This orbital starship construction facility is actually the Angelis Labor Gabriel turntable
The "Gabriel" turntable from Angelis Labor is certainly audiophilic wankery of the first degree: four separate arms ride the grooves of ancient vinyl that rests on a platter suspended without friction on a magnetically levitated spindle.
And then there must be some other optional bits, since its price was quoted to me as "between $27k-$64k". Perhaps you can replace the bronze casing with baby leather — or get the logo with extra lens flares.
Gabriel turntable product page [AngelisLabor.com]
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If I am ever able to afford such unnecessary luxuries, I hope I'm wise enough not to.
Four tone arms? Hm. No matter how I count, I have trouble coming out with four.
12", 10", 7"?
33/45/78 RPM ... 16, maybe? (There were a few slow-speed spoken-word disks.)
Or is this a matter of having a separate arm/cartridge for stereo disks vs. mono?
@Technogeek: Maybe I have the terminology wrong. Aren't all the arms just "tone arms"?
It allows the owner to select a tonearm/cartridge combination that's appropriate for the music (and the recording-- some people like to use a dedicated mono cartridge) . Over the top? Of course. But in some ways, it's more effective than trying to tweak your CD player with the Machina Dynamica "Intelligent Chip"
http://www.machinadynamica.com/machina64.htm
#3: Count is correct; I'm having trouble justifying the fourth. Then again, I'm having trouble justifying the whole thing, though it's a nice bit of functional sculpture.
Gotta admit, I'd be more impressed if someone got the contactless (laser/reflective) record player concept working. Or maybe use a high-res scanner that captures the whole record surface as an image and reconstructs the tracks from that. Being able to make an archival copy of a rare recording without putting additional wear on it MIGHT be worth the kilobucks.
This laser turntable?
http://www.boingboing.net/2006/02/13/laser-turntable-play.html
"It allows the owner to select a tonearm/cartridge combination that's appropriate for the music (and the recording-- some people like to use a dedicated mono cartridge) "
...Yeah, but *are* there four different carts? I'm so out of the vinyl loop(*) that I can think of only three stylii that are significantly different: Stereo, low-pressure Mono, and Sapphire Mono.
[cue audiophiles]
(*) There's an irony that the last vinyl disk I ever bought was by Weird Al. Sick, but ironic.
A friend of mine who's a 78 collector owns numerous cartridges with different needle widths and sizes to better preserve and play his collection. But this thing is totally stupid, even if we can cook up some theoretical justification for its design.
That's not how to make a quad turntable. ;p
#5 posted by technogeek- IIRC both of those things have been done, with varying degrees of success. I'll look'em up later.
"Count is correct; I'm having trouble justifying the fourth."
I think the point is that whoever purchases one of these can configure it with UP TO four tone arms. You can get one, two, three, or four depending on your preferred cartridges.That is where the wide array of prices comes in.
from the site: "turntable equipped with a base that CAN ACCEPT up to four arms"
(emphasis mine)
Still, for now I think I'll stick with my crappy Sony I got at a yard sale.