Music lovers around the globe have enjoyed the pure sound of the Laser Turntable. These include Stevie Wonder and others in the USA, Canada, the UK, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Belgium, Hong Kong, and Singapore. Public institutions that now own an LT include the Library of Congress USA), the National Library of Canada, the Yale Music Library, The University of Mississippi (USA), Chinese University of Hong Kong, Visva-Bharati University (India), the Berlin Broadcasting Station (BS), Mexico BS, Spain BS, Austrian Academy of Sciences, and Archive of Compositors ERESBIL (Spain).

Here are some letters and reviews from Laser Turntable owners and users about ELP of Japan:

M. Bellaiche

My new ELP LT-2XNP is really a beautiful object in its "metallic champaign color dress". It is quicker to start, more precise and more powerful, and I decreased my listening level preamp volume. It seems to me less sensitive to "dust scratches"?

I keep on listening to music and thank you every day for your Masterpiece!

G. Burke, USA:

I got LT today. My first reaction is WOW! I played records at least 60 years old and they sounded excellent. I am really excited about trying other old records including some 45rpm and 78 rpm's from the late 40's and early 50's. Many of the later popular records have been transcribed on CD's. So far I am very pleased. Everything I have tried never sounded this good!

I use the LT to transfer old 78's, 45's and 33's to CD for people who will never find CD replacements. Some are college or high school recordings made 60 to 70 years ago. They are always amazed at the quality of the CD.

I recently listened to a record from the 70's of a Dixie land band. It was amazing to be able to place all of the players across the stage in proper position. I feel that this is due to the absolute separation of the right and left channels. A single needle can not possibly come close. Your technology has produced a product of extremely high quality and for a true audiophile a masterpiece that reproduces music as no other turntable with a plus of no needle wear!

I am an organist and it is interesting, while listening to a good recording, to separate the sounds of individual ranks and divisions. I can almost close my eyes and imagine myself at the console!

D. Tiso, United Kingdom:

I bought the Standard Model about three years ago. This time, I replaced it with the new High-End model.

I received it today and set it up. Everything sounds great; I am very impressed by the new sturdy build quality and excellent sound.

This is an article from the National Library of Canada. A copy of the original article appears below. by Gilles St. Laurent, Conservator, Recorded Sound Collection The National Library's Music Division welcomed Sanju Chiba, President and Izumi Tsuchiya, General Manager Engineering from ELP Corporation of Tokyo, Japan to install their company's newly developed laser turntable. The ELP laser turntable plays grooved, analog 33.3, 45 or 78 RPM discs using laser beams instead of the conventional tone arm/stylus technology. The walls of each groove are illuminated by five laser beams: two for the left and right channel audio pick-ups, two for the horizontal tracking (which assures that the audio pick-up is directly above the center of the groove), and one for the vertical tracking (which assures that the lasers are at the proper height to focus on the groove, compensating for warps or discs of varying thickness). Sensors capture the reflections from the walls and the system translates the optical imprint into and electrical signal. The turntable plays discs of different diameters and the standard RPM can be varied to compensate for discs recorded at non-standard speeds. The aim of the lasers can be adjusted to compensate for groove damage and variable groove widths. At start-up, the turntable scans the disc taking note of blank spaces between tracks. With this information, the turntable can be programmed to play certain tracks or can be instructed to jump directly to the next track (or the beginning of the current track) -- capabilities similar to those of a CD player. The most obvious and important advantage of this new technology is that there is no direct physical contact between record groove and turntable. Since there is no contact, there is virtually no chance of damaging an audio document during playback. Discs that might be too fragile to play on a conventional turntable can be played successfully and a surrogate created. Also, the drawbacks associated with the traditional tone arm-stylus combination, such as drag, inertia, rumble or acoustic feedback are absent. The Music Division is proud to add this new technology to its audio studio and is confident that the ELP Laser Turntable will play an important role in its preservation activities for many years to come.