DS Audio ES-001 Eccentricity Stabilizer Guiding Light

Guiding Light

Among the Digital Stream Corp's many innovations was the development of the optical mouse with Microsoft. Miniature LED technology is also employed in its range of 'optical' pick-up cartridges [HFN Nov '15, Jun '17, Dec '17, May '19, Feb '21 and 'Oct 21]. Here the movement of a stylus modulates an LED light source as it falls on a photocell, generating an audio output. And LEDs are once again utilised in DS Audio's latest 'measurement device' to calculate the eccentricity of an LP via its run-out groove.

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One of two integrated LED emitter/receivers is visible in our picture [above] – red light flooding from one aperture being detected through its reflection into the other. Any cyclical 'wobble' in the lead-out groove is detected as a modulation in this reflected LED light which, in turn, is used to calculate the lateral movement – the eccentricity – of the groove and LP in micrometres (µm). A pair of these emitter/detectors is employed to improve overall accuracy although the effectiveness of the technique will also necessarily be influenced by the flatness of the LP. PM

COMPANY INFO
Digital Stream Corporation
Kanagawa, Japan
Supplied by: Soundfowndations Ltd, Berks
0118 9814238
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