Laser Turntable will be at ARSC conference

[David Williams <bun@xxxxxxxxx>]

I am forwarding this on behalf of Mr. Sanju Chiba, president of ELP,
who is coming to demonstrate his company's Laser turntable during this 
year's ARSC conference.

He invites you to  bring any black,lateral cut, 30-90 RPM 7, 10, or 12
inch records that you would like to hear on this turntable and he will be
happy to play them for you.

I've included a bit of detailed information below for your reference.

Please forward any questions to me or Mr Chiba directly. 

Thanks,

David Williams

-------------------------

Here's some info excerpted from their website: http://www.elpj.com


The Laser Turntable uses five laser beams to play records, Two of them
read the audio signals from the right and left channels.  Two more keep
the beams in their respective channels, and one final one controls the
distance from the record. This is part of the reason the Laser Turntable
is successful at playing broken, cracked, records up to 1/4 quarter of an
inch (5-6mm).

The Laser Turntable eliminates most noise from scratches because it doesnt
read information  at right angles to the  groove.  

Records are engraved from the shoulder to bottom of the groove. When the
Laser reads a record, it  uses the upper portion  of the groove. The laser
beam can be adjusted up and down  the top 10 microns to find the least
wear and best signal.  Also, the incident area of the laser beam is only a
fourth of the contact  area of a high end stereo needle and is twenty-six
times smaller than that of a mono needle.

There is currently two models of the Laser Turntable: The LT-1LA steps
through its 30 rpm to 50 rpm range at 0.1 rpm increments.  The LT-XA adds
the range of 60 rpm to 90rpm at increments of 0.2 rpm


http://www.elpj.com/demo.html
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HISTORY:

( Excerpted from www.elpj.com/era.html)
                         
When Robert E. Stoddard, a young American engineer, proposed his theory
that records could be played with light, his friends and teachers at
Stanford University doubted him .

   After graduation, he established Finial Technology Inc. for the purpose
of developing his idea. Over a  period of seven years, with financial
backing (about twenty million dollars US) from people who shared  his
vision, he developed the basic technology to fulfill his dream. His is an
example of the American   pioneering spirit celebrated throughout the
world.

   Stoddard came to Japan in 1988 to seek business partners, but all the
Japanese audio equipment   manufacturers rejected his offer. The reasons
were that the record market was on the decline and that
  the laser turntable did not lend itself to mass production.

What the manufacturers were used to was adopting a standard design for
hardware and software that  could be turned over to a production line
reducing the price per copy as the copies increase. The laser  turntable,
on the other hand, called for hardware used for no other application than
reading records.  Therefore the heart of the laser turntable would have to
consist of tailor-made, hand-crafted parts with their necessary production
costs.
                                                           

  To this end ELP, a Japanese company, acquired the technology from
Stoddard to further the   development of the Laser Turntable. Over a
five-year period ELP undertook a complete review of the electronic
circuitry and optical components, created new functions and developed a
hand-assembly  operation. The excellence of the new Laser Turntable is the
result of this painstaking process.