Due to carrying out a great deal of listening to vinyl replay, we have had the luxury of listening to a vast array of equipment. The following information is intended to offer some help and advice on the many options and choices available with regard to upgrading priorities and allocating your hard earned budget.

We are constantly asked questions about upgrade paths along the lines of:
– “How much should I spend on my cartridge?”
– “Is it worth having my arm rewired for a budget turntable?”
– “Should I upgrade to the advanced DC motor kit or upgrade the tonearm or turntable?”
– “What level of performance does the DC motor kit add to my deck?”

Assessing priorities to upgrade your system is not always easy and so we are providing some guidance from the experience that we have acquired over the years. Much depends on your the level of performance you aspire to, coupled with your future plans (if any) and budget. For this reason the following guidelines are a matter of opinion and judgement.

Depending on the deck, the DC motor kit will add approximately £700 worth of performance to most turntables relative to the cost and performance of turntables. This makes it a very worthwhile investment, especially as increasing the performance of a turntable is vastly more effective than cartridge upgrades.

The motor upgrade is usually as effective as upgrading to a Silver tonearm but this depends on the quality of your current turntable motor drive.

The upgrades below are scored in terms of performance relative to one another.

Our Opinion on Component Significance

Component Performance Significance
Turntable
23%
Tonearm
17%
Cartridge 5%
Phono Stage
25%
Amplifiers
15%
Speakers
15%

Origin Live Turntable Rating

Turntable Rating
Voyager-S
?
Voyager
?
Sovereign 300
Resolution
270
Calypso
245
Aurora
190

Origin Live Tonearm Rating

Component Rating
Invinsible
?
Renown ?
Agile ?
Enterprise
330
Conqueror
280
Illustrious
190
Encounter
150
Zephyr
?
Silver
130
Onyx
?
Alliance
?

Origin Live DC Motor Rating

DC Motor Kit
Rating
Standard
60
Advanced
135
Ultra 150
Upgrade Transformer
35
DC200
10
Speakers
15%