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Old Floppy Drive Becomes New Turntable

vinyl1 writes "This must be the ultimate in retro-cool hardware hacking. The floppy drive is obsolete, but the turntable is not, and that got one guy to thinking. He provides a full tutorial on how to turn that worthless old floppy drive into a most desirable piece of audio gear."

7 of 329 comments (clear)

  1. Before anyone asks... by rhennigan · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Because he can.

  2. Summary of the article by Rosco+P.+Coltrane · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Guy needs motor with good bearing, eyes old floppy drives, rips motor out, cleverly reuses motor for turntable.

    Hardly a floppy drive hack.

    --
    "A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
  3. Re:What stylus? by maxwell+demon · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Just add a separate dust wiper.

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    The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
  4. Re:That would make one *terrible* turntable by the_weasel · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Which is why I hate the new breed of slashdot users.

    This was a home project - he did it because he wanted to, not because he needed to. Would you have preferred he watched survivor? Or that donald trump show? Maybe downloaded, so he could be spoonfed his entertainment.

    This is one of the few slashdot stories of the past few days that actually belongs here. In my opinion.

    Think about it for a minute.

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    - sarcasm is just one more service we offer -
  5. Re:That would make one *terrible* turntable by TheIndividual · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Geez most people can't even distinguish between WAV and 256kbit MP3. The whole audiophile scene is a joke to me, that's more like a religion then anything else. Remember those are the folks claiming that a CDR copy doesn't sound identical to a CD-Rom even though clearly it will play the exact same bits. People want to believe that their 1cm cable makes a huge difference when 1mm would be enough. On the other hand, if it makes them happy...

  6. Re:What stylus? by CastrTroy · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I think the major advantage of a laser turntable is that you wouldn't have to worry about the records wearing out. If you were careful not to scratch them, they'd probably last a lot longer than with a standard turntable. I imagine the high price tag has to do with low number of sales, as well as the fact that they are probably only going to be used by those with really delicate and rare records.

    --

    Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
  7. Humroless mod strikes again. by WidescreenFreak · · Score: 1, Insightful

    And of course a totally clueless and humorless mod slaps you with an "Overrated" when, as an audiophile who still has plenty of LPs and remembers (barely) the days of the 8" floppy drives, I found it to be quite humorous, particularly the "scratching" comment.

    When is Slashdot going to add a litmus test to getting moderation points that if you don't have a sense of humor, you don't qualify to be a moderator?

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    The Overrated mod is for reversing inappropriate, positive mods, not for voicing disagreement with a post.