Although the quadraphonic faired slightly better on eight track recorders, that conception was not much of a success either, as the cassette tape machines introduced by Philips ultimately replaced them. In addition to the above it is a known fact that if a vinyl record has more than six tracks per side, the sound quality becomes less audible to the human ear. If a Long Playing record has more than six tracks per side the sound has to be recorded at reduced amplitude in order to get the tracks on the blank disc. Having said that; an LP consisting of say 10 tracks on each side will therefore reduce the desired signal amplitude relative to unwanted noise; this is heard as an increase in hum and distortion which is referred to as the signal to noise ratio. The demise of the 78 record began with the introduction of the unbreakable, Long Playing microgroove record. In 1948 Columbia introduced the 33⅓ rpm LP records, followed soon after by the 45 rpm records from RCA Victor. In the 1950's in Germany, a rival for the LP record player was the Tefifon. This device used cartridges of endless plastic tape on which the microgrooves were recorded. The small cartridges played for an hour, with larger cartridges playing significantly longer. The Tefifon stereo versions were marketed until about mid 1960's. When all is said and done with, it was Thomas Alva Edison who was the first person to introduced the Long Playing record way back in 1927 to combat the increasing popularity of the wireless (the radio). Technology is on a rapid increase but looking back over the to the 21st century are there anything that is completely new? Thomas Edison introduce the long playing record, yet years after his introduction Columbia Records introduced it to the public laying claims that the long playing records was a new technology in audio recording! |
