What good is 3D-printed vinyl if you don’t have a $36,000 turntable to play it?
Spiral Groove has released a 70 lb “ultrahigh-end” turntable, the SG1.1. It is paired with the company’s Centroid tonearm. Suggested retail price is $30,000 without the Centroid tonearm, and $36,000 with it.
The tonearm is easily removable and Spiral Groove says their mounting system allows other arms to be quickly installed with perfect alignment. The body is made of two platforms, forming a dense and rigid surface that is non-resonant.
The SG1.1 is set to 33-1/3 or 45 rpm by an electronic control, and it has a low voltage and high-torque AC motor. Spiral Groove says the platter has a hardened steel bearing and rotates at a stable speed without wobbling.
In the end, this is really just a simple $30,000 turntable, one that Spiral Groove hopes will achieve “the most elegant equilibrium of materials, performance, function, manufacturability and beauty“.
That’s quite a nice table. I don’t see it displacing the ubiquitous 8 billion dollar iPod though.
I want vinyl to not only survive, but grow and thrive into a strangely big format category. I want to create a publication about it! I just fear that products like these signify a bubble. And you know what happens to those…
Actually, Paul, there are quite a few turntables in this price class, and its not a recent “bubble”-like occasion. Look at Stereophile and The Absolute Sound for others…
I don’t understand why y’all are getting so excited about that cheap tunrtable. Why aim for the bottom?
http://www.needledoctor.com/Clearaudio-Statement-Turntable?sc=2&category=45
For that kind of money I’d rather have a laser turntable to ensure no needle ever degrades the grooves. See here — http://www.elpj.com/
What a stupid, pointless ‘article’. There are turntables for $180,000. So what?