Gadget Lust: the right LP player for today

[jducoeur]

Just found out about the ELP Laser Turntable, surely one of the coolest audio toys I've seen in ages. It's a zero-contact turntable, that uses five lasers to read the surface of a vinyl record and play it back at high precision. No skips, no erosion of the surface -- a what a delight.

The problem, of course, is that the mass manufacturers are convinced that there is no market for the thing, so it's still being hand-manufactured, resulting in a price that is about 30 times what I could reasonably consider paying. *Sigh*...