My experience with the ELP Laser Turntable

[St-Laurent Gilles <gilles.st-laurent@xxxxxxxxxx>]

First of all would like to say that I am pleased with the machine.  The
National Library of Canada purchased it mostly for public service use.  The
ELP turntable is in my studio and the music is piped to the patron at
listening booths down the hall.  This way, the patron can listen to the
record 1,000 times if they so desire with no wear whatsoever on the disc.
The fact that we do not have to make consultation copies alone is worth the
price of the machine.  The sound quality is excellent and with exceptionally
good channel separation and accurate sound stage.  Another big advantage is
that it will play warped records which conventional tone arm (SME 3012-R)
have trouble tracking.  The tunrtable is so easy to use that non-technical
staff can use it.  It has all the functionality of a CD player:  fast
forward and fast rewind while listening, jumping from track to track by
hitting a button, etc.

There are some drawbacks though:
I find that for such an expensive unit the construction is a little cheap.
We had to return the turntable to Japan for some repairs to the drawer
mechanism (to ELP's credit, the repair were done promptly at no charge).  If
the disc has a larger than normal label, the label needs to be covered with
a piece of black plastic (which ELP supplies).  It is pretty well impossible
to play acetate discs.  The surface is too shiny for the pick-ups.  It only
plays records that are black, and will not play records where the groove
walls are not at a 90 degree angle (early Berliners for example), or smaller
than 7" or larger than 12".  The biggest drawback is that the record must be
_completely_ free of dust as dust will create an obstruction for the laser
and creates ticks and pops.  This can be quite a serious problem with
microgroove records, though it may not be quite as critical with larger
grooved discs.  

Overall I would say that, for our use, it was worth the expense.


Gilles St-Laurent
Music Division
National Library of Canada

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Graham Newton [mailto:gn@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
> Sent: Thursday, June 07, 2001 12:43 PM
> To: ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Cc: Susan Harvey
> Subject: Re: arsclist Playback equipment for phonograph records
> 
> 
> 
> I would caution you on the ELT, simply because if you want to 
> cover a wide
> variety of disc types and composition, the ELT is not the one 
> to do it.
> 
> Gilles St. Laurent at Canada's National Library in Ottawa 
> would be pleased
> elaborate, since they have one and found that it was a nice 
> idea, but there
> are many problems that have not been addressed. 
>  
> 
> ... Graham Newton