Turntables, Arms & Cartridges

EAT’s inverted, magnetically-assisted ceramic bearing makes for a very stable platform – the platter’s centre of gravity lying below the pivot point – but high mass solutions, even with some magnetic ‘lift’, will often have only fair levels of rumble, and so it is here with a through-bearing figure of –67.0dB (DIN-B wtd). On the other hand, the 22kg platter’s combination of alloy, brass, vinyl polymer (surface) and sorbothane provides excellent damping, so the crucial through-groove rumble figure is reduced to –71.1dB (DIN-B wtd). This figure is only very slightly changed with EAT’s disc weight in place. The two, relatively low-torque AC motors bring the platter up to speed in a very leisurely ~25 seconds – this is pre-programmed so spinning up the platter by hand makes little difference. The platter relies, to a degree, on inertia to maintain its rotational stability so the 0.03% (peak-wtd) wow and diffuse 0.03% flutter are good but not in ‘direct-drive’ territory [see Graph 1]. Absolute speed was running –0.25% slow in our sample, but can be adjusted in increments of ±0.1rpm.

The sheer scale of the partnering F-Note’s 12in wooden armtube and massy chromed headshell presages a very low frequency primary bending mode at 65Hz – off the left hand side of the CSD waterfall’s X scale [Graph 2]. There is also a (likely) torsional mode at 245Hz followed by short-lived harmonics and modes associated with various discrete elements of the bearing assembly at 460Hz, 550Hz, 670Hz and 775Hz. Friction is very low at ~5mg in both planes while the length of the arm, laser alignment tool, adjustable azimuth and VTA make for very accurate set-up. The high 20g effective mass limits the F-Note to use with low compliance MCs but its well-damped behaviour suits these typically ‘energetic’ pick-ups to a tee. PM

Hi-Fi News Measured Specifications:

Turntable speed error at 33.33rpm	33.25rpm (–0.25%; adjustable)
Time to audible stabilisation	24.5sec
Peak Wow/Flutter	0.03% / 0.03%
Rumble (silent groove, DIN B wtd)	–71.1dB (–70.7dB with clamp)
Rumble (through bearing, DIN B wtd)	–67.0dB
Hum & Noise (unwtd, rel. to 5cm/sec)	–54.5dB
Power Consumption	13-26W (1W idle)
Dimensions (WHD) / Weight	710x250x440mm / 68kg