[kenman345]

 
But there are no 1 and 0's or on's and off's on a record.  The signal from the laser would be variable (voltage preferably, so you can output to rca's for an amp or preamp)
 
Keep in mind that laserdiscs, those old big ones, were analog.  They weren't digital at all.  To get a digital signal from a laser reading an analog source, you'd need an ADC.  So why go ADC and then put it into a DAC. 

Interesting, I guess I forgot about that. So a CD Transport that has digital output has to have an ADC unrelated to the laser needed to read the disc. 

 

[Serenitty]

  Interesting, I guess I forgot about that. So a CD Transport that has digital output has to have an ADC unrelated to the laser needed to read the disc. 

No, a CD transport is reading a digital signal and does not need an ADC.  A laserdisc transport with a digital out, if there is such a thing, would need an ADC.  Or people who rip Vinyl to FLAC are using an ADC.
 
Think of the laser like a phono needle that doesn't actually touch the record. It's high tech, but it's not digital in any way. It's likely just as susceptible to dirt on the record as the needle, it just won't wear the vinyl out. 

 

[enkidu]

  But a laser reading the record would be outputting digital signal as it needs to interpret grooves

The crazy thing about the ELP is the signal is never converted to digital during the entire path to output. Completely analog. I think in the original version even the controller was completely analog

. The bad part is that it picks up every little speck of dust. The really crazy part is that the ELP can often play broken records if they're placed correctly on the turntable.

 

[Serenitty]

 
The crazy thing about the ELP is the signal is never converted to digital during the entire path to output. Completely analog. I think in the original version even the controller was completely analog

. The bad part is that it picks up every little speck of dust. The really crazy part is that the ELP can often play broken records if they're placed correctly on the turntable.

I'm not sure I think that's crazy.  Why convert to digital and then have to convert back?  Unless you need processing that can only be done in the digital domain, it just doesn't make sense.

 

[davidsh]

Perhaps it does because it is easier, cheaper or better that way

 

[enkidu]

 
I'm not sure I think that's crazy.  Why convert to digital and then have to convert back?  Unless you need processing that can only be done in the digital domain, it just doesn't make sense.

Totally agree. I just meant it is crazy hard. Laser+diffraction -> analog sound based on a transfer function that is entirely implemented with analog circuits and based on a diffraction pattern, do it consistently across different discs while maintaining low noise level and maintain tracking across a platter that is warped. It'd be tricky to do in the digital domain. I took a few EE classes in college but that kind of a circuit completely blows my mind. Patent is very informative. https://encrypted.google.com/patents/US3992593
 
As for a Schiit turntable. I don't see it happening. I do think a multi-channel home theater amp with real power and a crazy low price is a possibility.

 

[StanD]

I can just see Jason running around the Schiithole with a laser blaster in hand chasing everyone around.  

 

[Rem0o]

I think microsoft went a little too soft on their new shiny error message, you all know what it should have been...

 

[yay101]

They just translated the error codes to something people can say easier over the phone. "It just came up with this error that something went wrong." "What's the rest of the message?" " just that something went wrong."

 

[Rudiger]

Here is the original :
 

 

[Ableza]

Reading a vinyl groove with a laser would be a feat, but not one that is likely to be available for human-scale pricing.  Or human-scale size. 
 
A device for combining two digital signals into one is called a mixer.  There are plenty of them on the market.

 

[45longcolt]

You guys know that CDs are analog, right? While they do carry digital data, it's not a bunch of very very tiny ones and zeros printed on the disc. The laser reads pits, or differences in elevation - kind of like an LP's groove, just starting and stopping extremely often. So, you already own a laser turntable. Don't you feel wealthier now?

 

[Bazile]

CD's are indeed digital, or at least binary. This is from the CD entry on wikipedia.

The pits and lands themselves do not directly represent the zeros and ones of binary data. Instead, non-return-to-zero, inverted encoding is used: a change from pit to land or land to pit indicates a one, while no change indicates a series of zeros. There must be at least two and no more than ten zeros between each one, which is defined by the length of the pit. This in turn is decoded by reversing the eight-to-fourteen modulation used in mastering the disc, and then reversing the cross-interleaved Reed–Solomon coding, finally revealing the raw data stored on the disc. These encoding techniques (defined in the Red Book) were originally designed for CD Digital Audio, but they later became a standard for almost all CD formats (such as CD-ROM).

I wish I understood anything past the 1st two sentences.

 

[ThePianoMan]

^ CD could have been an analog format, just essentially micro-laser vinyl. However Somy decided to make it digital - that is literally "made of digits and numbers" so the grooves in CD's correspond to signals that must be interpreted to play sound.
Thus we require DACs.

 

[Ableza]

CD's are indeed digital, or at least binary. This is from the CD entry on wikipedia.

The pits and lands themselves do not directly represent the zeros and ones of binary data. Instead, non-return-to-zero, inverted encoding is used: a change from pit to land or land to pit indicates a one, while no change indicates a series of zeros. There must be at least two and no more than ten zeros between each one, which is defined by the length of the pit. This in turn is decoded by reversing the eight-to-fourteen modulation used in mastering the disc, and then reversing the cross-interleaved Reed–Solomon coding, finally revealing the raw data stored on the disc. These encoding techniques (defined in the Red Book) were originally designed for CD Digital Audio, but they later became a standard for almost all CD formats (such as CD-ROM).

I wish I understood anything past the 1st two sentences.

What is means is the analog audio is encoded to PCM digital, which is then encoded to CD language using the Red Book transformation system, and recorded onto the foil layer of a CD as a physical line of code.  This code is detected by laser, decoded back to PCM, then the PCM is decoded back to analog before you can hear it.