Finial Laser LP Player Absolute Sound Review

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by VinylSoul, Jul 9, 2020.

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  1. VinylSoul

    VinylSoul Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Lake Erie
    Do any of the forum members recall the original Absolute Sound Review? Early 90's? The things I found disturbing in the review by REG. The laser could not read the highest freq. and it actually had a digital conversion going on. I wish I could find my original copy.
    Was not capable of reading any other colors of vinyl than black.
    Didn't score too high on listening tests either. Also then 25k!
    Here we are still dragging the diamond 30yrs later.
     
  2. anorak2

    anorak2 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Berlin, Germany
    It's still being made under the name "ELP laser turntable", from a Japanese company who bought the patent. https://www.elpj.com/

    The fact that it can't read coloured or transparent vinyl is a given because it relies on optical reflection. I don't think there are any shortcomings regarding frequency response, this review claims 10 Hz - 40 kHz. They offer a separate DSP for realtime declicking because as opposed to conventional pickups it is sensitive to dust. Obviously that has to be digital, but why not. The target audience for this thing is not analogue purist audiophiles, but libraries and especially archives who want to transfer old records without wear.

    It would have been nice if there was a more practical consumer friendly and cheaper version of it, but for economy of scale to kick in it came precisely at the wrong time: When vinyl was on its way out.
     
  3. VinylSoul

    VinylSoul Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Lake Erie
    Strangely it did not deliver the best representation I hoped it would. Although now I realize it's a massive undertaking.
     
  4. Claude Benshaul

    Claude Benshaul Forum Resident

    It's an absurdly complex solution that is irrelevant and using outdated technology.

    Years ago I had some discussions with a friend that worked for a biotech startup company that tried to use AI and image recognition to automate microbial identification, a task that even today may take up to a week. He told me that while it's theoretically possible to re-create sound by performing an image scan of a record groove there was zero interest in this subject. Nobody cared or expressed a shred of interest beyond simple curiosity that didn't go beyond checking if it was theoretically possible.

    I'm not an expert in digital image processing or AI but I kind of understood his reasoning, why should a startup company invest the R&D in replicating something that a purely electro mechanical TT is already capable of doing cheaply enough for most of us?
     
  5. The Pinhead

    The Pinhead KING OF BOOM AND SIZZLE IN HELL

    Speak for yourself ! There's a laser pickup inside those marvels called CD players, and they read pure, perfect binary digital info from little 5¨ metal discs that last forever. This said :


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    I still own a TT an play the good ole slabs o' wax we called ¨records¨ in the Paleozoic !:wave::righton::tiphat:
     
    Retro Music Man and anorak2 like this.
  6. anorak2

    anorak2 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Berlin, Germany
    I think you misunderstand what the laser turntable is. It's not about scanning an image of the record to process it in software; there's a project like that somewhere, but it's a completely different approach. The laser turntable is a "regular" turntable with a platter revolving at 33, 45 or 78. Different from normal turntables, the pickup is a laserbeam that shines light into the groove, and whose reflections are read by a light sensor and transformed into electrical waves. The pickup is tracked linearly.

    The advantages are absolutely no wear, and theoretically "perfect" scanning of the groove because all the shortcomings of mechanical cartridges are completely avoided. The linear tracking adds all the theoretical advantages of linear turntables, such as no mistracking.
     
  7. Claude Benshaul

    Claude Benshaul Forum Resident

    I do understand what the laser TT is all about and that's why I tagged it as irrelevant and outdated.
     
  8. vwestlife

    vwestlife Forum Resident

    Location:
    New Jersey, USA
    Magnavox already perfected the laser LP player over 40 years ago. And it plays video, too, not just audio!

     
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