High Definition Vinyl Is Happening
 

“High Definition Vinyl” Is Happening, Possibly as Early as Next Year

With a new $4.8 million investment, an Austrian startup says it could have “HD vinyl” in stores by 2019

“High Definition Vinyl” has moved closer to a turntable near you. In 2016, a European patent filing described a way of manufacturing records that the inventors claimed would have higher audio fidelity, louder volume, and longer playing times than conventional LPs. Now, the Austrian-based startup Rebeat Innovation has received $4.8 million in funding for the initiative, founder and CEO Günter Loibl told Pitchfork. Thanks to the investment, the first “HD vinyl” albums could hit stores as early as 2019, Loibl said.

The HD vinyl process involves converting audio digitally to a 3D topographic map. Lasers are then used to inscribe the map onto the “stamper,” the part that stamps the grooves into the vinyl. According to Loibl, these methods allow for records to be made more precisely and with less loss of audio information. The results, he said, are vinyl LPs that can have up to 30 percent more playing time, 30 percent more amplitude, and overall more faithful sound reproduction. The technique would also avoid the chemicals that play a role in traditional vinyl manufacturing. Plus, the new-school HD vinyl LPs would still play on ordinary record players.

What’s next? Rebeat Innovation has ordered a big laser system, for about $600,000, with hopes that it will be shipped by July, Loibl said. Once that system is up and running, Loibl said he plans to produce test stampers for five to-be-determined “early mover” pressing plants. In September, the first test stampers would arrive at those plants. “Our goal is to officially present our test stampers at the Making Vinyl conference in October,” Loibl said, referring to the vinyl trade event held in Detroit. “It will take another eight months to do all the fine adjustments. So by summer 2019 we shall see the first HD vinyls in the stores.”


https://pitchfork.com/news/high-defi...-as-next-year/

very cool -- looking forward to hearing how this progresses.

...wonder if we will still be able to call this "analog" :)

OK, cant wait to demo a record or 2 Vs a normal 180 pressing. thanks for the news :)

Anytime there is innovation to improve an audio format we all win, thanks for sharing. Looking forward to hearing more, no pun intended:D

If that digital conversion process does not rob the vinyl of the "analog warmth", then the rest of the process sounds extremely promising.

well put ditto :thumbsup:

Digitizing analog. :scratch2:

I'll approach this next greatest thing with some skepticism.

I'll wait for MQA-vinyl... :D

(Stole that quote from another forum).

Think I'll hold my breathe. ;)

I agree. The digitization process would be an approximation no different to using a digital-to-analog converter source component. It's just the conversion to analog necessary to cutting the stamper using lasers would be done earlier in the reproduction chain and still need digital-to-analog conversion.

As far as having more amplitude/dynamic range there is no reason you can't do this in the analog domain.

Some may prefer the sound of this process, but you can reproduce the effect using analog techniques in ways that preserve faithfulness only analog can bring compared to present day microprocessor technologies/binary math.