ELP laser turntable - any comments?

OK Sam! A good posting.

I guess it's time for me to "disclaim" any connection with Halcyonics. I have mentioned this product only because I had such good experience with it in a non-audio job-related situation.

From a spec point of view, the Minus K passive isolator should be able to go head-to-head with the Halcyonics. The Minus K achieves 50 dB isolation at 10 Hz compared to the 40 dB of the Halcyonics. Also, the Minus K has a 0.5 Hz resonance, and the Halcyonics starts isolating at 0.6 Hz. For building isolation, the Minus K can handle fairly large horizontal and vertical displacements - 0.5 inch vertical and 0.75 inch horizontal travel. I'm curious what travel the Halcyonics has. Is NABS open to doing an AB comparison of the Halcyonics versus the Minus K isolators? I use the BM-1, and in my own testing have found that it outperforms air. It would be interesting to see how it stacks up against active isolation. How much does a Halcyonics isolator cost?

User, the 17.6" x 16" Micro 40 is $7890. I cannot imagine that anything like a .5 inch vertical or .75 horizontal travel could ever happen with the Halcyonics. The correction would have done whatever it could with even a fraction of this.

I am not in the least surprised that the Minus K outperforms air, such presumably as the Vibraplane and the Townsend Sink.

Tbg...If your TT moves 1/2 inch vertically, and 3/4 inch horizontally, I submit that you have best evacuate the house, especially if you live in California! As to specs...40 dB and 50dB are not significantly different in terms of real world effectiveness, and may be dependent on exactly how the number is measured. Same goes for 0.5 Hz vs 0.6 Hz. A side-by-side evaluation would be interesting, although I bet that either one would take care of the typical home floor vibration. In my experience acoustic feedback to the vinyl is the predominant problem after even minimal attention to floor vibration.

Eldartford, just think if the unit could keep the record playing in an earthquake!

What seems to be an interesting difference between the unit is that with the Halcyonic there might not be a resonant frequency. This may make no difference. At any rate I hope to get to try one in August on returning from Alaska.