Pavan Bapu wanted a way to get more visual data out of his vinyl records. He felt that a huge part of the vinyl listening experience was seeing the record itself and the almost hypnotic visual of the spinning disc. Bapu and his team at Gramovox developed the Floating Record Vertical Turntable and are currently running a highly successful funding campaign through Kickstarter.
The team identified low resonance as the characteristic to focus on in the design of the Floating Record. Turning the record with a silicone belt drive is intended to isolate motor vibrations from the platen. The DC stepper motor is mounted with rubber isolation bushings to separate the motor from the base. Plinth and platen are both CNC machined from acrylic. Spinning the discs with a belt drive also solves the packaging / aesthetic problems that would be present if the design included a direct drive motor or idler wheel motor.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/gramovox/floating-recordtm-vertical-turntable
Floating Record is innovative because the one massive change that the company wanted to make in a record player brought about several additional modifications. The sound system, from needle to arm to speakers, is designed for the best possible sound but the radical design change is what gives the product its novelty.
This isn’t the first vertical turntable but is the first to showcase the vinyl record itself. Taking the core product requirements and then designing a product to meet those requirements is a worthy project for any engineer.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/gramovox/floating-recordtm-vertical-turntable