2 TT's which?

Hi Lawrie,

I too remember the tone arm review. I do remember the fact that the reviewer used an Origin Live deck. I too think this is flawed. That is why I said, in my previous post, that I have no idea if the Orgin Live arm is better than the SME. But some of the comments in the review did suggest that someone else would have come to different conclusions. The impression I got is that some people would prefer the SME.

To be fair, you do need to try the arms on different decks. I have no problem with him using the an Origin Live but one is not enough. But this is the downside of arm reviews. Most just use one deck for testing. The logistics of testing many arms in many decks would be a nightmare.

You do have to take reviews with a pinch of salt & use them for ideas & pointers.

Hi Muffinman,

It can be huge. You have got turntables, tonearms, cartridges, wire & cables, turntable power supplies, counter wieght mods, turntable mats, clamps, turntable supports, platter upgrades, bearing upgrades, power supply upgrades, cartridge alignment stuff, cartridge rebuilds, tone arm rebuilds etc.

The Gyrodec is a very good deck for a first (or any) buyer. It's that the competition is very good. Some will prefer the competetion. There are many ideas to making a good deck. Different ways of trying to solve the same problems.

Maybe not. It depends how far you want to go & how much you want to spend. The good thing is that there are plenty of options to choose from. Also try to a demo on brand spanking new things. Walrus does have the biggest selection of turbtable in the country (I think) but it doesn't stock everything.

Good luck in your search.

SCIDB

 

To really be fair, I think this actually was said in the review itself

To be really, really fair This was also pointed out in the review. The Linn arm apparently didn't work at all on the OL, but they did point out that they expected it and Linn told em so and if you were a Linn head this may well be the one.

Amen

 

A lot of interesting points.

One point I differ with, is the value of upgrading a Gyrodec. It was mentioned that the results can be neither fish nor fowl, and the value isnt held by the upgrade.

I would point to my own previously owned gyrodec. I bought ''barely second'' orbe platter, a motor upgrade, a second hand rega 250, and had the suspension brought to latest spec.

This was certainly somewhere between the performance of an orbe and a gyro. The total cost of all changes was 300.

I sold the deck on e-bay for 1,000 (without cart). This would suggest to me that when upgraded carefully, upgrades to the gyrodec can hold their value.

My only question really, is why the decision is down to these two turntables in particular? There are others I would consider (make that prefer) for their used value.

Cheers
Chris

 

hi bottleneck

as i remember you were one of the guys who gave me a lot of advice ref. the upgrade route for the gyro. i lost my way a bit after ringing michell. they told me that i would never reach orbe status as they were too different.
i also saw a few orbe se at various levels of ex dem at good prices. they all went up in smoke or were wrongly advertised. during this time i upgraded my phono stage and got back to enjoying the music until i got the cash together for a new orbe.

this little thread has opened my eyes to array of quality t/ts and opinions about them.

.....so spill the beans

 

Well, I have bought the OL, and put it on ebay already.
Its very good, nicely put together, looking at the design, its undoubtadly Mark Bakers attempt to update the linn lp12, its very well made, but I think I would rather have a gyro, so I have to sell to offset the cost of the gyro.

 

now got the gyro., the ol sounds very good, bass tight and rhythmic, the gyro is very well built, in fact pure engineering excellence, the OL is no slouch, nice and solid, but the michell is REAL quality. Haven't compared the two soundwise yet. Can only keep one so the OL has to go for cash reasons.

 

I used an Origin Live turntable and arm at the Cologne Show, the Nottingham Analogue Spacedek and arm at the Bristol Show and an Orbe SE with SME V at Heathrow.

Of these, I cannot really judge the Spacedek and arm as the cartridge supplied was not up to scratch and we hardly played it. With a better cartridge it could have been a different story.

I would favour the Orbe SE over the OL and would be interested in hearing their Technoarm as it's reputed to be a superb buy at the money. Having said that, I use an OL Silver arm on my home system and noticed a very significant improvement when I upgraded to this from an RB300.

 

Had an Orbe SE with SME V for all too shorter time, huge weight and power.

Now live with Vpi Scout/JMW9 - less weight & power, but more life and vitality. A different rather than inferior presentation to me, plus I like the upgrade path and not having to arsse about with springs.

But the Gyro/Technoarm at the local store does sound mighty good, easily seeing off a Wilson Benesch Full Circle to my ears. They must have fun wiring those things!