Choosing an album should be the enjoyable part of playing a record. Hovering a delicate needle over its edge can feel like an unnecessary little test, especially if you want music rather than a new equipment hobby. Waiting for Ideas addresses that friction with the PP-2, an aluminum turntable that takes tonearm adjustment out of the listener’s hands. Place the record upside down, press Play, and playback happens underneath.
The Paris studio, founded by Jean-Baptiste Anotin, explored this approach with the PP-1, which we covered in March 2025. That earlier model hid its needle below the record and made an unusually convincing case for simplifying vinyl playback. The PP-2 continues that idea with an optical pickup system. It’s currently listed for preorder, so this is a product to plan around rather than expect immediately.
Designer: Waiting for Ideas
I like the premise because the ritual of vinyl doesn’t have to include every mechanical responsibility associated with it. Choosing a sleeve, pulling out a record, and committing to an album side already give the experience its character. For my money, operating the equipment shouldn’t become a separate qualification. The PP-2’s appeal starts with that distinction, well before any discussion of audio fidelity.
Its body is CNC-machined from a solid block of aluminum and anodized, with a footprint roughly 13.8 inches square and a height just under 3 inches. Those proportions give it a compact, architectural presence on paper, closer to a deliberately placed object than a sprawling component. The square format also feels appropriate: a record is already visually busy enough without the surrounding hardware competing for attention.
The optical system deserves a careful explanation, because “reading vinyl with light” can suggest the wrong thing. A physical stylus still follows the groove. Light measures that stylus’s movement instead of the magnets and coils used in conventional magnetic cartridges. Waiting for Ideas credits Miniot technology, whose optical pickup approach preserves an analog signal path. This isn’t a contactless laser player, despite how futuristic the description might sound.
Waiting for Ideas says removing magnets from the moving stylus assembly reduces its mass, allowing more faithful tracking and finer detail. Those are appealing promises, but I’d want independent measurements and listening tests before treating them as reasons to upgrade. The clearer design achievement is easier to understand: the system keeps the delicate business of following a groove largely outside the user’s daily routine.
The motor gets a corresponding update. PP-2 uses an axial-flux direct-drive motor with optical speed control, which the studio says adjusts rotation 1,000 times per second. It supports 33 and 45 rpm records. The useful goal here is consistency, not a correction count worth showing off to guests. I’m more interested in what that engineering lets the owner stop worrying about than how impressive it sounds in a specification list.
A built-in preamplifier, RCA connections, a 3.5mm output, and USB-C power complete the practical picture. Including the preamp keeps another specialized component out of the shopping equation, while the wired outputs give the design familiar connections to work with. I appreciate that restraint. A visually simplified turntable loses some of its argument if assembling the rest of the system requires decoding a second equipment catalog.
The difficult number is the price. The store lists the PP-2 at €8,900 and asks buyers to allow up to eight weeks for assembly and shipping. Applicable import duties and taxes outside the European Union are additional. That makes this a luxury interpretation of convenience, not an accessible entry point for someone buying their first few records. The purchase argument needs to include a serious attachment to the object itself.
At that price, I’d also want clear answers about servicing and long-term support before ordering. Still, I can appreciate the decision to make elaborate engineering recede from everyday use. The PP-2 leaves the listener with a record to choose and a Play button to press. For someone who loves albums more than adjusting equipment, that’s a thoughtful place to focus the design.
