Turntables, Arms & Cartridges

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Ed Selley  |  May 31, 2011  |  0 comments
Scheu Analog Cello A new contender on the UK hi-fi scene, this German-made turntable boasts a respectable track record Aalthough a relative newcomer to the UK, Scheu has been in business since the late 1980s. This makes it one of a number of turntable manufacturers who started up their business just as the LP was allegedly in its death throes. Perhaps, for that reason, the company’s range is not vast, (there are only four turntables and three arms available), but distinctly exotic-looking in design. The Cello (including a Jelco SA-250 arm) is a rectangular slab of acrylic with three feet, an arm mount and a bearing.
Ed Selley  |  May 31, 2011  |  0 comments
Townshend Audio Rock 7 Townshend Audio's unique damping trough introduces a whole new approach to turntable performance The Rock range of turntables has invariably been distinguished by the front-end damping trough, developed as a result of research at Cranfield Institute of Technology and commercialised by Townshend in the 1980s. In many ways it’s a very different turntable from the old ‘Elite Rock’ that made the brand famous. Construction is based on 6mm steel plate, with the main chassis cut out in a pleasingly curvy shape – which accommodates the huge main bearing, the arm mounting and the three bellows suspension feet. These are a development of another long-standing Townshend idea and consist of a spring inside a rubber bellows with a small air leak.
Ed Selley  |  Feb 02, 2011  |  0 comments
Needle- sharp Dynavector has added two new moving coils to its small, but well formed range. Jason Kennedy finds out what they can do for your vinyl We have yet to encounter a Dynavector cartridge that we don’t like, but new ones don’t come along very often, so when two arrive like buses on a cold night, it’s a cause for celebration. As is the Japanese company’s style, the new DV-20X2 is available in low and high output varieties, the low output version requires a transistor phono stage or step-up device, while the high can be used with valve and MM phono stages. This, combined with a traditional two-gram down-force, makes the DV-20X2 a very easy cartridge to accommodate on modern turntables, or even older ones so long as they don’t have a very low mass arm.
Ed Selley  |  Feb 02, 2011  |  0 comments
Edwardian splendour Malcolm Steward assesses a Rega-based turntable from Edwards Audio, a new outfit from the Talk Electronics stable The Edwards Audio TT1 starts at a very reasonable £325 without a cartridge, but is also available with an Edwards Zephyr £60 cartridge for £375 (a £10 saving when purchased with the deck as a complete record-playing package). This cartridge is similar to the popular Goldring Elektra, supplied with this review sample on the highly respected Rega RB250 [OEM] tonearm. Clearly this turntable is targeted at those who want to be able to enjoy their vinyl, without having to remortgage their homes or sell any of their internal organs to fund the investment. Rega revisited The TT1 differs from the timeless Rega P2, upon which it is based, in that it features a clear, naked acrylic platter.
Ed Selley  |  Feb 02, 2011  |  0 comments
The art of SEduction Michell has built just 99 examples of what might prove to be the best ever Gyro. Jason Kennedy unravels the story of the cool-blue SEduction The Michell Gyro SE is a classic British turntable that consistently scores well in our reviews, so it didn’t take much for the company to tempt us with this limited edition version in a ‘blue steel’ and black finish. The SEduction version of the Gyro SE is being sold as a complete package with Michell’s TecnoArm, HR power supply and matching record clamp. What’s more, there’s only 99 serial-numbered examples being made.
Ed Selley  |  Nov 13, 2010  |  0 comments
Roksan Radius 5. 2 £1,399 (inc. arm) Putting the competition to shame in terms of rhythm and pace, the Radius 5. 2 has much to recommend it The Radius design has undergone so many changes over the years that practically no single part is left of the original, yet it is instantly recognisable as the same model.
Ed Selley  |  Nov 13, 2010  |  0 comments
Pro-Ject 6 Perspex £1,280 (inc. arm) Stylish-looking and fitted with a dust cover, the 6 Perspex promises a great deal with its performance Joy of joys – a turntable with a lid, which even if it doesn’t quite enclose the whole machine, will certainly reduce the dust problem considerably. Beneath it resides a suspended turntable with some interesting ideas built in. The Perspex of the name is hardly a surprise these days, but the subchassis is made of Corian, a material which Pro-Ject claims has ‘no resonances at all’.
Ed Selley  |  Nov 13, 2010  |  0 comments
Michell Gyro SE £1,140 With Michell proprietary technology such as TechnoWeight, this turntable has a few surprises up its tonearm The Michell look is distinctive and eye-catching and this turntable is no exception. To what extent, though, does form follow function? Many aspects of the Gyro’s design are highly functional, for instance those brass weights hanging below the plastic platter. Yes, a flat disc of brass (or other metal) would have achieved the same aim of adding rotating inertia, but it wouldn’t have done it any better - probably a little worse. On the other hand, the skeletal metal casting which forms the subchassis of the Gyro SE is, if we’re honest, more attractive than effective.
Ed Selley  |  Nov 13, 2010  |  0 comments
Clearaudio Concept £1,100 (inc. arm and cartridge) Budget-priced deck with an almost plug-and-play versatility offers stiff competition to its higher-priced peers One of the undeniable advantages of CD players over turntables is that you can take them out of the box, plug them in and use them, with no fancy setting up required. The Concept turntable, however, very nearly equalises on that score, with arm and cartridge factory-set and user set-up limited to putting the platter in place (pretty hard to get wrong, really). One big no-no that has traditionally stood in the way of this is transporting an arm with the counterweight in place, which is usually a good way of busting the bearings, but the Concept’s arm has a unique magnetic bearing which can’t be damaged in this way.
Ed Selley  |  Nov 07, 2010  |  0 comments
Rega style for less Rega has revised its entry-level record player, adding a new tonearm and platter material. Jason Kennedy asks if the brand still 'owns' the sector Rega, once the king of the affordable turntable sector has just reasserted its position in the market a brand-new entry-level model, the RP1. This new turntable replaces the rather dowdy P1 and sports not only a new platter material, but a totally new tonearm to boot, an arm we are told that hints at changes to come across the entire range. New mould The platter is now moulded in phenolic resin which was once known as Bakelite; one of the first plastics to be used in manufacturing and usually associated with radios from the forties and fifties.
Ed Selley  |  Sep 26, 2010  |  0 comments
Tube upgrade Funk Firm's dramatic rethinking of the armtube has finally born fruit, Jason Kennedy finds out if it’s ripe for the listening Arthur Koubesserian is one of those audio engineers who genuinely thinks outside of the box. He has been doing so since he set up Pink Triangle in the late seventies and his Funk Firm continues the theme with its first tonearm. The FXR takes a radical approach to the problem of resonance by placing a carbon fibre cross section in the middle of a thin, walled aluminium tube. An approach which he claims makes an incredibly stiff, yet light-weight tube that’s far superior to the beams found on other tonearms.
Ed Selley  |  Aug 27, 2010  |  0 comments
Beautiful bolt-on The most dramatic Rega arm rebuild yet encountered sounds as good as it looks according to Jason Kennedy People have been modifying Rega’s classic RB series tonearms for some time now, but never have we come across such a dramatic transformation as the one achieved by Audiomods. It uses the arm tube, lift mechanism and rest clip from an RB250 and replaces everything else with machined aluminium parts that, like the tube, are polished for a perfect finish. If that weren’t enough, Audiomods adds a micrometer to the system that allows precise VTA adjustment on-the-fly. The arm is also presented in a padded wooden box and comes with alternative counterweights.
Ed Selley  |  Aug 27, 2010  |  0 comments
Altered images Jason Kennedy investigates an intriguing turntable from Dr Feickert which takes a new approach to the challenges of perfect vinyl replay This stylish German turnable is the first we have encountered from the elusive Dr Feickert, seen and heard at Munich’s High End show in May. The Woodpecker is the least expensive turntable that he makes, yet it embodies the principles that you find in the top Twin and Triple designs whilst managing to look entirely contemporary. It’s distinguished by a large cut-out which means you can slide the armboard along and accommodate tonearms between nine and twelve inches in length. This makes it one of the most flexible, yet elegant turntables we’ve seen in a long time.

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