How Does a High-Fidelity Turntable Work?

High Fidelity

High fidelity audio quality is a term used to designate a high-quality recording or reproduction of an audio source for commercial use that is incredibly similar to the way it was originally recorded. In short, it means that when listening to a record, for example, what you are hearing is as close as humanly possible to the way that music sounded when it was being recorded in the studio.

Audio enthusiasts build high-fidelity sound systems in a variety of ways. Connecting a high quality amplifier to your turntable, which has higher output capacity and does a much better job with frequency response, can allow the audio to peak without any kind of distortion. High-fidelity turntables also feature a needle and arm made of metal as opposed to plastic, as well as greater control over the speed at which the record rotates.

Vinyl Records

To help understand how a high fidelity turntable works, you need to understand how a record works. Sound waves, which are sound information recorded visually, are pressed into the plastic of the record. When you hold a record in your hands, these sound waves are the grooves that circle the entire record. They change the sound the turntable is sending to the speakers based on factors like amplitude and frequency.

Using a higher quality record with your high fidelity turntable can improve sound performance as well. Certain records use more detailed grooves and higher quality vinyl which can more accurately represent the way the audio was originally recorded. They are, however, slightly more expensive than a normal record.

Playing Audio

When a record begins playing on a high fidelity turntable, the player's needle moves along the grooves which translates the visual representation of sound back into an audio signal, which is then passed along to the stereo receiver and then to the speakers. High-fidelity turntables will have needles that can pick up every detail of every groove and not just quickly pass over them, which will result in the player handling pitch and volume changes much better. High fidelity turntables will also maintain a constant speed when playing the record, as opposed to the subtle or sometimes constant slight speed changes that can occur and dramatically alter the audio recording.