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'High Definition Vinyl' Is Coming As Early As Next Year (pitchfork.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the day-late-and-a-dollar-short dept.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Pitchfork: In 2016, a European patent filing described a way of manufacturing records that the inventors claimed would have higher audio fidelity, louder volume, and longer playing times than conventional LPs. Now, the Austrian-based startup Rebeat Innovation has received $4.8 million in funding for the initiative, founder and CEO Gunter Loibl told Pitchfork. Thanks to the investment, the first "HD vinyl" albums could hit stores as early as 2019, Loibl said. The HD vinyl process involves converting audio digitally to a 3D topographic map. Lasers are then used to inscribe the map onto the "stamper," the part that stamps the grooves into the vinyl. According to Loibl, these methods allow for records to be made more precisely and with less loss of audio information. The results, he said, are vinyl LPs that can have up to 30 percent more playing time, 30 percent more amplitude, and overall more faithful sound reproduction. The technique would also avoid the chemicals that play a role in traditional vinyl manufacturing. Plus, the new-school HD vinyl LPs would still play on ordinary record players.

4 of 330 comments (clear)

  1. Re:"Louder volume"?! by fustakrakich · · Score: 5, Funny

    Yeah, it goes to 11

    --
    “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
  2. Or maybe we could cut out the middle man here... by Cytotoxic · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The HD vinyl process involves converting audio digitally to a 3D topographic map. Lasers are then used to inscribe the map onto the "stamper,"

    Or.. now hear me out on this one... or ... we could just, you know, send the digitally converted audio, you know, without converting it back into a bumpy piece of plastic.

    I know this might sound radical, but it seems to me that converting analog sound to digital format then to a digital 3d map then to a laser-cut stamper then to a piece of bumpy vinyl then to a vibrating stylus and into a varying electrical current to drive an amplification system to run the speakers that you listen to might just be a little more complicated than just taking the digital format for storage and transport and converting that back into analog sound at playback.

  3. if only the CD. . . by Zobeid · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If only record companies would put a fraction as much effort and resources into mastering their CDs properly and making them sound good, all this would be unnecessary.

  4. Re:"Louder volume"?! by Instantlemming · · Score: 5, Funny

    Yes, vinyl records were not affec-
    Yes, vinyl records were not affec-
    Yes, vinyl records were not affe (bump)
    -tches in any way.