Turntables, Arms & Cartridges

Elipson's main bearing with its bronze sleeve and hardened steel shaft is fairly substantial for what is a fairly lightweight plastic subchassis and pressed steel platter, although the mechanical rumble is still slightly below average at –64.9dB (DIN-B wtd, re. 1kHz/5cm/sec). The platter carries no polymer damping, for example, and 'rings' at 850Hz with other modes at 1.29-3.9kHz. Fortunately – by design – both these bell modes and the bearing noise are significantly quelled by the thick felt mat, reducing the through-groove rumble to a more respectable –67.5dB. Speed accuracy is good with a mean error of just –0.14% but low-rate drift is also clearly visible on the W&F spectrum [see Graph 1, below]. While this is a drawback of many DC-powered decks [HFN Aug '20], the Chroma 400 is driven by a synchronous AC motor. However, many listeners are evidently insensitive to low rate drift so Graph 1, and the 0.15% peak wow, possibly 'look' worse than may be experienced in practice.

The partnering OTT (Orbital Torsion Tonearm) offers a low 8g effective mass that's well suited to the high compliance Ortofon OM10 pick-up, but the rudimentary bearing required adjustment in our sample to reduce friction/stiction and free up its vertical movement (~20mg with limited play). The mix of carbon-fibre in the arm tube and injection-moulded plastics for the bulbous headshell and in the bearing housing produces a fairly complex set of bending and other modes [Graph 2]. The main mode is at a low 85Hz (off Graph 2's X-axis) with harmonics, torsional and other structural modes clustered around 150Hz, 290Hz, 550Hz and 960Hz. While this is not the most rigid of cartridge carriers we've tested, the mid/treble is usefully 'clean' above 1kHz. PM