Bringing the Tactile Experience Back to Digital Music

Some audiophiles are sure to argue the point, but the vast majority of people would agree that today’s digital streaming services provide much higher quality audio than a record player possibly could. While vinyl enthusiasts often praise the "warmth" of analog playback, the objective technical benchmarks demonstrate a superior signal-to-noise ratio and a lack of harmonic distortion in digital audio that needles and vinyl simply cannot replicate. However, something in the listening experience is lost when the physical record and spinning platter are replaced by a touchscreen.

AKZ Dev wanted the experience of handling physical media, but also the sound quality of modern digital audio, so he built a device that offers the best of both worlds. It is a faux record player that spins RFID-equipped records to play the music on the label. The tonearm works as well — lowering it into place triggers music playback.

The case of the record player is fully 3D-printable. Inside, there is a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W, which connects to Spotify and plays the streaming music through a speaker. An RFID reader module is used to read the tag on the record that is positioned above it. That information is used to play the selected song. A stepper motor spins the platter, and a Hall effect sensor tells the Raspberry Pi whether the tonearm is up or down.

AKZ Dev has provided the 3D design files, circuit diagrams, and source code you need to reproduce the project perfectly. If you have a good enough 3D printer to do the job, this could make for an easy weekend build.