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Rover tracks

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Got some extra cash lying around, and dying for some future retro goodness? Then check out this record player that runs on a motor based on the Mars Rover motor. According to that page, it costs $125,000 and weighs a modest 770 pounds. The original website is in Japanese so I can’t read it, but it’s loaded with cool pictures like the one above.

If your turntable gets stuck in the sand, NASA is not responsible.

Tip o’ the hat to the fair Emily at the Planetary Society Blog.‘

June 13th, 2006 11:15 AM by Phil Plait in Cool stuff, Humor, NASA, Time Sink | 20 comments | RSS feed | Trackback >

20 Responses to “Rover tracks”

  1. 1.   Marlayna Says:
    June 13th, 2006 at 2:22 pm

    This is nuts. I suppose that motor is really special, but still. It’s a *record player*! I’m really curious who would actually spend this enormous sum on something so trivial.

  2. 2.   HvP Says:
    June 13th, 2006 at 3:23 pm

    Oh, you’d be surprised the absurd lengths some audiophiles will go to aquire the “latest and greatest” in audio engineering.

    I know someone who bought a couple of 2 meter speaker cables for $2,000 EACH! No that’s not a typo… two-thousand dollars for 6 feet of copper wire.

    There truly is a sucker born every minute. For example:
    http://www.lastfactory.com/audiophile_cables/audiophile_cables.html

  3. 3.   PK Says:
    June 13th, 2006 at 4:49 pm

    All the cool DJs have at least two!

  4. 4.   Chip Says:
    June 13th, 2006 at 5:39 pm

    I’m wondering what useful application there could be of a highly refined, engineered technology that would require a multiple layered metallic vibration reducing stand, supporting a rotating platform, unperturbed by outside vibrations. Maybe useful in medicine or some applications in acoustics. A record player?

    Why not at least culminating in a laser beam that reads the vinyl grooves instead of an old-fashioned stylus?

  5. 5.   BB Says:
    June 13th, 2006 at 6:44 pm

    geez, $650 for what looks like nothing more than a pair of coaxial cables you can get at Radio Shack for $5? Who the hell buys this crap?

  6. 6.   Thomas Siefert Says:
    June 13th, 2006 at 9:40 pm

    Reminds me of the time, way back, when I admired the Hifi-entusiasts for their abillity to hear micro details in the music. Then they started to rave about the “green pen thing” on the edge of CD’s and I knew they just a bunch of posers….

  7. 7.   Rajesh Soni Says:
    June 13th, 2006 at 10:16 pm

    Hi Phil,
    Since you are an astronomer, would welcome a post on interesting facts on astronomy especially on evolution of the universe. Something which intersts a common reader and understandable.

    Regards
    rajesh

  8. 8.   PK Says:
    June 14th, 2006 at 3:09 am

    Thomas Siefert: “green pen thing”?

  9. 9.   Kaptain K Says:
    June 14th, 2006 at 7:03 am

    Yep, when it comes to “golden eared audiophiles”, there really are suckers with more money than sense.
    Example: $20K for a tweeter amplifier that puts out 15 watts and weighs 175lb. BTW, you need two for stereo, since it’s a mono amplifier!
    Example 2: $25K (each) for “helium plasma tweeters”. The mfr reccomends buying helium from them, since commercial helium isn’t “pure” enough. Also, you cannot use it with the above amplifier, since it is so inefficient that it requires at least 500 watts!

  10. 10.   Digitalastro Says:
    June 14th, 2006 at 7:15 am

    The “green pen thing” refers to marking the edges of a CD with a green pen to improve the sound quality.

    http://www.snopes.com/music/media/marker.htm

  11. 11.   dre Says:
    June 14th, 2006 at 9:03 am

    that original website is in chinese, not japanese. just wanted to throw that out there.

  12. 12.   blf Says:
    June 14th, 2006 at 9:05 am

    Why not at least culminating in a laser beam that reads the vinyl grooves instead of an old-fashioned stylus?

    There are such things.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser_turntable

  13. 13.   icemith Says:
    June 14th, 2006 at 9:28 am

    I thought it was a “green ring’ to stabilise a CD. One drew on the edge of the disc with the “special” pen. It balanced it!!!

    And the joke I always chuckled at was the thought that the wiring just before the speaker outlet connectors was plain old hook-up wire, as was the wiring in the speaker box itself. All that Superpure wire in the middle of plain wire. If the golden tones were ever produced in the transistors or valves, (showing my age!), they were immediately compromised by the first few molecules of copperwire, ordinary copper wire, helped along with tin/lead solder. Such nonsense to relieve gullible people of their cash.

    There were many more legitimate ways to improve the system sound. It may have needed heavier gauge wire, and adequate provision for impedance, inductance, and a few other xxxxances. Or a better speaker system, better amp or probable better music!

    Getting back on topic, did you really look at the motor in the photos of the Turntable system? In the first link provided, there is a close-up, and, here is the reason Phil linked the topic to astronomy, it is supposed to be a motor used on the Mars Rover. It may not be a drive motor, but who knows? Any clues anybody? It may be used for some other task, seems too small otherwise. I seem to remember an Australian turntable-Silcron, I think- that used a very small motor and a very resiliant drive belt which ran around the outside edge of the turntable platter, and it need a gentle push to get it up to running even. Took quite a few seconds to stabilise. Once there it had exceptional wow and flutter figures. But murder on warped records!

    Ah, the good old days.

    Ivan.

  14. 14.   kara Says:
    June 14th, 2006 at 10:58 am

    What’s a record?
    ; )

  15. 15.   Irishman Says:
    June 14th, 2006 at 11:27 am

    Check out some of the doozies that audiophiles promote, as discussed by James Randi:

    1. A green, flexible plastic glow-in-the dark “frisbee”,

    …the disc, when placed atop a CD in the player would “extend bass and treble response, reduce background noise and eliminate ‘mushy’ sound.” … the “ultraviolet emanations from the disc were promoting a clean background for the laser scanner in the CD player,”

    2. A CD “Demagnetizer”.

    “Demagnetizer?” I said. He then showed me a machine selling for around $300 that, when a CD was placed inside, would “sense the magnetic field surrounding the disc and ‘clean’ it of this field.” He said that the machine would “sometimes activate for a second or two, and sometimes for several seconds, depending on the level of magnetization found on the disc.” Apparently, residual magnetization causes problems with the laser reading the pits on the disc, and that this device would “extend highs and lows and clean up ‘muddy’ sound.”

    http://www.randi.org/jr/04-20-2001.html
    (Scroll down to “Don Reid brings up a favorite subject of mine,…”)

    3. P.W.B. Red ‘x’ Pen

    “Apparently, according to this site, you can improve all kinds of audio devices or recording media performance just by writing “O.K.” on them — or a piece of tape stuck on them — with a “specially treated” marker pen. Writing “NO” makes things sound much worse….”

    This is the fabulous “Red ‘x’ Pen” that you can have for a mere US$87!

    4. P.W.B. Silver Rainbow Foil

    “These shiny little devil-strips are supposed to work their effects just by placing them on pretty much anything in the system — or the house, for that matter.”

    5. $230 each Shakti Stones

    The Shakti Stones, fortunately, don’t even have to be connected to your sound system, but can be simply placed nearby, to produce wonderful improvements!

    http://www.randi.org/jr/073004an.html#3

  16. 16.   idlemind Says:
    June 14th, 2006 at 5:37 pm

    I think every audiophile should do some reading on the placebo effect and then look hard in the mirror. Then they should throw out all that gear and spend their time and money enjoying and supporting live music, since no sound-reproduction system will ever come close.

    I’d much rather see someone use that bad boy (rover motor) in a telescope mount. At least amateur astronomers can often see (or, rather, image) the results of their big-bucks expenditures with objectively improved performance. (Just to keep the discussion on-topic.)

  17. 17.   Rohit Says:
    June 15th, 2006 at 4:38 am

    Audiophilia (n) A state of mind where beliefs are the sole determinant. A person in this state of mind becomes blind to any information that even remotely contains scientific data. See also Faith.

  18. 18.   icemith Says:
    June 15th, 2006 at 9:51 am

    Tara, sorry I forgot, not everybody would have recognised my accent. When I said “record”, I really meant “record”. Hope that clears up the confusion.

    Ivan.

  19. 19.   exciphkp Says:
    June 20th, 2006 at 5:33 am

    There website is in Chinese and the shop sells the turntable is in Hong Kong SAR, China. They speak a local dialect called “Cantonese”. The turntable is made in Germany. In Hong Kong audiophiles can have the best money can buy!

  20. 20.   icemith Says:
    June 20th, 2006 at 10:34 am

    Ooops again, sorry KARA, I’m really sorry I mis-spelled your name. My fault for not checking. The ‘T’ is nowhere near a ‘K’. Finally I can set the record straight.

    Ivan. ( If you see a coin, I’m trying to hide under it.)

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