This is for all of you who miss the old days of vinyl records, which have been replaced by CDs and MP3s. I wasn't around back then, but I did kind of miss tapes when they were phased out...

The CD player will play normal sized CDs, and will be roughly the size of a normal CD player. But, you actually load it label-side DOWN, the oppisite of what a normal CD player does. There is a "CD laser pickup" that is purposely designed to look like a record arm-but it's suspended above the CD, not actually touching it. When you play the CD, the laser pickup is moved by a motor, slowly across the disk. To change to a different track, you just lift up the arm slightly and GENTLY lower it down somewhere else on the disk. Since the laser does not need to be touching the CD, there will be a plastic hold-up piece below the arm, that prevents it from falling down too far and scratching the CD. When it reaches the end of the disk, a simulated "scratch, scratch, scratch" noise will be played, with the arm moving toward the spindle and moving slightly away from it, until you turn it off.

The same thing should be done with CD jukeboxes, and have a window where you can see the CD changer/playing mech like some old style record jukeboxes, but instead of doing the scratch, scratch, scratch thing, it simply returns the pickup to resting position and puts the CD back into the array of CD holders with a grabbing arm. Anyone who's ever seen/used an old record jukebox where you could see the records will know what I'm talking about.

But, there's a danger of scratching the CD or worse breaking the laser if you drop the pickup from too high. There should be a clear warning label stating "please lower the pickup carefully. dropping the pickup onto the CD may damage the disk or the CD player" so that no one will yell at the MFR.
-- Dickcheney6, Sep 08 2008

(?) "Vinyl" LP-look CD-Rs http://thisdvdburne...vinyl-cd-r-media-9/
For use with the described CD player. [csea, Sep 08 2008]

cd turntables http://www.turntabl...dj_equipment/45/17/
for djs [jaksplat, Sep 08 2008]

See [link] for appropriate media.

Anyone remember the MP3 player of a few years ago that was made in the shape of a cassette tape? It would actually play through a cassette player by coupling to the magnetic tape play head.
-- csea, Sep 08 2008


My brother owns one of them. We used to use it in our rather old car, which had a cassette player only. There should be an eight-track one too.
-- nineteenthly, Sep 08 2008


I don't miss vinyl except in the generic "analog is better than digital" sense.
It's really not a good idea: while vinyl records rotated at 33/45/78 rpm, CD's at normal speed rotate at 1500rpm; that's a "death frisbee" scenario waiting to happen... those "turntables" linked by [jaksplat] are fake: they're speed controllers; a normal CD player is inside... [-]
-- FlyingToaster, Sep 08 2008


Mini-Disks are still the best.
-- zen_tom, Sep 08 2008


//CD's at normal speed rotate at 1500rpm;//
sp. "500 rpm".
-- coprocephalous, Sep 08 2008


This sounds unfeasible, but i can think of a practical reason for going back further. A cylindrical optical medium wouldn't have the same problems as optical discs seem to have at the edge, since they have no edge. So, how about optical wax cylinders?
-- nineteenthly, Sep 08 2008


//"scratch, scratch, scratch" noise will be played, with the arm moving toward the spindle//
CDs play from the "spindle" outwards.

You could have all the important parts underneath the CD. The "pickup" could then be just a lever, to operate opposite of the laser head. So it would be at the spindle when the laser reaches the rim. The CD could then be placed right-side up.

But I'm unconvinced that the "CD Grammaphone", as linked by [jutta], is functional.
-- Amos Kito, Sep 08 2008


Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's just a design prototype. Still, it seemed pertinent.
-- jutta, Sep 08 2008


it's beautiful. functional or no it illustrated the idea perfectly.
-- WcW, Sep 08 2008


I didn't know that CD's played from the spindle outwards.

As for your worries on the CD turning faster and being dangerous as a result, I fail to see that being a problem. CD's are not sharp at all. You can touch the edge of a spinning disk and it won't cut you. Even if by some mishap, the machine fell down and sent the CD flying, the worst that is likely to happen would be that the CD would get scratched.

However, I do agree with the one person who said //You could have all the important parts underneath the CD. The "pickup" could then be just a lever, to operate opposite of the laser head. So it would be at the spindle when the laser reaches the rim. The CD could then be placed right-side up.// That's actually a good idea.
-- Dickcheney6, Sep 08 2008


I bet the CD Gramaphone linked does work, I've seen other devices like it, such as a custom handheld Playstation by Ben Heck where the disc spins freely (at a much higher speed).

I myself have modified a walkman to operate without its lid and it wasn't dangerous.
-- Spacecoyote, Sep 09 2008


Someone I knew at University had an (Amstrad) tray-loading record player - i.e. a record player which looks like a CD player, so the reverse of this idea is baked. It was a crap record player by the way, and the tray took about a minute to go in.
-- hippo, Sep 09 2008


Would it skip occasionally, and sound like it was being played in a shed at the bottom of the garden, thereby replicating that authentic 'Dansette' sound?
-- Mister Sketchly, Sep 11 2008


What I'd like is a TV remote with a dial on for changing the channels. I've toyed with posting it on teh bakery, but, well, haven't. Good for all sorts of gadgets. Retro-futurism it could be.
-- Loris, Sep 11 2008


This would still use regular CDs. So it would play all the disks you already own (if you still use CDs, that is)
-- Dickcheney6, Nov 02 2008



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