ELP Laser Turntable

jeromelang · Nov 17, 2012

in April this year, I took a trip to Japan - solely to listen to the ELP Laser Turntable - before deciding to purchase it.

finally, it arrived. In August!

For the longest time, after many rounds of emails to chiba san, i managed to arm twist him - to provide the procedure - how to turn off the noise blanker function.

once that is deactivated, the ELP sounds so sweet, so satisfying, that the meitner tsdx/dac2x combo is shunted to one side (should anyone be surprised....!?!?)

this function is set to ON, by default.

but with a filter that's set to kick in so early in the middle of the audible freq spectrum, it is bound to affect the music reproduction somewhat.

right now, the frictionless 'table is singing sweetly through the pass lab ono phonostage and i am getting getting more and more captivated every passing day by its lack of perceivable needle-groove interaction.

how do one begin to describe it?

imagine a brand new LP.

play it once, and immediately play it again.
the 2nd time the LP is played again, it sounds "different".

the tightness in the throat, that squeekiness at the intense crescendos, that sharper-than-real life imaging delineation - all those too familiar artitfacts of needle playback - now happily made conspicious by their absence is what this ELP thing sounds like.

my only gripe?

so much music, and so little hours in a day to enjoy them....

sombunya · Nov 22, 2012

I'm looking forwad to more feedback from you after you've had it for a while.

Would also like to know what records that have seen some use/abuse sound like. I have a 1956 Midniters album on Federal. It would be most interestinng to see what it souds like on your new machine.

jeromelang · Nov 23, 2012

Spinning some Beatles tonite......

For a 44.1kHz digital transfer, the sound is quite good!
No trace of digititus that points one to its unfortunate origins.
And that's only the usa pressing....
Will be flipping on the eu (Pallas) pressing next.

jeromelang · Nov 27, 2012

... finally overcame the inertia to change the impedance from 100ohms to 47k ohm on the pass lab Ono phono stage , and the sound changed appreciably.

In particular, the sound is now fuller bodied, there's more immediate presence, timbre of instruments become more natural and the somewhat "whitish" flavor of the sound was removed.

I'm not going to listen to critically.
Just enjoying whatever music I suddenly have a craving for.

china crisis - black man ray - 12" single

alison moyet - that 'ole devil called love - 12" single

jeromelang · Mar 27, 2014

A couple of photos....

Its been a long, long while I last listened to this record, and for what must feel like way back in a previous life, those days when I still had to drag a needle through those fragile grooves. And as I sat listening to it again, all those fond memories of fantasizing about Pam Grier as she went about strutting her stuff across screen came rushing back. Been down so long, getting up didn't cross my mind, but I just knew there had to be a better way of retrieving all the nuances and life from these groovy alley and I didn't know how good my system can sound until the vinyl is put under the laser. "Across 110th Street" is a hell of a tester.

jeromelang · Mar 27, 2014

Removing the unplayed gyro SE turntable away from the system really helps improves sonics.

Metallic objects, in particular, chunky pieces like motors and transformers and equipment chassis can cause havoc to the timbral quality and soundstaging projected by the system.

Uh, I should really remove the emm lab combo too, since, uh, I have them unplugged every time i play vinyl anyway..... Haha!

Ronm1 · Mar 28, 2014

jeromelang said:
right now, the frictionless 'table is singing sweetly through the pass lab ono phonostage and i am getting getting more and more captivated every passing day by its lack of perceivable needle-groove interaction.
.

That was certainly a pleasant perk as I remember my time with one a few years ago. Phono out was an option then, line out was standard. I heard it with a mod'd GSP Jazz. Place out of VT was bringing the table in at the time.

jeromelang · Apr 9, 2014

Once upon a time it sound so fine
You ditch a bunch of monos for the panning kind, didn't you?
You never understood that it ain't no good
You shouldn't let post processing get your kicks for you
You used to ride ping pong with your train demo track
Getting dizzy from all that echoey spread
Ain't it funny when you discover that
Mono really is where it's at
After losing everything that they could steal.
How does it feel
How does it feel
To be on your own
With no direction home
Like a complete unknown
Like a rolling stone?

Trying to understand mono........

Mordecai · Jul 18, 2014

I heard one of these turntables, and the surface noise was extremely loud. The records had been cleaned by an Autodesk record cleaner, then demagnetised on a Furutech, so were not dirty. It was like someone was at my ears going "ssshhhhhhh" the whole time. I imagine it's because if there's anything (e.g. dust) that's on the record, the laser can't differentiate between it being a piece of dust, or a groove.

What's your experience with this in terms of the background noise? I wanted to like this technology but this particular one was unbearable.

jeromelang · Jul 18, 2014

I can get it to sound very quiet on 95% of my records that I've played through the ELP so far.
With just Art Du Sohn and plenty of rinsing.

Some records (a couple of Telarc classical, and the Michael Newman Sheffield guitar LP) that are noisy I suspect have dirt embedded too deep. I think I just need to find cleaner copies.

A few pop records that are noisy are quiet from the 2nd or 3rd track onwards.
Playing it on the gyro SE / sme v / lyra skala / pass lab Ono combination the level of noise are almost similar.
So, I am really not bothered about the noise at all playing through the ELP.

And I use a spinning machine to dry the records (throwing out the water using centrifugal force) instead of the Loricraft PRC3 which I also own. Using this "contactless" drying method avoid the problem of the records attaining a type of static (due to the silk thread rubbing against the surface of the vinyl) that can affect imaging shift.

If ever the cleaned records are placed back into sleeves, then they need to be cleaned again before playing on the ELP.
so I have a couple of LP holder rack that I keep the naked cleaned LPs for heavy rotation plays.

The art du Sohn solution seems to have very good anti static properties.
Records cleaned using this solution tend not to attract dust even if I leave the records naked on the rack for weeks, even months.

jeromelang · Sep 4, 2014

For some strange reasons, my ELP can't read this record.

There is continuous sound dropout at the right channel.
Most of the time it is just hiss.
When playing the B side, the player just got hanged.
I need to power down and restart in order to retrieve the disc.

I also tried this record at two friends' systems, both who own a ELP themselves.
Same problems.

What gives?

Stump · Sep 4, 2014

Apart from this record are you and your friends happy with the ELP? I would ask ELP themselves to buy and try this LP for your answer.Have you tried playing coloured Vinyl and do you get the same symptoms??
Stump

Ronm1 · Sep 4, 2014

Stump said:
I would ask ELP themselves to buy and try this LP for your answer.Have you tried playing coloured Vinyl and do you get the same symptoms??
Stump

Good points as colored vinyl was an intermittent issue with an audio buds laser table.

jeromelang · Sep 4, 2014

I'm very happy with the ELP. I hear the same from my other 2 friends.
Personally I cannot imagine myself playing with a needle based turntable anymore whenever I'm home.
It leaves my twice-as-expensive EMM Lab combo lying in the dirt when comparing with the same recordings.

Yes it is true the ELP doesn't play colored vinyl.
But according to Jeremy Kipnis, reviewer at positive feedback, he told me on Facebook publicly, that his machine does (after some modifications by ELP)
How true is that I have yet to personally verified this - so I'm reserving my comments until then.

jeromelang · Sep 4, 2014

I have yet to insert any colored vinyl into my ELP to play.....

jeromelang · Jun 7, 2015

Hehehe...

It's past bedtime, can't play loud. But I'm really enjoying this album

jeromelang · Jun 12, 2015

And so I got my noisy copy of telarc pictures at an exhibition cleaned on the KLAudio and.....

It sounded worse.

There was no reduction of the ticks at specific spots, and worst, the soundstage became smaller and forward than I remembered.
Instrument timbre was not as discernible, the whole proceeding feels labored and lethargic.

I put the record into my spinner, sprayed some tap water on it as it spun, added a dash of distilled water, then waited a couple of minutes for it to spin dry. Playing it again, I was so pleased to hear that freshness and articulation has come back.
It now sounds as dynamic and open as I remembered it from my previous play.

What had the water in the KL Audio machine done to my record?

rockitman · Jun 12, 2015

jeromelang said:
What had the water in the KL Audio machine done to my record?

Probably nothing. Must have something to do with a finicky laser playback TT.

NorthStar · Jun 12, 2015

That could well be; a laser doesn't track an album's grooves like a diamond does.

awsmone · Jun 12, 2015

owning a kl audio....

i suspect this record has really deep gunk....

sometimes the kl seems to just loosen this sort of stuff without removing

with a needle you often find a heavy build up on the needle when playing

suspect the water just flatten it all down again

try kl multiple times

or kl then conventional vacuum clean then kl again, and or play on needle based system

be interested in your results

ELP Laser Turntable

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Member Sponsor

Well-Known Member

New Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Member Sponsor

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Member Sponsor

Member

Well-Known Member

Similar threads