Mondo Knows Facts
The RIAA curve evened out record playback
A single equalisation standard was adopted in 1954 to end mismatched discs Cutting a disc with full bass would make the groove too wide and the stylus too likely to jump, so records are cut with bass reduced and treble boosted. Playback applies the mirror image. Labels had used several competing curves, and the RIAA curve, formalised in 1954, let any disc sound right on any turntable. It sits in Mondo's music collection, one of 200 facts that each trace back to the reference below.
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Facts that can change over time are reviewed and updated. If something here looks wrong, Mondo would rather know than be confidently incorrect.
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More facts like this
RCA's seven-inch single spun at 45 rpmThe 1949 format had a wide centre hole so automatic changers could grip itA vinyl side trades loudness for playing timeFitting more minutes on a disc means narrower grooves and a quieter cutThe long playing record arrived in 1948Columbia's microgroove LP turned at 33 and a third and held about 22 minutes a sideRecords outsold compact discs againVinyl passed CD revenue in the late 2010s and kept climbingOne side of an LP holds hundreds of metres of grooveThe spiral on a twelve inch record unrolls to roughly 460 metresMastering for vinyl cuts a physical grooveA lathe engraves a lacquer disc that is plated and pressed
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Tags: vinyl, equalisation, standards
The RIAA curve evened out record playback: the short answers
- Where does this come from, and can I check it?
- A single equalisation standard was adopted in 1954 to end mismatched discs. The figure is taken from Encyclopaedia Britannica, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
- Is this really a music fact?
- Yes. It sits on the Music shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
- What else can I read about it?
- The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.