The earliest playback system, the phonograph, was invented by Thomas Edison in 1877. This system utilised a revolving drum onto
which was recorded an audio passage. The traditional platter record system or gramophone was invented in the same year by Emile Berliner which replaced the quick wearing cylinder with a flat platter of zinc covered in wax.
Over the next hundred years the gramophone and record technology made quantum leaps in development to today's vinyl records and stack hi-fi systems.
The record deck is used for playing various sized vinyl records which hold music in the form of a pitted groove. A diamond tipped stylus is dragged through the groove as the turntable rotates the record. The pits in the edge of the groove cause the stylus to vibrate in unison, these vibrations are picked up and amplified by coils in the head of the record arm. The amplified signals are carried down the arm and out of the rear of the record deck by wires and connecting sockets.
The principle of the record deck is very simple, today's domestic decks incorporate many features which try to improve the sound quality or to automate as many features as possible, the basic sound reproductions, however, always remain the same.
Since the introduction of the compact disc, the record and its associated player have been in decline. Compact disc sales have now overtaken the sale of records and it can only be a matter of time before the vinyl record will be considered an antiquity.
