cowles@convex.com (John Cowles) (01/14/91)
During a recent visit to Japan I got a chance to play with a laser turntable. The turn table was (I think) made by a company in Germany, and could play 78's as well as 33 1/3rpm and 45's. The documentation was in English and Japanese. From the owner's hints, I would guess that the equipment was VERY expensive. One of the controls allowed the user to vary the width and depth of the laser beam. On the whole, although I was VERY excited by the possibility of playing records with a laser stylus, I was disappointed with the performance. Especially with 78's it sounded as though it was mistracking. One of the things one would like to do with an adjustable laser stylus (at least one of the things I would like to do :-)! ) is to play the top of the groove, where a conventional needle/stylus has not played havoc with the recorded information. Does anyone have any information about this beast? Price/performance/availability/futures? Thanks, John Cowles cowles@hydra.convex.com Convex Computer Corp. 3000 Waterview Parkway Richardson, Tx 214-497-4375
Janne.Anttila@lut.fi (Janne Anttila) (01/15/91)
>>>>> On 14 Jan 91 14:04:53 GMT, cowles@convex.com (John Cowles) said:
John> During a recent visit to Japan I got a chance to play with a laser
John> turntable. The turn table was (I think) made by a company in Germany,
John> and could play 78's as well as 33 1/3rpm and 45's. The documentation was
John> in English and Japanese. From the owner's hints, I would guess that the
John> equipment was VERY expensive.
My guess is that you've seen a Finial laser turntable. At least I haven't
heard of any other laser turntable. It's actually made by an american
company. They had really big trouble developing the player and its first
appearance was about two years later than it should have been. And yes,
it is VERY expensive. 40 000 dollars or something like that.
--
janttila@kannel.lut.fi------------------------------
-----Janne Anttila, p. 953-26292--------------------
----------Skinnarilank. 28 D 10, 53850 LPR----------
--------------->>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>N\\K[LE LUBROZ!hans@smab.se (Hans C Larsson) (01/16/91)
cowles@convex.com (John Cowles) writes: >During a recent visit to Japan I got a chance to play with a laser >turntable. The turn table was (I think) made by a company in Germany, >and could play 78's as well as 33 1/3rpm and 45's. The documentation was >in English and Japanese. From the owner's hints, I would guess that the >equipment was VERY expensive. >One of the controls allowed the user to vary the width and depth of the >laser beam. On the whole, although I was VERY excited by the possibility >of playing records with a laser stylus, I was disappointed with the >performance. Especially with 78's it sounded as though it was mistracking. >One of the things one would like to do with an adjustable laser stylus (at >least one of the things I would like to do :-)! ) is to play the top of >the groove, where a conventional needle/stylus has not played havoc with >the recorded information. It's called Finial and is orginially a American product (!) but the product was sold to Japan when it became clear that the sound quality is substandard and the equipment is prohibitivly expensive (~ $ 15000 - $ 20000). It's sole remeding feature is that it does not (as CD...) cause any wear. It's main problem seems to be that the laser picks up dust particles very well whereas a traditional pickup plows it's way through the dust (and the record...). -- ------------------------------------------------------------ Hans C Larsson Email: hans@smab.se Saab Missiles, Sweden Motto: "keep it short"
simond@uunet.UU.NET (Simon David) (01/16/91)
In article <8896@uwm.edu> cowles@convex.com (John Cowles) writes: >During a recent visit to Japan I got a chance to play with a laser >turntable. The turn table was (I think) made by a company in Germany, >and could play 78's as well as 33 1/3rpm and 45's. The documentation was >in English and Japanese. From the owner's hints, I would guess that the >equipment was VERY expensive. I think this is the Finial turntable now being produced in Japan. The project has taken a long time to produce any thing and has been droped and restarted by another company. They _are_ very expensive, about 20,000 UK pounds was once quoted but i believe that will change. >One of the controls allowed the user to vary the width and depth of the It was reviewed in the UK rag Hi-Fi News & Record Review where it got a positive but guarded reception. It was liked for the lack of normal turntable nasties (pitch instability, rumble) but was a real pain with anything other than records in perfect condition. A disk washer had to be used before playing each record. There was an anti click feature that did not work too well but the thing did actually seem to work. For a record library unwilling to let a lump of diamond touch their records it would be ideal when fully debugged, but at the moment it is a bit too much money and trouble for mere mortals. >cowles@hydra.convex.com >Convex Computer Corp. >3000 Waterview Parkway >Richardson, Tx >214-497-4375 Still dreaming... Cosmo -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Simon David Informix UK Tech Support simond@informix.com