ELP Laser Turntable & Trickle Down

Vinyladdict, I think this is an entirely different issue. Of course, you can get a great tt, arm, and cartridge for $10K but the ELP is not outrageously expensive. I do have a Shindo Labs vinyl system that costs a good deal more and have had the chance to buy an ELP at a very good price but still couldn't pull the trigger. I know too many who have had them in their systems and still listen to other tts.

Actually, I wonder if ELP were redesigned to be digital, would it perform better. I doubt if we will ever find out.

Vinyladdict wrote:

Is record wear really that big of a concern anymore? I know I don't concern myself with it.

Record wear is always a consideration. The laser turntable never got off the ground because it was necessary to keep your records scrupulously clean and its sound quality could have been better. Additionally, the ELP unit is complex.

A key to reduced record wear, outside of cleaning your records, is ensuring correct azimuth adjustment (VTA, tracking force, etc. also are important) to maximize contact area, rewarding the listener with greater channel separation and reduced phase error, noise, and distortion.

Of course, Essentialaudio - that was exactly my point! If you've got a PROPERLY aligned modern stylus I don't see why anyone would be concerned a bit with worries of record-wear.

The complexity point you make is right on target and why I just don't understand why anyone would want to run one. Perhaps if I heard one in action I would "get it" - but as I stand if I were spending $10k on an analog setup, it would not be on my list.

There's quite a bit of "information" if you will (almost entirely anecdotal) at Arthur Salvatore's website, including the big blowup with the then current distributor, Smart Devices, who nixed their relationship with the line and issued warnings about the nature of the dealings of the ELP's parent company. Also, servicing requires shipment back to Japan.

I also vaguely remember a couple of comments made about the table by Pearson and someone else at AS. In a nutshell, they said that the table sounded extremely rolled off in the treble. In fact, I don't recall a full review ever appearing.

On the other hand, I have a friend in the industry who bought one about a year ago and was all fired up about it at the time. I need to call him and see what he thinks about it now that he's had the time to settle in with it.

I don't know who the new US distributor ended up being.

I ran my CBS Labs STR130 test record through my ELP and checked it in Sound Forge, which admittedly involved the preamp and the sound card, but doing that it was pretty much flat out to 20k. Within a db or 2 at most.