I took delivery of the new Origin Live Upgrade platter mat a couple of days ago, at a bargain introductory price of £29.

I had read the press release email about this mat but I was a bit unsure whether it would offer any benefits with my turntable as it has an acrylic platter but Mark Baker (the man behind Origin Live) told me, “the mat is at its best on acrylic” so I couldn’t resist the opportunity.

Fitting the mat on top of the platter requires an adjustment of the tonearm’s VTA as it is about 1mm thick. The mat isn’t soft and squidgy like I expected – instead it looks a bit like dark granite with an amalgam of materials.

I wasn’t expecting a huge improvement but was fairly astonished by the difference the mat makes. My previous upgrades such as the Vertex AQ really allowed the music to define a sense of space and depth around each instrument, which is what I was half expecting to be further improved upon with this mat.

Instead, the Origin Live Upgrade platter mat doesn’t seem to increase space, but unclutters the music right down to the smallest detail. You can suddenly hear many, many more details and tonal textures which had not been apparent before, the nuances of instruments become far more apparent.

Listening to the fantastic Buena Vista Social Club DMM pressing it was so easy to clearly hear the instruments and, for the first time, I could clearly hear three male voices on one particular track.

The other obvious improvement is that the low end is further extended, with the same clarity heard higher up the frequency range. It’s a delight to hear all the textures and tones of the instruments so clearly.

I’m extremely impressed with this Origin Live Upgrade platter mat, it’s a huge upgrade for the asking price!

(Apologies for the poor photo, I am between cameras.)

I’ve been thinking about upgrading my phono stage for as long as I can remember. It was the one remaining component left to upgrade after the turntable, tonearm and cartridge and now I’ve finally done it. Wow! What a huge difference.

I originally bought my Music Fidelity X-LP phono stage when I purchased my Unison Research Simply Four which was sold ages ago. The guy in the shop said “phono stages are basically all the same” and that it wouldn’t really matter which one I bought. Also, I didn’t have the £500 in my pocket for the Unison Research valve phono stage!

Anyway, to cut a long story short, changed Unison amp for Decware Select Zen amp, built loudspeakers…sound got better but still a bit thin sometimes. Upgraded turntable to excellent Origin Live Ultra, got Origin Live Silver tonearm, new cartridge, new speaker cable, Vertex AQ Jaya mains filter and eventually built new Decware HDT speakers.

Each time I upgraded these components the sound became more detailed and more refined. When I got to the Origin Live Silver tonearm, the Vertex AQ Jaya filter and especially the HDT speakers things were getting extremely good and new experiences like spaces around instruments, a defined soundstage (including the first signs of depth) and tonal details really started to make themselves known.

But still the sound could be thin with vinyl, especially some bad pressings like Living Color “Time’s Up”, and The Pixies albums. I had high hopes for alleviating this problem with a new phono stage.

So, I spent a lot of time researching this component. I considered Graham Slee’s Era Gold, the Trichord Dino, the new (and well reviewed) Pure Sound P10, the Moon LP3, various Pro-Ject stages, Tom Evans and quite a few others. After reading lots of opinions, though, I discovered that the Era Gold and the Dino wouldn’t necessarily bring a lot of “body” to the music, the Moon was a bit of an unknown, others were less flexible and the Pure Sound P10, while raved about, is Moving Magnet only.

One phono stage kept coming up in my mind, the Lehmann Black Cube, especially in its Special Edition version with the add-on power supply. I kept reading great reviews which really talked about qualities like soundstage and especially its “full bodied” tone and wide bandwidth. Other bonus points for the Lehmann were that I could buy the Black Cube and then get the power supply later, making it a more achievable purchase and also that it has a number of user-definable settings such as the cartridge loading, custom loading (by inserting resistors), low pass filter and gain settings.

Wow, this is a long introduction! I will try to speed things up a bit. I purchased the Black Cube, and pretty soon after added the power supply to turn it into the Special Edition version.

The result was actually far more than I was expecting, from a phono stage upgrade. Having got used to fairly subtle improvements in sound from changing various components the Lehmann Black Cube SE made the music gel in a very impressive manner. Not that it wasn’t pretty coherent already!

The soundstage was very much more defined with instruments clearly positioned now. Yes, the Decware HDT speakers did this very well but now there was more depth front to back, too. Also, even more attention grabbing is that before, certain instruments and voices had a wonderful sense of their own space. Now, with the Lehmann in place, everything imparted its own space. Every single element of the recording now breathed, reverberated, sang in a space and position within the soundstage.

You might think that this definition and pulling apart of each instrument would have a negative effect on the overall sense of musical coherency but I was delighted to find that it actually pulled everything together, I was really getting into each track and enjoying the music on a new level.

Another amazing aspect was that, while seemingly tightening up the sound over all frequencies, my previously unlistenable recordings became listenable! High frequency sounds which, I guess had been more blurred, focused into well defined elements and the result was no more splashiness and painful (for my tinnitus) sound.

To the same degree, the bass reached down deeper but stayed tight and together, with many interesting new textures emerging from the depths. The speakers help of course, being single drivers, they’re so tight and fast that you really get some explosive dynamics.

Music from Calexico, Spoon, Menomena, David Byrne, Buena Vista Social Club and Ladyhawk really revealed just how startling the togetherness and sense of space had now become. Finally I feel that I have achieved the system I’ve dreamed of for years! I’m not suggesting the Lehmann Black Cube SE made that all happen, of course it was just the last part of the puzzle, but it’s pretty much impossible for me to clearly define which component brings which aspects to the audio reproduction. All I can say is the music now sounds…musical! Highly detailed, with an expansive yet focused soundstage, tight and fast, full of the subtleties of tone which really make it all sound so enjoyable.

I’ve written so much I feel I cannot go into why “there’s no going back now” in this post, so I will write that next!

Occasionally things I’ve bought have really changed my life and that of my family. Seeing as I’m not terribly good, or open, in writing about my personal life, I thought I’d run through these inanimate-yet-important objects.

Large format printer

It doesn’t sound like a life changing product, does it? Yet, moving from a good quality Epson A4 printer to a good quality Epson A3+ printer (R1800) made a huge difference to my professional life.

Before, I had had to print and tape together sheets of paper to create larger mockups such as folders, packaging. Buying the printer suddenly enabled me to easily create proofs and mockups of large items, it allowed me to print A3 with bleed. It was not an expensive printer and has since paid for itself over and over in usefulness.

Apple Mac

Yes, predictable I guess, but I have to say that sitting in front of a Mac at Art College enormously changed my life. Until then, I studied film and, although I worked in the film industry for a few years, the seeds of my design career had already been sown.

I continued to play with the Mac, learning applications like Photoshop and Quark, until I landed myself a web design job based on the work I’d produced on that computer. Since then I’ve stayed faithful to the Mac, always preferring the simpler interface, intuitiveness and resultant speed of working. The Mac has since allowed me to pursue a full blown career in graphic design and now stock image creation, too.

Flat screen TV (and DVD/HD recorder)

It’s amazing how this recent purchase has been much more than I expected. We have resisted buying an LCD TV for a long time as it was not an essential purchase but I was getting more and more fed up with our hand-me-down Sony CRT which was huge considering the screen size, had geometry problems, real problems with sharpness in the left and right quarters of the screen and also refused to stay on the screen format you chose.

So, my good friend bought a new TV and when I went over there I was very impressed. I discussed with my wife that we might buy one for ourselves for Christmas. And then Amazon announced a one week only offer on the TV so we jumped.

It’s only a 32″ screen, we don’t need any more. But it’s such a huge improvement in a number of areas.

Firstly, no geometry problems (obviously). The picture is actually straight! Secondly, you can actually access the rear of the television to plug things in – not like our old TV where it was so big it literally went right against the wall. Thirdly, sharpness of image is absolutely wonderful to behold. With games you can finally read small text instead of just guessing. And, not only does it stay on the format you choose but when it’s set to “auto” and you’re watching broadcasts, it switches very quickly to the correct format and stays there.

So, rather than just address one issue, this TV has improved a large number of aspects in one fell swoop and has been a very worthwhile purchase.

As an aside, the DVD/HD recorder we bought about a year ago also had the same kind of effect, improving so many things it was a huge step forward.

Maxon Cinema 4D

Yes, I’m not saying Photoshop changed my life (though I’m sure it did by getting me into design) but instead I’ve singled out Cinema 4D by Maxon. It’s a superb 3D modeling and rendering application which, in the last year, has enabled me to become a serious stock image artist.

The beauty of it is that Cinema 4D is a joy to use and is wonderfully simple. Everything you create is part of an object “tree” which you can see in a side panel, allowing quick and easy manipulation of everything in your scene from models to lights and textures to special effects.

I used Cinema 4D for client work but last year started to use it to realise all kinds of ideas I had for stock, and it has proved to be a fantastic tool to bring these ideas to life. Another reason it’s been so life-changing is that stock is starting to become an alternative income for me and I hope, if I can spend more time on it, stock images may give me the flexibility to change my career a bit and go back to my old design job.

Tonearm, mains conditioner, phono amplifier, record player, speakers…

Yep, I couldn’t talk about life changing purchases without mentioning the audio equipment which recently has been bringing me so much pleasure. Not much point in me going on and on about it here as I do so many hi-fi posts but, suffice to say, I’ve really got the bug in a big way.

My interest in pursuing realistic audio reproduction only enhances my love of music, I think. I certainly wouldn’t say I’ve become blinded by the technology to the point of forgetting the music – there’s so much exciting new music out there every week, the hardest part is deciding what to get!

The music I listen to has become such an integral part of my life that it’s not so much life changing as providing a soundtrack to my life, helping if I feel stressed or down, motivating me to work or just making things better.

It’s taken me ages to get to the point of writing this Decware HDT self build project up. I ordered the parts almost two years ago! Since then it took me a year to motivate myself to get round to building the speakers and then I had a few problems with other things (like the amp) which prevented me from doing the writeup. But, now, it’s all done, apart from the veneer, the photos are taken and the speakers are wonderful. So here goes…

I wanted to build the HDTs as Decware previously described them as their top of the range speakers and they feature a single full range driver in a transmission line design. I originally purchased the plans online and then bought the kit when a good friend of mine very kindly gave me some money for doing their wedding photography. The kit was $394 which splits down as $295 for the two Decware-modified Fostex drivers and $99 for the plans and parts (such as spikes, binding posts, rubber bumpers etc). Shipping to the UK was $118 and with VAT and import duty on top I estimate the final bill was about $600 (or £300). Of course this didn’t include the cabinet material – I spent about £60 on MDF.

Cutting session

Having previously built the Decware WO32 “Wicked One” subwoofer with all its weird angles, cutting the wood for the HDTs was comparitively simple. It was extremely quick to cut all the pieces to size. I then used a router to rebate all the edges (if you look at photo 2 or 4 you can see the rebates all around) plus the rebate towards the bottom of the panels where the port plate is glued in).

The speaker driver and passive radiator holes are cut using a router and my “custom jig” which is just a piece of hardboard with holes to mount the router and then you drill a hole for the centre of the circle you need to cut, stick a screw in and rotate the router to cut the circle, routing about 4-5mm deeper each time until you’ve cut through the entire thickness.

Port tubes, port plate and starting cabinet construction

Not being able to find any speaker port tubes long enough I purchased 50mm PVC pipe to create the port tubes. The port plate has three holes for the port tubes (which I think we did with the help of my dad’s flying cutter on a press drill) and was extremely simple to cut the tube to length and glue it in place (photo 1).

Once the port tubes had been glued in the cabinet construction could begin. With the rebate in each of the panels for the port plate it was simplicity itself to glue the front on and then sides. Instead of having to check everything is square repeatedly, the rebate gives the knowledge that everything is aligned and true.

Alternative tuning

It is important to note that Decware changed the design slightly since I bought the parts, making the port tubes longer. I found this out before I constructed my port tubes and, as instructed, used 11″ ports in place of the 6″ ports and 17″ ports in place of the 8″ ports on my plans.

I haven’t put a photo here of the back of the cabinet glued on but, trust me when I say it was just as easy as the other panels! The top and bottom are just square and sit nicely in the rebate cut into the top and bottom of each main panel.

Internal dividers

With the outer part of the cabinet complete it was time to cut and fit the internal dividers which give the speaker its four chambers. The full (diagonal) width divider is cut first, carefully cutting one end in a “V” shape and then, even more carefully, the other end – so that the resulting divider fits snugly into the cabinet. In theory I could have used the table saw to cut the “V” shaped ends but I used a 45? router bit which gave me precise control. You end up with about a 1/8″ flat on the end of the “V” (see photo 9 below).

Once the full width divider is cut to fit, I then routed a rebate down the centre of the divider to accept the two other dividers (see photo 10 for a closeup). Again, using the router to cut this 1/8″ deep rebate was simplicity itself. I cut the two half-diagonal-width dividers and, again, used the 45? router bit to get the “V” shaped end perfect.

It was easy to get these internal dividers to fit really snugly, so I could get them out only by quite a lot of tugging). They are not glued in but screwed to the port plate from below. Photo 8 shows the dividers inserted all the way creating the four chambers of the speaker.

The oval holes in the dividers (between front and side chambers) are cut simply by drilling with a 1/2″ drill around the marked oval (actually I think I used a slightly smaller drill bit)and then carefully knocking out the shape. I tidied up the rough bits a little.

Bracing and foam damping

Although this was not part of the plans supplied, I’d read on the Decware Forums that it was a good idea to provide some bracing for the cabinet panels and, after initial listening to my HDTs before I finally glued the top and bottom plates on, I decided to follow this route. Whilst I couldn’t hear any cabinet colouration (or boxiness) to the sound the cabinet panels did “ring” when tapped and sounded quite live.

So I bought one length of “light” hardwood and cut and fitted internal bracing (as seen in photos 11 and 12). Because the long tubes (17″) would have meant a single piece of bracing below the driver would have been extremely close to the top of the tube, I decided to use two pieces of bracing either side of the long port tubes and one longer piece over the short port tube and also in the rear chamber.

With the bracing in place I cut and fitted the acoustic foam damping (purchased on eBay from Advanced Acoustics as I only needed one 30″ square sheet). One large piece is put opposite each of the passives and in the driver chamber a long strip is folded around all sides in a triangular shape both above and below the driver (see photos 13 and 14), plus another piece is glued to the top panel (so it sits over the speaker driver) (see photo 15).

Speaker drivers, passives radiators and binding posts

Mounting the speaker drivers was a piece of cake, using black hex-headed fixings. The supplied binding posts posed a little problem in that the posts were not long enough to go through the 18mm thickness of MDF so I just created a rebate for them (leaving the posts to go through only about 5mm of MDF) by using a big drill bit to take out the required depth and then a chisel to clean up. It might sound crude but the end result is extremely neat.

The passives (two per cabinet, on the sides of the cabinet) are basically a sandwich of 2mm foam, corrugated cardboard and felt which you glue together, cut into a circular shape and then glue on the supplied speaker driver surrounds (which are exactly the same as the foam surrounds on the main drivers). Once I’d made my passive radiators I glued them into the waiting holes on the speaker cabinets. One thing I would say is that I found it very hard to glue the circular foam surrounds onto my passives without getting some glue onto the passive itself – I used contact adhesive and it was impossible to get off the passive. So I actually binned my first passive and made another one.

Also, Decware now sell “alternative” passives which look more like a speaker cone (in that they are conical and have a cap in the centre) rather than the ones I made which are flat. Bob Ziegler at Decware says “since the passive are so close to the driver itself, there is a bit of midrange coming though the passives, not much, but if you get pretty close to a side wall, it could smear the mids, the ALT passives have a hard dome, which tends to diffuse the mids enough to make even close side wall reflections, from the passives, a non-issue.” My speakers are not near any side walls, but even so, I may get the newer passives at some point and fit those.

The only thing left to do was to wire up the speakers and try them out! I chose to go the shortest route, putting a hole right through the middle of the internal divider (making sure the hole is the same diameter as the cable). I used Chord Odyssey cable to wire the driver to the binding posts. Once I was happy with the sound I took off the top and bottom cabinet plates

I forgot to mention the top “dispersion” plate (as you can see below on the right hand cabinet). These are very easy to make, taking the pieces of wood cut at the initial cutting session I just routed the semi-circle out of them using the same technique as for the driver holes. Then I used a “rounding over” bit on the router which just whizzes around the top and gives that rather professional looking finish. The bit was so good it felt like I was going through butter rather than MDF! These top plates will eventually be spray painted black and the rest of the cabinet will be veneered.

Listening, at last!

I couldn’t finish off the project writeup without talking about the sound, could I?

I’ve been using these speakers for about two months now, but have had the ampplifier problems fixed for about a week, so everything is working just fine.

The thing these speakers bring to the sound is even more space and timing with a very neutral tone. I was immediately aware of definition around instruments giving them the space to breathe, and also the speaker’s ability to define the spaces in which the instruments are performing – I’ve suddenly become very aware of the ambience of drums, guitars, pianos, voices. The speakers are so good at helping to define this ambience that you really hear it on deep things too, like timpani, which is absolutely spine tinging.

Their tonal range is better, and smoother than my Parker Audio 98MkII speakers, with a deep bass, taut and fast, a nicer smoother midband and less “cutting” treble than my old speakers. This is only to be expected of this full range driver but it definitely suits my ears far better.

The fantastic speed really makes for some excellent dynamics and powerful leading edges to percussive sounds, I’ve never heard the track “Mid Town” on Calexico’s “Hot Rail” album like this before, with its massive drumming and thunderous final note.

I wouldn’t say the tiny micro-tonalities, the subtle nuances of timbre and texture where you really start to identify things like the individual trumpets of a brass section are really different to my old speakers but then that is where the Parkers really excelled – the HDTs are definitely no slouch in this area.

Lastly, the soundstage cast by these HDTs is by far the best I’ve ever heard though my listening room is not ideal so perhaps it’s not for me to comment on with authority but, again, these are the first speakers I’ve used in my system which deliver a really solid, wide and deep soundstage. Getting the Vertex Jaya mains conditioner and the Origin Live Silver tonearm really did enormous things to create space in the soundstage and placement of instruments – but these HDTs now use this to their full advantage positioning everything beautifully.

Without a doubt these are the finest speakers I’ve heard and I’m absolutely delighted to have made them because they are so good in so many areas. The first thing I thought when I heard them was, “I must buy another kit now, so I can make another pair”!

I’ll post a photo of them when they’re veneered.

Click here for information about the HDT speakers on the Decware site. If you want to see the photos larger I’ve posted them all into a set on Flickr.

What happened was the new HDT speakers sound absolutely stunning, without wanting to give too much away, but there’s been an ongoing problem with thinness of sound which I’ve had ever since my Parker Audio speakers.

I’ve spent the last few years trying to rectify the problem whilst also improving the system as a whole—in fact building the Decware HDTs was supposed to alleviate the problem, with their single driver which should have produced a lovely smooth midband. I also purchased a new phono stage which was supposed to address the problem, too, but it did not.

Becoming suspicious of where the problem now actually lay I decided to measure the frequency sweep output from the phono stage, the amp and the speakers. On doing this I discovered a potential problem with the amplifier which really surprised me—I had assumed it was giving a flat response, as you would. Instead it seems to give a big increase above 2KHz forming a “hill” all the way up to 15-20 KHz.

So the HDT speaker writeup is on hold until I get the amp problem sorted. Obviously I don’t want to continue writing any reviews with a potentially flawed component at the heart of the sound.

By the way, the phono stage I bought is the Lehmann Black Cube, a really well reviewed phono amplifier with some useful loadings you can set with DIP switches on the bottom, plus an upgrade path with a new power supply. I’ll do a write up of this, of course, once the amp is sorted.

On another note, I’ve swapped my freedom for financial security and it is really depressing. No longer can I decide how to use my time, we can’t go out for any spur-of-the-moment trips to places. I have to be in my office each day working with the same brand. I’ve sunk to a new low but, hey, at least we can pay the mortgage.

This “component” is something I’ve been planning to buy for some time as the starting point for investing in good foundations for my hi-fi.

I’ve long understood the idea that cables and stands do make a lot of difference to the audio and have had a stand, turntable shelf and half-decent cables for years now.

But so many people were writing about Vertex AQ‘s products and how good they are, that I became more and more interested. They sell three main types of product; equipment supports, mains filters and cables. The suggestion is that these items are as fundamental to the system as your components are.

Seeing as their cables are expensive (expensive for my wallet, anyway), I decided to start down the route of supports and mains filters. And it’s with the company’s very cheapest mains filter at £295, the Vertex AQ Jaya, that I began.

As soon as my wife saw the box and understood that you just plug it into a socket near to your hi-fi (and, therefore, that it doesn’t function in the signal path) she said “you’ve been ripped off!”

I can tell you that the opposite is actually true. Upon plugging the box into the socket and powering up my system I perceived a very subtle change which grew and grew becoming more and more obvious as hours of listening passed.

The first time I listened to it I really did wonder what it was doing and after an hour or so, turned off the Jaya. It was only upon turning it off that I realised it was doing something amazing to the sound.

The effect the Jaya has on cleaning up the mains supply is to give the music space — space to breathe, to deliver its weight and dynamics. When you turn off the Jaya it is rather like the space in front of you collapses, becomes more opaque. It feels like the music becomes rather more two dimensional, like a flat plane spread before you.

So the box creates this wonderful space and transparency in which your music comes to life. For the first time ever with my hi-fi I perceived front-to-back depth as well as a left-to-right soundstage. The effect is truly stunning.

And with the space the Jaya creates, you find every instrument, every voice, is more clear and separated. This clarity is similar to the effect the Origin Live Silver tonearm had, only, of course, adding to the extra clarity the arm brought.

I took it to a friend’s house where the Jaya worked its magic. My friend at first was unconvinced anything was happening until he unplugged it, then heard how flat it sounded, plugged it back in and proceeded to be delighted for the rest of the evening.

If this is what the Jaya does, I just wonder what the Silver version would have done. I cannot wait to hear what effect their Kinabalu supports do!

If you are into audio reproduction and haven’t yet heard the Jaya with your hi-fi, I strongly suggest you do so, with one warning — there’s no going back once you hear it!

Tubes, valves, glowing thermionic devices. My input valve (Jan Philips 6922) suddenly went microphonic last week which only left me with one nice valve (Amperex PQ 6922) which I never use because it’s on its way out, and another horrible valve (Sovtek). Posted on some forums and got some really helpful suggestions for both new valves and cheaper NOS (new old stock). So I’ll be comparing those soon, may well write something about how they all sound.

What else?

I bought a secret new device which is just amazing, but rather than reveal what it is I will do a write up.

Got a whole raft of fantastic new vinyl. Norman Records is turning out to be a really superb shop to order from, their service is just excellent. They also have a great forum where you can find lists of music customers recommend.

These used to be Decware’s flagship speakers and I’ve always wanted to build a single driver design. So far I’ve almost finished cutting the wood, just got to dry fit it and cut the internal cross pieces, then I’m ready to glue. It should be a week of glueing and they will be pretty much done.

One thing I had to do was get some new contact adhesive, as I discovered when I opened the old can that it had turned into a rock.

Expect photographs and a full write up soon!

I just wanted to show how vinyl is such a great thing to buy at the moment, even for people who’ve gone over to computers and iPods but perhaps still want something to play on their turntable (or like me, find the vinyl sound quality superior to everything else).

Most of the records I’ve been buying recently come with a card with a link to allow you to download the album in high quality MP3 format. So you really do get the best of both worlds!

Every time I go to Origin Live, in Southampton, I end up coming away with something different to what I expected to get. But in a very good way.

The first thing to say about Origin Live is that they are a little cottage industry making the most amazing turntables and tonearms. They’re based in a little industrial unit in Southampton and, as such, they were of more interest to me being close enough to actually visit (rather than just exchange emails, payment and receive goods from).

So, you arrive at the industrial estate and spend ages trying to find Origin Live (they’re hiddenright at the back round a bit that looks closed). Then you ring the bell – no answer – so you push the door and enter and find yourself in a small workshop with metal turnings all over the place and nobody to be seen.

You call out, “hello?” but there’s no answer. Nobody is around but you can see in the workshop many new tonearms in the process of being made, and turntable bits and pieces all over the place.

Eventually the postman will come in and tell you that someone “might be in that room” pointing to another door, which, upon entering you discover a little office and Mark Baker, the man behind Origin Live as well as the designer of their very well reviewed turntables and tonearms.

So, this time, I had taken my Origin Live OL1 tonearm with some cash in hand and the intention of getting it upgraded with the remaining three or four upgrades so I’d have a £400 tonearm which should sound very good. (I’d already bought the OL1 tonearm with my Ultra turntable and had done the structural modification myself).

Instead, Mark said, “Well you could do that…or you could get a Silver tonearm which is far, far better”. He explained that the OL1 fully upgraded would sound very good, but that the Silver sounds much better, and that I wouldn’t get anything near it for under £2,000.

“But, I only have £250 with me to pay for these arm upgrades”, I said, sounding rather pathetic. (The Silver costs £600 and was financially out of my reach).

But Mark retaliated with an amazing offer; part exchange my OL1 tonearm, pay my £250 cash and walk away with the Silver tonearm, and pay the remainder in a month’s time. It was an incredibly generous offer, the kind of thing you only get from this kind of small cottage industry where they are passionate about what they do. The amazing thing was Mark was offering me £190 for my OL1 tonearm in part exchange – and it had only cost £195! And I had been using it for a year!

So I waited while they finished making me a Silver tonearm and walked away with something I had not expected (similar to the story of my Origin Live Ultra turntable – see review which I will post soon). Of course, I was a very happy and excited bunny at this point.

Sound quality

OK, so I’ve got home and installed the tonearm. The arm is a slender polished metal, very sturdy polished headshell and Origin Live’s minimalist bearing.

I had previously wanted to upgrade the phono stage because I felt the soundstage was not very expansive compared to my CD player and also that vinyl sounded a bit thin. Mark Baker had suggested, by email, that a tonearm upgrade was actually going to make a lot more difference than a better phono stage – and, by god, he was right!

The sound was instantly so much better than before, it was like opening a window onto the music. Now the music was so much clearer and smoother, it opened out hugely. I could suddenly really see into the music, the level of separation was so good. At last, I had a turntable which really makes my CD player sound two dimensional and flat. The Silver really does add depth, clarity and separation.

I don’t think it really added a lot to the timbre and texture of the sounds, but then they were already extremely good, instead it was like a mist lifting to reveal an entire scene. Also, the bass became noticably tighter and smoother.

Conclusion

The conclusion is actually that if you live near a manufacturer like Origin Live, go and see them, support your local cottage industries!