With the launch of Tidal, the debate about music quality has once again been thrust into the spotlight. Audio nerds and Tidal’s owners say streamed audio is inferior to CD quality, pretty much everyone else is saying they don’t care.

That’s why the Universal Record is such a confounding proposition – we just can’t quite seem to figure out who would want to use it, but at the same time we think it’s really cool and kind of want one for ourselves.

On the surface, the idea makes sense. You want your music on vinyl, so get a specially designed disc you can play on your turntable that will stream music from another device. But, you ask, can’t you just listen to it on the device?

Well, yeah, you could. That doesn’t make artist Jesse England’s creation, which works via a special Bluetooth audio receiver and an acoustic transducer, which vibrates a disc to simulate record grooves, any less cool.

Besides, you won’t get the nostalgic pleasure of hearing those unmistakable vinyl pops and cracks just by listening to music through your iPod, or as England demonstrates in the video below, any device that has been made capable of sending audio over Bluetooth.

The clip doesn’t exactly go in-depth on what the Universal Record will do to your turntable needles, but as FACT note, you can use the money you’re now saving on purchasing vinyl to get new needles. Problem solved. Besides, England hasn’t yet made it clear whether he’ll market his prototype.

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