What could be cooler than to have my new U-Turn Audio Orbit turntable show up 3 months after Christmas... the week of my birthday! LOL good things come to those who wait ;) On top of that... I got my new Vinyl Me Please edition for March! So not only did I get my new table but I have some new music to spin on it as well!
This table is nearly non-music-person proof LOL. opening the box reveals... the acrylic platter... yummy. Below that, the misc. goodies, RCA's and the drive belt. Below that is the table assembly complete with twisty tie to secure the tone arm to its rest. Stupid Simple baby, doesn't get better than this. Pull the goodies out and un-bag them, place the platter on the spindle, thread the belt on being careful not to stretch it, and we're almost ready to go. I tell you what finding a spacer to get my digital gram scale level with the top of the platter was the most trouble. I checked and set the balance to 2g which is the recommended tracking force for the included AT95e cartridge. I actually have one of these but don't think it's ever seen any play time so I will go ahead and break in the new cart to give it a listen as shipped. Once it has some hours on it I will definitely pull my AT440MLa and transplant that to the new table.
At first blush, with about 1 hour on it now, as I write this I am quite pleased with the sound coming out of my system. The thing I notice above all else is the much quieter presentation vs. my Audio Technica table. The AT has quite a bit of rumble, the U-Turn doesn't suffer from that at all. I'm impressed with the AT95e, this is a very well behaved cart for having no hours on it, sounds really respectable out of the box. I checked the tone arm alignment and it was close enough that I didn't feel any need to try to improve upon it. Playing records confirms that setup out of the box was indeed good to go.
Once things have had a chance to settle and the cart has about 20 hours or so on it I will likely post an update.
Dare I say, as things stand right at this moment... this turntable is a fantastic value, out of the box your average Joe would be spinning LP's in 15minutes assuming the turntable was the only missing element. I'm not talking about JUST playing records, but being able to really enjoy the experience. Do I sound snobby yet? LOL As I prepare to flip another LP I am quite simply tickled with this turntable's performance. I look forward to writing the update after living with it for a while.
enjoy the music my friends
