Today while driving to the doctor, I got to thinking about record players (yes, I mean the ones that play vinyl). Has anyone thought to make a smart record player? Here are some of my ideas:
- Have a cleaning system built into the player, that before starting to play a record actually washes and dries the record. That should be doable with an arm that can be lowered to the surface.
- Have a magnetic resistance type mechanism mechanism in the tonearm itself that automatically allows the turntable to adjust skate and skim, as well as weight, to give optimal listening. This could likely detect skips due to movements in the arm, as well as detecting the appropriate weight due to changes in the turntable speed. I think we have the sensors now to process this.
- Install a slight delay buffer (perhaps a second) that permits monitoring of the music, and optionally, processing. The monitoring could detect skips, and automatically attempt to recover the passage or replay the passage. The processing could remove cracks, pops, and noise, if enabled.
I’m surprised no one has done this. Perhaps there just isn’t sufficient market. Yet.
