Turntables, Arms & Cartridges

Vertere's founder and chief designer, Touraj Moghaddam, has a long and distinguished hi-fi history, cutting his teeth in grand style with the Roksan Xerxes turntable back in 1985 [see HFN Milestones, Jul '11]. And he has been responsible for other 'milestone' products, including the Artemiz tonearm in 1987, the Radius turntable [1989, last reviewed HFN Mar '10] and the top-end TMS deck in 1991. Roksan's Caspian, Kandy and M-series separates were also crafted by Touraj and the association would likely have continued had he not departed in 2011 to focus on his new brand, Vertere.

The very esoteric Reference TA tonearm broke cover in Jan '13 at CES, followed later that year by the RG-1 (Reference Groove) and SG-1 (Super Groove) turntables. These flagships sent a message of intent and were not only instrumental in realising the more affordable MG-1 (Magic Groove) but also in establishing working relationships with mastering engineers including Miles Showell [Opinion, HFN Apr '20] and Giles Martin [Investigation, HFN Nov '17]. Vertere's most recent deck, the DG-1 [HFN May '20] is joined by no fewer than three pick-ups, including the Sabre MM pictured and reviewed here. PM