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Product: Silver 250
Tonearm
Manufacturer: Origin
Live - UK
Cost: 840 Euro
Reviewer: Steve
Davey
Reviewed: April, 2002
Although I am a supporter of the
theory that the most important part of a Hi Fi system is the front
end, as you can't replace information in the signal that wasn't
extracted from the source material no matter how good the rest of the
components, until recently I hadn't appreciated the influence of the
tonearm.
Of course a high quality motor unit and power supply to
spin the vinyl at a constant rate of rotation is required and, yes, a
cartridge with a delicate and precise alignment of coils and finely
sculpted stylus is needed, but surely all the tonearm does is hold
the stylus in the groove and allow you to adjust its tracking?
True:
But that is not such a trivial objective to execute. The movement of
the stylus is minute and vibrations in the arm will generate noise by
moving the magnetic field relative to the coils in the cartridge,
masking fine detail and degrading the sound.
I had been intrigued
by reports of a super arm at a real world price from Origin Live -
its Silver 250. And as a company with quite a reputation for
modifying the Rega tonearms to improve upon an already legendary
design, I felt I ought to investigate. Having been impressed by their
DC-motor upgrade for my LP12 I was expecting good things but I was
totally taken aback by the sonic performance of the Silver
250............read on.
For a full description of the
features of the arm visit this
web page. One of the key design features of this product is the
armtube that sits within widely spaced horizontal bearings, atop the
black Rega base and vertical bearing. The armtube is made from a
specially heat-treated alloy - Origin Live are naturally secretive
about exactly how it is treated. The design aim being to dampen
vibration set up in the arm and prevent reflection of acoustic waves
back into the cartridge.
The styling could be said to be
minimalist. Thus once installed it may not be as eye-catching as
those arms with dials and various counter-balances to adjustment
tracking and bias. Nevertheless, bias and tracking force are easily
set with the aid of a balance (but then you really should use a
balance to set tracking force rather than relying on the dial
settings on arms). Adjusting the arm height to set VTA requires an
optional collar.
The arm lift mechanism is the
same as can be found on Rega arms. It has a good positive feel and
gently lowers the stylus into the groove. The arm clip was a little
stiff at first but after a few weeks of use has freed up and is now
fine.
Internally, high grade Litz wire is hard-wired to the rather
thick inter-connect cables terminated by substantial high
conductivity phono plugs. At the cartridge end of things, PTFE silver
plated flying leads are terminated with gold plated copper beryllium
cartridge tags.
The arm comes with excellent fitting instructions.
On my LP12 the bottom of the armthread protruding through the hole in
the armboard snagged on the corner brace if the arm was lowered too
far. This apparently is not uncommon on later LP12s and the common
solution is to carefully remove a small section of the corner brace.
Not a difficult job I would imagine although not one I undertook as
it was just possible to set the VTA in its optimal position by
raising the height of the record using the Ringmat spacer system.
The
only tricky part of the installation was dressing the arm cable, as
it is rather thick and it is important not to let it snag on the
bottom of the LP12 base. Once this had been achieved the most time
consuming operation was to arrive at the optimal tightness for the
securing nut. This is accessible through the hole in the LP12 base
beneath the arm but is nevertheless a little fiddly. The VTA
adjustment is by means of a threaded sleeve that fastens to the arm
thread and sits on the armboard thus raising and lowering the arm.
I also installed the arm on my new Michell Orbe SE. This was much more straight-forward and because of the open design of the arm board, it was easy to adjust VTA and the tightness of the securing nut.
Overall once set up the Silver
250 looks and feels like a quality item, especially when coupled with
modern open-style turntables such as the Orbe - but thats a matter of
personal taste!
I tried a number of cartridges with the arm
including my usual MC AT33 as well as some MM whilst testing a phono
stage, and at first I thought set up might be a bit tedious due to
the VTA adjustment method. But no it was fine and if there is no
requirement to frequently change the cartridge (which is likely to be
so for the vast majority of potential customers) then a couple of
hours installing and setting up the arm really isn't an issue. I can
now change cartridges in a matter of minutes and in all other
respects this arm is a reviewers dream..........let me explain.
To begin with I found this arm
both a revelation and a frustration. The instant I lowered the arm
onto Led Zeppelin's Whole Lotta Love - set spinning on the LP12 - I
realised that this arm was special. This track is not one of my
normal "killers". I simply fancied listening to it while I
played around with the tracking force and VTA - to get a feel for the
arm.
But the shimmer on the cymbals, the power of the drums, the
tightness of the bass, the ambience of the recording, the vibrancy of
the guitars and sheer emotion of Robert Plant's performance came
flooding out of the 'speakers. Before proceeding any further with the
set up I sat down and listened to the whole of Led Zep's second
album
This arm invites you just to listen and not to fiddle in
search of a better sound. But after a little bit of adjustment the
top end performance was improved somewhat but I had just about hit
the sweet spot straight out of the box! There then followed an
evening of pulling out record after record just to hear what they
sounded like with this arm in place.
Everthing I play was so improved. The low frequencies on Leftfield's el cid just went deeper and deeper, and as a whole I could play the track at ear-splitting volume before harshness set in, which I can only attribute to there being a very pure signal indeed being conveyed to the amplifiers. One record that was a real surprise with the Silver 250 in place was Out of Control by the Chemical Brothers. The urgency and flow of the songs construction was laid bare and so cleanly rendered that yet again the volume control was wound further and further clockwise to create that nightclub feel.
Generally, the sound stage was
highly tangible with 3-D imaging giving the illusion of being able to
carve out the performers. Vocals especially were positioned above and
in front of the 'speakers. The remarkable performance of Eva
Cassidy's "Fields of Gold" was portrayed beautifully both
in terms of texture and range. The arm conveying delicacy just as
brilliantly as it did raw power.
Having enjoyed listening to the
arm the frustration came when writing this article. I could not pin
down why I liked the arm so much - what was it doing to make such an
impact? I suspected that it had no sonic signature, that is to say it
was as near as makes no difference simply conveying the signal from
the record to the amplifiers. But how does one assess such an
idealistic quality? Even comparing it with others arms, perhaps much
more expensive that the Silver 250, would only show up differences
and maybe flaws in their performance. I concluded, therefore, that
since I was expecting the Orbe, some speakers and a phono stage to
review, one approach would be to listen to the performance of these
component and try to spot any invarience in the sound that might be
ascribed to the arm. OK this is not precise science but who could
claim that Hi-Fi ever is?
I first tried some different
speaker cables. Yes I could hear the differences that I had
previously detected much clearer with the Silver 250 in the system,
so making the forthcoming review on those cables easier. But no major
changes in the balance or sonic dynamics. I then took charge of a
review set of speakers. These were a big disappointment when I first
plugged them in - but I had been warned that they would take 100
hours to burn-in so I put those back in the box and returned to my
IPLs.
Next up was the Orbe, replacing the LP12. Having heard the
Orbe before equipped with an upgraded SME IV I was delighted to hear
the improved imaging, much tighter bass coupled with a sweet and open
top end. AND the Orbe/OL250 combo really rocked - much to my great
relief as I was worried, having sold the LP12/Ittok, that this
attribute of the older vinyl spinner may have had to have had to be
compromised in my search for a more accurate sonic presentation. But
all I could conclude from exchanging the LP12 with the Orbe was that
the Silver 250 was equally at home with both turntables.
Next
in-line for audition was a MM phono stage. I used Goldring Elektra
and Audio Technica AT95E cartridges and was surprised just how good
these cartridges sounded through a MM stage costing a fraction of the
cost of the AT33 MC cartridge. I will be writing a more detailed
article on the phono stage but for the purposes of evaluating the OL
Silver250 arm I can report that a £500 pound cartrudge is not
necessary to hear the benefits of its nuetral sonic qualities.
After 2 months of testing I had
become convinced that the Origin Live Silver 250 was indeed a great
arm and decided to try again the previously shunned loudspeakers that
sound so poor straight from the box. To begin with they sounded just
as I remembered them - closed in with a wooly bass and very odd
imaging indeed.
But I decided to listen to them as they burn't in
and I can report that things did improve considerably and gradually.
So tranparent is the OL Silver250 in combination with the Orbe and
AT33 that it was possible to hear the individual drivers open up -
first the midrange, then the tweeter and much latter the bass
drivers. It took many 10s of hours and again will provide material
for a future review.
Apart from being an interesting experiment it
shed no additional light on the qualities of the tone arm in question
- except to convince me that its a great tool for reviewing Hi-Fi!!
Referring to the Silver 250 as a
tool may sound rather damning with faint praise but it is not
intended to be. Indeed I can think of no other component that I have
heard that deserves this accolade because it provides such excellent
transparency that it imparts no discernible sonic characteristic on
the music that I could hear. The fundamental requirement of a test
tool!
There may be better value propositions around to upgrade
your system but if there is I haven't heard them - for 840 euros you
get a component that lets your system realise its full potential. I
fully anticipate this product remaining at the heart of my system for
many years to come. A fantastic product then from Origin Live and
this particular audiophiles dream review tool.
© Copyright 2002 Steve Davey - http://www.tnt-audio.com
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