There is an audio dropout in the Jeremy Steig track that I didn't notice until after the video was published. This wasn't because of the turntable or the LP - it was because of the lousy cables I was using to connect the ELP to my DAW. I thought that I'd had it stable but I clearly missed that one dropout. Sorry about that. Also: they sell a version of the ELP that supports 78s. Mine just happens to not support playing back at 78 RPM, but it's an available option.

Came for the turntable. Left with the king tut strut. Awesome track.

Back in the late 60s when I first got interested in hi-fi I realised that the ultimate reduction in stylus tip mass and associated problems would be to use a light beam to extract the groove information. Lasers not being commonly available, not to mention my lack of resources, meant that I never persued the idea, but I always thought that someone would. Thanks for the video, and I hope you continue to get enjoyment from your system for years to come! Great to hear that my idea was sound, if you'll forgive the pun!

A friend got his hands on one of those things. The widow had no idea and thought it was a laser disc player (her husband had one of those too) so she sold it for next to nothing. He used it to convert lots of rare vinyl to flac. First investment after he got his hands on that, was a professional vinyl cleaning machine instead of the cheap one he used before. It was really needed. His unit did not like dust or dirt of any kind. For those records too damaged he used an old EMT 950 turntable.

I have never witnessed such blatant flute abuse before! Great vid. Sounded incredible.

Honestly, I think this thing sounds REALLY good! Despite the clicks and pops, a lot of the things I LIKE about digital (low noise floor, lack of wow and flutter, low distortion) seem to be present in this recording. The fact that you're also not destroying your records from repeated playing seems like a fantastic bonus. ...No, I don't have the money to buy one, but if I win the lottery, this is at the top of my list now! Thanks for the excellent demo.

I would almost consider it even for the outrageous price, especially when you consider a traditional turntable can rocket up in price once you start to upgrade here and there. It's the cleaning every time you want to play an LP that kills it for me. Still I've been waiting for someone to do a video just like yours, nice job.

A very nice summary of the ELP! I bought my ELP for exactly the same reason you did - I remember reading about the Finial turntable back in 1989 and I thought it was such an engineering achievement that I hoped one day to own one and finally got one back in 2012. As you pointed out, one cannot equate the cost to sound quality of a conventional but equivalently priced mechanical system. I have answers for your two main faults. The problems you identify with the weird channel time-shift echo effect is related to the laser alignment and the shoulder position laser servo losing lock - if you shift the laser height adjustment down one notch when it happens, it should recover. From new, mine had tracking issues where it didn't matter what laser height setting I used, it would skip and do the "time shift echo thing" so it was sent back under warranty - the laser alignment was faulty presumably during transportation and they resolved the issue. What you describe can happen with eccentric discs and warped discs. Badly scratched discs will also tend to trip up the shoulder tracking too. If you get the problem consistently then the optical alignment is faulty. Secondly the HF distortion is also an inherent issue unfortunately - it is basically the equivalent of clipping and related to the optical signal level dynamic range and where they have set the reference level. You will notice it on hot cuts on pop records. However, with jazz records, you shouldn't have any problem except on hot cuts. There is no fix for that unfortunately - it is not related to the EQ/analogue output stage. The ELP is not an audiophile tool for playing records, it is of value to an archivist or collector with rare records spanning many decades that they wish to preserve but still enjoy listening to or playing potentially damaged discs that could ruin a stylus. I was able to play back a record that was split in two in the post after carefully aligning the pieces!

I enjoyed your presentation and I appreciate the knowledge I gained. I'm 84 and I started to listen to vinyl in 1949 (78s). I worked for Harvey Radio in NYC in 1959 and I eventually became an audio salesman for Lafayette Radio in 2 locations, NJ and NYC and I worked for SAE in 1979 as assistant to the production manager and I hob-nobbed with some of the industry's big shots. I owned many fine components. I found vinyl to be the biggest problem to the enjoyment of recorded music and that led me to prefer reel-to-reel tape and I ignored what little hiss was produced. Then in the early '80s I became acquainted with CDs and that was it for me, no more noisy vinyl and the CD sound was superior to the best vinyl, ignoring all of the dilettante critics. I will never own an ELP Laser Turntable to play inferior vinyl which was always an inferior medium. It was adquate for its time but not worth hearing the inherent noise. Give me a compact disc every time and it has laser. That's good enough for me.

I would like to commend you on your approach to the critics with more of a positive point of view, reporting on your own experiences with honesty, rather than spending time being critical and arrogant. You did a wonderful job explaining everything. More importantly, I thoroughly appreciated one very important aspect of home audio, or audio in general, it doesn't really matter what you have, so long as it makes you happy. If you come home and turn your system on to listen to something and it puts a smile on your face, then NO-ONE can tell you that you made a bad decision.

I have for decades wondered if a laser pickup could be used in place of a needle on records. Apparently it can and works great. Glad to have stumbled upon this.

I read about a laser turntable in Popular Science/Mechanics in the late 70's or early 80's. Always wanted to hear one! Thanks :)

Thank you! I really like how down to earth and clear spoken. So many times we audiophiles tend to carry a thesaurus in our back pockets with which to impress others. I envy you having that delightful gadget. Cheers!

I've also been fascinated by this technology for years. Great to hear one in action, even over KZfaq. Loved the flute track, btw.

Your speaking and oratory skills are wonderful. You have not adopted that youtube voice that so many other creators have adopted. The halting, lilting upspeak with "like" and "right" use prolifically as punctuation. I do wish your channel great success!

The important thing for me is the possible expansion and future use to play and archive vintage 78 records. I have been waiting for something like this. If you can calibrate groove depth, width, prifile etc. It would have to be an ideal way to play them, especially seeing as 78s are so variable in the early days. Love to hear thoughts on this !

Thank you so much for this. I am a dyed in the wool audiophile and cut my teeth in the vinyl world and enjoyed a wide range of turntables including Linn, SME, Pink Triangle, Michell etc. Today I am 100% digital and have no interest in vinyl (for me it is a flawed, archaic format). Its great that many people today enjoy it, but oh boy is there a lot of misinformation, misunderstanding and general batshit crazy ignorance around vinyl. But I digress . . Like you I have always been fascinated by the ELP and Finial player before it. I had no idea people vieweed what is an amazing and fascinating technical tour de force with such (ill informed) ignorance - but I guess that's the curse of the internet age! Your video was a delight, it was great to see a really detailed and level-headed look at this device - I've never got to hear one first hand. Thank you for bringing it to life and dispelling some of the hysterically stupid nonsense said about it.

Very interesting and informative. Way back in the 1970s I realised (and was able to demonstrably prove) that a significant factor in what was then known as “turntable sound” was suppression of vibrations in the record itself, created as a result of the stylus flying around in the groove (every action has an equal and opposite reaction). I always thought laser reading of a vinyl groove would be the obvious solution since there would be no physical contact. Just a shame they’re so expensive !

I’m late to the party, but had to throw in a comment. I thoroughly enjoyed that flute track and the groove. I also enjoyed your take on this piece of hardware. Thank you for sharing the story of a player that very few people will ever get to listen to first hand.

Thanks for making this video, very enjoyable. What a machine. Amazing sound, amazing music picks. 💜

Great video and incredible insight into an extremely rare subject/device that most of us did not even know exists. Thank you for taking the time to make this.

I heard about turntables using lasers in the 80's, it must have been the early stages of development, but since then I've heard nothing. So to see and hear this fantastic gem is awesome. It sounds great, even with YT compression. And like you said the seperation is superb.

Thank you for this. I've been curious to see (hear) one of these in action for years. And that first song you played was outstanding!

It sounded very good to me ,even through KZfaq. It's a Good thing you feed it straight into your KZfaq channel. And didn't use speakers in the room which would of introduced room reflections etc. Well done.

Thanks for taking it for the team and doing this review. For $18K I would have hoped for less blown plastic molding and stamped steel.

I still find it so facinating that it is even possible to play vinyl records with lasers. How it was never intended to play. That is amazing.

Great quality, even with the youtube compression... crystal clear stereo image. I can hear a couple of pops on the Debussy, but very faint, that I couldn't hear on the King Tut Strut. The Coryell/Brubeck had a pop or two also, but very impressive reproduction.

I've been waiting for this video for almost 15 years!) Thank you very much. And I prefer to see interview with founder in youк next videos. You are luckiest man!

God bless the funk and musical improvisation. What a song

I think Tomorrow’s World on BBC one demonstrated the prototype to this turntable many decades ago. I was listening to the sample tracks on my Bluetooth headphones the music was crystal clear. I was surprised by the lack of background noise normally associated with this format.

I've been waiting for this video for 20 years! Thank you~!

There you go. After many years finally an answer to my questions. Thanks!

I love your review, very nice style and wry sense of humour. A pleasure listening to you.

The best line i've heard from this entire video is that where you expressed how this thing brought you JOY. I think that's the bottom line. Period. Congrats and if i had the money, (which i don't hahaha) I would probably buy one myself :)

Thank you for this! I've always been very curious about this machine, and I love that you provided so much detail and audio samples. I also truly appreciate the lack of audiophile nonsense.

Just like others, I learned about the laser turntable, and left with a King Tut Strut and Temple of Birth love! It's just a shame I can't find any other medium other than vinyl. Man, thanks SO much for turning me on to this. You replied about how KZfaq would have demonitized you, and you could have chosen anything, but you chose this. I was totally blown away by Jeremy Steig. You made a new thread of music for me and I do appreciate it! Thanks again!

I remember many years ago hearing that the Library of Congress was using this to transfer rare discs to a reference format for archival purposes. I believe the destination was PCM digital. Your example is quite impressive, much better transient response than I have ever heard from mag cartridge playback. I am one of those who sees vinyl as a fond throwback to another time, its only real plus being the proper size for artwork. I’ve heard careful comparisons of pristine vinyl to the same label’s digital release using a single song familiar to everyone. As a music producer, that seems the right way to compare. Results so blatantly, unquestionably favored the digital release in every conceivable way, yet the quantity and tone of vinyl fanboy’s comments was predictable, claiming a startling improvement for the vinyl in every metric that was clearly the strong suit of the digital playback. This will never change. I hear the music as my decades of training allows. They hear what they want to hear. P.S. Liked your audiofile (misspelling deliberate) comments.

DIdn't notice much improvement to the frequency range but DID notice how QUIET it was when the music required quietness (if you know what I mean). Thanks for the education on a new (to me) ability to play my LP records! Nice to know about this electronic marvel but too expensive for my retirement income!

Amazing to see one in details on KZfaq! 👏🏻

I can dig it. I wish the price point would come down so more people can experience it first hand. Thanks for making the video and being so honest and real.

How the heck is this video less than 100k views? this was a wonderful look at this thing and I'd love to see an even deeper dive into the tech of how it works!

Wow, it sounds awsome. What an engineering masterpiece. I wish it was at a pricetag I could afford, but as it is an absolute niche product I can understand why it is that expensive.

I do like the idea of this concept. The sound that you provided, to my ears, was a fairly clean rendition of a vinyl record. Good to get an honest insight as to what to expect with one of these devices.

Awesome video! Thanks a bunch!

I remember hearing about this somewhere, I'm surprised more companies aren't trying to perfect this technology, it could most certainly be improved upon. I'm glad someone was able to make a proper review of it, thanks man. Hopefully someday it'll be the cheap enough for the average person.

Great video man! You really know your stuff :)

Impressive, channel separation excellent and overall audio very nice open and very realistic.

I had heard about these many years ago, Although I haven't actually searched for info on them on the internet, it was still at the back of my mind. So I'm really happy that YT has suggested me your video. Very interesting indeed, and I thought the audio sounded really good here, so I can imagine that in person it must be very nice 😊

Very informative! It seems very accurate, obvious separation and great sound even when "processed" through KZfaq, the internet, my computer and pc speakers $5 from Goodwill .

I'm another who knew about this machine and wondered what it really sounded like. Many thanks for doing this video. The handling of the dynamic range on the Debussy was very interesting. What would be great is if there were some for rent here in the USA, just like you can rent all sorts of other equipment. It would be great to have one for a few months to do transfers from old vinyl, without having actually purchase it.

Great video & thanks for your candor ✊

WOW! Amazing imaging and detail.

I love your video, man... ever since I knew about this turntable I've wanted to know what it sounded like, thanks for those audio samples. Being from México I'm usually on a tight budget, so I don't think I would ever have the opportunity to get this turntable, but I'm fine with the equipment I have.

I've been waiting SO LONG for someone to do a proper video on one of these. I check every once in a while and was happy to find this video. I'd buy one if I had the cash. I like the sound actually.

Very nice and down to earth video! Thanks!

Incredible tech and great song choice, truly making sweet love to his flute.

Awesome, thank you so much for this video! I remember thinking about a laser turntable about 10 or more years ago and wondering if anyone had made one. I was curious, so I searched online and was excited to find them. However, when I saw the prices, I was disappointed. lol The audio quality is actually really good! You don't get the crackle from static which is the majority of the popping in most vinyl!

I remember a friend telling me that it was possible to get a laser to read vinyl records in a similar way to CD's. However the music industry supported the CD format because they could get you to re-purchase your records all over again in a new format.

Thank you for making this video !

This thing is wicked cool. Thanks for sharing!

This was very interesting. I love digital and analog music. I have always loved things that move and light up. I think this may be a factor in some people preferring traditional turntables, especially since most audiophiles already have an investment in traditional audio equipment. I would love to see the working parts of this turntable functioning but similar to CD players that is probably not an option. Thanks for the review.

Even handling imperfections like the one at 20:09 and this player is a real trooper! Oh yes, I remember reading about a laser player like this decades ago, maybe in Popular Mechanics, or maybe Entertainment Weekly... definitively not Creem. Thought it was gone to oblivion with the video laserdiscs, but here it is! Used to clean vinyl records before playing, so it wouldn't bother me. But having to sell my flat to get me one...

Thank You Very Much for sharing this video along your personal experience, Jeff (“The Music Addict”) 👍 Absolutely informative and very interesting 😊 (I did not think I would last the full 30 minutes; but in this case, it was very easy!) I shall definitely have to watch more of your videos 😊 Take Care, and continue to enjoy the E.L.P !!

Great video, and it's great to finally hear one of these. I had heard of them before but never realized that there were actual production models. I am glad you played tracks that we can listen to, Fantastic sound (even for KZfaq). It's noticeably quieter than a regular turntable, there's no rumble or groove noise at all (except for a couple ticks on the last recording). Very cool.

I've known about the LT and ELP for a few decades now. ELP sent me sample CD which sounds fantastic. Maybe the Library of Congress has one (??) for archiving purposes. Speaking of the governments, it is technology like THIS that should be part of tech budgets. So much history can be archived in very high fidelity, as the still-prototype LT still hits at. Thx for the upload, Music Addict!

I was impressed by how quiet the background noise was. A stylus being dragged through the groove creates friction and surface noise. I didn't hear any in the sound samples of the ELP.

You have earned my ABSV (alfa bravo super video) it checks ✔ all the boxes keep up the good work and as the NAVY say carry on.

I see one of my favorite albums behind you, Captain Beyond.

I remember reading, decades ago, that someone was experimenting with the idea of reading the grooves with a laser, and thinking that would be great for records that have a damaged groove that skips or repeats, and maybe could play records that are actually broken. I happen upon this video, and sure enough, they did it! And years ago. Modern technology comes to the rescue of old technology.

This is a terrific and insightful video. I'm honestly surprised it has so few views. Hopefully others will stumble across it as I did. The technology is fascinating and I'd be curious to own one myself, were it not for the price and need for pristine LPs.

Great stuff, I liked the video very much. I've just decided to collect my faviourite artist's vinyls just to play them on this thing. Imagine being able to play them losslessly for the rest of your life.

Thanks for the detailed video.

Wondering how well it handles “bumps and jumps” while playing. When my kids were little, I could only play records while they slept. Most of my vinyl was only played once to transfer to metal biased tape. But taping clean was a huge challenge with kids in the house! My grandkids think it’s utterly fascinating that Grandpa has “antique” records! 😂

Just a great and informative video. Thanks so much for your efforts.

Hi Jeff. I found your video very interesting. I just thought I would share some knowledge. I agree 100% that the ELP is a brilliant design. The patent itself is a masterclass in how technical patents should be written. Something many people don't know is that Japanese researchers published a design for a laser player for old style mechanical cylinders about a month BEFORE Finial Technology applied for their patent. The reason this is significant is because that cylinder player operated on exactly the same principle as the ELP machine. Let me explain. The key component inside the ELP is a tiny light detector known as a Position Sensing Device (PSD). That device detects the position (or angle) of the laser spot reflected off the disc groove walls and outputs a voltage linearly proportional to it. That voltage gets converted to the audio signal that you hear. There are three PSD's inside the ELP. One for reading each groove (L and R) and one used as part of a height control mechanism. The cylinder player designed by the Japanese researchers also used a PSD to detect the laser beam reflected off the grooves in the mechanical cylinder. That constituted 'prior art'. Also, the idea for the height tracking mechanism was taken from a published Japanese research paper where the researcher demonstrated how to measure changes in height (or vibrations) using a PSD. That too could possibly be constituted 'prior art' because the ELP is essentially using the PSD reading the grooves as vibration sensors. It's interesting that the Laser Turntable is widely thought to be an American invention but the key technology was already well known by Japanese researchers. In my humble opinion Finial Technology got very lucky with their patent application because there was definitely prior art. ELP (formerly BSR Japan) reportedly paid Reis and Stoddard millions for their patent when they could have challenged it instead and possibly gotten the technology for free.

Wow! Thanks for bringing this device to my attention! Heard whisperings about this decadesago, and I had no idea they's made a commercial version. I hope you like it. You've certainly earned a subscriber with this one!

It sounds top notch! Thank you for the honoust review.

I had an idea for a laser record player... then I saw this video and realized it exists. It sounds incredible.

The issues you had were actually the most interesting thing to me, as a software engineer who had a bit of electronic repair experience back in the 80's. The distortion you mentioned, being very specific to one frequency or type of sound makes me think there's something between the light sensors and the pre-amp that is resonating beyond spec, and thus stomping over other parts of the waveform in some way. The reading of adjacent grooves makes me think some records may have an imbalanced pressing process, where the groove edge is higher on one side than the other, so it's not a warp or distortion, but a mistake in the angle of the die used to cut the groove in the first place?

Fascinating piece of technology! Thanks for the video showing this working.

Wow. I can't believe I never even knew these existed until now. Really interesting video man, keep them coming!

Just when we needed him the most... he returned.

Nice down to earth review, with a good touch of humor thrown into the mix at times. I agree this is a fascinating way to play a record, trying to combine one of the big benefits of CD (no contact so no wear on the disc) with the much cherished vinyl technology. Regarding the discs needing to be very clean, maybe ELP can install a silent blower and/or brush to clean the groove that is about to be played, while the disc is turning?

This was very interesting, with just the right amount of sarcasm for my taste :) Thanks!

Thank you for this. I have always wondered about these things and whilst it is not for me or my budget it was good to hear from an owner rather than just an opinion from someone who has read about it on Wikipedia.

I remember hearing about these years ago. They never caught on. Upside, no physical wear on your vynl. Downside, too touchy with technical problems. Overall, it sounds really good.

Dude Thank you! I have wondered for decades why there never was a laser turn table. It seemed to me a non-destructive way to play back vinyl records was the holy grail for audiophiles. But, they be crazy. This thing sounds great. I think most Audiophiles are not musicians and not concert goers. So they have no idea what it is like to actually play in an ensemble, or sit in a concert hall.

Thanks for this very detailed video. It answered all my questions. I have always been curious about this device, but never could afford one (or find a used one). 🤓👍

Spotted that Thrust in the background! Dope record. Dope video too

Excellent commentary on laser turntables

Awesome video. Appreciate The effort you’ve put into it. Can you let me know what it does for inner groove distortion?

It's amazing that this is possible. I would love to own one!

I saw and heard a prototype of this player back in the 80s. Even back then, the idea was to get the price down. With today’s technology, why hasn’t someone else made a laser turntable? It could easily be made to sell for a few hundred dollars. Remember how expensive CD players were at first? Then towards the end, you could pick up a portable CD player for as little as $20. ELP must be sitting on the patents for this device. People today are still buying turntables. Why hasn’t some big electronics company made their own version of this? There’s a big enough market out there for a non damaging record player!

I really like the concept. From a technical point of view, this isn't at all easy. For a start, the tracking of the groove itself requires a position control mechanism with feedback loops of some sort. It should be able to deal with obvious distortion of the vinyl, eccentricity etc. rapidly enough while not locking in on the groove amplitude itself. The lateral precision should be at least 10 micron, probably better, and the height apparently can be adjusted with 1 micron increments. That's at about 0.5 Hz - 5 Hz rock solid locking in. LP audio starts at 20 Hz and the tracking shouldn't see that at all. In practice, I imagine some crosstalk between tracking and audio to exist. The same applies to a stylus of course but that is inertia based not via feedback PID control or similar.

never thought they actually made one of these , i have thought for years how to play a LP with a laser , this was cool seeing one in the flesh and playing

We bought an ELP at work 10-15 years ago to transfer broken or fragile archival records. I cannot emphasize how much noise this thing picks up. I would not use this for recreational listening as the cleaning routine before listening takes up about half as much time as the actual listening. And even after repeated thorough cleaning/vacuuming, we always had a hard time finding a laser height that had little noise and full bandwidth. Most times, even on one-pass records, we ended up using an old Mccurdy broadcast player with an SP10 table. I'm glad your experience with your table is much more positive.

These ELP's should be perfect for the modern, digital sourced vinyl. Almost like a CD. (lol)

I remember asking for a demo CD back in 2006, which ELP has kindly provided to me at no cost at all. Unfortunately it got lost when I moved last year :( I really appreciate that you made this video about the laser turntable, as it gave me a little bit more insight on the thing. It also made me wonder if the faint sound of the record emitted from the device is part of how it actually generates sound, like with a conventional phono cartridge, or just a byproduct. Honestly, I can't afford a €10000 car, so I won't be getting one of these things soon, but I'm more than happy with my Revox B795 turntable, even though it's hated by many, just like the ELP LT :)

I'm a year late to this party but man I'm glad I found your video. Great review of this product and some lengthy samples too. Knowing what to expect from KZfaq, this turntable does sound amazing and unique. It's odd to hear some of the pops and clicks of a record without the underlying continual low hum of a needle dragging on vinyl. More than likely well out of my price range which is a shame because like you, I enjoy the odd ball value of things like this too.

Great explanation and information