#A TURNTABLE AT ROTATIONAL SPEED 33 RPM PORTABLE#

The similar related terms gramophone (from the Greek γράμμα gramma 'letter' and φωνή phōnē 'voice') and graphophone have similar root meanings. The term phonograph ('sound writing') was derived from the Greek words φωνή ( phonē, 'sound' or 'voice') and γραφή ( graphē, 'writing'). Close up of the mechanism of an Edison Amberola, c. In later electric phonographs (more often known since the 1940s as record players or turntables), the motions of the stylus are converted into an analogous electrical signal by a transducer, then converted back into sound by a loudspeaker.

When used in conjunction with a mixer as part of a DJ setup, turntables are often colloquially called 'decks'. In more modern usage, the playback device is often called a 'turntable', 'record player', or ' record changer', although each of these terms denote categorically distinct items. Usage of terminology is not uniform across the English-speaking world (see below). However unlike 'plug-and-play' digital audio, vinyl has 'user-serviceable parts inside' which require attention to tonearm alignment and the wear and choice of stylus, the most critical component affecting turntable sound.

#A TURNTABLE AT ROTATIONAL SPEED 33 RPM PORTABLE#

This resurgence has a lot to do with 'vinyl's' sparing use of audio processing, intending more natural sound on high-quality replay equipment, compared to many digital releases that are highly processed for portable players in high environmental noise. However, records are still a favorite format for some audiophiles, DJs, collectors, and turntablists (particularly in hip hop and electronic dance music), and have undergone a revival since the 2000s. In the 1980s, phonograph use declined sharply due to the popularity of cassettes and the rise of the compact disc, as well as the later introduction of digital music distribution in the 2000s, both audio file downloads and streaming. In the 1960s, the use of 8-track cartridges and cassette tapes were introduced as alternatives. The disc phonograph record was the dominant commercial audio distribution format throughout most of the 20th century.

Later improvements through the years included modifications to the turntable and its drive system, the stylus or needle, pickup system, and the sound and equalization systems.

In the 1890s, Emile Berliner initiated the transition from phonograph cylinders to flat discs with a spiral groove running from the periphery to near the center, coining the term gramophone for disc record players, which is predominantly used in many languages. Alexander Graham Bell's Volta Laboratory made several improvements in the 1880s and introduced the graphophone, including the use of wax-coated cardboard cylinders and a cutting stylus that moved from side to side in a zigzag groove around the record. The phonograph was invented in 1877 by Thomas Edison. In early acoustic phonographs, the stylus vibrated a diaphragm which produced sound waves which were coupled to the open air through a flaring horn, or directly to the listener's ears through stethoscope-type earphones.

To recreate the sound, the surface is similarly rotated while a playback stylus traces the groove and is therefore vibrated by it, very faintly reproducing the recorded sound. The sound vibration waveforms are recorded as corresponding physical deviations of a spiral groove engraved, etched, incised, or impressed into the surface of a rotating cylinder or disc, called a 'record'. Thomas Edison with his second phonograph, photographed by Levin Corbin Handy in Washington, April 1878 An Edison Standard Phonograph that uses wax cylindersĪ phonograph, in its later forms also called a gramophone (as a trademark since 1887, as a generic name in the UK since 1910) or since the 1940s called a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogue recording and reproduction of sound.

A turntable at rotational speed 33 rpm