The £150,000 Turntable June 05, 2007

Read more Entertainment , Hi-fi , Home Entertainment , Music

There is a loyal army of vinyl lovers out there but even the most ardent would be pushed to pay £150,000 for a turntable. OK, we recently had something on the Top 10 Most Expensive Speakers, but this really is a long, long way from my old, plastic vinyl spinner with the crackly sound and the carry-handle.

The Goldmund “Reference II” is billed as the world’s most expensive turntable and the company is only planning to build 25 of them, at a rate of just 5 per year.

It’s a beautiful piece of tooled metal, no doubt, but £150,000? Here are some of the specs which some folk will recognise as being worth paying a few extra quid for. Either way, they read like the features of an alien space craft.

Dynamically balanced 20kg platter with level and concentricity calibration to <1/100mm
5-layer platter design (3 metacrylate and 2 brass) with 12 lead damping inserts
Cog-free motor with lowest electrical and mechanical noise, shielded and dampened by 15kg of brass
Liquid-nitrogen-rectified belt, as the original Reference - Servo speed capture by optical encoder
Touch controls integrated in the tabletop for the turntable (33 / 45 / 78 rpm) and the T8 tone arm
Ultra-precise ball-circulation Linear carrier with zero-play and micron precision

That’s enough, my head hurts. Jump now for another lovely photo and the full specs, if you are that way inclined. -Martin Lynch

[Wired]

Tech Specs:

* Supporting table of extreme rigidity and inertia (250kg) with 100cm platter height for easy manipulation
* Dynamically balanced 20 kg platter with level and concentricity calibration to <1/100mm
* 5-layer platter design (3 metacrylate and 2 brass) with 12 lead damping inserts
* Ultra-high precision Swiss-made axis using the 25-years experience in Reference rotational parts design
* Cog-free motor with lowest electrical and mechanical noise, shielded and dampened by 15kg of brass
* Liquid-nitrogen-rectified belt, as the original Reference - Servo speed capture by optical encoder
* Touch controls integrated in the tabletop for the turntable (33 / 45 / 78 rpm) and the T8 tone arm
* 3 optional pivoting tone arm supports at 120 deg (supports even the 12" SME tone arm)
* Specially designed new Goldmund T8 straight-line tone arm with total weight of 7 kg
* Using the revolutionary Goldmund "Spherical inserts" (Goldmund patent) for zero-play and zero-vibration
* Ultra-precise ball-circulation Linear carrier with zero-play and micron precision
* Stylus, pivot and counterweight perfectly aligned for optimal dynamic balance
* Universal joint machined from a block with Mecasyl-lubricated zero-play ultra-precise ball bearings
* Hyperbolic tracking correction using endless speed-adjusted translation with 1 micron precision
* 7-layer tone arm tube with progressive lengths, including custom ultra-thin carbon tube
* 3 built-in Teflon tubes carrying signal wire with no vibration and no magnetostriction effect
* Unique hardened-Aluminum headshell especially designed and machined in 3D for zero-resonance
* The headshell holds the cartridge and the preamplifier first stage to increase the noise-floor ratio
* Motor-driven VTA adjustment with remote-control, allowing height calibration within 1/10 of a millimeter
* Calibrated micro-metric Azimut adjustment and electronic stylus alignment
* 2-layer Titanium counterweight with 2-step adjustments, auto-locked for perfect Mechanical Grounding
* Off-angle measurement by progressive analogue optical detector without Led avoiding radiated noise
* Exclusive integral limited edition Phono PH8 Preamplifier using the new Goldmund 140dB A/D circuit
* Analogue output using the latest new Goldmund Alize 6 D/A circuit with 140dB of dynamics
* Digital output using "Swiss Chrono" zero-jitter 96kHz 24 bit connection to Universal Preamp
* Built-in digital processor providing RIAA correction, and complete time/phase cartridge compensation
* Protected by the Goldmund GPS (Goldmund Parallel Suppressor)
* Each turntable installed by a Goldmund Team, with complete calibration included
* Limited edition of 25 units only sold on subscription with a maximum production of 5 units per year

music records vinyl design hi-fi