$15,000 Laser Turntable – For the Enthusiast With a Heavy Wallet

I love vinyl, although admittedly it’s one hobby too many for my already busy schedule and gadget obsessive lifestyle. The sound of a record is simply unrivalled and while I have a large collection of FLAC and other high-resolution audio files, analogue is king for audiophiles.

Spinning your records and hearing the tick of the needle is fantastic and involving, but there’s another option for those who like to go a little crazy with their credit card. The EIP Laser Turntable plays the record without touching the record, something that many collectors of rare and expensive albums would no doubt love, as it would prevent wear on the surface of the record.

The laser reads the analogue waveform with absolute precision and while that sounds great (literally), it comes with a catch; it costs a whopping $15,000! for the player.

“The Laser Turntable employs patented technology that produces phenomenal fidelity while never physically touching the record, thus eliminating the deterioration to the album’s surface inflicted by conventional turntables. The laser’s precision allows you to pick up audio information that has never been touched or damaged by a needle. This virgin audio information is then reproduced without digitization maintaining true analog sound as close as possible to when the master tape was recorded. The Laser Turntable even allows you to play records that have been severely warped or damaged over years of wear and tear.” – EIP

This is cool, but in all honesty, you could spend around £100 for a half decent player and enjoy your collection. You could also spend thousands and get a great deck, with a high-end head and cleaner, spend a fortunate on building an epic collection from your local record store and you would still not have spent as much as this laser player costs, but things with lasers are really cool.

Thank you Decode for providing us with this information.