Why do vinyl records always spin at 33 or 45RPM? Why not every any slower speeds that would allow for more music on each side?
In: Technology
There’s a trade-off between the speed of the disc and the quality of the audio stored on it–if you spin it slower then less of the vinyl will pass under the needle every second, so to get the same quality you’d have to have more detailed vibrations in the groove.
Having said that, 33 and 45 are not the only speeds ever used. Many years ago, when manufacturing techniques weren’t as good as they are now, in order to get decent quality the records had to spin at 78rpm. There was also a brief-lived record format that spun at 16rpm, but the audio quality was so bad it could really only be used for spoken voice and the like, not music.
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