If you find it hard to discern what to believe from the mass of information available on the web and Hi-Fi press it’s not surprising.

The following news provides some clues on the caliber of Origin Live arms.

It’s astounding that Germany’s largest Audio magazine recently recorded their highest score EVER for a turntable / arm / cartridge combination from L’Art du Son, a manufacturer who never advertises. Unlike the sometimes dubious reviews of certain magazines, it’s fair to say that this is an exceptionally genuine assessment of a clearly outstanding product.

The fact that this deck used the Origin Live Enterprise arm (in transcription reference form 10.5”) also reflects on just how good this arm is. The L’Art du Son designer Martina Schoener is probably one of the foremost networkers in the business, who knows reputations and has heard most arms on the market. Her selection of such a highly critical component was a very careful choice.

I’ve included a link to the review concerned where they rate this deck / arm / cartridge combination as the absolute best they’ve heard – period. In the context of reviews that go up to £100,000 this is surprising in itself as some magazines instruct their reviewers never to make such a pronouncement because it can offend owners of other brands and discourage advertisers. This makes the review all the more credible in my view.

Stig Bjorge, CEO of Lyra cartridges has ordered one of these deck combinations which again is a tremendous endorsement from a world leading designer who regularly hears the whole spectrum of what’s on offer.

Notably this deck was playing in two rooms at the worlds foremost High End show in Munich where around 500 brands were on show. A good number of visitors commented it was the best sound at the show. Remarkable in an arena where the competition could not be higher with many rooms playing systems well in excess of £500,000.

Audio magazine Germany 9/2015 review

Rating: 135 points which makes it “The Best Turntable ” Audio has ever reviewed in more than 35 years of their history – complete package of deck,
Enterprise TR arm and Lyra Atlas (80,000 Euros)

“Music like we’ve never heard coming from a turntable: incredibly dynamic, intimate and direct, yet with an ultimately fine resolution. One could fill pages with listening examples, but the superlatives would merely repeat: none of the records we were listening to had ever been heard like this before. And never before had our digital reference, the venerable Linn Klimax DSM, looked so pale by contrast: when even a Klimax can’t win a single trick, then digital won’t make it at all. Not only does the TR come closer to reality than previous turntables – with vinyl it creates a musical parallel universe”.

For those wondering about the difference between the L’Art du Son Enterprise TR and normal Enterprise they are as follows:

• Enterprise TR Effective length is 255mm  — OL Enterprise is 240mm & 309mm.
• TR version earthing arrangement is not attached to the screened external cable as per OL arms. Instead each screen has a separate earth wire and the tube also has a separate earth wire. This allows for fine optimisation of earthing configurations for valve and solid state amps.

Innovation You Can Employ in your deck

Innovation is often thought of, as those huge groundbreaking ideas that change the planet. Things like the wheel, the computer, telephone, aeroplane etc. However innovation must also include the countless micro-ideas that are needed to exploit the “big” idea.

For example there have been innumerable developments on the turntable since Thomas Edison first invented it back in 1877. You would be right in saying this is all very obvious but the point is that most innovation is slow and almost imperceptible in comparison to the “big idea”. The first computer was a huge innovation but it’s taken around 70 years to get fromTuring’s large room filled with valves to the far more powerful handheld devices now available.

The temptation is to imagine that a few great ideas will lead to an amazing product. The truth is that it’s much more a matter of getting a vast array of different aspects very right. I would suggest that most innovation is the refinement and evolution of existing ideas in a way that cannot be patented.

Development also takes time and is no less important than innovation. However because its less glamorous, it can tend to be neglected. If the difference between development and innovation is unclear then I would suggest an example. If we test 12 different solders to find out which one sounds the best, this is development. But say we introduce a material that no one has used before, this is innovation, because its a new idea.

Innovations you can use

At Origin Live we pay inordinate attention to the details of each turntable component. The advances made here have been so significant that we offer them as upgrades for most decks in existence. Examples are:

• The Award winning upgrade platter mat – A unique material to absorb record vibration better.
• The upgrade belt – A special type of rubber with high grip and low stretch.
• Platter glide turntable oil – Very low friction oil to reduce microscopic ?juddering? of bearings
• The DC Motor kit – dramatically reduces motor vibration.
• Damping feet – Absorbs vibration and prevents reflections.

These work effectively on virtually all turntables, regardless of their brand and price. You can read the client and magazine reviews on our web site. However its worth noting that these products are all spin offs from years of design work carried out on our own turntables.

A number of you have asked for advice on options for the motor kits. I am listing these below. To understand the logic behind these it’s helpful to briefly examine the function of the upgrade transformer.

The upgrade transformer is a great way to dramatically improve the performance of any dc motor kit. In fact, anyone who hears the comparison with the standard wall-wart, almost invariably orders one because the difference is so obvious.

Why? For dynamic performance, motors need to draw very high current for millisecond periods. Not only this but they need current instantaneously which means any resistance in the electrical path is going to reduce supply in much the same way as trying to get the entire Niagara Falls to flow through a relatively small pipe.

The upgrade transformer has a much lower impedance (resistance) than the standard wall-wart and is capable of nearly 20 times the current delivery. This goes some way to explaining why it is such an effective upgrade but there are other factors which are more subtle.

If you are considering ordering the motor kit then the following options hierarchy may help in apportioning your budget to best effect.

Option 1 = Advanced Motor Kit gives a brilliant upgrade at £345
Option 2 = Add the upgrade transformer at £180 to give a large further leap in performance.
Option 3 = Ultra Motor Kit instead of Advanced at £570 with upgrade transformer £180 = £750
Option 4 = Add DC200 motor instead of DC100 to option 3 which adds £132

Continuing our series on upgrading your vinyl front end, we look today at the all important drive mechanism.

You may have observed a noticeable improvement in performance using our platter mats and special belts. These however, almost fade into insignificance compared to an Origin Live DC motor kit upgrade.

One of our clients described this so well on his £800 Avid Ingenium just last week. “OK so the kit set me back around 25% of the cost of my TT, arm & cartridge combined – so it needs to do something pretty special to justify that outlay. I mean a motor is a motor right? It just makes things go round at the right speed? Wrong!!”

“Was it all worth it? In a word Absolutely!! This DC conversion does exactly what the manufacturer claims it will. I now feel that my turntable is punching way above its weight. Sound-staging is improved, as is the ability to hear deep into the mix and around the instruments. It’s like the sounds have a shape & substance instead of just being.. ermm… a sound. Compared to my old AC motor, vibration is imperceptible, which I think must reap huge sonic benefits. My sample is also dead silent. Surface noise seems reduced too, though why this should be I don’t know. My overriding impression is that the motor is just getting out of the way & allowing
the rest of the kit to perform unfettered. Some so called upgrades are really just a bit tweaky, you almost have to convince yourself that you’ve made an improvement instead of just a change. No question of that here. It is flat out better and it is obvious.”

Turntable: Avid Ingenium, with Origin Live Silver MkIII tonearm, Ortofon Quintet Black fed through a Graham Slee Elevator/Reflex phono stage.
Dave G – London

This experience is the latest of many similar comments that can be read in magazine reviews and client reports on our web site. Notably they include owners of budget Rega to higher end Linn decks.

The kit fits 99% of all belt driven decks and because it delivers real results we offer it on a money back guarantee basis. This means if you run into any problems or decide it’s not for you, just return it for a full refund within 3 weeks of purchase.

Your turntable almost certainly uses a similar motor to the Avid. This assumption is drawn from the fact that decks such as Linn (till around 2010), Rega, Thorens, Systemdek, Ariston, etc, used an almost identical Philips AC synchronous motor. This same motor and similar, are still used today by an enormous number of decks.

The problem with 95% of all ac motors (especially the ones used on budget decks) is that they micro-vibrate and thus seriously disrupt the extraordinarily sensitive motion of the cartridge stylus. There are those who ridicule this idea, never realising that all vibration in a record deck is amplified an unimaginable 8000 times.

Some manufacturers reduce the effect of vibration by adding special power supplies to smooth the motor. These are effective to a limited extent but never overcome the real problem which is the motor itself. It’s not uncommon to find a £2000 supply feeding an £80 motor.

We have specialised in motors and power supplies for the best part of 20 years and developed a fabulously high performance solution which competes with supplies costing over £2500. Knowing that most owners of budget decks cannot countenance such an outlay has meant offering this at a mere £345 – a figure which avoids breaking the bank.

In addition to a low vibration dc motor and ultra precise voltage regulation, there are matters of pulley design and decoupling of the motor itself. The pulley we offer is precision bored (not reamed) to avoid the slightest oscillation. It’s also made from a carefully researched plastic that offers superior grip to metal and other plastics. The profile and dimensions are optimised to provide superb torque and minimum belt flutter.

The motor itself is mounted using a special decoupling material and rubber o-rings under the bolt heads. This kit is one of those items where great design trumps expenditure by a massive margin.

Dealers tell us that it’s laughable how this relatively small and innocuous kit outperforms massive motors with huge class A amplifiers driving them.

In our pursuit of ultimate turntable performance we have experimented with top brand Swiss DC motors utilising precision digital encoders at over £1000
for the encoder alone. These and other solutions have all fallen short of the performance we achieve on the Advanced dc motor kit. Yes it is that good!

Whether your deck is a Rega 3 or a Linn, Roksan, Oracle, VPI, Transrota, Avid, Sota etc you will experience a highly significant upgrade using this kit or your money back.

Many people ask us whether the kit will fit their particular deck? There are literally hundreds of turntable models on the market and owners have provided us with fitting guidance to cover a number of decks.

Lastly for owners of older DC motor kit it is worth mentioning that the regulator switch box underwent a significant improvement in circuit and components in December 2013 – You can upgrade older PCBs to latest specification.

Continuing our series on upgrading. Let’s consider how to upgrade the performance of the record itself. This may sound strange but your record performance can be significantly improved by the way you clean your records and in particular by using a better cleaning fluid. There are fluids recommended by record cleaning machine manufacturers that will clean out debris but do nothing for sound quality – not only this but they actually cause slight damage to your records.

To get a picture of why the surface of your record counts for a lot in terms of performance, take a quick look at the link below of an Olympic skier negotiating his way through a series of severe bumps at high speed. The type of wax used on the underside of skis in these Olympic events can make the difference between winning and losing. In the same way the performance of your cartridge is affected by the record surface itself.

In the past I’ve found cleaning records tedious and unrewarding in terms of any instant performance improvement on most records – OK there may be fewer cracks and pops but no really significant change in the sound unless the record was horrendously dirty. Cleaning records is not the most glamorous subject for this reason. That’s all changed for me since discovering the difference it makes to use a better cleaning machine with a properly formulated cleaning fluid. The advantages are:

• Immediate performance increase even on brand new records
• Protecting the longevity of your record collection
• Massively increasing the life of the cartridge stylus by up to 3 times the norm

This is a subject that not many people are overly familiar with. Being aware of the issues involved, makes it easy to see the pros and cons of various record cleaning methods on the market. For example, are ultra-sonic machines the ultimate solution for cleaning? and if not, why not?

There is a lot to be covered so I’ve put together a video to outline little known facts on this important area.

Most of the information has been contributed by world leading experts in the field and this video has been produced with their approval.

Thanks go to Martina Schroder: 7 times winner of the Absolute Sound Magazine awards for her cleaning fluids. Martina has also lectured around the world on cleaning records not to mention her training in chemistry and work in record cleaning archives libraries.

Terry O’Sullivan: Director of Loricraft, has been building record cleaning machines for around 25 years. Unsurprisingly Terry has an incredible level of experience in this field. John Burns who imports Dynavector cartridges into the UK. John has also worked for Linn and is an expert on stylus care.

Please see video – CLEANING VINYL RECORDS THE WAY EXPERTS RECOMMEND

Upgrading turntables – why are they so responsive to modification?

This is the first of a series of articles on upgrading turntables. It’s a bit late in coming out due to an urgent order for our new Voyager super deck. Super decks are a great platform to develop new knowledge because the budget allows one to stretch the boundaries – the Voyager has proven exceptionally fruitful in this respect. More of this in future as there is one very interesting spin off that’s relevant for all turntables.

When it comes to upgrading your deck, even the most seemingly insignificant items are worthy of consideration. I often receive emails from clients saying how they really did not expect much change by ordering an item. The flip side of this is the astonishment and delight expressed in finding the improvement to be extraordinary. This is of course a shameless plug, but the real point is that it perfectly illustrates how the composition of a turntable is severely underestimated.

A typical comment on the fitting of our upgrade belt to an old budget deck (Dual CS515) was. “Yes it runs beautifully Mark – a dramatic sound improvement”  PETER O’BRIEN – South Africa

Before even starting on the numerous aspects that can improve your deck, I believe it’s important to understand why changes you make, have such a dramatic impact on the hidden world that lies behind turntable performance. Experimentation quickly convinces you by results, but I know from experience, that there is deep scepticism of some things being nothing more than snake oil. It’s easy to understand how changing a cartridge makes a difference but not so easy to understand how changing to a better belt at £29 can make even more difference than upgrading to the next cartridge model.

Perhaps one of the most common misconceptions about record player performance is that it’s related to isolation from vibration in the room. This is a natural conclusion. You can feel bass notes hit you. If you touch a sideboard with music playing you feel vibration with your fingers. It often comes as a surprise to learn that these things may only represent as little as 15% of the vibration influencing a deck. There are other sources  which are far more influential. Environmental room vibration is generally very low frequency stuff whilst these other sources emit vibration that affects everything.

This important truth is very easy to prove conclusively. Simply disconnect your speakers and listen to your record player through headphones.  Next transfer the deck from one surface to another e.g your equipment rack to the floor and listen again. You should notice a substantial difference. This difference obviously has nothing to do with isolation from the environment because the environment is virtually silent so why is it occurring?

The main sources of vibration, in order of importance are

• The cartridge needle itself as it tracks the record – this sends vibration into the record and the tonearm.
• The Motor which feeds vibration into the belt and the structure it’s mounted on.
• The platter bearing – any friction here translates into vibration

The vibration from these sources is so small that it’s easy to dismiss them as being incapable of exerting serious influence. The truth is that  a turntable is highly sensitive to these truly incredible levels of small vibration which we will look at later. Firstly, the important thing to consider is that any vibration has a ripple effect similar to explosive shock through an entire structure. Shock waves are extremely powerful – in water, they sink battleships – which is one reason why isolating a tonearm on a bed of silicon fluid is questionable.

When you play a record on a turntable, shock waves are occurring continuously at a microscopic level. These waves are transmitted at different speeds depending on their frequency and the material concerned. Some are reflected, some induce resonance into the structure, some are absorbed by friction, and some are transmitted into adjoining items. For the purposes of this article we will lump all this together under the term “micro-vibration” which as you may guess is an extremely complex phenomenon.

Micro-vibration in audio is incredibly quick and the effects are magnified beyond comprehension. One of the best illustrations of this is the human ear which stretches the bounds of credibility. On our website we quote a source which states “At the threshold of hearing the eardrum moves one tenth of the diameter of a hydrogen atom”. Let’s just pause at this point because it’s not easy to comprehend this sort of dimension. A physicist recently emailed me questioning this fact and asking for my sources – He asked “do you know how small a hydrogen atom is?”

Although he liked our products he suggested we remove this quote from our web site as it was ridiculous and would bring our credibility into question. We exchanged a few friendly emails in which I showed the maths behind the claim to be solid textbook stuff – See at very bottom of page for the equations if desired.

Let’s take a closer look at what it represents. The diameter of a hydrogen atom is 1.1 Å. For those of you unfamiliar with Angstroms (Å), one Angstrom is equivalent to 10^-7 mm. In other words if you lined up a row of hydrogen atoms next to one another, you would have 10,000,000 of them in the space of 1mm. An average human hair is approx 0.001mm so 10,000 hydrogen atoms would span it’s width. You can see from this that your eardrum is unbelievably sensitive to amplify such small movement and convert it into electrical impulses. In much the same way your cartridge senses almost immeasurably small movement and converts it into an electrical signal, which is then massively amplified.  An estimate for the threshold of audible movement on a stylus needle is going to be almost infinitesimally small because the movement is analogue.

It never ceases to amaze me what is audible in turntable design – we’ve found that even the difference between using 5mm or 6mm bolt at the same tension is clearly audible using the same material etc. In summary, all you need to know is that you will hear the differences if you have a half decent system.

We believe playing vinyl is much more than dragging a piece of coal through a vinyl groove. Part of my background in designing Mine-sweeper ships to withstand explosive shock has given me a great respect for the intricacies of design for shock and vibration which is even more complex in record players. We research this endlessly so you don’t have to.

Modify or Trade-in?

This is probably one of the most common questions we get asked. Modifying your turntable or tonearm is a sensible option if you want a significant improvement in sound quality and are restrained by budget. It’s also a preferred option if  you’ve grown attached to your equipment.

We will look at the modification approach next week. On the other hand, there are limits to how far you can take an older deck. Things have advanced massively in some quarters and once you get to investing around £1500, it’s better to carefully select a better deck rather modify older designs. On this path, there are many competent designs but only a small handful of manufacturers who really shine in demonstration. A letter we had last week illustrates the gains of a typical turntable change.

“Many thanks for the recently arrived Calypso and Illustrious. This is a shockingly good combination which is dramatically superior to my previous deck, a Linn LP12/Ittok. The Calypso/Illustrious has huge authority and solidity in the stereo image which is substantially deeper and wider than anything I have heard before. Complex orchestral passages widen out to reveal individual instrument timbres and their location in the sound scape. The dynamic range is also vastly superior and capable of both power and subtlety. Most importantly the whole experience is very musically engaging. All of this is with a week old deck and a £100 cartridge, which only confirms Origin Live’s design philosophy of the importance of the turntable and arm. I can’t praise this combination highly enough. Anyone wanting a taste of musical paradise at an extremely reasonable price should seriously consider Origin Live. It’s difficult to imagine a better musical experience than this.”

Liam – County Kildare – Ireland

We know from dealers and clients, that no matter how up to date Liam’s Linn could be – in other words, highest specification, latest LP12 and Ekos 2, this result would be the same. We’ve had hardened ex-Linn dealers who’ve been in total unbelief about this. To prove us wrong they’ve put it to the test, only to be shocked by the results and having to call their friends around to confirm what they’re hearing.

I would lastly add, to put things in perspective, that the Linn is still a great deck and surpasses many on the market today. As said previously, there are only a relatively small number of manufacturers where you can do much better.

Hope this helps

I’m writing to let you know about a great upgrade which works on virtually all decks that use a flat belt. At Origin Live we are always experimenting with new materials to increase sonic performance and about a year ago we stumbled across a fabulous belt material that far surpasses the neoprene used in most turntable belts.
A user review on the Origin Live upgrade belt says it all “ Cleans up bass remarkably and general improvement overall but removes static completely which was a real nuisance in the present hot dry weather. Amazing for a little belt and very good value for money” published with kind permission of Philip.

The fact is that Origin Live upgrade belts make an audibly significant upgrade to any turntable that uses a flat belt.

Summary of the upgrade belt advantages:
* Ideal mechanical properties for grip, strength, stability, elasticity and self damping.
* Significantly increases sonic performance regardless of what deck you have
* Reduced static (important for cartridge performance)
* Freedom from discoloration over time
* Lasts well over the normal 2 years recommended life of a belt
* High value for money
* 2 year guarantee

For the increase in performance, many companies would charge at least 3 times what we are offering. As with many of our products, we would rather you try things like this or our turntable oil, platter mat, tone-arms etc at an affordable level. If the results impress you, then it can only build confidence to try other products in our Range.

High value
You might ask why these belts carry a premium price of £29-60 relative to standard cheap neoprene belts? This is a good question although the price is actually very close to finely ground neoprene belts such as the LP12 belt. The answer is that each belt is skillfully hand made to size and involves:
* A unique and highly unusual elastic material
* Slicing the belt by hand to precisely the correct width along its whole length
* Trimming the belt length to suite your particular deck
* Extreme expertise and skill to join the ends – a 1 day process
* Grinding the joint
* Checking for smooth running

Risk free Trial
Give this belt a try and the results will surprise you. Belts come with a 3 week money back guarantee which assures you can return it for a full refund if not completely satisfied.

“Last night I tried the new belt on my Pro-Ject Xpression III, and I must confess I was reluctant to hear any change in sound, but the difference was there, and it hit me in the face – more treble definition, best picture, the overall presentation is more consistent. Excellent upgrade, recommended for any belt drive turntable”. Claudio