stiv@rice.edu (david n stivers) (01/21/91)
I'd posted this to rec.audio back last spring, but there seems to be some interest in it on this news-froup, so I dug it out (I'd mistakenly thought that I'd deleted it, but apparently not.) This is a more or less verbatim (unauthorized) copy of an article from the 3-28-90 issue of Radio World, a weekly newsheet for the broadcast industry. ____________________________________________________________________________ Radio stations are among potential buyers targeted for Finial Technology's laser turntable that finally is available in the US-for a mere $32,000. After several years of prototypes, postponements and a company buyout by Carillion Technology, Inc, the on-again, off-again Finial LT-1 laser turntable is here, according to the company. The Finial laser turntable, which debuted at the Audio Engineering Society convention in 1988, works like a CD player, but the laser reads the record grooves of 33 and 45 rpm records instead of digital "pits". About two years ago, the compnay discontinued plans to produce the laser turntable because it was very expensive to manufactur and the company felt that the $3500 retail price would not offset those costs. According to Finial PR spokeswoman Fran Dym, however, outcry from audiphiles and record collectors and a new marketing plan that included a $29000 price hike, made conditions more palatable to enter the market again. The laser turntable is now being marketed to radio stations, archivers, libraries, and individual collectors (the ones who can afford it, of course), Dym said. The technology is based on a microcomputer/tracking mechanism and laser servo that reacts to the record grooves like a CD reacts to the "pits" in a compact disc. The microcomputer controls the speed of the turntable, monitors the time, and memorizes cut boundaries. Just like a CD player, the display includes elapsed time, time remaining, tiem of cut, and time for each side. Unlike a CD player, which converts the source to digital information then back to analog for playback, the LT-1 converts the optical imprint reading of the record grooves directly to an acoustic analog signal. Because traditional record playing involves a stylus touching a record and the grooves are vulnerable to dust and scratches, the laser turntable uses a noise blanker circuit to compensate for those physically induced sonic flaws, according to Finial. The noise blanker "differentiates between valid musical signals, which have reverberation, and the ticks and pops which do not." Thus, it plays the music without the surface noise, the company claimed. Also, according to Finial, severely scratched records that previously repeated a portion of the record over and over until you moved the tonearm will not be a problem with the LT-1. The laser tracking mechanism compensates for the "stuck" groove in about 20 milliseconds, according to the original AES paper on the Finial laser turntable. Unlike a regular turntable with a 500 hour stylus, the LT-1 laser has a 10,000 hour life, and the low energy of its beam will not damage record grooves, the company said. For more information about the Finial laser turntable, contact Fran Dym at DYM, SR, and A, Inc., 212-661-5300 or write to Finial Technology: 707 East Evelyn Avenue, Sunnyvale, CA 94086. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- david n stivers stiv@rice.edu