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From: hans@smab.se (Hans C Larsson)
Newsgroups: rec.audio.high-end
Subject: Re: Laser turntables
Message-ID: <8969@uwm.edu>
Date: 16 Jan 91 14:27:10 GMT
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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"