What's a record player?

I had a kit which allowed you to build the same thing that I got as a gift. It was a pretty cool concept, although it went through needles very fast. The plastic on the CDs is very thick, and cutting into it really wore out the needles.

And for that matter.. What's a CD?

Whoa dude.

Hope you de-magnetized that disc first.

shawngarringer:

What?! There's no way this thing (or anything like it) would use a real needle. It just looks like a record player, but still uses a laser to read the disc. Anything else would be completely insane, and quite frankly, stupid.

Not stupid, but impossible...

Hmm, would of been a neat idea ten years ago when CD's where all the rage, but now its just silly. I mean you have a obsolete format playing as if it was an even more obsolete format.

I get the impression shawn's talking about something completely different. Something that takes useless/coastered CDs and cuts physical grooves into them so they actually function the same way as vinyl?

Yeah, Hobby Link Japan (www.hlj.com) used to sell those kits. It essentially was a memo recorder. You could use anything from a disc cut from a plastic ice cream tub lid, to old CD's. so long as it was plastic and not too thin.. You could talk into it, then use the same device to play back the message.

They also made a drum version, that used the flat section of plastic water dispenser cups as the recording media..

You pinheads! That is a laser tracking arm. Plus it a very elegant design IMHO. I'd buy one just to put in the ubercool shade of these badboys... http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/home-entertainment/kharmas-1+mi...

This will never be UL approved. If the 200-500 RPM spinning disc doesn't slice your finger, the laser will surely burn your eye out.

...People use physical discs to play back music?

Man, where have I been.

Er... 200 RPM is just three full rotations a second: sloooow. There is no way that will cut anything. I doubt the ~8 rotations a second max speed would either. But I agree on the laser problem. That's why every CD player has lots of warnings about operating it while open/disassembled.

I would be afraid of somehow getting hit in the eye with that laser. Because I know it would just happen somehow.

Ok, enough with the Yanko Design posts. Seriously, you guys keep making me go, "OOh OOH OOH I want it! I want it! Oh wait... i ... can't... have it... because it doesn't exist :( "*sniff* *sniff*

Hey!
Look what I found!
Any bets this wasn't the inspiration for the CD player?

http://www.seespotruninc.com/images/Kush-MusicOfTheWoods.j...