The Laser Turntable

I've heard one of these once. And the problem is that this technology doesn't sound fantastic. If these sounded great, they would have been mass produced long ago. The only thing really going for them is that they don't wear-out your records. But a $1000 turntable with a good cartridge and preamp will make much more enjoyable music.

 

And I disagree with your disagreement. Between the time I was 13 or 14 and 25 I played some of the same LPs hundreds of times and when I finally got rid of them during during the 80s vinyl purges they still sounded great
and I got what was top dollar for them at the time.

But, I was one of the few people I knew who cared about keeping the records clean and I think that made the difference. I also replaced the stylus regularly...though I wasn't too knowledgeable about VTF and alignment.

 

That's probably its downfall. Despite its jaw-dropping price, it would still sell to wealthier audiophiles if it sounded great or even at least as good as its competitors in the same price range.
Seems like the failure, beyond price, is unfulfilled promise. Looked great on paper. In fact, I think back in the late 60s or 70s Philips was working on the idea -- a laser to read grooves -- and ended up dropping
the idea to work on what would eventually become CD technology.

 

How can it ignore worm vinyl, yet pick up every bit of lint and dust? I would expect it's ability to track cleanly on worn records to be vary variable. And often would be the case that it just could not find that sweet spot of near perfection on an old used worn LP.

 

It ignore worn vinyl because the laser can be adjusted to play different parts of the groove, i.e. higher or lower than the worn area. The wear, apparently, is found at a certain level in the groove with areas above or below left undamaged or with less damage.

 

It will never sound like a turntable because it ISN'T a turntable. The laser player has been described as "dull" sounding. And that's because the frequency rise inherent to magnetic carts (constant-amplitude vs. constant-velocity) isn't present with a laser. You need a 6 dB/oct. rise in frequency response with the laser to make it sound like a "regular" turntable.

 

I wonder when dude first built the Laser Turntable, did he get a Laserdisc player and convert it....or use the shell and platter 'cause it was the right size? If dee shoe fitt whare et!

 

I dunno... but if you look at the specs (wow & flutter, rumble, etc.) it's not even a very good TURNTABLE.

If that machination could be put into an LSIC (should be easy) and then built into the dust cover of a regular turntable, it might just be a winner. As it is, that thing looks like an 80's VCR on the inside.

 

Please send me a link to the wow & flutter and rumble specs you are referencing. I can't seem to find them on ELP's page.

I listened to the sound samples on their page and for what they are (i.e., streamed internet sound files) they sound pretty good, and not appreciably different from the Technics SP-10 files they posted for comparison.

http://www.elpj.com/product/how-can-i-listen-lt.php

 

I would also be interested to know the W&F specs (and where the info came from).

 

The specs were there some time ago, but they've mysteriously disappeared, possibly because they were certainly nothing to brag about. Approximately a mid-level belt drive turntable.

Some years ago, a fellow scanned a record and converted the scan to sound. It sounded terrible, but that it sounded at all was pretty amazing.

What they did do that works surpisingly well is play a record with a fiber optic riding in the groove. I forget what university did that. Here's some very interesting reading.

https://mediapreservation.wordpress.com/2012/06/20/extracting-audio-from-pictures/

 

I heard the scanned record experiment and it did sound pretty lousy. I think it was a university experiment sponsored in part by the Library of Congress.

 

Here's something pretty fascinating: the playback of an 1878 tinfoil recording (in my hometown of St. Louis. Props!) by Thomas Edison of someone playing the cornet, a man laughing, and a recitation of "Mary Had a Little Lamb" and "Old Mother Hubbard":

http://m.theatlantic.com/technology...he-oldest-playable-american-recording/264147/

 

And here are phonautograms from 1860, which are images of smoke on wax paper which can only be played back by computer:

http://www.firstsounds.org/sounds/scott.php

Pretty neat to hear voices from 150+ years ago.

 

Finally, most amazing, the restoration work on that earliest 1860 sound recording:

http://strangesounds.org/2014/02/li...human-voice-from-1860-its-truely-amazing.html

 

Interesting thread on laser turntables, I was very interested in Finial back in 1986 when they were expecting to market the table. The audio company I worked for had a standing order for one as soon as it became available.

Alas, it never did and the technology was sold to BSR in Japan. The whole story -- and the answers to many questions in this thread -- are all over at Wikipedia, under "laser turntable".

 

You cant wet play with a laser turntable

 

Do you use salt or freshwater for that?

 

Scanning... fiber optic... cool; but, there is no product. The laser turntable can be purchased... today. And, the laser turntable allows us to "read" different (unharmed) areas of the groove wall. The adjustments are many. Cracked records, worn records, broken records... this just plain sounds like a great archival tool. From what I can see, this is the only real world option available... now. Personally, I don't think it sounds anywhere near as bad as some say it does. Even if the wow and flutter specs are only as good as a Pro-ject Debut Carbon or bottom line Rega, I'm good with that if it means records that are sitting on my shelf unplayable can be brought to life. I'm also loving the idea of not having to always look for the mintiest, mint pre-loved LP. For instance, off the top of my head (beside my 78 collection), I have a handleful of first pressing deep groove LPs that may have one or two unplayable skips (the kind that threaten to tear a good stylus off). Instead of replacing them with expensive reissues, or passing up these copies in the stores, I could just slap 'em in the LT and go... needledrop if I must, to get rid of the click. Would it be cheaper to just buy a better copy? I suppose it would. But, it would also have been cheaper to just buy the CD and not spend a goodly sum on my current vinyl playback. The answer is the same for both. I prefer the sonics of vinyl replay over a CD. And, I would prefer, in many cases, to enjoy the sonics of an original pressing (even if unplayable conventionally) over, certainly, a lower quality reissue.

 

I have been using an original Finial Laser Turntable since the early 1990's. I acquired an additional ELP turntable through Smart Devices in 2006 and the full archival ELP 3 speed player several years ago, second hand. Except for damage from UPS, none has required any service at all. All sound extraordinarily good on most recordings, wonderful on "direct to disk". My other equipment is sort of mid quality, Shure type 5, Grado gold, AT and Denon MC and Stantons with custom truncated elliptical styli, SAE arms, Technics and Lenco turntables. The laser players deliver an accurate and non-colored reproduction that accurately represents the original audio signal. If I want added 2nd harmonic distortion, phase anomalies and other artifacts present with a physical contact reproducer, there exist devices which can add them in a user controllable way.

 

That and the price it sells at ? Gimme a cd anyday. I'll stick with contact TTs. Plus with conventional reading you can obtain different sound character with as many carts as there are on the market. If the last sentence alone doesn't defeat the purpose of the frankenlaser contraption I don't know what does.

 

I wonder if they could add a vacuum feature that sucked up dust over the other side of the record from where the laser is operating. Or another little laser that scanned and burned dust ahead of the playback laser.

 

Or what if they had a stylus in the groove in front of the laser to push the dust away.

 

If you ever want to pay one of those LT's forward, you just call my name. I'll make room in my rack.

 

That's making me imagine a Tron-like world in the groove....