This turntable was a breath of fresh air in the turntable industry when it was released a decade and a half ago, giving genuinely great performance in a small size. It also provided the option of purchasing it as the 10A, which contained the superb SME Series V tonearm, rather than the armless Model 10. […]
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There have been few items in hi-fi that have lasted as long as the Shure V15. It was the American company’s main pickup cartridge from 1964 to 2005, and it went through eight different iterations. It cultivated a devoted following; for others, it was the only method to listen to LP music. The V15 had
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The Michell GyroDec, which is now over thirty years old, has become a famous British vinyl classic. It was one of the first ‘skeletal’ designs, with a vestigial sandblasted aluminium chassis rather than a traditional hardwood plinth, when it was introduced in 1981. This, together with the five gold-plated brass weights dangling from the platter
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Tonearm enthusiasts had a fantastic year in 1987. After what seemed like an eternity of waiting, not one, but two – then three – buses arrived at the same moment. The first was the SME Series V, which has gotten a lot of press; many consider it to be “the finest” arm in some ways,
Turntables are in and out of fashion. Many start off strong, but as time goes on, they deteriorate into mediocrity. Others, on the other hand, seem to persevere, and perhaps this is a measure of their greatness? Linn’s Sondek LP12, Technics’ SL-1200, SME’s Model 30, Garrard’s 301/401, Rega’s Planar 3 and, of course, Michell’s iconic
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Many consider the Linn Ittok to be the world’s first super-arm. It was designed by a Mr. Ito to Linn’s specifications in the late 1970s and originally built for Linn by the Denon Parts Company of Japan (no related to the electronics brand). It underwent several adjustments over the years, including a new counterbalance, until
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Yoshiaki Sugano’s Koetsu cartridges were characterized by his unique combination of skills. He was described as a musician, artist, calligrapher, and even a swordsman. According to legend, his life was a study of his hero, Honami Koetsu, a 17th-century Japanese painter. Sugano san’s Supex cartridges, which were released in the 1970s and put moving coils
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The ARO is one of the most unusual performance-focused tonearms ever built, reputedly made “hand in glove” for the Linn Sondek LP12 turntable and Troika cartridge. The narrative begins in 1987, when Naim Audio decided to end its particular partnership with Linn Products; Linn was a manufacturer of electronics (remember the LK1/LK2? Some might not!
Although it benefited from designer Jonathon Carr’s vast experience, this was not totally hand crafted by Lyra’s artisan Yoshinori Mishima when it was first released in the UK in 2007. Instead, the initial construction was outsourced. It was also the first to use a Namiki MicroRidge line-contact stylus, however it was wrapped in the traditional
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It’s all forgotten now, but there was once upon a time when a costly – but not exorbitantly priced – turntable appeared, battled the best of the best, and triumphed. That is, almost. The JBE, you see, was an underground sensation for a brief period around the turn of the 1980s. Despite its high quality,
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