As Vinyl enthusiasts, we know the thrill when a turntable makes music feel truly alive.

Last week I shared my thoughts on why vinyl delivers better transients here. Because vinyl playback generates new electricity as it plays, the resulting signal doesn’t suffer the same electrical interference as digital playback. It does, however, suffer mechanical interference as the turntable’s platter rotates and the cartridge interprets vibration.

The best turntables handle vibration and friction to minimise mechanical interference, and let the cartridge produce transients that feel separated in three dimensions.

This week, we’re pleased to share the full English translation of the new in-depth review from Germany’s prestigious image hifi magazine of two of our greatest designs: The Mk5 Sovereign-S turntable with Enterprise tonearm

The reviewer, Josef Bruckmoser, spent weeks with the Sovereign and Enterprise and came away convinced that this turntable truly lives up to the Origin Live name. In the full article below, Bruckmoser describes how the OL design combines the best of mass-effective stability with the airy, expressive freedom of a sophisticated decoupling in the subchassis — resulting in music that feels startlingly present, dynamic, and live.

Key Quotes

“I had never heard my Benz LP, mounted in the Enterprise tonearm sound so full of energy. All credit to Origin Live – this was a proper upgrade compared with how the Benz sounds on my Kuzma Stabi Reference. While on the 40 kg Kuzma it lets itself be carried along by the turntable’s sluggish mass, on the Mk5 Sovereign-S with Enterprise tonearm it was as if awakened from Sleeping Beauty’s slumber and shone with refreshing playing joy.”

“The combination of Mk5 Sovereign-S, Enterprise tonearm and Umami Red followed every tiniest transient… with the highest attention.” “It presented every recording in a huge soundstage — keyword cinemascope.”

Full Review:

Image Hi Fi

Author: Josef Bruckmoser

Photography: Rolf Winter

Here the Music Plays LIVE

“Nomen ist omen” – the name says it all. If this applies to any turntable, it is the Origin Live Sovereign S MK5. There is a great deal of “origin” and “live” in it. But how does its subchassis actually work when it appears to sit completely fixed and rigid on its heavy plinth?

Many things about the Origin Live Sovereign S MK5 are surprising at first glance. For example, the nylon screws that hold the top layer of the sandwich platter are not supposed to be tightened firmly. Little by little, however, such peculiarities become perfectly understandable from the overall concept of this turntable: the priority here is not mass and rigidity, but airiness and delicacy. That is why the platter screws are not made of metal and are left slightly loosened. The platter bearing continues this basic idea with a unique combination of two concepts. On the one hand, the platter almost floats as if on a magnetic bearing. On the other hand, the platter spindle and bearing house have only a minimal point of contact. The British achieve floating the spindle with a precisely defined oil film that completely envelops the shaft inside the bearing house, reducing mechanical friction to an absolute minimum. At the same time, a very small tungsten-carbide ball bearing resting on the hardened thrust plate of the bearing house creates a minimal mechanical contact. This provides a kind of grounding for the energy coming from the platter. The crucial question – whether a platter should float purely like a magnetic bearing or have a minimal mechanical contact with the chassis – is answered by Origin Live in a “very sophisticated” way: “We combine the best of both worlds with our hydrodynamic Ultra-low Friction Bearing.”

Anyone who thinks the technical special features of the Sovereign S MK5 are exhausted at this point is very much mistaken. “The name says it all”: Origin’s turntable is bursting with its own “origin” -al ideas. The subchassis sits on a high mass plinth that accounts for the lion’s share of the 28.4 kg total weight. This sandwich construction of two acrylic plates with a steel plate in between is designed to give the turntable almost the same stability as a pure high-inertia turntable. At the same time, the different materials dissipate different vibrations – a fundamental principle of the high-end workshop run by Mark Baker in Southampton. The same principle applies to the three feet. Only the rear foot has a height-adjustable metal body that makes contact with the supporting surface. The two front feet consist of polyoxymethylene (POM), a dimensionally stable plastic that absorbs vibrations particularly effectively. Just as with the sandwich construction of the drive base, different materials are used on the feet to combat different types of vibration.

The real highlight is the subchassis, which has nothing in common with a conventional subchassis using springs or similar. It is actually a kind of seesaw that is fixed centrally at a single point on the heavy plinth and carries the tonearm base and platter bearing on its two cantilever arms. At the fixing point, a small ring of damping material is intended to absorb any vibrations. Here, too, the aim – just as with the platter bearing – is to combine the best of two worlds. On the one hand it really is a subchassis, giving the platter bearing and tonearm a certain freedom of movement. On the other hand, that freedom is extremely limited compared with conventional turntables of this type. At the same time the subchassis is firmly bolted to the plinth at its decoupling and contact point – not “bomb-proof”, but securely enough that it almost forms a single unit with the heavy plinth. So it can be described as a subchassis that simultaneously tries to exploit the advantages of high mass designs.

The idea of minimal coupling and contact points at the platter bearing and subchassis is continued in the tonearm. In the test version this was the Enterprise MK5, which incorporates many design features of the next model up, the Agile. The tonearm bearing for vertical movement is a two-point bearing with minimal mechanical contact surfaces. On the left and right of the yoke, a tungsten-carbide spike rests on a hardened and polished surface. Their tip profile grants the tonearm optimal vertical freedom of movement with the least possible friction. The pivot points of this dual-pivot bearing self-centre in the cups. According to Origin Live, this “pointed” two-point bearing comes very close to a single-point bearing, with the advantage that there is no instability whatsoever. Azimuth can be finely adjusted via the two tungsten-carbide tips. Horizontal rotation is handled by an extremely low-friction ceramic ball bearing. Exact VTA adjustment is made via a rotary dial with markings, each representing a height difference of 0.1 mm. This means the vertical tracking angle can be reproduced exactly even for individual records. A hex set screw provides locking. For counterweight adjustment the British offer a very practical solution. The coarse setting is achieved by sliding and locking the large weight directly on the tonearm shaft. A small additional weight is used for fine adjustment. Anti-skating is implemented with a metal ball on a thread.

The exciting question was therefore how much does the subchassis actually contribute in the Origin Live Sovereign S MK5 and how much does the foundation and structure of the high mass three-layer plinth contribute. So the player from Southampton was first put through the “foundation test” with concert grand piano and large orchestra. On the record Destination Rachmaninow – Departure (Piano Concertos 2 & 4) (DG 483 5362, D 2018, 2-LP) with Daniil Trifonov and the Philadelphia Orchestra under Yannick Nézet-Séguin, who had conducted the New Year’s Concert of the Vienna Philharmonic with great success this year. In the first movement of the second piano concerto, after dramatic chords from the solo instrument, a powerful melodic stream develops in interplay with the orchestra. This requires power, transparency and highly precise timing from the replay chain. The Origin Live met this challenge with exceptional composure, especially in the low registers of the piano and the deep strings of the orchestra. There was the familiar deep growl at the beginning of the first movement, but it never sounded indefinable or blurred – instead it was illuminated right down to the last detail. Equally impressive were the clearly perceptible timpani strokes, which set a powerful accent especially at the end of the first movement. With singularly audible strikes on the skin. At the other end of the spectrum the piano playing by the right hand popped brilliantly and with lively airiness from the loudspeakers. I had never heard my Benz LP, mounted in the headshell of the Enterprise tonearm during this first test phase, sound so full of energy. All credit to Origin Live – this was a proper upgrade compared with how the Benz sounds on my Kuzma Stabi Reference. While on the 40 kg Kuzma it lets itself be carried along by the turntable’s sluggish mass, on the Sovereign S MK5 with Enterprise tonearm it was as if awakened from Sleeping Beauty’s slumber and shone with refreshing joy in playing. This subchassis turntable with single-point suspension and minimal two-point coupling tonearm is obviously capable of extracting many vibrant nuances from a cartridge. Pleasingly, the Benz LP lost none of its calm poise and convincing midrange despite this wake-up call. This was evident in the calm accompaniment in the left hand, clearly set apart from the swirling runs. Equally faithful, full bodied, fine and balanced, with a wonderfully homogeneous blend of piano and winds, the Origin Live presented the second movement, the Adagio Sostenuto, which Daniil Trifonov shapes in epic breadth. Every single note had weight and meaning, of which the Briton, thanks to its fine-dynamic precision, let absolutely nothing escape.

The calm gliding of the second movement through the wide Russian landscape was even more impressive once the Hana Umami Red had been allowed to show its qualities in the Enterprise headshell after the necessary running-in period. Above all, this highly regarded Japanese product put the finishing touch on the already excellent timing of turntable and tonearm. The combination of Sovereign S MK5, Enterprise tonearm and Umami Red followed every tiniest transient, every tiniest pause that the pianist only hinted at for half a moment, with forensic insight. Therefore, for the remainder of the test, the Umami Red stayed mounted.

The British turntable demonstrated its sense of passion and tragedy with the sombre B-minor of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6 Pathétique (Sony 88985404351, US & EU 2017, LP), recorded by Teodor Currentzis with his MusicAeterna in the Funkhaus Nalepastraße in Berlin. Black as night, the Origin Live created a backdrop of abyssal calm and stability. In the following slow movement, it let the string section fade out completely pianissimo in Andante tempo before the development exploded in stormy fugato and radiant brass in great dynamic contrast. Overall the British turntable pulled out all the stops on this recording of the Pathétique: stoic calm and epic breadth, powerful drama and cinemascope-like images, grippy macro-dynamics where required, ever-present micro-dynamics and a LIVE-like flow of playing that is in its blood. “Con grazia” the Origin Live followed the “crooked” 5/4 time of the second movement and was fully involving – even in the slightly brightening sounds that take a little of the Pathétique’s heaviness away. With its sensitivity for the finest details, it let one hear how the timpani unobtrusively but clearly drove the rhythm. It succeeded so well not least because it presented every sound track in a large soundstage – keyword cinemascope. This was striking on side 6 of Don Giovanni under Ferenc Fricsay (DG, SLPM 138 050/52, Reissue D 1965 (1959) Boxset 3-LP), one of my standard benchmarks in every test. Like an accordion the Origin Live pulled the stereo stage apart. This made every step of Don Ottavio from the middle of the stage back left to front left traceable. It was such a defined 3D image that I repeated the passage several times doubting what I heard. In the end every misgiving was ruled out. The positioning of Don Ottavio in the room was so pinpoint accurate that it seemed measured with ruler and set square. The Commendatore came, as usual, from far right, but with the British turntable he came a perceived half-speaker-width further right. The Sovereign S MK5 followed the thunderous bass playing sovereignly into the deepest notes conceivable. As with the timpani, it relied on a clearly structured bass and consistently avoided any appearance of overblown low frequencies. Others may lay it on a touch more heavily, but more differentiated, transparent and clear is hardly possible. The same applied at the other end of the spectrum to the highest highs, in which Donna Anna shone completely relaxed and stress-free, with a voice that always remained “beautiful” in the best sense.

The Origin Live knows what it wants, and it carries this through homogeneously from the very bottom to the very top. The entire sonic spectrum benefits from the generous spatial presentation, as could also be heard on Patricia Barber on the B-side of Modern Cool (Premonition Records – 90761-1, Remastered, US 2014 (1998), 2-LP). “Light My Fire” is an earworm for relaxed evening sessions. Of course the very dark timbre of Barber’s voice must not be lost. The Sovereign S MK5 solved this task sovereignly and made every word intelligible. Quite incidentally it gave Dave Douglas’s trumpet a cosy warmth. On track 2 “Constantinople” the percussion started filigree, short strikes working on clearly distinguishable different skins. With the bass the turntable gave insight to each powerful bow stroke on the strings. Patricia Barber’s voice came across well separated, in a clearly defined space at the middle rear, independent of the accompanying instruments. On “Silent Partner” the shimmering of a cymbal entered the ear as a multi-layered sound event. The muted trumpet textured with a deep note at the end. The Origin Live followed the rhythmic drive of “Postmodern Blues” entirely in the spirit of “here I feel right at home”. This “home feeling” of the Sovereign S MK5 generally applied to female voices such as Patricia Barber, Cecilia Bartoli or Ella Fitzgerald, whose vibrato it reproduced with as much finesse and tenderness as energy and emphasis. On Ella Fitzgerald Sings The Duke Ellington Song Book (His Master’s Voice, CLP 1213-14, Verve Series MGV4008, UK 1958, 2-LP Mono) there was so much vibrato and swing, so much playful and mischievous vivacity, so much emphasis and energy that wine connoisseurs would speak of a strong finish with intense and long-lasting impressions. The Origin Live extracts this added value from every voice. And while we are on the subject of vibrato: the solos of the various brass instruments on this double LP also fluttered and vibrated in a way that was pure joy.

That was an urgent invitation to lend the Briton an ear once again regarding pace, rhythm and timing. A friend had wished for Undercurrent by Bill Evans and Jim Hall for his birthday. Ordered twice, the classic finally also found its way into my own record collection (MOFI 1-031, Blue Note – 509997-04873-1-2, Reissue, US 2024 (1962), LP). On the first number “My Funny Valentine” the two jazz greats seemed to compete with each other as to who would have the better idea and how the other would react. Only a turntable that is razor-sharp on the smallest nuances of rhythm and timing can make this experienceable. On “I Hear A Rhapsody” the Origin Live excelled with a flow that let the notes float loosely and airily into the room. This number also benefited in particular from another feature of the Sovereign S MK5 that must be explicitly highlighted: the absolute quietness of the platter bearing, which is essential for such a calmly flowing piece.

The Origin Live Sovereign S MK5 spreads heart-warming satisfaction with refreshing “aha” moments. Its a great pleasure to listen to music with the grip, finesse and liveliness of this turntable. The British have packed as much high inertia turntable into the Sovereign S MK5 as necessary and placed the very best subchassis aspects on this foundation. The highlight is the unique, single-point mounted seesaw on which platter bearing and tonearm base find an airy, delicate, and wonderfully balanced equilibrium. The name says it all. With the original recording through Origin Live, the music really does play convincingly LIVE.

Hidden Innovation

You can learn a lot from the racing world when it comes to product design. In motor sport and sailing for example, technology can easily make the difference between winning and losing.

Notably, a number of Hi-Fi designers use the technologies involved in these sports to develop leading products.

In choosing a winning design it’s important to depend on reliable information. Opinions vary massively and the experts are sometimes proved catastrophically wrong.

I found the story behind this years Americas cup fascinating from a design standpoint and worthy of mention because it’s a classic on how so many folk did not anticipate the outcome.

The prestigious America’s cup is the oldest trophy in the world and contested at the highest level in sailing. Time does not permit to expand on the extreme technologies used in the latest boats which touch 55mph (well over 3 times the speed of the wind). For those interested, the link below gives a glimpse of what’s involved in these 10 million pound boats ( 10 million excludes development costs).
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sailing/2017/05/23/americas-cup-2017-boats-need-know/

One of the great things about racing is that opinions are proved one way or the other by hard results.

Before the start of racing, betting odds heavily favoured the Americans at 4/5 with Team New Zealand a meager 4/1.

The American boat had 7 times the level of financial backing so most people reckoned the development had to be the best. The Americans had also won twice previously.

In the end Team New Zealand absolutely dominated, winning 8 out of 9 races.

Most commentators attributed their success to having a faster boat. This may sound obvious but in much of racing, boats are very similar so the determining factor is skill, tactics teamwork etc. Whilst most of the entrants had fairly similar boats the New Zealanders had opted for radical innovation away from prying eyes.

Some of the innovations were easy to spot but as the skipper remarked, for every visible innovation there were about 50 unseen ones. This boat was very closely guarded for obvious reasons.

The Hi-Fi world naturally loves to know why one product may sound better than another but there are areas where it’s unwise to say too much. I do not talk about many of our innovations. The problem is that innovation sounds impressive for sales but is only of real value if it works — at which point it’s copied by competitors.

There are significant examples of proof that our products have a performance lead. Worthy of note is that Germany’s largest Hi-Fi Magazine “Audio” have what they call a reference system. This consists of the very best products they have found regardless of price. An Origin Live tonearm has consistently been present in this system over many years which speaks volumes with regard to the genuine performance of our tonearms.

At Origin Live we don’t have the budgets of the big brands. But we do have an enviable heritage for innovation. And we often enter “races” as the under-dogs only to be awarded best-in-class. Proof that dedicated research and development allied with intense interest remains a defining difference.

Introduction to tonearm side bias design

The purpose of this article is to explain why a falling weight is the best method of controlling side bias. This method is often dismissed as cheap, fiddly and unsophisticated in reviews. In comparison, you have side bias designs based on springs or magnets with brilliantly engineered precision dials which appear to give immediate control to a fraction of a gram. These impress you with their sophistication and ease of use. They look great and breathe precision engineering. There are however a couple of unanswered tick boxes – are they really accurate and what’s the effect on sound quality? Many discover too late that great looking engineering is not a guarantee of great performance.

There is not much written about the design of side bias devices and even less on how they compare in sound quality and accuracy. Very few realize the extent of the inaccuracy and degradation caused by springs and magnets. However, long ago the inventor of the falling weight method became profoundly dissatisfied with traditional springs and magnets.  The reason he came up with the falling weight had nothing to do with reducing costs but was driven by a desire to produce a superior design to all others. We have tested and agree with his findings.

In conclusion, we believe you would prefer years of increased musical pleasure by using a falling weight. This far outweighs saving a few moments of time by using a dial with all the inaccuracies and degradation entailed.

Importance of tonearm side bias

One reason that Origin Live continues to win awards year after year is that we pay enormous attention to details few others consider worthy of investigation. An example of this is tonearm side bias design.

If you care about sound quality, the type of Side Bias design is surprisingly influential. Not just for its function in keeping the cartridge central in the groove but for the effect it has on performance.

The effect of side bias devices

We’ve thoroughly investigated and listened to the effect of various methods used to apply side bias. It’s easy to dismiss this type of research as obsessive and insignificant. However, it’s not difficult to prove the clearly audible artefacts that side bias designs impose on sound quality. If you have a falling weight side bias you can hear the effects for yourself by simply removing or disabling the weight. You will notice an increased openness and freedom in the music (without side bias). The only downside is that separation and imaging suffer slightly but overall the sound is preferable. This effect is much more signnificant when using magnetic or spring devices.

You will read on some forums that people recommend removing side bias altogether for the above reasons – so why use it?

Principles of side bias

When you play music your cartridge experiences an inward side force (which we will explain later). This Side force is detrimental for the following reasons:

• The unequal force on the inner walls of the record groove affects the soundstage image slightly.
•  It causes uneven record wear.
• The cartridge suspension is skewed out of alignment from its central sweet spot in the motor mechanism over a period of time. This affects performance to a degree dependent on cartridge suspension – softer suspensions suffer badly.

A good side bias neutralises these effects by counteracting the induced inwards force with an equal and opposite outwards force. In so doing, the stylus tracks the groove centrally to produce a notably more solid and focused soundstage.

Why sidewall force is inwards

It’s commonly expected that as a tonearm tracks through the grooves it experiences an outwards force. Centrifugal force or differential friction acting on the inner and outer sides of the stylus are intuitive reasons for this misconception.

In reality, the frictional force acts tangentially to the groove. This “pull” on the arm is not in line with the arm pivot but offset and thus produces an inwards side force – see diagram below.

Variation in sidewall force

Many years ago extensive research was carried out with regard to sidewall forces. Without going into detail it’s safe to summarise that the inward drag induced force is fairly consistent across the record increasing by about 18% towards the inner tracks (this is not set in stone as it depends on the cut of a record).

For this reason, absolute precision on a side bias device is a little misleading as the requirement varies across a record and varies from record to record. You can safely conclude that side bias settings are about the best compromise.

Requirements of a good side bias device

• Even side force over all tracks: A well designed side bias gives a fairly consistent countermeasure to side force on the record with a decrease of about 18% for inner tracks – This maintains the centrality of the stylus in the groove and prevents side wall wear.
• Adjustment is repeatable and  accurate: Correct setting is determined by trial and error so actual figures on dials are only a guide at best. This is because the internal cable in the arm exerts a significant level of non linear twist in the wrong direction as an arm nears the inner tracks. This is often not considered in side bias designs.
• Low resonance: Avoids audible colouration and performance degradation. 
• Effective decoupling: Aids isolation and prevents external vibration feeding into the arm. 
• Low friction: Aids side bias consistency and prevents tracking problems.

Side bias design variations

Magnetic force – This is a popular choice as it has the advantage of low resonance. The downside is that it has a damping effect which in tests sounds detrimental in giving the music a slightly “sat on quality, lacking speed and life”. Magnets are also non linear and not without problems in providing an even, consistent force across the whole record.

Spiral Spring – This is probably the most popular method and is usually more linear than magnets. However this method introduces damaging resonance and couples the tonearm to a world of hostile vibration. They also exert increasing force towards the inner tracks (the exact opposite of what you want). To overcome this issue a cam and thread may be joined to the end of the spring but this additional complexity has it’s own set of problems.

The detrimental effect of springs in tonearms have been long known to many Rega owners who have followed our advice and disengaged the spring downforce setting in the RB300 (303) arms and above. Others have found remarkable improvement in ripping out the spring entirely but this is not something we recommend as it devalues the arm for resale. Disengaging some of the detrimental effects of the spring is described on the link http://www.originlive.com/rega-tonearm-modifications/rega-tonaearm-tuning-vta-adjustment.html

The effect on sound quality can be best described as a removal of haze and nervousness in the music. 

Levers and weights – these devices generally suffer from resonance and poor isolation so they feed vibration into the arm.

Cable or wire twist – Arms with a magnetic bearing are usually held by a vertical thread. Because this twists as the arm traverses across the record it exerts an outward force – adjusting the amount of twist will adjust the side bias. Another variant of this method is used by VPI arms and others where the wiring is used to exert a twist on the arm. The disadvantage of this method is that side bias increases towards the inner tracks and you want the reverse to happen.  

Falling weight on a thread – This method overcomes the challenges of side bias better than the aforementioned methods. It has low friction, good isolation, low resonance and even force. The force can also be governed to decrease slightly towards the inner tracks.

The new speaker from Devialet is claimed to incorporate 77 patents. Apple is said to have offered to buy the company to get it’s hands on these. I give this as an example of how products can present themselves as technologically superior. Whether this particular speaker is superior or not, is not the purpose of this article as we are discussing innovation itself.

When you’re making buying decisions it’s possible to be swayed by things like “patented” or “patent pending”. I have read through quite a few Hi-Fi patents and it’s interesting to note how few of these are commercially successful. In fact, many highly ingenious patents expire because the companies go bankrupt. Widening the discussion further you may look at innovation that is not patented. Of course some claims are just describing old ideas in a new way, but how do you spot the real and whether it’s worthwhile?

New ideas can be extremely important and I love stories where they’ve made a big difference. The interesting thing is that very few people understand or recognise innovation until it’s proven by outstanding success – at which point everybody climbs on board.
The Problems of Popularity

In recent years there has been a huge revival in turntables. These amazing infinite sampling devices (something digital can only dream of) are now so prolific that you can choose from well over 400 decks.

Some might argue that so much choice can surely only be a good thing as it increases competition, innovation and variety? The problem is that it makes your choice much harder in terms of information overload and knowing who or what to believe.

Before going any further it’s helpful to reflect on a bit of history. About 20 years ago, CD had made such inroads that the press declared Vinyl doomed. Turntable sales fell off a cliff and most manufacturers either lost interest in decks and diversified or went bankrupt. The point here is that many of the new decks you see on the market have not been long in the game and not had the many years of development usually needed to produce a genuine advance.
Identifying Winning designs

Judging success in Hi-Fi used to be much easier about 30 years ago when most people referred to industry benchmarks. Quite a few reviews were scathing in those days, but a generous review would end up with the words “a good product but not quite as good as the LP12” or words to the effect. This phrase acted as a gatekeeper that killed off many a new deck and prevented the massive proliferation of mediocre decks that now exists.

This was the very time we decided to intensify our turntable development. At last, in 2004 a highly experienced and respected reviewer who owned an Linn LP12 wrote “Simply stated, the Origin Live Illustrious tonearm/Aurora Gold turntable produce the best musical results of any turntable I’ve ever heard, regardless of price” The full review can be read on the link below and is worth reading because times have not changed – many of the super decks around today are repeating well trodden paths of air suction clamping, high mass etc with similar results in terms of over damped, dead sound. You hear the leading edge of notes but not the decay. Proper decay is probably one of the hardest things to replicate in Hi Fi and is easily overlooked. Lack of decay, with notes stopping before they should, misleads people into thinking a product has fantastic control – it’s hailed by some as the pinnacle of Hi Fi. The opposite extreme is of course spurious resonance, where notes go on longer than they should.

Remarks from behind the scene

One of the most notable things about a winning product is that very often, no one apart from the designers really know why it’s so good. To satisfy the need to appear innovative, I know at least one manufacturer who promotes any unique aspect of his product, but keeps the real reason behind it’s outstanding performance unmentioned.

Why would anyone keep innovation secret when it seems such a good thing to promote?

I would suggest the answer involves more than just giving the game away to competitors. Many great ideas seem so odd and counter-intuitive as to be off-putting. They only become blindingly obvious after they’re proven, but why is this? The main reason is probably the feeling of safety in the popular.

Unsurprisingly therefore, innovative ideas can meet with terrific resistance. One only has to look at the scorn poured on the first people to suggest that cables make a difference or that conditioning the mains is important, to realise that pioneering new ideas is not easy. Prior to this people insisted that amplifiers and turntables all sounded the same.

In a future bulletin we’ll look further at innovation and some examples that can upgrade your current system.