The voice of the high-end audio community
When folks talk about Bang & Olufsen’s heyday back in the early to mid 1970s, they’re usually talking about this particular turntable, the world’s first electronically controlled tangential gramophone, a marvel of both function and design that floored the hi-fi community upon its release.
Fifty years ago this month, that venerable men’s magazine of many of our youths put out a “historic” issue, featuring its first pair of Playmates, the identical twins Mary and Madeleine Collinson. We thought this occasion – Playmates in stereo, as it were – might afford us an opportunity to take a look at what of the latest and greatest in hi-fi was being spotlighted and advertised in the pages of Playboy that month.
A few months back, we featured Koss’ classic Porta Pro headphones and asked if something could truly be “retro tech” if it was still purchased and used on the reg. Now we look at the ELP LT-1XA, the world’s first laser turntable, from the only company that makes laser turntables, a technology that has barely evolved in a quarter century, and ask, “Is it retro?”
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