Slot-Loading Record Player

Where I’m sitting right now, I can see the row of vinyl anchoring our bookshelves. Some great stuff in there.

All lined up with no place to play.

All lined up with no place to play.


I can also see our turntable, not hooked up, trapped in a cabinet that does not allow access enough to open the turntable’s lid. Then it hit me. There’s no need for special cabinet modifications and sliding drawers just to put a circular disc onto a spindle. CD Players have been managing that problem since the very beginning.

If I had a slot-loading turntable, I’d be good to go. I did a brief search for such a thing, and apparently they exist for 45’s, but the only one I found that might work for LPs was a dead link. But with today’s entertainment furniture, it seems like a no-brainer.

While we’re at it, perhaps we could replace the needle with a laser, and extend the lives of our precious vinyl albums.

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5 thoughts on “Slot-Loading Record Player

  1. You do know that even if the laser solution produced noticeably better sound, the pricks who are still buying vinyl would claim that only a needle would produce the “right” sound and refuse to buy the item.

    I’m building a “real world” periodic table right now (care to contribute?) and I’m stunned to see how many elements needles have been made out of.

    • I could imagine some argument that the grooves were made with assumed mass to move that added a mechanical filter to the signal and that listening without that filter would be to distort the music. It would be nonsense, but someone would make it.

      I used to have some spare titanium, but I think I left it in Prague.

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