ELP laser turntable - any comments?

Tbg...I never used it for audio, but the task of eliminating ripples in a dish of Mercury is a real vibration isolation challenge, and the Halcyonics table came through with flying colors. At the time I thought that it would make a great base for a turntable. Now I understand that someone is marketing it to audiophiles.

Are you suggesting an A/B test against the Minus K ? ! ! :-)

Eldartford, Yep!

The Minus K vs Halcyonics would be a great test! Interestingly, they are based in Menlo Park, only a stone's throw from me (in San Jose). I'm wondering if Halcyonics would be open to providing a loaner for the test.

What's the Halcyonics cost? I need to dredge up what I paid for my Minus K BM-1 as part of the comparison.

Does anyone in A'gonville have one?

I noticed that the Halcyonics has a max payload of 220 lbs. On the other hand, the Halcyonics has a torsional stiffener, and the Minus K does not. Not sure how critical the torsional stiffener is, but when I talked to Minus K about this before I purchased the BM-1, they said it would be possible to add torsional stiffness/isolation to the BM-1 if I found it to be necessary. So far I've been fine without it.

Eldartford, see patent 4,870,631 on www.uspto.gov - that might answer your question about whether the ELP laser turntable senses rate of change or if the output is proportional to displacement. If I understand the Abstract correctly, it appears to be proportional to displacement. But one probably has to read more of the patent claims to verify that.

Useridchallenged...I think that Halcyonics has various models, some of which will support more weight. The 220 pound model should be sufficient for 99.9 percent of turntables.

Thanks for the info on the patent. I will look it over.