Michael Santo of RealTechNews writes:

Many purists will still tell you that vinyl records, despite the dominance of CDs, are the only way to go. There are still many playing records with needles, but this device, the LT-1LRC from Japan-based ELP Corporation (which was previously released in Japan and has now been released to the U.S. and Canada), promises to play any records you still have without damaging the grooves. It uses five lasers to play them. Grooves are tracked with lasers for the left and right sides of the groove; two other lasers read the music, and the last laser measures the height of the groove to cope with warped records.

We Say: Two negatives. One, the lasers will read “data” from dust and dirt, and ELP says “the LT cannot differentiate between an audio signal or dirt on the record.” So your records must be really, really clean. The second negative: the price, which runs from $15,000 for one that plays LPs and 45s to $19,000 for one that plays LPs, 45s, and 78s of any size. Ouch!

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