Round, typically black wax disc about 12 inches in diameter onto which audio signals are recorded in grooves for later retrieval by a phonograph. A record album consists of a single very long groove that runs in a continuous loop from the inside of the disc to its outer edge. The grooves are cut so that their shape mimics that of a recorded audio signal (a sound wave).

Record albums are placed on a turntable platter that pins at a constant speed (CAV). Attached to the turntable is the tone arm, a metal shaft that holds on one end the equipment necessary to read the grooves on the album, a cartridge and stylus. The stylus, essentially a small metal needle, is placed in the groove and the album spins in circles. As the album spins, its groove moves past the stylus. The stylus moves up and down in the grooves following the contours along its bottom and sides. As the stylus moves in the grooves, it moves in relation to the cartridge. There the movement creates an electric signal as a magnet attached to the stylus moves in relation to a coil of wire attached to the cartridge (or vice versa, the coil may be attached to the stylus with the magnet stationary in the cartridge). The signal is carried through wires down the tone arm and out to a preamplifier through interconnect cables.

Albums can very effectively reproduce audio signals in an analog form when recorded carefully and read with high quality equipment. Unlike CDs and other digital audio formats, albums are recorded in a continuous analog format with no digitization in the recording or reproduction processes. Theoretically, a record album may thus have perfect resolution compared to the sampling method used for digital recordings. However, albums tend to get easily scratched and warped making then less durable than optical digital formats. Additionally, albums tend to get dusty and dirty as do the needles used to read them making reproduction often of a less than optimum quality level.

In general, albums and phonographs have been supplanted by CDs and other digital audio formats due to the digital formats’ durability, ease of use, ability to store a variety of data, ability to store large amounts of data, error correction, compression abilities, and more. And with potential DVD Audio standards using extremely high sampling rates and quantisation levels, the quality of digital audio is surpassing that of even the best albums played over the best phonographic equipment.