Turntable no one’s ever heard of, designed and fabricated by a precision engineering company in Yorkshire (where tea comes from), the plinth is a single piece of aluminium housing two Linn motors with electronic speed control, using Rega belts and a massively over-engineered bearing. The deck is cut from Acetal. The arm mounts are custom fabricated to the arm length with Rega mounts. The right hand arm is a 12" Origin Live Illustrious Mk3 dual pivot silver wired with a Koetsu Urushi, currently going via the Vertere MC phono amp. The other arm is a 12" Jelco TK-850L fitted with an Origin Live Aladdin Mk2, which is a rebranded Soundsmith Zephyr Mk3, going into my Devialet using the internal phono amp. A Townshend Podium provides isolation.
Vinyl is always in heavy rotation in the owlsalum household. Sure I have a pretty darned good digital front end as well, but music the SOTA/SME/Sumiko way still checks all the boxes for me. Pretty sad SME is out of the tonearm business now, but as long as I can still get parts I’m set indefinitely. The good folks at SOTA continue to support every TT the company has ever made, so I’m in no hurry to upgrade to anything else. That might a first for me.
Yes, owlsalum, the SOTA is a classic. My SOTA Star Sapphire is an original from 1986…with cocobolo wood base…with recently upgraded with SOTA central parts. Darren Myers (great engineer!) helped me upgrade the motor/drive unit to the latest from SOTA support along with the current vacuum and electronics unit. I have the original Sumiko MDC 800 “The Arm”. Still running the Grace F9 cart but with Soundsmith sapphire cantilever/contact line stylus.
The results so far actually surprised me a little. I thought the percentage of those who DO NOT own a turntable were going to be higher. However, this is silly now that I think about it because PSA offers a very diverse product line. Maybe more diverse than most especially now that speakers are on the way.
When I really want to lay back and enjoy the music, I put a record on the turntable. The sound is so natural and real. Until my digital come close to this level of performance, vinyl is my preferred format.
Know a lot of guys here use these under their PSA kit, and based on the improvements I’m getting with the turntable they’ll be going under the Dac and Pre as well.
Fantastic things.
