Most people know how a classic vinyl record player works – you place the record on a turntable, which turns the record around at the proper speed. Then a needle is placed on the turning record, which travels the vibrations encoded in the record groove and transforms those into sounds. But the record playing device known as RokBlok does it differently – it drives around the record while the record itself stays still. The end result is the same – music (or whatever audio is recorded on the vinyl disc).
The RokBlok is basically a block of wood and bamboo that is designed to chase the record groove under its own power. RokBlok has its own speakers built in, but it can also send the music over Bluetooth to your other devices. While having a block of wood spinning around on your favorite vinyl disc would seem like a great way to damage them, the maker Pink Donut assures us this is not the case.
RokBlok has been engineered to prevent damage to your records when in use. We do this by carefully balancing and distributing the weight of the player (3.2 oz) across its scratch-proof rubber wheels and not the needle. This makes it so the needle does not take the brunt of the weight out on your record’s grooves.
RokBlok can play both full size records and 45s, and it can provide music (and entertainment) for up to 4 hours – I would suspect that LPs, running at 33 rpm, would probably have the longer run time. Recharge only takes a couple hours before you are back up making music and spinning around the vinyl disc.
RokBlok is on Kickstarter, and it has already surpassed its $50,000 goal. The campaign closes on January 24th, so if you want to get on the RokBlok circling bandwagon at a cheaper price than its retail launch you may want to check it out. In the meanwhile, just watch it go, chasing that groove and making music.
