Vinyl records

[Loricybin]

i'm listening to vinyl records, and i was just wondering if anyone here can shed some insight on how these work.

 

i know that there is a highly sensitive needle running down a spiral track, and i guess the track that it's running down is sort of... engraved? with the correct something or other which causes vibrations in the needle?

 

i also know that with no electronic amplification of any kind, you can still hear the music playing faintly as the needle vibrates when you put your ear close to the player.

 

but seriously,

how do they print records? what is it about the track that causes this to function? how does it work?

 

(if i'm being too vague, kindly specify where i need to be more clear in my questioning)

[Buffy]

Yah, its wiggly grooves! Boy do I miss vinyl...except for the skips, and the noise from dust, and...

 

Invented by Thomas Edison, the first was a cylinder: Platters came later. The original used cylinders made either of soft metal (tinfoil) or hard wax and they BOTH recorded and played back: by speaking/singing/playing into the horn, the diaphragm would make the needle wiggle and etch the sound into the medium.

 

Lots more came later...

 

Waitresses, confused would utter, "Sir, I've never heard of toast and color," :phones:

Buffy

[teguy5]

The grooves in the record make the needle vibrate and the vibrations couse sound. Same reason you can hear a speaker when it vibrates. Every instrument works because something somewhere vibrates and causes sound. In fact every sound you hear with your ears is caused by vibrations.