ELP Laser Turntable & Trickle Down

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.

I must say Acresverde, that I have never heard any rolled off treble with the ELP. I must say, however, that I know the circumstances surrounding the concerns of SMART. I suspect that the waters are now so tainted that no one will be the US distributor. The company now seems happy to sell directly.