On 06/21/2012 07:39 AM, Steve Smolian wrote:
>
> Needle in groove playback still sounds better.  I assume they are also
> working on improving their digital modeling of the physics of playback.
>

I'm a lay person so I may be talking out of my hat, but it seems to me 
that one obstacle they are possibly facing is the fact that the groove 
of a disc is modulated in an arc rather than a straight line.

When the software digitally straightens the groove, the distance between 
the peak and trough of the lateral waveform will be microscopically 
shortened along the outer wall and lengthened along the inner wall - and 
the factor will be constantly changing, because the radius is constantly 
changing.

I don't know how much doppler-like distortion this might introduce, if 
any. With something like the Berliner discs, I don't think anybody 
cares. These are voices that have been locked away for nearly a century 
and a half, and we're happy to be able to hear even a faint ghostly 
image marred with the grain and dirt of the paper, possibly even the 
grain of the zinc master, and other factors. But with a musical record, 
this would seem still a bit of a challenge. In theory, anyway. At least 
to this admittedly unschooled mind. :)

Michael Shoshani
Chicago