How Does a Turntable Work?

Vinyl Records

To understand how a turntable works, one must first understand exactly how a vinyl record stores sound information. Sound itself is made up of "sound waves," which essentially are a visual representation of sound information. When records are pressed, these sound waves are imprinted directly onto the vinyl as grooves. These grooves change based on factors like frequency or amplitude, which all go into reproducing sound exactly as it was recorded and mixed in a studio.

Playing Audio

When a record is placed on a turntable, the player's needle travels from the outer rim of the record to the inner rim along the circular grooves. The needle picks up the information contained on the grooves and translates them into vibrations. These vibrations are then picked up by the turntable's "diaphragm." This is essentially what translates grooves in plastic into audio information. The turntable, at this point, sends the audio information to whatever stereo receiver it is hooked up to. The speakers reproduce the audio to exactly how it was mixed in the recording studio.

The speed and pitch of a record's audio can also be adjusted simply by adjusting the speed at which the record spins.

Mixer

By attaching a "mixer" to your stereo setup, you can change even more settings than even the turntable will allow. A mixer lets you alter equalizer settings, which can adjust the treble, base and other audio qualities to just the way the listener likes it. A mixer will also allow you to play multiple tracks at once. This can be key if the user is making home recordings from vinyl records.