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The
Arezzo Turntable
Review by Jimmy Hughes in Hi-Fi+
It’s much the same story with the high current power supply.
The difference is a better sound. The music sounds a tad more
dynamic and seems to have greater tonal variation. But there
is little if any improvement in stability. This is good. It
shows that even the basic Arezzo is not unduly compromised.
Listening to the Arezzo Ultra, I found myself able to relax
in a way that is not always possible with vinyl. One of the
great things about CD is its sheer security; it hardly ever
breaks up, gets stuck, hits you with background noise, or
suffers speed (pitch) irregularities. It may have its own
troublesome faults, but not these ones. Being a turntable,
the Arezzo Ultra is intrinsically prone to such misdemeanours.
But subjectively, it performs as though it isn’t. It is remarkably
solid and assured and hardly ever sounds as if its about to
go off the rails. It’s difficult to put into words. But it
just sounds unflappable.
Lps with highly modulated climaxes seem to reproduce comfortably.
The pickup sounds as if its having an easier time of things,
and gives the impression of being better able to cope with
whatever’s happening in the grooves. So, when a disc does
have a bit of turbulence, it’s invariably handled with a certain
relaxed ease. In the past, I’ve had turntables that offered
something similar, but again they’re always big and expensive.
That the Arezzo Ultra does what it does with (comparatively)
modest resources is little short of incredible, and it’s largely
down to the drive system used.
Designer Stuart Michell tells me he chose a special higher-torque
version of the Premotec AC motor. This motor is a derivative
of the old Phillips motor - as used in the Linn and Rega -
but has more poke. Indeed, Stuart claims the standard motor
would not have the necessary torque to drive the Kinetic flywheel.
Because of the multi-belt drive, the motor is most definitely
‘in charge’ of the platter. Some turntables operate on the
basis of the motor getting the platter up to speed, and after
that, speed stability is maintained by flywheel effect. With
the Arezzo, the motor is the driving force. Perhaps as a result,
the biggest power supply makes more of a difference to the
sound. The music sounds better focused and cleaner, with more
light and shade, and increased fine detail. You can try to
analyse the difference, but fundamentally things just sound
better - there’s an overall improvement.
For me, the exceptional pitch stability of the Arezzo is
its main virtue. Given the choice, I would prefer to use the
Arezzo Ultra against other, more expensive better-sounding
turntables that were less stable. While I couldn’t say the
Arezzo Ultra is the very best -sounding turntable out there,
it certainly ranks high among the best, especially when it
comes to sitting down and enjoying music. It has a way of
making it very accessible and communicative. Somehow, the
various faults that can affect your enjoyment are minimized.
Given that it does what it does with a pretty inexpensive
tonearm, that’s quite an achievement. Used with something
better there’s no doubt results would be outstanding. So maybe
Oscar is right; it’s just that “best” and “most expensive”
aren’t always the same."
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