This maglev turntable costs more than an average luxury electric car
- Reference: 1665516549
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2022/10/11/esoteric-grandioso-turntable/
- Source link:
High-end audio equipment company Esoteric, the luxury subsidiary of Japanese electronics firm TEAC, lately launched its first turntable to celebrate the manufacturer's 35th anniversary. The Esoteric Grandioso T1's price is apparently [1]a whopping $74,029 (£67,000). For reference, the average price of a luxury EV in the US is [2]around $66,000 .
The T1 ... Got a spare $74k?
For its price, the analog Grandioso T1 includes several "technical highlights," Esoteric said. Its platter is free from any vibration or imprecision caused by belts, rims or motors, the maker claimed, because of Esoteric's recently developed MagneDrive system that uses magnetic induction to spin records. No belts, allegedly no noise, and "an extraordinarily accurate rotation speed."
Great, if true, but the very least you'd expect for $74k. It should predict lottery numbers for that price.
Esoteric said the Grandioso T1 would go on sale this month following a [3]launch a few weeks ago. The Register spoke to some audio equipment dealers in America, who told us that they've ordered T1s for their stores and haven't seen the hardware yet.
[4]
"We only ordered one unit for display, but I have no doubt it'll be a sellable item. It's a cool turntable," one seller told us. As to whether it's excessively priced, that's all a matter of perspective and bank balance.
[5]
[6]
"We sell Acoustic Signature, too, and their prices go far above the T1's," the seller said. The Invictus Neo from Acoustic Signature, for example, starts at just a fiver shy of $200,000.
[7]Record players make comeback with Ikea, others pitching tricked-out turntables
[8]Bye bye MP3: You sucked the life out of music. But vinyl is just as warped
[9]Quanta Storage tells court: We'd love to hand over the $439m we owe HP Inc but, you know, coronavirus...
[10]Go for a spin on Record Store Day: Lifting the lid on vinyl, CD and tape
We'll leave it up to you to decide whether it's worth the price.
TEAC could use a win from the sale of a few $74k turntables: its financial state has been rocky for years, and the company has been in [11]gradual decline since 1990, when its stock started falling and didn't look back.
The giant also lost a [12]2019 lawsuit filed against it and several other electronics manufacturers by HP, which accused the companies of fixing the prices of optical drives.
[13]
Vintage sound has made a comeback in recent years, with some companies opting to [14]embrace the analog while others like Sony have tried to reinvent themselves with [15]gold-plated, overpriced MP3 players in a bid to evoke nostalgia.
While the T1 appears to fall more on the gold-plated Walkman side of things, it seems to at least be part of a community of similarly high-priced audio hardware, making it slightly more justifiable than a $3,700 Android music player from Sony. ®
Get our [16]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.hifipig.com/esoteric-grandioso-t1-turntable/
[2] https://mediaroom.kbb.com/2022-07-12-New-Vehicle-Prices-Set-a-Record-in-June,-According-to-Kelley-Blue-Book,-as-Luxury-Share-Hits-New-High
[3] https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Electronics/50-000-turntables-amp-up-tunes-for-affluent-vinyl-fans
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/bootnotes&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Y0Xnd2R6QvtrBoVp2UYZxwAAAMg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/bootnotes&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Y0Xnd2R6QvtrBoVp2UYZxwAAAMg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/bootnotes&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Y0Xnd2R6QvtrBoVp2UYZxwAAAMg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2022/06/11/ikea_record_player/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2017/05/19/bye_bye_mp3_you_sucked_the_life_out_of_music_but_vinyl_is_just_as_warped/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2020/05/11/quanta_hp_covid/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2015/04/18/record_store_day_usb_turntables_feature/
[11] https://www.reuters.com/markets/companies/6803.T/charts
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2019/10/23/hp_pricefixing_case/
[13] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/bootnotes&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Y0Xnd2R6QvtrBoVp2UYZxwAAAMg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2022/06/11/ikea_record_player/
[15] https://www.theregister.com/2022/06/14/sony_gold_walkman/
[16] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Hah. but...
Wouldn't have that "Warm" sound. Lasers are based on photons, which due to quantum effects are too close to digital signals for my delicate ears.
Only a Z bosun based system could possibly faithfully reproduce the essential Plank length sub-harmonics to drive my vintage first generation Beat's by Dr Dre bluetooth headphones.
Nothing less can possibly suffice for anyone with "refined" tastes.
Re: Hah. but...
I vaguely remember a laser 'stylus' being used to demonstrate tracking vinyl 20+ years ago.
Re: Hah. but...
I was about to ask "by Judith Hann?" and then realized that era was closer to 30-40 years ago.
Damn, I hate getting old.
Re: Hah. but...
Don't forget the $4000 power cord that "re-aligns the power flow" to provide maximum precision.
Re: Meh
Not only that. The picture would suggest that the stylus is not part of the magnetically levitated frame and so presumably the evil vibrations can come through there instead.
Egoteric?
Is it just my 9 year old laptop's outdated display or does that "s" REALLY look like a "g"?
74k for a turntable certainly is an ego trip. On one hand I am inclined to say whatever makes you happy, but high end audio is so full of quackery, lies, and bullshit that I really can't stomach it.
At the end of the day, you hit diminishing returns pretty fast past the 800$ mark(for a whole system, not just a turntable). North of 10k you are paying for design aesthetics more than sound. This has that in spades, but fair warning, you may be able to hear quiet sobbing of the family of starving refugees living in your landscaping over all that silent operation. Your conscience may vary as widely as the size of your wallet.
Re: Egoteric?
No, no, it's not your outdated display (PS: you can now get screens in colour ! and the latest ones eschew glass vacuum flasks/electron beams altogether and use LCDs... 'tes witchcraft, I tell you...). The S definitely resembles a G. Egoteric . That is somehow very, very apposite.
Re: Egoteric?
Shurely S for sucker? But after two beers I'll take five.
Re: Egoteric?
>but high end audio is so full of quackery, lies, and bullshit that I really can't stomach it.
Two recent Techmoan youtube videos featured a CD shaver and a CD de-magnetiser. Luckily Techmoan is above such things but gave them a fair attempt before giving them the derision they deserved, it's fun to watch someone who knows something is bollocks use a product as directed only to reinforce the view that it's bollocks.
How about...
How about they invented a device - and hear me out on this - that could somehow read the waveform of the music off the record and automatically get rid of any errors caused by dust, scratches etc? Of course the record would have to be specially pressed with some sort of waveform redundancy to allow this to happen. It would probably have to run faster, too.
And another thing they could do, would be to represent the waveform as a sort of numeric pattern. I don't know - maybe using a simple encoding scheme of just two levels, say - a 1 and a 0 perhaps? And instead of a stylus, use a tightly focussed light beam.
And while we're at it, make the discs smaller, say DVD-sized.
Further steps could eliminate the discs altogether, storing this numeric - or "digital" signal on non-volatile storage of some kind.
You never know, it might just take off.
Re: How about...
NURSE! He's babbling again! Bring the happy juice!
But seriously. Spin this maglev turntable too fast and it, too, might just take off.
Re: How about...
So if I get four of them can I replace my wheels and make a flying car? How many jigawatts do I need?
Its platter is free from any vibration or imprecision caused by belts, rims or motors, the maker claimed,
Hillarious - and much higher tolerance than any turntable. But I suppose unlike 'directional cables' and special marker pens for CDs they can demonstrate that it is. What is next, super (moisture-free) cool turntables to which highly engineered plastic is moved at low temperatures in order to be played once it has acclimatised?
Looks pretty though.
overrated
Meh
I just got the Pixies new album, Doggerel, on Vinyl - and it sounds epic on my Technics SL-7. And no, I don’t think that my old ears could tell the difference between a maglev and a direct drive turntable. So count me out on this one.
Laser needle
I thought there were already turntables that used a laser in place of the needle to avoid contacting the record at all. Wouldn't that obviate the need for a vibration free turntable, since any vibrations could be easily corrected for, as well as tracking rotation speed to correct for any discrepancies there?
I guess this is for "traditionalists" who believe that a diamond needle adds acoustic notes you don't get or avoids the "coldness" of the listening experience with a laser cartridge lol
Meh
OK, so a maglev turntable. Cute. But according to the PR pic, it still uses a stylus . Call me back when it comes with a 0g laser pickup (that can eliminate the pops, clicks and crackles endemic to vinyl), and then maybe we'll talk.