Vinyl Record Grooves Magnified

Posted by jason kottke nov 06 2014.

Vinyl record grooves magnified.

Here s a neat image of a record and a stylus at 1000x magnification. Well here s the view from inside a record s groove at 1000x magnification as shared by microscopic images on their twitter page. With a magnification of 60x yo. Starting in the 1940s polyvinyl chloride became.

The groove usually starts near the periphery and ends near the center of the disc. Microscopic photo of vinyl record grooves. Vinyl records repair grooves reconstruction ultimate solution for scratched records duration. When you look really closely at record grooves like at 1000x magnification you can see the waveforms of the music itself.

The smooth shiny black landscape of vinyl is actually a jagged terrain that looks like it s being carved out by the stylus with each side of the groove creating sound waves for the left and right channel. A phonograph record also known as a gramophone record especially in british english or simply a record is an analog sound storage medium in the form of a flat disc with an inscribed modulated spiral groove. I ve always known how record players worked but seeing the process magnified like this is way cool. This cheap microscope is a handy tool to inspect your vinyl.

The photos come from microscopic images on twitter. It s pretty incredible to see the etched grooves on the record up close and how they interact with the needle. Especially if you hear clicks and pops after cleaning the record. I ll won t comment too much because these pictures really do speak for themselves.

At first the discs were commonly made from shellac. This video shows how the stylus moves through the grooves. But still i think you ll agree that the results are stunning. Below a record being played under a microscope.