Thanks to Chris Supranowitz, a researcher at The Institute of Optics in Rochester, we now know that this is what the grooves of a vinyl record look like under the extreme lens of an electron microscope. Our inner audiophile cannot wait to get home, put a record on, and just sit back and visualize this. Peruse more grooves with us — which look oddly organic, kind of like sand dunes — after the jump.
You can see the difference between the pits of a vinyl (below left) and the pits of a compact disc (below right), the former more continuous and predictable, the latter more disjointed and random.
Here is a single groove in the valley of grooves, magnified by 1000. Note the clumps of dust resting lazily on the surface.
For the record, we don’t have 3D glasses on hand either but if you do happen to have a red-and-blue lensed pair, consider yourself lucky. Let us know what you see.
[via synth gear]