On Wed, 02 Jul 2003 15:42:32 +0100, Dave J.
wrote:

In inside of
uk.net.news.config, 'Chris Croughton' wrote:

Which is a pity, since analogue equipment
is a lot "lower tech" and has tended to change format a lot slower than
digital formats (and so is more "future-proof" -- it will still be
trivial to build something to play an LP in 100 years time[1], just as
we can still read books hand-scribed a thousand years ago, but decoding
a CD containing MP3 format data may well be a lost art by then).

Vinyl recordings also degrade much less quickly than (current) CDs and
it is perfectly possible to play them without physical contact, thus
removing the 'wear and tear' element.

I was thinking that I had seen somewhere a machine reading vinyl with
laser which was designed to not harm the substrate. Does it exist
commercially?

(Theoretically it could be done with high frequency ultrasound
transducers as well.)

Chris C