Preservation of Correspondence - And Media

[arcarlini at iee.org]

Zane H. Healy wrote:
> Antonio wrote:
>> There is a turntable out there that is completely non-contact, it
>> uses a laser based pickup (actually five lasers I think). It will
>> set you back a tidy sum though.
> 
> I assume you're talking about the one that looks like a large
> Laserdisc player?  IIRC, when it came out it cost $30k.  The big
> disadvantage to it is that the records must be *spotless*, as even a
> speck of dust will effect playback.  The reviews I've read also speak
> of the audio quality being a little flat and lifeless.  What I find
> very interesting is that you're supposed to be able to take the
> pieces of a broken record and carefully arrange them on the "platter"
> and play them.  I'd love to see one in action and hear it for myself,
> but I doubt I'll ever be able to afford one. 

The UK distributor has a page here:

http://www.laser-vinyl.com/Turntables/Laser/TheLaserTurntable.htm

£10k for the "Archivist" version (which will do up to 12" and 78rpm).

You can solve the "dust bunnies" problem with their record cleaner
(sounds like it's a posh vacuum cleaner - quite posh since it's
£475!).

I don’t think I'll be ordering one this side of a lottery win as
the only thing I could play on it that is not already available
on CD is one of those magazine "discs" for the Spectrum. I expect
that I can find some other way of reconstructing that if needed!

Antonio