News

Laser turntable launch: Despite its having been available on a limited basis for several years (and having been written about in magazines like Stereophile since 1988), the ELP Corporation's laser turntable was officially introduced into the North American market on May 18.

The $15,000 laser turntable uses an optical pickup rather than a physical stylus to "read" the grooves of an LP. ELP's press release explains the technology like this: "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."

Stereophile's analog guru Michael Fremer wrote about the ELP LT-2XRC model turntable in the December 2003 "Analog Corner" and found it a fascinating product, although he had some noise issues. ELP now offers a modular "declicker" to deal with that issue.

To celebrate the North American launch. The company will conduct monthly demos in cities across the United States and Canada, where potential customers can test out their own records on the laser turntable. The first demo will be in Miami "towards the end of June." For information, contact Matt Shumate at (305) 576-1171 (x15) or at mattshumate@maxborges.com.

The best two-way in the world? Peak Consult's Per Kristoffersen wanted "to build the best two-way loudspeaker in the world," Stereovox's Chris Sommovigo wrote recently. "In the InCognito X, I think he just might have done it with these 205 lb floorstanders. They deliver the goods below 30Hz and they shocked the bejayzuz out of me."

The multi-faceted, ported enclosures are handcrafted in 1.5" MDF, covered with 1" hardwood veneer. The driver complement consists of a 1" ScanSpeak silk-domed tweeter with non-ferrofluid coolant and a 7" Audiotechnology midrange/woofer with a vented magnet system incorporating Symmetric Drive "to optimize the linear directivity."

The crossover is "a refined, fully compensated acoustical second-order" filter. All of its components "have been measured and chosen for their sonic and musical behavior, with no consideration for cost." Internal wiring is Stereovox's elliptical silver tube design.

Asked why a loudspeaker named InCognito needed the further anonymity of an X suffix, Sommovigo explained, "It's the 10^th anniversary edition of the InCognito." D'oh! The final price has not been set, but the Incognito X will make its North American debut at HE2006.