This is a long post. I thought it might be interesting to current and prospective owners. My table is identical to the one above except for a 2M Blue cartridge. Let me know how the Bronze sounds if you get it.
I recently purchased an Orbit turntable directly from Uturn Audio. My venerable Ariston Q deck had died, motor controller or motor itself failure, and a number of other items had gracefully decayed over 34 years. I investigated the usual candidates from Project, Rega, Music Hall and Fluance in the $500 - $600 price range. My system consists of a NAD 6155 receiver, Vandersteen 2C speakers and open reel tape (Revox and Otari). The phono stage in the NAD is highly regarded. It was slightly annoying that there was no way to actually touch and hear any of the tables before purchase. Buyers today are at the mercy of ad copy and reviewers.
Questionable customer service and spotty reviews eliminated the Fluance, the Project motor and its mounting has had some iffy reviews and I’ve never understood the idea of a glass platter on the Rega’s. For the basic orbit, you are paying $179 for a platter bearing, arm, motor and plinth that no reviewer has had anything negative to say about, then you can selectively add options such as an acrylic platter, cueing, solid wood plinth and better cartridge. In fact if you don’t care for the cartridge options chosen by Uturn you can buy the basic table for $179 and throw away the standard cartridge and add anything you want. At least one reviewer’s opinion was that the performance of the table was constrained by the cartridge, so my original plan was to purchase the AT and swap in my existing Sumiko Blue Point MC.
In the end, I decided on a custom table with walnut plinth, acrylic platter , cueing and the Ortofon 2m Blue. ( I came to the conclusion that the Sumiko was worn out) Total price was $595. This was in line with the entry level Projects and the Rega P2 but with a possibly better cartridge. I felt the combination probably was competitive with the Rega P3 even though that had the aforementioned glass platter that rings like a bell.
First impressions. Set up was easy. The inverted platter bearing has extremely low friction. Before you place the belt, the platter spins for a long time if you give it a slight push. That has to mean that very little energy is lost to heat and noise. As others have noted that belt fits very loosely. It’s hard to get on since as it is an o-ring rather than a belt it tends to roll off the edge of the platter. It is loose for two reasons, it doesn’t tilt the motor in its soft mount too much to the side and it doesn’t couple motor noise into the platter. Once on it is stable although it rides high on the edge of the platter. The arm bearing feels very low friction and doesn’t have any play although that’s subjective. The lack of external, adjustable anti-skate was troubling. A poor anti-skate design on a past Pioneer turntable killed a cartridge of mine very quickly. I plan to zero balance the VTF sometime soon and measure the anti-skate force.
Initial Listening: There was massive 60Hz hum. The connection of the turntable to the receiver’s phono inputs was exactly the same as the Ariston which had zero audible hum. Some experimenting and talking to Ben at Uturn( excellent customer service) determined that I probably needed a dedicated 3rd wire ground connection to the receiver (which had only a 2 wire power plug). A cute little plug and wire free from Uturn worked perfectly – no more hum. Now to listen – solid bass, smooth mids and crips highs. Cymbals and bells sound like cymbals and bells. Sound stage was wide and imaging was precise.
But things changed when a new lp arrived from England. Espana, a D2D (direct to disk) recording from Mike and Francoise Valentine’s Chasing the Dragon label. The lp has phenomenally quiet surfaces and was cut at a relatively low level due to constant groove pitch due to the live session (no preview possible). Suddenly I could hear 60 hz and a harmonic above the noise. It was audible at reasonable levels though both speakers and headphones. Note that the amplifier volume pot was higher during listening than normal due to the lower cutting level. A quick digital rip with Audacity and using the analyze- spectrum function showed peaks at 60 and 240Hz (2nd harmonic) that were as high as 10 dB above the noise. The peaks were present when the motor ran and the stylus was on vinyl whether the platter was rotating or the belt was removed. Another email with Ben and we agreed that the measurements I was making were hard to compare with the noise specs guaranteed for the t able, but he was clear that if I could hear it, they would try to do something about it. Since I am local to their factory he offered to replace the motor and its isolation mount while I waited if I brought it in.
The evening of the next day I was home with a new motor installed and a guarantee from Chelsea, who did the work, that no noise was audible. My listening and tests concurred. I hear nothing but hiss as I turn up the volume with motor running and belt off and stylus down. The spectrums show the 60 and 240 Hz peaks at least 15dB lower than with the original motor. It’s a never ending battle, now I see 15 to 20 Hz peaks, but they were damped with sorbothane pads under the three feet.
Conclusion. Based on the first 20 hours of listening, the turntable is very quiet. The speed is accurate and stable based on a quality stroboscope and target. The jury is out on the ant-skate, but I have not noticed any lateral movement of the 2M Blue stylus cantilever. As mentioned I plan to zero the VTF and check the free motion direction of the arm and hopefully measure the actual anti-skate force with a gauge.
I’m very pleased with the sound. I don’t have much to compare it to other than infrequent trips to Symphony Hall in Boston and listening to rips from the same LP’s made by Michael Fremmer on his reference system. Clearly not as good, but close and not costing 6 figures. My favorite lp’s sound better than before and some lp’s that I have avoided now sound much better than I remember, probably due to the upgrade from the Sumiko’s spherical stylus to the elliptical nude stylus of the Ortofon. The stock feet don’t isolate room vibration very well, sorbothane pucks should help that. The belt is tricky, I don’t have a reason change speeds very often so that helps. Once on, the belt behaves. I’m experimenting with mat and no mat on the acrylic platter. The difference is not yet obvious.
The real conclusion is that this is a really good performing turntable, manufactured in the US, with exemplary customer service.
As I was typing above post that album was floating around in my head.. An early favorite for sure..
