whats the difference with 33 1/2 and 33 rpm records my record player only plays 33?

Question

do they have 33 1/2 record speed players

Answer 1

Simply put... record players have traditionally been in speeds of:
33 1/3 rpm
45 rpm
78 rpm

RPM stands for Revolutions Per Minute (how many times per minute the record will revolve)
When records were created they were designed to be played back at one of the three speeds.

A "33" is most likely still a "33 1/3" but is now just referred to as a 33.

Here is an extensive writeup on phonographs:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonograph

Answer 2

Actually the speed is 33 1/3 RPM. Back about 60 or so years ago most records were 78 RPM which was about right for the wind-up Victrolas of earlier in the 20th Century. There were issues concerning those big heavy records and companies sought to slow the records down and make them smaller.

We wound up with 45 RPM records which were mostly singles or two-cut albums and 33 1/3 RPM which was mostly large albums.

An attempt to slow the records down even more produced the 16 RPM, but that was too slow to play music with anything resembling fidelity.

So your record player plays 33 1/3 RPM, commonly abbreviated 33.

Answer 3

33 Rpm Records

Answer 4

Yes the large records are usually 33 1/3 some way older might be 78 's.

Answer 5

16 Rpm Records

Answer 6

33 1/2 turns faster than 33.

Answer 7

it's not 33 1/2, it's 33 1/3-- the old 78's your grandmother or great grandmother owned that played music from the 30's and 40's.

Answer 8

Records started out on cylinders i.e. Edison's original 1877 model that recorded the famous "Mary had a little lamb"...

Emile Berliner invented a device in 1887 that used discs after that called a "Gramophone" and Edison began making players and discs called "Diamond Discs". The industry grew but was limited by recording techniques (acoustic, with no manner of amplification), no doubt early pressing methods and the lack of a standard format. There were 80rpm discs, then 78, mostly 10" shellac records, steel needles that required changing virtually every time and the need for huge acoustic horns to amplify (often very ornate and much like a big trumpet) sounding through a thin vibrating metal diaphragm (much the same as a hi-fi electric horn speaker does).

There were hill-and-dale recordings (Edison's, where the needle and reproducer travel up and down) and lateral (side to side and most common). While these were incompatible without changing the reproducer (akin to a cartridge today and eventually Edison would build an adapter as such) a combination of the two would come to play in the birth of stereo recordings between the 30s and 50s. Edison's were also called Diamond Discs because he had diamond needles as well as composite plastic records nobody else did, but I digress.

During the 30s and 40s 16 inch recordings called "transcription discs" would be sent to radio stations in lieu of the telephone lines leased by the networks. Played at 33 1/3 rpm usually an entire program of say, "Fibber McGee & Molly" could be cut and sent to NBC affiliates and the same version went on the air in all time zones on time without telephone charges. Other programs, many syndicated could be produced in an economical manner, without competing for expensive AT&T lines.

Consumer versions of recording turntables began to appear just before the Great Depression, some at 78, a notable system from RCA Victor used 33 1/3. The RCA Victor recorder was cursed by using a spindle and holding setup that wasn't very compatible with other records, had no prerecorded catalog to play on it and was too expensive to be more than a plaything early in the Depression. Other companies that had much success were Wilcox-Gay and Recordio and their hardware was supported by console manufacturers along with their standalone recorders.

Wire recording was also fairly popular at the time, having been the original magnetic recorders developed straight from Vlademar Poulsen's inventions and ideas by firms such as Webcor. During the days of the Third Reich of Germany, BASF had taken coated paper strips and substituted a polyester backing to make magnetic tape (used to great confusion of the Allies who heard Hitler making different speeches in different towns AT THE SAME TIME). At the end of the war Bing Crosby is credited for bringing the tape recorder into American hands for news and entertainment.

Back in the United States, RCA Victor and CBS had been developing very different kinds of records. Both would use plastics instead of fragile shellac. The RCA invention had actually been shelved before the war, no doubt in favor of Television. It was a 7" disc with a large spindle intended for 3 or four selections more than as a long player. RCA saw it as the perfect medium for selling the single hit song and a replacement for 78 jukeboxes that could play more records (and make RCA Victor more MONEY, of course).

CBS had a 12" 33 1/3 rpm LP (Long Playing) record that could hold maybe an hour of music with "microgroove" technology. Both could use the same needle unlike 78s, but at least by that time needles had progressed to where they were almost all diamond, sapphire or synthetic materials, making a flipover needle practical. 78rpm records were made of plastics more and more after the war but the popularity of the 45 led to their end before the 1960s.

Why 33 1/3 and 45? Some might like to point out that roughly 33+45=78 but I don't know the answer other than the speed fit some early format, and it stayed that way. There WERE other speeds, 16 2/3 (16) used in special car players that never really worked well or caught on, and even 8 1/3 (8). These very slow speeds were mostly for audiobooks for the blind and instructional recordings and were nor good for making stereo recordings when they became available to the public in the late 50s with the development of the "Westrex 45/45" lathe allowing both vertical (hill-and-dale) and horizontal (lateral) elements to combine and create a V-shaped channel that would provide L and R information for stereo.

8 was rare in hi-fi equipment, 16 lingered awhile for some 4-speed tables, 78 stayed around into the seventies for convenience but most audiophile turntables stayed at 33 and 45 and those are the standard speeds.

It took about 78 years, ironically, to make them a standard.

Too much information, but I suppose it might lead you to go check stuff out.