Equipment you would not own because of looks alone

[eknuds01]

Looks like an old laserdisk player.

 

[twich54]

and that I'd immediately mod it, making it an instant candidate for this thread

no..........'ya think ?????

 

[CCH]

Anyone ever hear the ELP turntable? I've never even seen one, although I do recall reading a review somewhere when they first came out.

 

[Bernard]

Anyone ever hear the ELP turntable? I've never even seen one, although I do recall reading a review somewhere when they first came out.

TAS reviewed it. IIRC they were not overly impressed, but I may well be wrong about that.

 

[Kenscollick]

CCH that is it 4 posts up.

http://www.elpj.com/main.html

more cutting and pasting i'm bad

 

[CCH]

Yes, I followed that link. I was asking if anyone on this forum had any direct experience of this turntable.

 

[Brian Walsh]

I heard it at some Consumer Electronics Shows, although the associated equipment wasn't very good.

Quite a few years ago Mr. Chiba of ELPJ chose to visit the US and demonstrate the laser turntable to interested people in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. As an officer of the audio society I helped him with arrangements here in the Chicago area, and I'd estimate 30 to 40 people showed up. A local dealer provided associated equipment. The sound was decent but rather unremarkable. As an archival unit it certainly has merit.

In more recent years someone in the area who owns one of the laser turntables demonstrated it at a Chicago Audio Society meeting. I may be speaking out of turn but got the feeling of a similar reaction of indifference. Technically interesting but not a world beater by any stretch.

The biggest concern is reliability and repair. The units have to be sent to Japan for repair, since there is no longer a US distributor, and even if there were I'm not sure they would be able to do much since the units are so complicated inside. I'd put the level of complexity of the unit between an old VCR deck and a copying machine.

 

[amey01]

Thought of another one - those Tannoy Westminsters.....YUK!

 

[Bernard]

Not looks as such, but I would never again buy any equipment that has a power switch at the back. I had a CAL CDT and DAC that both had power switches in the back and they were a royal PITA to switch on and off.

 

[Beakman]

Probably some of the ugliest components ever made:


http://images.google.com/imgres?img...org.mozilla:en-US:official&sa=N&start=60&um=1

 

[Brian Walsh]

Not looks as such, but I would never again buy any equipment that has a power switch at the back. I had a CAL CDT and DAC that both had power switches in the back and they were a royal PITA to switch on and off.

That may have been deliberate, since digital components tend to need at least 24 hours, sometimes 48, to sound right after being switched on. The digital reference here has a standby switch which leaves the digital circuitry on while the tube based analog output section is turned off.