A record sits upside down on the pp-2 optical turntable, and no tonearm swings across it. The Paris studio Waiting For Ideas has released a second-generation aluminum turntable that reads grooves with light. It arrives alongside [Pause], a conceptual listening room for Tokyo.
How the pp-2 optical turntable reads vinyl
The studio’s previous model, the PP-1, debuted in 2025 as a solid block of machined aluminum. Its mechanism read records from below. The pp-2 optical turntable keeps that look and the minimal controls.
The main change is the pickup. An optical stylus detects the needle’s movement through light as it follows the grooves. The needle still touches the vinyl, but its motion becomes an audio signal without the magnets and coils found in a conventional cartridge.
Waiting For Ideas says this design reduces the stylus’s moving mass. In the studio’s account, that lets the stylus track grooves more precisely and retrieve finer detail from a recording.
Inside its CNC-machined body, an axial-flux direct-drive motor adjusts rotational speed 1,000 times per second. A Harmony analog preamplifier was developed for the optical pickup. New RCA outputs connect the unit to hi-fi systems. A redesigned door shields the stylus from dust, and automatic speed detection still handles 33⅓ and 45 rpm records.
For listeners who treat playback hardware as a precision object, Sony’s Gold-Plated Audiophile Walkman Reinvention offers a very different take on high-end sound gear.
A listening room with a library underfoot
[Pause] is a glass cube rising from a concrete platform suspended over water in central Tokyo. The renderings, produced by Julia Ippolito, place the turntable at the center of the room. Transparent walls open the space toward the surrounding city, and a grid of square panels interrupts the floor.
Each panel hides part of a vinyl collection, with artists’ names engraved on the surface. A visitor lifts a hatch, takes out an album and carries it to the turntable. Most listening rooms with a vinyl turntable keep records on wall shelves. In [Pause], the library sits in the floor.
The concept applies the same logic as the PP-2. Familiar actions are simplified, and the physical character of vinyl stays intact. The water separates the room visually from the city outside.
If the idea of sound as a physical, handmade process appeals to you, Jelle Bakker’s Marble-Powered Sonic Machine Revealed shows how much craft goes into making music mechanical.
What is available now
[Pause] exists only as a rendered proposal. The pp-2 optical turntable is open for orders, with an assembly lead time of three to four weeks, according to the studio’s announcement.
No source reviewed here lists a price for the PP-2. The clearest pricing comes from Stereoindex, which covered the PP-1. It reported a price of 5,800 euros, with a 2,900-euro deposit due at order. The same report listed a pair of passive speakers at 3,200 euros. An amplifier must sit between the turntable and those speakers, but Stereoindex did not give an amplifier price.
Stereoindex also said the sound quality and the technology provider for the PP-1 remained unknown to it.
The PP-2 refines a product that already had a clear identity. [Pause] asks a larger question: what would a room look like if it were built around one act, putting a record on and lowering the needle?
Sources & Links
Source: designboom.com
Frequently asked questions
How does the PP-2 optical turntable read vinyl records?
An optical stylus detects the needle’s movement through light as it follows the grooves. Unlike a conventional cartridge, it has no magnets and coils, and the motion becomes an audio signal.
How much does the PP-2 optical turntable cost?
No source in the article lists a price for the PP-2. Stereoindex reported a price of 5,800 euros for the earlier PP-1, with a 2,900-euro deposit due at order.
How long does it take to receive a PP-2 turntable?
The PP-2 is open for orders with an assembly lead time of three to four weeks, according to the studio’s announcement.
Is the Tokyo glass listening cube a real, built space?
No, the Tokyo listening room exists only as a rendered proposal. The article presents it as a concept rather than a finished or available space.
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