MICHELL DESIGN PHILOSOPHY
The task of a turntable is simple.
The design of a turntable is not!
At audio frequencies, the arm should be kept locked above the groove, without any extraneous motion relative to the cartridge. And the groove should be dragged at a constant angular speed underneath the stylus.
This means that over the whole frequency band of 10Hz up to 20kHz and beyond, the whole loop made by record, platter, bearing, (sub)chassis, arm plate, tonearm, and cartridge body should behave in an utterly rigid and non-resonant fashion.
Any flexing of the same dimensions as the microscopic undulations in the groove detracts from sonic fidelity.
At lower-than-audio frequencies, the arm should be made able to freely follow the groove’s warps and excentricities, so as not to damage LP or cartridge, and this without inducing any spurious signals into the cartridge’s generator.
Only when these demands are fulfilled can the stylus trace the actual information embedded in the record’s grooves.
Platter
We make the platter from high density, vibration dampening compound. This material closely approaches the mechanical and acoustical properties of the vinyl record itself, enhancing the coupling between both.
Indeed, at boundaries of materials with like acoustic impedances, transmission of vibrational energy occurs. Whereas at boundaries of dissimilar materials, be they vinyl versus felt, metal, glass, or just air, only part of the energy is transmitted, the remainder being reflected back into the vinyl, towards the stylus.
Above measures not only result in a neutral and precise sound, but also in a very low susceptibility to record blemishes, ticks and pops. This is one of the reasons why a Michell Engineering turntable not only excels in the replay of good vinyl, but also pulls the same trick with less than pristine records.
Platter
We make the platter from high density, vibration dampening compound. This material closely approaches the mechanical and acoustical properties of the vinyl record itself, enhancing the coupling between both.
Indeed, at boundaries of materials with like acoustic impedances, transmission of vibrational energy occurs. Whereas at boundaries of dissimilar materials, be they vinyl versus felt, metal, glass, or just air, only part of the energy is transmitted, the remainder being reflected back into the vinyl, towards the stylus.
Above measures not only result in a neutral and precise sound, but also in a very low susceptibility to record blemishes, ticks and pops. This is one of the reasons why a Michell Engineering turntable not only excels in the replay of good vinyl, but also pulls the same trick with less than pristine records.
Bearing
The platter should be supported so that it can revolve smoothly, without any extraneous vibrations and motion. This is the job for the main bearing, the very heart of a turntable.
We employ a unique inverted bearing that locates the point of rotation above the center of gravity of the platter, and exactly at the height where the drive belt invokes. This makes the platter/bearing a self-stabilising component that can not be provoked into rocking modes.
The precision bearing has a case-hardened steel shaft that is secured upright in an oil well, threaded into the subchassis from below. A massive brass housing, precision-machined as a pair with the shaft, is attached to the platter via the integral record spindle. A thrust ball sits on the flat top of the shaft centralized by an inverted cone in the top of the housing. This housing has a spiral machined into its inner bore to draw a high quality synthetic oil from the bath to the top of the bearing shaft as the housing rotates with the platter. A hole is drilled from the top of the shaft down to the oil well to allow the trapped oil to return to the bottom. This unique oil pumping mechanism results in low friction and wear, and in low rumble and noise. Year after year of operation.
Bearing
The platter should be supported so that it can revolve smoothly, without any extraneous vibrations and motion. This is the job for the main bearing, the very heart of a turntable.
We employ a unique inverted bearing that locates the point of rotation above the center of gravity of the platter, and exactly at the height where the drive belt invokes. This makes the platter/bearing a self-stabilising component that can not be provoked into rocking modes.
The precision bearing has a case-hardened steel shaft that is secured upright in an oil well, threaded into the subchassis from below. A massive brass housing, precision-machined as a pair with the shaft, is attached to the platter via the integral record spindle. A thrust ball sits on the flat top of the shaft centralized by an inverted cone in the top of the housing. This housing has a spiral machined into its inner bore to draw a high quality synthetic oil from the bath to the top of the bearing shaft as the housing rotates with the platter. A hole is drilled from the top of the shaft down to the oil well to allow the trapped oil to return to the bottom. This unique oil pumping mechanism results in low friction and wear, and in low rumble and noise. Year after year of operation.
Suspension
The vinyl/cartridge/arm trio is to reside on its own ‘island’. The suspension decouples them from the outside world with its motor noise, footfall, acoustic vibrations, and other potential disturbances.
All of our turntables, except the TecnoDec, suspend the heavy subchassis and platter from three extension springs. This is an elegant and self-stabilising solution as the center of gravity of the floating mass is conveniently put below the suspension points. Rocking and nodding modes of the subchassis are hence discouraged, while overall turntable setup is straightforward, and drift is virtually inexistent. In addition, the total suspended mass of about eleven kilograms ensures that any incoupled energy can not result in large displacements.
The spring towers double as the actual turntable supports, terminated in heavy aluminium cones. The towers are sectioned in two vertical parts, making a high-pressure point-contact with a bearing ball. This makes for a true three point support, which gives the springs and the suspended subchassis a firm reference to ground.
The floating chassis’ task is to keep the bearing and arm plate rigidly in relation to each other. It is a heavy and rigid cast aluminium component, internally strengthened with beams and ribs. The Orbe and Orbe SE benefit from an additional layer of DensoDamp mastic which results in an acoustically inert subchassis with excellent self-damping properties.
Offering a wide range of custom-made arm plates, we can keep the mass, and the mass-distribution, of the subchassis, platter, and arm a known constant. This translates into a suspended chassis turntable that works optimally with almost any existing tonearm.
Off-the-shelf arm plates can be delivered for the following tonearms: Rega, Linn, SME and Moerch. Others can be made to order.
Suspension
The vinyl/cartridge/arm trio is to reside on its own ‘island’. The suspension decouples them from the outside world with its motor noise, footfall, acoustic vibrations, and other potential disturbances.
All of our turntables, except the TecnoDec, suspend the heavy subchassis and platter from three extension springs. This is an elegant and self-stabilising solution as the center of gravity of the floating mass is conveniently put below the suspension points. Rocking and nodding modes of the subchassis are hence discouraged, while overall turntable setup is straightforward, and drift is virtually inexistent. In addition, the total suspended mass of about eleven kilograms ensures that any incoupled energy can not result in large displacements.
The spring towers double as the actual turntable supports, terminated in heavy aluminium cones. The towers are sectioned in two vertical parts, making a high-pressure point-contact with a bearing ball. This makes for a true three point support, which gives the springs and the suspended subchassis a firm reference to ground.
The floating chassis’ task is to keep the bearing and arm plate rigidly in relation to each other. It is a heavy and rigid cast aluminium component, internally strengthened with beams and ribs. The Orbe and Orbe SE benefit from an additional layer of DensoDamp mastic which results in an acoustically inert subchassis with excellent self-damping properties.
Offering a wide range of custom-made arm plates, we can keep the mass, and the mass-distribution, of the subchassis, platter, and arm a known constant. This translates into a suspended chassis turntable that works optimally with almost any existing tonearm.
Off-the-shelf arm plates can be delivered for the following tonearms: Michell, Rega, SME (both types), Graham, Wilson-benesch, Morch, Origin-Live, and Linn. Others can be made to order.
Motor
The most obvious task of a turntable is to keep the record at a constant and precise angular speed, without low-rate drift, without audible wow, and without high-frequency noise components which detract from the music’s delicacy.
The motor we use is a very precise, reliable, and low-noise DC motor that has been selected only after extensive listening sessions and reliability tests. The Orbe models use a version of the same motor with a tacho speed control loop back to the supply. With all turntables the motor is a stand-alone unit, housed in a heavy base of metal (almost 3kg for the Orbe), to elimate vibrational breakthrough to the turntable. The HR and Orbe Controller NC supplies effectively isolate the motor from the potentially poluted mains network.
Drive is relayed to the platter via a precision-ground soft round-section custom compound belt, which runs around the platter’s circumference. This results in a very high reduction of noise transfer from the motor.
Motor
The most obvious task of a turntable is to keep the record at a constant and precise angular speed, without low-rate drift, without audible wow, and without high-frequency noise components which detract from the music’s delicacy.
The motor we use is a very precise, reliable, and low-noise DC motor that has been selected only after extensive listening sessions and reliability tests. The Orbe models use a version of the same motor with a tacho speed control loop back to the supply. With all turntables the motor is a stand-alone unit, housed in a heavy base of metal (almost 3kg for the Orbe), to elimate vibrational breakthrough to the turntable. The HR and Orbe Controller NC supplies effectively isolate the motor from the potentially poluted mains network.
Drive is relayed to the platter via a precision-ground soft round-section custom compound belt, which runs around the platter’s circumference. This results in a very high reduction of noise transfer from the motor.