Jerfo
Active Member
- Joined
- Apr 12, 2017
- Messages
- 76
Howdy, Folks!
After years upon years of wanting one, I finally bit the bullet and picked up an ELP LT-1LRC Laser Turntable off of eBay. It was still extremely expensive, but a fraction of the cost of what they go for new. Searching through the archives here, it looks like folks have often speculated how well <fill in the blank> would work on a laser turntable, so I'm here to answer your questions as best as I can. I'll start by answering a few FAQs off the top of my head, and then I'll add to this post as more questions come in.
How Does It Sound?
I'm not your classic audiophile, so I don't have a high-end turntable with a high-end cartridge to compare this to. What's standing out to me are things like stereo separation and detail. I'm listening to "Making Memories" on Rush's "Fly By Night" album as we speak, and the spread / detail on the multitracked acoustic guitars is gorgeous. (Same with the beginning of "In The End," which just came on.)
The high end / low end / mids are all spot on where I'd want them to be. I'd call it SACD-like. I'll leave it up to you to decide if this is a good or bad thing.
How Does It Handle Dusty / Dirty Records?
Most likely: poorly. While a stylus can force its way through small bits of dust and grime to a certain extent, the laser is entirely incapable of doing so. I've always done a wet clean and vacuum dry on my records, so I've yet to experience the "sound of eating potato chips" that some people describe this turntable making on dusty records.
How Does It Handle Scratches and Groove Wear?
In my experience so far: pretty well. It can't compensate for a part of the groove that's been completely destroyed, but it can be adjusted to play less-worn parts of a groove. I was skeptical about this functionality before I bought it, but it actually seems to work as advertised. I had a very beat up George Duke record that would skip with a normal stylus and even skipped on the ELP on its default setting. However, once I changed the groove depth setting, it played through just fine. There was still surface noise of course, but it was actually playable and dare I say listenable.
How Does It Handle Warps and Pressing Anomalies?
My results have been mixed. I tried one record with a pretty series dish warp and the ELP wouldn't play it at all. On my standard turntable, I could at least clamp it down and play one side. I have another LP with a pressing defect affecting the first 5-10 minutes of each side. With a normal stylus, it'll jump once a revolution and be essentially unplayable. The ELP actually plays it without any audio issues at all, BUT I can hear the entire mechanism clunking angrily once a revolution as it tries desperately to follow a wiggly groove. That doesn't make for an optimal listening experience.
How Well Does It Work For Matrix (SQ, QS) Quad LPs?
Beautifully. I'm running it through my first gen Surround Master and it's a match made in heaven. Instrument and vocal positions are exceptionally well-defined, to the point where at times the sound seems to be coming from phantom speakers in the front center and rear center of the room.
How Well Does It Work for CD-4 LPs?
Ah, yes...that's the $64,000 question. The answer at the moment is: undetermined, but probably very well. My ELP comes with an internal phono preamp that can't be switched off without opening the unit up and performing surgery on it. I'm not going to be doing that anytime soon.
I've ordered a passive inverse-RIAA unit that should effectively undo the phono EQ and amplification and allow me to plug into my CD-4 demodulator. In the meantime, I recorded a 96/24 sample from a CD-4 record and confirmed via a spectrogram plugin that the 30 KHz carrier signal is there. So, it looks promising.
Can It Play Colored Vinyl, Clear Vinyl, or Picture Discs?
Nope. It only supports black vinyl.
Does It Handle Locked Grooves at the End of a LP Side?
It doesn't seem like it. It blissfully ignored the locked groove at the end of Side A on "Fly By Night." That said, you can hit a button on the front of the player to play any single groove repeatedly, so it would be trivial to re-create manually.
Do You Have Any Rips That I Can Listen To?
[EDIT - 2020-05-02}
Yes! I've ripped the first side of the album "Better Than Live" by Larry Coryell and The Brubeck Brothers for your listening pleasure. It was a direct to disc recording from 1978 that has never been re-released and it's unlikely that it ever will, so I don't feel too terrible about sharing it. You can download them from my OneDrive link here: ELP Rips . The sounds clips are 24/96 and completely unedited - no click removal, no normalization, no limiting, etc.
That's all for now. Let me know what questions you have and I'll try my best to answer them. I'm also planning on making a YouTube video in the near future. I'll update this post when the video is ready.
- Jeff
After years upon years of wanting one, I finally bit the bullet and picked up an ELP LT-1LRC Laser Turntable off of eBay. It was still extremely expensive, but a fraction of the cost of what they go for new. Searching through the archives here, it looks like folks have often speculated how well <fill in the blank> would work on a laser turntable, so I'm here to answer your questions as best as I can. I'll start by answering a few FAQs off the top of my head, and then I'll add to this post as more questions come in.
How Does It Sound?
I'm not your classic audiophile, so I don't have a high-end turntable with a high-end cartridge to compare this to. What's standing out to me are things like stereo separation and detail. I'm listening to "Making Memories" on Rush's "Fly By Night" album as we speak, and the spread / detail on the multitracked acoustic guitars is gorgeous. (Same with the beginning of "In The End," which just came on.)
The high end / low end / mids are all spot on where I'd want them to be. I'd call it SACD-like. I'll leave it up to you to decide if this is a good or bad thing.
How Does It Handle Dusty / Dirty Records?
Most likely: poorly. While a stylus can force its way through small bits of dust and grime to a certain extent, the laser is entirely incapable of doing so. I've always done a wet clean and vacuum dry on my records, so I've yet to experience the "sound of eating potato chips" that some people describe this turntable making on dusty records.
How Does It Handle Scratches and Groove Wear?
In my experience so far: pretty well. It can't compensate for a part of the groove that's been completely destroyed, but it can be adjusted to play less-worn parts of a groove. I was skeptical about this functionality before I bought it, but it actually seems to work as advertised. I had a very beat up George Duke record that would skip with a normal stylus and even skipped on the ELP on its default setting. However, once I changed the groove depth setting, it played through just fine. There was still surface noise of course, but it was actually playable and dare I say listenable.
How Does It Handle Warps and Pressing Anomalies?
My results have been mixed. I tried one record with a pretty series dish warp and the ELP wouldn't play it at all. On my standard turntable, I could at least clamp it down and play one side. I have another LP with a pressing defect affecting the first 5-10 minutes of each side. With a normal stylus, it'll jump once a revolution and be essentially unplayable. The ELP actually plays it without any audio issues at all, BUT I can hear the entire mechanism clunking angrily once a revolution as it tries desperately to follow a wiggly groove. That doesn't make for an optimal listening experience.
How Well Does It Work For Matrix (SQ, QS) Quad LPs?
Beautifully. I'm running it through my first gen Surround Master and it's a match made in heaven. Instrument and vocal positions are exceptionally well-defined, to the point where at times the sound seems to be coming from phantom speakers in the front center and rear center of the room.
How Well Does It Work for CD-4 LPs?
Ah, yes...that's the $64,000 question. The answer at the moment is: undetermined, but probably very well. My ELP comes with an internal phono preamp that can't be switched off without opening the unit up and performing surgery on it. I'm not going to be doing that anytime soon.
I've ordered a passive inverse-RIAA unit that should effectively undo the phono EQ and amplification and allow me to plug into my CD-4 demodulator. In the meantime, I recorded a 96/24 sample from a CD-4 record and confirmed via a spectrogram plugin that the 30 KHz carrier signal is there. So, it looks promising.
Can It Play Colored Vinyl, Clear Vinyl, or Picture Discs?
Nope. It only supports black vinyl.
Does It Handle Locked Grooves at the End of a LP Side?
It doesn't seem like it. It blissfully ignored the locked groove at the end of Side A on "Fly By Night." That said, you can hit a button on the front of the player to play any single groove repeatedly, so it would be trivial to re-create manually.
Do You Have Any Rips That I Can Listen To?
[EDIT - 2020-05-02}
Yes! I've ripped the first side of the album "Better Than Live" by Larry Coryell and The Brubeck Brothers for your listening pleasure. It was a direct to disc recording from 1978 that has never been re-released and it's unlikely that it ever will, so I don't feel too terrible about sharing it. You can download them from my OneDrive link here: ELP Rips . The sounds clips are 24/96 and completely unedited - no click removal, no normalization, no limiting, etc.
That's all for now. Let me know what questions you have and I'll try my best to answer them. I'm also planning on making a YouTube video in the near future. I'll update this post when the video is ready.
- Jeff
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I'll see what I can do. My old table had a Ortofon Blue cart running through a Yamaha C2 preamp - nice, but not in the same class by any stretch.
