SweetVinyl Aces Crowdfunding Goal for New Vinyl Recording Platform

In yet another wrinkle to the ongoing vinyl resurgence, Silicon Valley-based SweetVinyl launched a highly successful crowdfunding campaign on Monday to fund the initial production of a new vinyl processing and recording platform featuring click and pop removal.

In one day, the company booked more than $100,000 in pre-orders on Indiegogo, exceeding its $50,000 funding goal by 100 percent. By the of the week, the company had raised almost $112,000 from 96 backers with 14 days left to do, suggesting that vinyl is not only alive and well but thriving.

SweetVinyl has packaged proprietary real-time click-and-pop removal technology into two audiophile-grade components slated for availability early next year.

The SugarCube SC-1 ($1,500) uses 192 kHz/24-bit processing to remove clicks and pops in real-time while an LP is playing and has a front-panel knob to control the “strength” of click and pop removal. Other features include a pushbutton bypass mode and selectable monitoring for switching between the cleaned up output, raw input, and the clicks and pops isolated from the music. All functions can be controlled from the front panel or via an iOS or Android app.

SweetVinyl says it uses a proprietary algorithm to detect, isolate, and remove unwanted noise without “any effect on the music.” Additional, more specialized features are available for purchase in the SugarCube App Store. Options include EQ correction for LPs from the 1950s and early 1960s, advanced surface-noise reduction, and special processing for 78 records.

The SC-2 ($2,500) features app control and the same click and pop removal features as the SC-1 but adds a headphone amplifier and digital recording to connected USB storage with automated track splitting and metadata tagging. The system can create “any digital file format and sample rate.” Automatic metadata identification displays artist and album name, song title, catalog number, and artwork.

The company is currently accepting production deposits for the first production run of each model. You can pay $400 or $899 and get a 25 or 35 percent (beta user) discount on the SC-1 or pay $600 for a 35 percent discount on the SC-2. A $1,499 beta-user option for the SC-2 is sold out. The first SC-1 models are slated to ship in February and the first SC-2 models in April.

Both models are offered in a silver or black anodized aluminum finish.

For more information, visit Indiegogo.com.

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