ELP Laser turntable. Any of you analog guys see this yet?
- Thread starter TomDac
- Start date
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Victor
Well-known member
Much appreciated, Tom 
Does it only play Emerson, Lake & Palmer LPs, BTW?
It's a nicely finished piece of kit but, sadly, by no means a new idea.
One of the drawbacks is that the laser will delineate every contaminant in the groove, hairs etc whilst a stylus will simply push them aside and mostly ignore the debris. Scrupulously clean records have a slight advantage in this regard.
When you think about it, accurately tracing and centering upon the often erratic movements of the groove (think warped and off-centre discs) could be a serious technological challenge in itself. Once again the steering effect of physical stylus contact has a distinct advantage. A stylus will hardly ever lose contact unless the setup has been carelessly done.
Does it only play Emerson, Lake & Palmer LPs, BTW?
It's a nicely finished piece of kit but, sadly, by no means a new idea.
One of the drawbacks is that the laser will delineate every contaminant in the groove, hairs etc whilst a stylus will simply push them aside and mostly ignore the debris. Scrupulously clean records have a slight advantage in this regard.
When you think about it, accurately tracing and centering upon the often erratic movements of the groove (think warped and off-centre discs) could be a serious technological challenge in itself. Once again the steering effect of physical stylus contact has a distinct advantage. A stylus will hardly ever lose contact unless the setup has been carelessly done.
TomDac
former MLO owner/operator
Yeah.. i read up more on this technology and apparently it's been around awhile... interesting, though.
MiTT
Super User
Yeah, the technology has been around for a while. For $15k you can get a killer turntable, cartridge and record cleaning machine that would (in my mind) sound better. If you invested in a more traditional approach I think you would actually be ahead. But I' man old fogey, so what do I know.
There has always been a fundamental problem with these laser turntables. If there is a small speck of dust, a real pickup will push it away, and not much will be heard. The laser can not do that, and the reflection from even very small dust particles can be quite high. The same goes for impurities in the vinyl. Surface noise is simply a much bigger problem with these laser turntables than with standard ones.
beek
Well-known member
Spent some time with it at one of the shows seemed ok to me Seems like whoever designed it keeps selling the design to someone else been around for awhile
