The laser turntable at 34% off the price. Yet still at $9,900.

Mar 14, 2007 11:37 GMT  ·  By

No better title for this hour's news that ELP's own (trademark) slogan "No needle, no wear". Yo all bargain amateurs, heed my call as it's possible you get your hands on this cool piece of tech! The Laser Turntable form ELP is under heavy discounts so if you planned on buying one but was never able to save enough money, this could be your lucky day!

I don't know how many of you are familiar with the laser technology used in the vinyl recording industry yet I will tell you a couple of short words on it. As most of you know, playing a vinyl involves a turntable. Usual turntables, even the most hi-end and expensive ones, run on a cartridge which has a needle running through the grooves cut in the actual disc.

Nothing fancy so far: the needle vibrates on the pattern in the grooves and this movement is transformed in electrical signals later to be amped and sent to your speakers.

Since there is physical contact between needle and the vinyl mass, after some time, the grooves grow larger and start having dents which will sabotage the quality of the signal. After some more time, the disc becomes pure crap and the best thing to do is recycle it.

Now, the ELP company thought of this problem from a different angle: since laser is industrially used to measure things, why not use it to "measure" inside the vinyl-cut grooves? So the new tech was born! No physical contact between the vinyl disc and other hard piece of material, just a beam of laser light caressing the surface: no needle - no wear, get it now?

Even more, ELP claims that the laser turntable will play severely damaged discs in good conditions, obviously far better than a classic needle turntable would.

And further on, the producer of this amazing piece of gear also claims that the laser beam, being very-very thin, will reach portions in the grooves that have never been touched by the needle simply because the needle we're speaking about is too thin to fit in there. That's quite interest-rising info, isn't it?

Well, in the end, the 34% off the regular price of the entry-level ELP Laser Turntable means that you'll drill only a $9,900 hole in your wallet instead of the $15,000 one you were previously supposed to. Still, this is the entry-level gear.

The other two models came down to $13,000 and $14,000 from $17,000 and $19,000 respectively. Call that a bargain... yet only for the rich.

Photo Gallery (4 Images)

The ELP Laser Turntable
The inner sanctumAnother view
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