The Priority of Low Level Signal Purity It is difficult to appreciate why a mechanical modification to the rear end of the OL1 or Rega tone-arm should have such an enormous influence on tonearm resonance and hence the overall sound. To explain this phenomenon, it is helpful to grasp firstly, that the signals generated by the cartridge cantilever are extremely small. These signals are then amplified thousands of times to produce the output at the speaker. It follows that the slightest source of unwanted vibration and resonance is also magnified equally. Not only can unwanted vibration be introduced (coloration), but this vibration also affects the cantilever movement to cause distortion. It is the elimination of this spurious vibration that results in the large differences that exist between mediocre and high end arms.
The Cause of Unwanted Vibration To minimize vibration it is often recommended to match the tonearm effective mass to the stylus compliance. However it is found in practice that the arm effective mass is not very relevant if it has an inherently very low resonance.
As the cartridge stylus negotiates its tortuous way through your record grooves it undergoes forces measured in tons per sq. inch. This sends shock waves down the arm tube. What happens to these shock-waves normally? - Some of the energy is transmitted down into the deck, but much of it meets the counterweight structure and is reflected back down the arm tube to the cartridge - this is highly detrimental for good sound quality due to the aforementioned facts. There is a secondary reason why the rear end of the arm is an extremely critical area - The counterweight represents by far the highest moving mass in the arm and affects an arm's performance in ways that are hard to imagine. The counterweight is excited into resonance by the motion of the arm. This means that it should be decoupled and yet also remain rigid to the arm (to avoid introducing other problems). The beauty of the Origin Live modification is that it acts as a shock absorber, for waves traveling down the arm from the cartridge and it also acts to de-couple the counterweight, whilst maintaining rigidity
Why the structural upgrade works wonders The upgrade involves removing the rear end stub. This stub is just screwed into the end of the arm - far from ideal! Origin Live then replace the old stub with a new stub. The new stub is torqued onto the arm by a thin high tensile bolt. The new stub is also designed such that it presents a low contact area onto the arm tube and is therefore decoupled, yet far more rigid than the original. This change also allows the counterweight to be rigidly clamped onto the stub using an Allen bolt. An unmodified arm should not have the counterweight rigidly coupled in this way, due to the old vibration characteristics of the standard arm / rear stub joint. This ingenious modification elevates a good arm into the same league as the super arms and at an insignificant outlay.
Superior Yoke design - encompassing higher grade material and high precision tolerancing of parts, finished in chrome.
Internal cable and external cable is fully balanced and upgraded to a more costly wire than used in Silver MK3a arm.
Bearing design - Gimballed arm using specially treated bearings.
Headshell consists of aircraft grade aluminium. This is specially decaoupled from the armtube to ensure good isolation from resonant feedback through the tube.
The Threaded base is upgraded from the Silver with a more sophisticated internal design.
Counterweight is specially decoupled and includes a clamping grub screw with hardened ball.
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