Laser Vinyl

[Nogbad]

Has anyone ever heard of this - it is a new one on me although it seems to have been around for a while? At £5,000 for a turntable it is not cheap.

http://www.elpj.com/main.html

[Beobloke]

Been around for a while, needs surgically clean vinyl for best results and is just plain WRONG!

[Nogbad]

I confess my first thoughts were "they have put tits on a fish" but I didn't want to be too "closed mindish" on this. I would be interested in hearing what it sounds like but I am not good with surgically cleanvinyl.A quick rub down withmy tieusually does for me

[AmDismal]

Strikes me as solving a problem that isn't there - with a decent pickup vinyl wear is not a massive issue - and creating a problem that wasn't - dust isn't 'swept away' by the needle, so the system is more critical of it.

It must have been fun from an engineering perspective to design and build, and will appeal to some on that basis, but I've never heard one at the shows I've been to - does that say something?

[sq225917]

well it will sound like a cd player does playing back recorded vinyl.



it has to do A/d and then D/a so why bother, ok for archiivng maybe.

[A.N.]

heard one on a couple of occasions, and imo, dont bother, pants!

and as for the price dreaming. a project debut is far better!

[edspurrier]

It's analogue, so no ad da conversion. Still not quite right though

[dom_]

I know someone who owns one, they use it purely because they collect very expensive classical LP's (silly money) and would never trust themselves to put a needle on them.

[kingsxfan]

edspurrier wrote:

It's analogue, so no ad da conversion. Still not quite right though

Why not ed? Despite its obvious sensitivity to vinyl quality, its a superb transcription idea, and as I'm also aware, it is still 'analogue'.

There are no cartridge/arm induced distortions, no end of side distortion and no record wear.

If I could afford one and the technology was less fussy about vinyl quality I'd use one. I think the detractors would mainly be those who have a more tactile relationship with their vinyl.As for playbackresolution over a standard cart/arm, I think that would depend on the electronics inside, and if these could be uprated or components improved upon then its one hell of a good invention for those who prefer anunadulerated,'pure' analogue signal/sound.

[Uncle Ants]

Beobloke wrote:

Been around for a while, needs surgically clean vinyl for best results and is just plain WRONG!

Well it can't have been your good self obviously, but didn't World do a review of this a year or two back and say they rather liked it? Are they still giving away a free VPI cleaning machine with it?

[kingsxfan]

Uncle Ants wrote:

Beobloke wrote:

Been around for a while, needs surgically clean vinyl for best results and is just plain WRONG!

Well it can't have been your good self obviously, but didn't World do a review of this a year or two back and say they rather liked it? Are they still giving away a free VPI cleaning machine with it?

It has had great reviews but is very expensive for the likes of little old me. If they sold more of them the prices would hopefully fall. The costs to develope probably prevent this being anytime soon though. Been wanting to hear one for a long time myself.

[Uncle Ants]

kingsxfan wrote:

It has had great reviews but is very expensive for the likes of little old me. If they sold more of them the prices would hopefully fall. The costs to develope probably prevent this being anytime soon though. Been wanting to hear one for a long time myself.

I seem to remember it being a lot more than £5k as well (more like £10k??), though my memory may be faulty on that score.

I do know the design ...or its predecessors have been around a fair while though. I remember seeing a prototype on Tomorrows World as a teenager, so 20 odd years at least ... in fact I have this vague notion it was originally developed by a British company, but again my brain cells may be tricking me because I keep thinking it was QED and that just don't sound right.

Edit ... or was it BSR? Which sounds almost as unlikely