This entire discussion is fascinating!

I think that the concept is accepted in general. There is nothing particularly difficult with suspending one object over another using magnets. This has been done for years. Today, there are extremely powerful and stable magnets that make the process more easily achieved.

There is nothing particularly difficult with shielding the cartridge from the magnets. As Phil noted, with a 12W power consumption, and stable PM fields, there is not a lot of stray magnetic fields happening here.

So, what we are left with is the R&D & ergonomics required to go from prototype to production. As to scam, very possibly. But not certainly. Keeping in mind that the production of turntables these days outside of USB-based junkers is pretty much a cottage industry from small companies or tiny divisions of larger ones producing legacy devices. So, that a half-dozen Serbians might come up with a wild idea is actually somewhat touching. It is not as if Harmon-Kardon is going to buy out Jacob Rabinow, or Revox is going to turn a dozen Swiss machinist loose on the problem. This is where it will be happening.

Again, I am hooked on linear TTs. Were this device to offer that option, I would be tempted. In another forum, a gentleman is discussing upgrading his TT and throwing around 5-figure numbers (US$). So, clearly, this TT is in the sparrow-feed range for that sort of individual. And, look at the cost of a Souther arm these days.

Will it work? Too early to tell. It depends on the skills of those executing the concept.
Can it work? Clearly, yes. Hand this to the Swiss, or a couple of really good machinists and give them unlimited resources, it would be done in a month.
Would US$700,000 do it? Certainly not in Switzerland. At the Machine shop I worked in 40 years ago - absolutely. It is still extant by the way, and still very successful. Far from the dingy little building I worked in back then, today it looks like a clean room, only about two acres under roof.

By amateurs in Serbia? Who knows.

Peter Wieck
Melrose Park, PA