of loss. Even careful owners usually lost some records to breakage. In the 1934 novel, Appointment in Samarra, the protagonist—admittedly drunk—

broke one of his most favorites, Whiteman's Lady of the Eveningw/. He wanted to cry but could not. He wanted to pick up the pieces. He reached over to pick them up, and lost his balance and sat down on another record, crushing it unmusically. He did not want to see what it was. All he knew was that it was a Brunswick, which meant that it was one of the oldest and best.

A poignant moment in J. D. Salinger's 1951 novel The Catcher in the Rye occurs after the adolescent protagonist buys a record for his younger sister because "I knew it would knock old Phoebe out." But "I dropped the record, and it broke into piecesw/. I damn near cried, it made me feel so terrible, but all I did was, I took the pieces out of the envelope and put them in my coat pocket."

Vinyl records were less subject to breakage. However, the vinyl material was an effective insulator and very prone to acquiring a static charge and attracting dust, which was very difficult to remove completely. The soft material was easily scratched. Dust and scratches caused audio clicks and pops. In extreme cases, they could cause the needle to skip over a series of grooves, causing the player to skip over a segment of the audio track; or, worse yet, cause the needle to skip backwards, creating a "locked groove" that would repeat the same portion of track over and over again. Locked grooves were not uncommon and were even heard occasionally in broadcasts. Locked grooves formed the subject of jokes ("Machines never make a mistakew/. make a mistakew/. make a mistakew/.") and became a common metaphor (a repetitious complainer might be accused of being "a broken record" or "a stuck gramophone record").

Locked grooves are a special case of groove skipping, in which groove damage or dirt lodged in the groove causes the stylus to skip to an adjacent groove.

Vinyl records could be warped by heat, improper storage, or manufacturing defects such as excessively tight plastic shrinkwrap on the album. A small degree of warp was common, and allowing for it was part of the art of turntable and tonearm design. "Wow" (once-per-revolution pitch variation) could result from warp, or from a spindle hole that was not precisely centered.

As a practical matter, records provided excellent sound quality when treated with care. They were the music source of choice for radio stations for decades, and the switch to digital music libraries by radio stations has not produced a noticeable improvement in sound quality. Casual ears cannot detect a difference in quality between a CD and a clean new LP played on good equipment. Audiophiles take great care of their records, playing them on expensive equipment to get the best sound and impart the least wear to the disc. However, even with the best of care, keen ears can detect the inherent surface noise. Nevertheless some aficionados believe that under the very best conditions LP sound is superior to CD (see Analog vs. Digital sound argument). The limitations of recording and mastering techniques had a greater impact on sound quality than the limitations of the record itself, at least until the 1980s.

A further limitation of the record is that with a constant rotational speed, the quality of the sound differs across the width of the record: the inner tracks play back at a significantly lower speed than the outer tracks. The result is that inner tracks have distortion that can be particularly noticeable at higher recording levels. CDs resolve this issue by using a variable rotational speed, giving a constant bit-rate.

7" singles were typically poorer quality for a variety of the reasons mentioned above, and in the 1970s the 12" single, played at 45 rpm, became popular for DJ use and for fans and collectors.

Another problem arises because of the geometry of the record arm. To be cost-effective, they pivot at a fixed point and the stylus describes an arc over the record. This means that the stylus may be presented at an angle to the groove and this introduces a distortion. A number of manufacturers introduced solutions to this issue by creating players with parallel tracking arms (for example Bang & Olufsen and the Beogram 8500) which used a servo system to power the arm across the player.

Columbia and RCA duked it out in the center of the record. Some turntables included spindle size adapters, but other turntables required snap-in inserts like this one to adapt RCA's larger 45 rpm spindle size to the smaller spindle size available on nearly all turntables.

Recording medium comparison

Format	Typical length
78 record	around 3.5 minutes per side
45 record	around 4 minutes (EP: 6 minutes) per side
LP record	up to 30 minutes per side
Audio cassette	30 or 45 minutes per side
Compact disc	up to 80 minutes
MP3 player	around 17 hours per GB of storage capacity

The typical duration of a vinyl album was about 15 to 25 minutes per side, except classical music which could extend to over 30 minutes on a side. Generally, a noticable increase in hiss is caused if a side exceeds approximately 22 minutes of music. Hence, Todd Rundgren's Initiation LP, which contains 36 minutes of music on a single side of the vinyl, contains a "technical note" at the bottom of the inner sleeve: "if the sound does not seem loud enough on your system, try re-recording the music onto tape. By the way, thanks for buying the album." The total of around 40–45 minutes often influenced the arrangement of tracks, with the preferred positions being the opening and closing tracks of each side. With the advent of compact discs, the available time became 74 or 80 minutes in a single block, which reduced the previous constraints.

Although the term EP was commonly used to describe a 7" single with more than two tracks, technically they were not different from a normal 7" single. The EP used reduced dynamic range and a smaller run-off groove area to extend the playing time. However, there are examples of singles, such as Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody which were six minutes long or more. These longer recordings would require the same technical approach as an EP. The term EP has also been used for 10" 45 rpm records, typically containing a reduced number of tracks.

Vinyl albums had a large 12" album cover, which also allowed cover designers scope for imaginative designs, often including fold-outs and leaflets.

Beyond the 1990s: Records versus the digital media

Groove recordings, first designed in the final quarter of the 19th century, held predominant sway for an impressive amount of time - just about a century. Even the technologies designed to supersede the record - reel tapes, the 8 track and the audio cassette - could not fully kill it. Only now, in the age of the CD and the MP3 player, has the record been fully replaced on a commercial level. Regardless, many personal collections still include large numbers of records, even among young people.

Curiously, for a young person with an honest love of older music, a record player may very well be a better investment than an MP3 player. Records, now largely considered an obsolete format, are generally quite cheap, and new record players (actual, new record players are still being made) run from roughly $100 to $200.

Compared to the purchase of, say, an iPod and the same songs in digital format, the record player has a heavy financial advantage. A new iPod is generally several hundred dollars, and the going rate for a digital song is $1 at iTunes. Many listeners cannot easily distinguish purchased or encoded digital music from the sound of a vinyl record, especially through inexpensive headphones. As far as mobility goes, however, the iPod, weighing mere ounces, is the clear winner, while record collection takes up a large amount of space. However, despite the massive MP3 and CD libraries commercially available, virtually every piece of music recording up until around 1980 is available on some format of record.

Arguments about sound fidelity

Vinyl records continue to be manufactured and sold today, although it is considered to be a niche market comprised of audiophiles, collectors, and disc jockeys (DJs). Punk and hardcore bands also often produce their albums and singles on vinyl.

In the early days of compact discs, vinyl records were still prized by audiophiles because of better reproduction of analog recordings; however, the drawback was greater sensitivity to scratches and dust. Early compact discs were perceived by some as screechy, distorting sounds on the high end, and not as "warm" as vinyl especially in recordings that require a wide dynamic range (e.g. classical recordings). This resulted in a slower acceptance of digital music in its early years by some listeners.

Though digital audio technology has improved over the years, some audiophiles still prefer what they perceive as the warmer and more detailed sound of vinyl over the harsher sound of CDs. Some listeners were also disappointed by what they considered to be unfaithful remastering of analog recordings. The advent of higher-quality digital formats, notably SACD, offers the tantalizing possibility of combining the high-quality sound of the best analog recordings with the convenience and durability of the CD. Many artists still release recordings, in limited pressings, on vinyl.

The arguments about the superior quality of vinyl records are wide-ranging. Proponents of analog audio argue that, unlike CD audio, it is not affected by the sharp frequency cutoff and phase characteristics, including group delay, near the Nyquist frequency and the quantization noise of 16-bit linear quantization, but that analog recording has a more gradual frequency cutoff, and what they consider to be a more natural descent into the analog noise floor.

Proponents of digital audio state that these differences are generally inaudible to normal human hearing, and the lack of clicks, hiss and pops from digital recordings greatly improved sound fidelity. They also state that more modern anti-aliasing filters and oversampling systems used in modern CD recordings greatly reduce the problems observed with early CDs.

The "warmer" sound of analog records is generally believed on both sides of the argument to be an artifact of the dynamic harmonic distortion characteristic of vinyl recording. It is thought by supporters of digital audio that the fans of vinyl got so used to it they think it is actually a more "faithful" to the real sound, when it is actually the other way around. (This phenomenon of a preference for the sound of a beloved lower-fidelity technology is not new; a 1963 review of RCA Dynagroove recordings notes that "some listeners object to the ultra-smooth sound as w/. sterilew/. such distortion-forming sounds as those produced by loud brasses are eliminated at the expense of fidelity. They prefer for a climactic fortissimo to blast their machinesw/.")

Nevertheless, critics of compact disc audio have observed that more recent digital audio systems are being designed to use higher sampling rates (for example, 96kHz) and finer quantization (for example 24 rather than 16 bits per sample), and state that this would not be being done if it did not bring some audible improvement to the output.

Deejays

For DJs, mostly in the electronic dance music or hip hop genres, vinyl has another advantage over the CD: the direct manipulation of the medium. While with CDs or cassettes one normally has only indirect manipulation options (the play/stop/pause etc. buttons), with a record one can put the needle a few tracks farther in- or outwards and accelerate/decelerate the spinning or even reverse the direction (if the needle and record player is built to withstand it). However some professional CD players now have this capability. Some DVD and SACD players have the same capability.

ELP, a Japaneseased company, has developed a player that uses a laser instead of a stylus to read vinyl discs. In theory, it eliminates the possibility of scratches and attendant degradation of the sound, but its expense limits use primarily to digital archiving of analog records.

Various other laser-based turntables were tried during the nineties, but while a laser reads the groove very accurately, since it does not touch the record, the dust that vinyl naturally attracts due to static charge is not cleaned from the groove.

Preservation of disc recordings

Due to the nature of the recording medium, playback of disks can cause degradation of the recording. In some cases, the equipment for playback of certain formats (e.g. 16 and 78 RPM) is manufactured only in small quantities, leading to increased difficulty in finding equipment to play the recordings.

Where old recordings are considered to be of artistic or historic interest, record companies or archivists will play them back on suitable equipment and record the result, typically into digital form, where the results can be distributed in whatever form is suitable without further damage to the record. Nimbus Records use a specially built horn record player to transfer 78's, though standard record players with suitable pickups are probably more typical. Having digitized the results, the sound can be manipulated to improve the resulting recording, for example, removing the sound of scratches.

The home enthusiast can copy his or her vinyl recordings using equipment available on a modest home computer simply by linking his or her record player to their sound card and using suitable recording software. This allows the recordings to be converted to whatever format the listener wishes; allowing the owner to listen to a favorite record, perhaps bought in the 1960's and no longer available, on the latest of MP3 players.

In an attempt to preserve the historic content of the recordings, disks can be read optically, processed with software that calculates the velocity that the stylus would be moving in the mapped grooves and converted to a digital recording format. The resulting sound clip in most cases sounds better than stylus playback from the original disk. Having an electronic version of the original recordings enables archivists to open access to the recordings to a wider audience. This technique also has the potential to allow for reconstruction of damaged or broken disks. (Fadeyev & Haber, 2003)

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