$650K Turntable?

amirm · Apr 21, 2011

What say you?

http://www.avdesignhaus.de/Analog-Laufwerk-Studie-Node_15714.html

Under the name Dereneville VPM 2010-1 created the prototype of a new tangential drive. This study will be equipped with many new features. Here are just a few:

Heavy, solid Corian chassis (60 kg), standing on air suspension feet.
Toe angle measurement by laser, Tangential linear unit with a stepper motor.
Belt drive with two frequency-controlled motors Tern EBM-Pabst.
Speed ??measurement using a pulse ring with 24,000 pulses per revolution.
Plate mass: 20.5 kg ball bearings, worn by Neodyn magnetic disks.
effective shielding due to large mu-metal layers in the dish.
Scanner-camera to the empty groove recognition, track selection via touch screen.
Gimballed special tone-arm, length and height.
Integrated digital scale at the parking position of the pick.
Balanced XLR audio output. Video output S-Video / BNC
2 built-in microprocessor controls, touch screen remote control.
Ethernet connection for easy software updates and remote diagnostics.
All parameters, such as system operating hour coverage, speeds and much more.
are always available on the touchscreen. Integrated high-resolution
Miniature camera to observe the sampling system during playback.

Completion mid 2011

RBFC · Apr 21, 2011

Perhaps Mike L. will test drive one and report!

Lee

DonH50 · Apr 21, 2011

What say I?

1. For $650k it had better do things I can't even think about, let alone post publicly.

2. A stepper motor? Why not an air-bearing arm with some sort of fancy-dancy propellent and laser-tracking system?

3. Why not a laser sensor that eliminates the need for a cartridge (unless it does that already; I don't read the language)?

4. Why two motors, especially with belt drive? (OK, I can think of several reasons, but...)

5. I was going to list something else, but decided to just refer you to #1 again.

Lee · Apr 21, 2011

Well a Continuum is hard to beat and I don't like linear trackers. They almost never track well and they exhibit lots of play as they move side to side.

naturephoto1 · Apr 21, 2011

It is big and expensive. I think that I will keep my Teres Certus 450 and find other uses for $650,000.

Rich

FrantzM · Apr 21, 2011

Hi

.... Someone will buy it and rave about the "dark"background and its "orgaanic" sound and its unmatched rsolution of fine details .. etc of course it is more dynamic than CS 24/96 or whatever digital they will come up with and SACD for good measure and ...
Where does it end?
What's the limit of absurdity in our hobby? Don't answer ...there seem to be none ...

I am now patiently waiting for the $100 K speaker cable ... Will it be this year?

amirm · Apr 21, 2011

Come on guys. There are some interesting things here:

"Scanner-camera to the empty groove recognition, track selection via touch screen."

Seems cool to me

.

amirm · Apr 21, 2011

On second thought, my $100 turntable in 1982 had the ability to count tracks

.

mimesis · Apr 21, 2011

Does it come with a Porsche 918 Spyder?

tony ky ma · Apr 22, 2011

tomelex said:
let's not forget what style the orginal cutter is.

Tom

I think it should come with a cutter of it's own too cut vinyl and play back by itself, like a tape recorder, recording and play back in the same machine than can show up how good it is
tony ma

cjfrbw · Apr 22, 2011

Inflation must be here finally. Last year, it would only have cost $200K.

LL21 · Apr 22, 2011

I have no problems with how other people invest or spend their money. Good for them...and oftentimes we can benefit from buying s/hand world class components that would not be created in the first place were it not for those prepared to pay the full fare day one. At the same time, if I were even thinking about such a TT "brand new", it better be truly astounding in every way possible...well above the Rockport Sirius', Continuums, Clearaudio Master References of the world. Oftentimes, these kinds of TT are developed once and the high costs reflect more than just low production volume...it reflects the fact that the developer needed to cover more R&D than, say, a Rockport might require (let alone an Esoteric which is part of Technics). Or it might be the vanity purchase where the listener/purchases is not as discerning, and the developer is just waiting to snare that buyer. Personally, i do look for great performance...always s/hand...but i want to know it truly is not only better than anything else even close within my budget...but it wont break and be unfixable other than by 2 people in the world.

If this TT is really that good...that is not only great for those who purchase (first or second hand)...but it probably raises the bar on performance by the Rockports, Continuum, Clearaudio's of the world...and then the Linn Sondeks, and so on and so on...

Phelonious Ponk · Apr 22, 2011

Rube Goldberg would have been proud.

Tim

microstrip · Apr 22, 2011

IMHO, if someone is producing a state of the art turntable and can afford to produce it, even at such price, audiophiles should rejoice - both for the turntable and for the existence of enthusiastic people who spend their time and money to develop a product they feel could push the current standard of LP reproduction.

BTW, I feel very happy with the photos Amir posted - I looked at them and thought that it would look similar to my Forsell if I painted it in blue, although it misses the LCD display

Phelonious Ponk · Apr 22, 2011

It appears that the line between what's best and what's ridiculous isn't fine; it is broad and indistinct. A turntable at more than half a million dollars found that line for most of this pretty elite crowd, but there are a couple of hold-outs. What would challenge their faith? The half-million dollar DAC perhaps? The half-million dollar power cable? I guess we'll know soon enough, as the high-end industry seems set on finding the pressure point of every last audiophile with that kind of money to spend.

Tim

FrantzM · Apr 22, 2011

Phelonious Ponk said:
It appears that the line between what's best and what's ridiculous isn't fine; it is broad and indistinct. A turntable at more than half a million dollars found that line for most of this pretty elite crowd, but there are a couple of hold-outs. What would challenge their faith? The half-million dollar DAC perhaps? The half-million dollar power cable? I guess we'll know soon enough, as the high-end industry seems set on finding the pressure point of every last audiophile with that kind of money to spend.

Tim

nicely put .. My sentiments exactly ... It won't be long before the $100K speaker cable ... I'll rejoice then

Phelonious Ponk · Apr 22, 2011

FrantzM said:
nicely put .. My sentiments exactly ... It won't be long before the $100K speaker cable ... I'll rejoice then

It's comforting. It tells me that , really, the difference between me and most elite audiophiles is just when we say,"give me a break..." I have no doubt that I say it too soon sometimes and wonder what I'm missing. I wonder how many can look at something like a half-million dollar turntable and wonder if they've been caught up in the same kind of over-payment at a lower level? One thing seems to be indicated this emerging attitude pattern: It appears that high-end audio has a much greater chance of being perceived as...let's put this politely...having a very bad price/performance ratio once it exceeds your personal ability to justify the expense.

Tim

microstrip · Apr 22, 2011

Phelonious Ponk said:
(...) What would challenge their faith? The half-million dollar DAC perhaps? The half-million dollar power cable? (...)

Tim

No, Tim, less than one million will not challenge it!

We spend most of our life using the criteria of value for money as our resources are limited and we want to optimize the quality of our lives - we like good houses, good food, good music and many other good things. My point is that for a few people this normal criteria does not apply as they want to pursuit what they consider their view of excellence. Surely highend is an eccentric activity, but human life is eccentric per si. Unhappily when they put prices in it some people immediately class it as absurd - the term we associate with extremely poor reasoning or even ridiculous behavior.

Happily a few wealthy people want to spend their money on highend hifi - otherwise they would spend it only in cars or other luxury objects. BTW, one of the reasons I am writing this is that my second hand Forsell Air Force One cost me almost one hundredth of the cost of this high tech player and I feel pleased with it.

KlausR. · Apr 22, 2011

amirm said:
Tangential linear unit with a stepper motor

Preliminary listening experiments, in which I participated, have found that there is no need for tangential or linear tracking, a 9 inch arm is more than enough:

Digital Simulation of Phonograph Tracking Distortion

Phonograph tracking distortion results from the misalignment of a playback cartridge with respect to the cutting head. While it has been researched for decades, it remains a source of mystery: it has never been accurately isolated or simulated. A simulation of horizontal and vertical tracking distortion of extremely high quality is presented, operating on the principle of phase modulation of PCM digital audio, allowing tracking distortion to be evaluated, in isolation, with real musical content. In this context, tracking distortion is equivalent to digital audio sampling jitter, with the jitter spectrum equal to the signal spectrum. Implications of this connection, as well as simulation accuracy, preliminary listening test results, and potential applications are discussed.

Author: Tollerton, Richard
Affiliation: Isomorphic Software, Inc., San Francisco, CA, USA
AES Convention:127 (October 2009) Paper Number:7924

Scanner-camera to the empty groove recognition, track selection…

The ELP laser turntable has those features too, and it doesn’t empty you wallet that thoroughly.

…system operating hour coverage…

Me uses sheet of paper, one mark per side, cost = zero.

Klaus

DaveyF · Apr 22, 2011

Phelonious Ponk said:
It's comforting. It tells me that , really, the difference between me and most elite audiophiles is just when we say,"give me a break..." I have no doubt that I say it too soon sometimes and wonder what I'm missing. I wonder how many can look at something like a half-million dollar turntable and wonder if they've been caught up in the same kind of over-payment at a lower level? One thing seems to be indicated this emerging attitude pattern: It appears that high-end audio has a much greater chance of being perceived as...let's put this politely...having a very bad price/performance ratio once it exceeds your personal ability to justify the expense.

Tim

Tim,
I think you have a very good point. Interestingly, I was talking to an acquaintance of mine yesterday who is a Dubai oil man....He tells me that he is making about $25M a month and is looking for things to buy that pique his interest. ( Yes, you read that right, that's a month

)
So, I mentioned audio to him, unfortunately for the high end manufacturer's he wasn't interested, But you can see that he could have one helluva system with his budget

I think that there are many people, like my acquaintance, who are in the same position as he is, therefore, if you as a manufacturer find one....or two or? and these guys are into audio just a little bit-- well the rest is history

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