If you're looking for a turntable that's a bit different, you've just found it. The PP-2 reads the groove of a record using light instead of a standard stylus. The workings are hidden inside the unit, so you place the record on upside down in order to play it.
The PP-2 is made by Paris-based design studio Waiting For Ideas. It uses Miniot's analogue stylus tech as found in its Wheel turntables that we wrote about almost a decade ago.
Waiting For Ideas claims that by using light instead of a normal stylus, the PP-2 produces a "sound of extraordinary purity – able to reach all the way down to the lowest frequencies, with a depth and precision the previous generation could only approach."
Of course we can't verify that without having tested it.
Because there are no magnets, it claims to follow the groove "more faithfully, tracing the finest details with a delicacy magnetic systems cannot match. Every micro-dynamic is preserved. Every note sits exactly where it should."
The PP-2 is driven by an axial flux direct-drive motor, which is optically controlled to adjust its speed a thousand times per second. There's a built-in preamplifier, so you can plug it straight into a pair of active speakers. It also has RCA and 3.5mm connections, and is powered by a USB-C cable.
Sound aside, it's a pleasingly minimalist device, made from a single block of anodised aluminium. But this comes at a cost – the price is €8900 (around £7400 / $9800 / AU$14,500). Minot's own Wheel 3, by contrast, costs £2900. So you'll have to really love the design to part with the extra cash.
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