Turntable Mechanism - How it works? | TRC Turntable Guide
After decades in decline, record players have enjoyed a spectacular renaissance over the last few years—and, whether they sound better or not, they can certainly teach us interesting things about how sound works. Let's take a closer look!
Record players were in widespread use until the late 80s and early 1990s, when the rising popularity of CDs made them obsolete for everyone except a few professional DJs.
Turntables are relatively simple machines powered by an electric motor. The motor either turns the turntable directly using gears (known as direct drive) or using a thin rubber belt looped over the motor and the central axle of the turntable (known as belt drive).
Powering the turntable at exactly the right speed is absolutely critical for playing the music correctly. If the turntable spins too slowly, the music slows down too.
In order to understand the working mechanism of a turntable you need to know what sound is.
Sound is a vibration that reaches our ear. It is a wave that is transported by air or some other medium.
Horizontally you see the time of the wave and vertical the height of the wave. Both parameters can be changed, when the wave becomes higher; the sound is getting louder. When the wave becomes more compact (more waves per second) the sound is getting higher.
When the vibrating air reaches our ear, our eardrums get hit by the molecules. The vibrating wave is marketing our eardrums vibrate as well. These vibrations are received by neurons, converted into electrical pulses and transported to our brain. Our brain then interprets these electrical signals as sound.
What we hear as sound is thus air that makes our eardrums vibrate.
A record player exactly does that, making the air vibrate in the way that is coded into a vinyl record.
How does a record player work?
Vinyl record players are electromagnetic devices that change sound vibrations into electrical signals. When a record spins, it creates sound vibrations that get converted into electrical signals. These signals are fed into electronic amplifiers. Electric amps vibrate and feed the resulting sound into speakers, which amplify it and make it louder. Record players still use the whole needle and groove methodology that a phonograph used, although record players today are much more high tech.
The Turntable is made of the following main parts:
- Tonearm
- Stylus (needle)
- Platter
- Cantilever
The platter spins the record with the aid of a belt or a direct drive system. As the record turns, a stylus reads the grooves.
Microscopic image of a Turntable Stylus tracing a Vinyl Record Groove
The stylus is set at one end of the cantilever and is a cone-shaped component made from diamond, which is the hardest natural material on Earth.
Turntable Cartridge
The stylus picks up vibrations along the groove of the vinyl record. These same vibrations travel along the metal band at the end of the cantilever and arrive at the cartridge at the tonearm’s end.
The cartridge contains coils within a magnetic field, and when the vibrations hit these coils, they are transformed into electrical signals.
These electrical signals can be amplified and broadcasted through the speakers.
At TRC, We have got you covered -
- Quick product consultation - Talk Now
- Wide range of Vinyl Records
- Be a part of community events
- Top notch Installation & After sale support
Shop New Vinyl Records | Recordwala | Turntable & Stereo | Home Theater Systems