The Millennia systems – incorporating 100V all-discrete mastering-grade EQ amplifiers – will provide analogue pre-amplification and equalisation for the Library’s entire collection of LPs, 78s, 16in transcription discs, Edison cylinders, acoustics and many other historic electromechanical formats. The LOC units are designed to mate faithfully with any contemporary or historic disk or cylinder format, providing an acoustically invisible signal path as the Library’s immense audio archives are digitised for posterity.
“The technologies being implemented at the NAVCC are unprecedented in scale and unmatched in their capabilities anywhere else in the world,” said NAVCC director Greg Lukow. “Not only will these technologies enable exponential increases in the production of high-quality preservation copies of materials that are deteriorating in their current formats, they will [also] provide researchers with better, faster access to more of these materials in the future.”
Housed in nearly 500,000sqft of catacombs – mostly underground beneath Pony Mountain in Culpeper – the new facility was constructed using private funds donated by David Packard of Hewlett-Packard fame.
