kerelybonto
doo-di-doo-di-dum doo-di-dum doo-di-doo-di-dum
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- May 6, 2002
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I wasn't aware that there were very many linear-tracking tonearms available until I just went and looked around a bit. But some of the prices I found still justify looking into an optical turntable: Clearaudio's linear-tracking tonearms ranged from $1800 to over $6000. Air-bearing linear-tracking arms can be considerably more expensive.
But even then, there are problems inherent to any mechanical arm, especially linear-tracking ones that are much more complex than normal pivot arms. I remember reading Stereophile's article on the Rockport Sirius III, in which there was a lenghty discussion of the flaws that are inherent to mechanical arms, especially linear-tracking ones. The conclusion was that even in the $78,000 Sirius III, with the best air-bearing design money can buy, there'd still be errors due to mechanical vibrations and tracking errors. An optical linear-tracking system simply wouldn't have these problems.
You can't knock ELP's 'tables for being produced in small quantity and therefore very expensive. That doesn't mean you're not getting a value equal to what you'd get by buying any other low-quantity audiophile equipment. Or are you under the impression that turntables in the +$10,000 are mass produced?
Obviously the main advantage of an optical turntable is that it doesn't wear records. That's why the National Library of Canada bought one right after they came out to archive fragile discs. (I haven't heard that the Library of Congress has one, but I wouldn't be surprised if they do.) But that doesn't mean that they can't be the ultimate in audiophile turntables as well -- I know little about ELP's implementation of the idea, but optical turntables do have the potential to sound better than any mechanical stylus-arm combination.
kerely
But even then, there are problems inherent to any mechanical arm, especially linear-tracking ones that are much more complex than normal pivot arms. I remember reading Stereophile's article on the Rockport Sirius III, in which there was a lenghty discussion of the flaws that are inherent to mechanical arms, especially linear-tracking ones. The conclusion was that even in the $78,000 Sirius III, with the best air-bearing design money can buy, there'd still be errors due to mechanical vibrations and tracking errors. An optical linear-tracking system simply wouldn't have these problems.
You can't knock ELP's 'tables for being produced in small quantity and therefore very expensive. That doesn't mean you're not getting a value equal to what you'd get by buying any other low-quantity audiophile equipment. Or are you under the impression that turntables in the +$10,000 are mass produced?
Obviously the main advantage of an optical turntable is that it doesn't wear records. That's why the National Library of Canada bought one right after they came out to archive fragile discs. (I haven't heard that the Library of Congress has one, but I wouldn't be surprised if they do.) But that doesn't mean that they can't be the ultimate in audiophile turntables as well -- I know little about ELP's implementation of the idea, but optical turntables do have the potential to sound better than any mechanical stylus-arm combination.
kerely
