PUT THE LASER ON THE RECORD
May 1, 2007 12:00 PM, Markkus Rovito
We here at Remix have to admit that until now, we thought lasers were only for optical discs and that ELP was just a bitchin' '70s band that sang “Lucky Man.” But we were only partly right. Turns out that Emerson, Lake and Palmer were never really bitchin', and the Japanese ELP Corporation has been making laser turntables since 1989 — yes, that's right, laser turntables. ELP Corp. developed laser reading of vinyl records that produces sound that's never digitized, staying analog through the signal path. Just as importantly, however, is that the record is never physically touched. Its quality isn't damaged by a needle, so you can get that fresh vinyl sound that DJs love so much on every play. The Laser Turntable's technology allows it to even play records that have been severely warped or damaged over years. And with a remote control, you can pause and scan a record much like with a CD player.
How is it that so many vinyl-savvy people never knew this existed? ELP cites widespread resistance due to the conventional wisdom that CDs would entirely replace vinyl, and that the Laser Turntable could never reach the mass production needed to lower the price. Yet ELP stuck with it, evangelizing all the while that vinyl was still the best medium for recorded music for its potentially long life and superior sound. Now the Laser Turntable is enjoying a small bump in notoriety, due to the recently announced price drop to about a third of its original price: just less than $10,000. Okay, so it's still very much a luxury item. But even at the higher price, ELP sold a cool thousand of them in its first 15 years. Now at just under 10 Gs, ELP stands to sell…several dozen more. Well, keep remixing those tracks; you may be the next Scott Storch. Find out more at www.laserturntable.com.
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