Sorry Wolfgang: don't know how I missed your thread. I picked up the New Scientist one today because it comes out on Thursdays.

As I've mentioned elsewhere, you can buy record decks that use a laser to read the groove instead of making physical contact, but these still rotate the disc in the conventional way. The new system (I belive) scans the stationary disc. The optical resolution is around 1/1,000 millimetre (about 2.5 millionths of an inch), which is a bit better than most flatbed scanners. As you say, it's possible to scan the pieces of a broken record and have the software knit them back together.

I think it ought to be possible to do a reasonable job of extracting the sound from an image made on a conventional scanner at conventionally high resolution (around 1,000-3,000 dpi), if they make the software available to us. You'd have to scan the record in two goes if it was wider than the scanner bed (which 10" & 12" discs would be).

this is rather exciting! We must keep each other informed of developments. (My thread: Particle physicists rescue rare records)

Steve