ELP laser turntable - any comments?

TAS reviews the ELP in the new issue. Valin finds all records sound the same on it and sound dull. This is totally at odds with what I heard at CES2004. I would characterize it as sounding quite different from other vinyl systems. I thought records sounded less romantic and more master tape like, but not digital like. Had it not been for the difficulties SMART had had, I might have bought one.

Valin compares the ELP with the Walker Prosideum which I once owned and which is excellent. I did not have this comparison at hand, of course.

It occurs to me that a conventional phono pickup is basically a cam follower...a mechanical device to trace the shape of a template (the recorded groove). We think of it as a very small mechanical device but it is actually very large in context of the technology of "nanomechanical" machines, a field that has seen amazing progress in recent years. If someone (with a lot of money) wanted to make a giant leap forward in vinyl playback I think that a nanomechanical phono pickup would make more sense than this optical approach.

Nanomechanical machines are fabricated like electronic integrated circuits, and usually include, on the same chip, the associated electronic circuits. Tracking force would be so low that you might need an optical servo arm to track the groove.

A project to develop such a pickup would be attractive only to a multimillionare audiophile with technical leanings and not enough to do. Anyone out there?

Since the ELP dates back probably 20 years, it is most dated technology.

Maybe on the profits from the Intelligent Chip, Golden Sound might be a prospect.

Three problems for most people with the ELP:
1. Cost
2. Getting it fixed when it goes down, which it will
eventually
3. Sound. So far, reviews have not been favorable and
their sample CD of its sound is less than good.
Were the ELP below $3000, which is where it should be,
it might be fun to play with. At its present price,
if you can afford it, a good plaything.
If it works as well as the advertising lit, it is
a steal at any price below $10,000.
CEM Columbus, Ohio

I have the demo cd. I prefer the sound of my mid fi Yamaha PX-3 to the ELP if it truely sounds as it does on the demo CD.

Steve