drive
The Perfect Turntable
genuin audio is a turntable that makes itself acoustically invisible. The main goal of its development was to avoid the addition of vibrations that are not originally present on the vinyl. This high-end record player does not have a sound, but a single task: to reproduce music in its pure form without any distortion.
For this purpose, it is essential to keep the extremely fragile process of record tracking away from all harmful external influences – whether it’s impact noise or any form of resonance. Such overlapping of the actual music signal leads to the music unfolding unnaturally. In order to avoid these impairments, the record must be “calmed” during the playback process. That’s what the genuin audio drive does. With impressive results – you now hear pure music.
Torsion Bar Concept
The drive is based on a sub chassis design, in which three torsion bars carry the suspension. Each of the three height-adjustable spring elements can be individually tuned to an identical resonant frequency of the sub chassis-independent of the respective load of the three spring positions. This avoids uncontrollable tumbling movements of the sub chassis. The turntable immediately returns to its default position after an impulse. The feared repeated oscillation of the sub chassis drive does not take place here.
Each of the three bearings consists of a base plate that is pivoted on the plate made of artificial stone. The tensioned torsion spring consists of two superimposed spring plates made of high-precision spring material. The twisting produces the required spring force and the friction between the two spring plates during the twisting produces the desired damping, so that vibrations quickly decay. The rubber element connects the spring arm to the sub chassis and ensures a coordinated horizontal guidance. Once it has been set at the factory, the position of the sub chassis in the housing never changes again.
Multi-stage Damping
The sub chassis, made of high-damping, foamed aluminium material, is a carrier for the plate bearing, the motor unit and the arm board. The motor unit and the arm board are each mounted via rubber composite elements and made of artificial stone. Both are coupled to the sub chassis via high-attenuation material to eliminate vibrations. The drive motor is intentionally positioned on the sub chassis to connect the platter and the drive as firmly as possible together. The base of the record player is a sandwich made of MDF and artificial stone with an intermediate damping layer of cork. The artificial stone slab carries the three torsion bar spring bearings and is screwed to the outer housing, which is made of MDF.
These measures have been taken to produce multiple damping effects by combining different materials at as many (contact) points as possible. The potentially harmful external influence of the drive itself on the vinyl reproduction is eliminated. This concept continues with the platter. It is a sandwich construction consisting of two artificial stone washers with a dampening intermediate layer. The bearing for the platter is a 10mm slide bearing with axial bearing over a steel ball on a support plate made of Delrin.
“When designing the drive, I followed the principle of selecting and combining known and proven materials and techniques in such a way that a maximum result is achieved. In my 35-year experience as a designer and developer for very different industries, I was able to draw from a wealth of experience.”
Fine Tuning
The three independently adjustable torsion spring elements are mounted on the base plate. At the factory, the drive is aligned to a resonance frequency of 4.5 – 5 Hz. However, the height adjustment can be adjusted from below the floor of the drive if additional weights such as pucks affect the position of the sub chassis.
The platter is driven by a synchronous motor via a round belt. The belt tension can be varied within a range of ±5 mm. In this way, the ratio of the musical drive and the smoothness can be adapted to your own preferences. Both of these are set on the top of the unit. There is also a keypad with illuminated buttons for on/off and speed selection. The two speeds 33 1/3 and 45 rpm can be adjusted by means of a potentiometer on the back of the drive. The motor is driven by an internal motor control, while the power supply is by means of an external power supply.
The Premotec engine is bolted onto a motor carrier made of POM, which in turn is pivoted on the engine board made of artificial stone. The entire motor board is bolted to the sub chassis by means of three rubber compound elements, with an additional damping element between the sub chassis plate and the artificial stone plate effectively dampening the engine vibrations.
Point-accurate Partnership
The turntable drive has a congenial partner in genuin audio’s tonearm point. The tonearm is screwed to the arm board with its base tube of 18 millimetres by means of a massive pressure plate and an M8 screw, which is of particular importance for a “crisp”, sharply accentuated reproduction. In this way, again, sound-damaging influences by externally applied vibrations are avoided.
The high-quality LEMO socket, which connects the tonearm cable to the balanced XLR or RCA jacks, is integrated into the arm board. The high-quality cable was wired all the way through to reduce interference points. It is ready for the perfect partner – the genuin audio MC cartridge sting.
Variations
A genuin drive can be manufactured in different versions for you. Depending on the customer’s requirements, the drive includes, in addition to the motor control, the tonearm point, the cartridge sting or the integrated phono preamp pearl with symmetrical signal routing for MC cartridges and a variety of setting options.
An attractive package price is offered for this complete version.
Technical Specifications
| Chassis Base | mounted on 3 spikes, sandwich construction made of MDF/cork/Corian |
|---|---|
| Subchassis | made of high-damping, porous aluminium material |
| Subchassis Suspension | by means of self-damping torsion springs |
| Torsion Bars | self-damping, adjustable in spring rate and resonance frequency |
| Torsion Bar Adjustment | 3 adjustment points at the bottom |
| Motor Board | Corian, decoupled and damped |
| drive | Synchronous motor and specially developed control electronics |
| Keypad | illuminated, for 0, 33 1/3, and 45 rpm |
| Fine Adjustment | at the rear with potentiometers, for 33 1/3 and 45 rpm |
| Power Supply | external |
| Motor Pulley Material | POM |
| Belt | round cord, adjustable distance 10 mm |
| Sliding Plate Bearing | 10 millimetre plain bearing, mounted on steel ball and Delrin support plate |
| Turntable | Corian sandwich construction (2x) with damping self-adhesive intermediate layer |
| Arm Board | made of Corian, high-strength bolted in the tonearm area base, decoupled and the remaining area dampened |
| Plinth | two-part; MDF plus real wood side framing |
Phono Preamplifier pearl
| Suitable For | Moving Coil (MC) / Moving Magnet (MM) |
|---|---|
| Construction (MC) | symmetrical |
| Resistance Loading (MC) | 2 kOhm, 1 kOhm, 500 Ohm, 250 Ohm, 125 Ohm |
| Gain (MC) | 20, 22, 24, 26, 28 dB |
| Common Mode Rejection | > 90 dB between 20 Hz and 20 kHz |
| Signal-to-noise ratio at 61 dB gain (MC) | > 62 dB linear / > 70 dB Awtd / > 69 dB CCIR 2k |
| Resistance Loading (MM) | 47 kOhm |
| Capacitance Loading (MM) | 50pF, 100pF, 150pF, 200pF, 250pF |
| Equalization (MM) | RIAA without Neumann Time constant |
| RIAA Tolerance (MM) | < +- 0.3 dB (< 0.1 dB is typical) |
| Channel Offset (MM) | < 0.15 dB |
| Gain (MM) | 37 dB, 39 dB, 41 dB, 43 dB, 45 dB |
| Signal-to-noise Ratio at 41 dB gain (dB) | > 83 dB linear / > 90 dB Awtd / > 89 dB CCIR 2k |
| Subsonic Filter | switchable; 15Hz/18dB/Octave Butterworth |
| Overload Indication | > 16 dB over 10 mV/1 kHz MM input |
| THD & Noise Distortion | < 0.001% between 20 Hz and 20 kHz |
| Intermodulation 19 kHz / 20 kHz | < 0.001% |
| Headroom | > 20 dB; each for MM and MC |
| Output Resistance | 50 Ohm |
| Power Supply | external, ring core transformer 250 V, line filter |
Press comments on the genuin drive
„This record player has what it takes to make the listener aware of one or the other detail without putting it disproportionately in the foreground.“
image hifi-award 2019
“Genuin Audio will probably not get a extraordinary design award for drive. However, chief executive Thomas Wendt has created an amazingly different and yet markedly coherent record player with his two developers.
If you want to enjoy every facet of the performance, with a natural timbre and a livelike panorama, then Genuin Audio will be right for you. I must highly recommend drive to passionate music lovers.”
Josef Bruckmoser in image hifi, 04/2017
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“This analogue ensemble delivered a very solid performance and is characterized by absolute calmness against a deep black background – this is very much top quality class. […] A non-interfering drive, a tonearm that provides best groove tracking with a wide range of cartridges, and an integrated phono stage for excellent phono signal conversion team up with the MC sting as a top-of-the-line analogue package. This earns the drive a recommendation that is strengthened by the flexibility with regard to the choice of a cartridge. The price for it is completely in order.”
Helmut Rohrwild in hifi & records, 04/2016
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