The Laser Turntable

Seriously, it's now 2013 and the laser turntable should have been mass produced by this point. There is a vast interest in vinyl LPs these days and I'm sure that if a company such as Sony or Technics brought one into the marketplace, it would do well.

I remember first hearing about a laser turntable that some company named Finial Technology, out in Japan, had created back in the late 1990's. The price, at the time, was over $35.000. The price is now $8,500.00. It should be brought out into the regular marketplace by some major company. I would buy one if it went down to around two grand!

Here is a link to the company: http://www.elpj.com/

Anyone have one or interested in one of these laser turntables?

 

Why?

One of the reasons lp playback works so well is that it's a mature technology. We are well down the learning curve after 60+ years of 12" records and electro-mechanical tracing of the groove. A laser turntable would take us back to square one, or square two in this case.

Plus if you've ever read a review of the Final Turntable, it doesn't sound that great.

 

Won't it burn right through our records ?

 

It's all fun and games until somebody loses an eye.

 

You need a stylus to plow the lint/dust out of the way that always is there from the ever present static charge.

 

Yeah that's what I was thinking. Very good. ha

 

I have one of these (BTW: The inventors of this technology, Finial was an American group, not Japanese. They sold the rights to BSR Japan (now ELP) when they couldn't bring it to market profitably) and it's been working fine for the past 12 years or so. I use mine to play my extensive collection of records with inner-groove damage. You can adjust the laser angles to read parts of the groove that aren't damaged and the records play like new. Great for grey-label Capitols from the late 50's or Red Seals that everyone thinks are trashed. For most listening howerver, I use a Marantz TT-15 since it's simpler to use (you don't have to clean the record every time).

Disadvantage to the technology? You need to clean the damned record every time you play it, otherwise the microscopic dust produces pops & clicks.

Disadvantage to the turntable in general? The company in Japan doesn't have a North American distributor who can service or align the thing and it costs about $600 to ship it to Japan for service. That said, I've never had to have mine serviced or aligned. It just keeps on tickin'.

Drop me a personal message if you live near South Bend and would like to take a listen to it.

Shouldn't this posting be in the "Audio Hardware" classification????

 

I have one too that I've tried several times to sell to no avail. I find it splats and distorts if the record is cut at all on the hot side, and since most of what I listen to falls into that category, it just doesn't work well for me. And yes, a record has to be very, very clean...something that plays with virtually no noise with a needle will sound like a scratched-up disc without cleaning.

 

I think there's plenty of room for more development on the concept.

However, further development by people other than the patent owners is probably impossible. Yay, patents.

 

I don't find this to be the case at all. In fact, it tracks all records that I have perfectly with excellent results. Can you give me a record that you've had trouble with? Maybe I just haven't noticed the problems that you're having.

Fred

 

Wish I had posted that ......................... I HATE you .........................

 

I read in the early 80's in my grandfather's science magazine that a similar device existed, only instead of a laser beam, a fiberoptic thread replaced the actual needle. The advantage of the technology was that the thread "read" the bottom of the groove that was supposed to be intact so older/trashed albums got a new life.

 

I agree wholeheartedly with your post, almost splurged for one then realised they wont play colour vinyl pressings (and I have a lot of those).
It's 2013! an affordable record player that plays without destroying your records NOW! (please).

 

They had Smart Electronics in Atlanta signed up to do repairs in the U.S. some years back. That only lasted for about a year. Tiny ELP had some sort of conflict with Smart and pulled the plug. I suspect that teeny-tiny ELP relied on the maintenance revenue and freaked when it went down...? No matter why, there went the last great chance for the Laser TT to be remotely practical to own.

 

I would love to buy an old used one and hack it up

Seriously, I heard that the weak point was the RIAA circuitry and the analog stages. It would be great to use the laser pickup but frankenstein a world class circuit in there.

When someone lists one for $1500 someday, maybe I'll go for it. I'm not throwing away the 6 grand plus that everyone seems to ask for them.

ccm

 

don't they have sharks with laser beams attached to their heads?

 

Frickin' laser beams.

 

Or worse...

 

and dogs. and bees. and the dogs with bees in their mouth and when they bark, they shoot bees at you

 

That is hilarious!

 

I've been researching this turntable for several years as I've been considering purchasing one. What I've concluded is this:

The best use of the turntable is for archiving and restoring sound recordings, vs use as an every day player. The sound quality isn't as good as a conventional turntable at the same cost.

For playing rare or damaged records, it's ideal so you can record the audio to another medium.

There's another company working on a fiber optic pick up that will work on any turntable:

 

Hmmm, there are lots of record players (and cartridges/styli) out there that will play your records without destroying them. Properly cared for, most records should last you the rest of your life.

If your records are being destroyed by playing them, you are doing something wrong.

 

Gosh, just about anything that's remotely bright and not a classical recording (i.e., without cymbals or "s" vocal sounds). Wonder if we have copies of the same record or two and could compare clips? I even sent mine back to them a couple of years ago to try to get it improved and it didn't really change anything.

 

$35,000 and they wonder why it never caught on.

 

To me, this seems like the only real selling point for a laser turntable. Having said that, however, the discs I would really want to use this on would be older 78s. I see that some models do play at 78rpm, so there is some potential there, but not enough to justify the purchase price.

I also think a laser turntable misses out on fun of setting the stylus on the record and watching the record go around. Granted, neither of those things really contribute to the sound of the record, but for me they contribute to the enjoyment of the experience. It wouldn't be fun setting the record in a drawer and watching it disappear into the machine.