Soverein mk. 2

"overall fit and finish are superlative, the styling speaks for itself, and sonically, the deck has stellar abilities.How stellar? Well, the first slab of vinyl to hit the deck had us giggling like helium-addled hyenas. That soon turned to awe as the Sovereign revealed its true colours, leaving us with jaws so slack that any self-respecting redneck would have been proud. With all forms of music it remains effortlessly composed, giving tremendous insight into the original recording’s emotion.Detail levels stun, revealing subtleties we had never noticed even in some of our personal faves. The separation of instruments is fantastic too: the sound appears to be huge and beautifully spread through the vast soundstage, while bass is deep, tuneful and punchy...We can't recommend this Origin Live deck highly enough:it has the power to stop a herd of wildebeest with its authority - yet it can also bring a grown man to his knees in tears"-                                 What Hi Fi Magazine Aug 2005

“The trio (Sovereign – Conqueror – Lyra Olympos) made me forget the walls of my listening room. Fed by well produced records…you felt immediately transported into the recording location. But the three excel not only in spatial recreation. No matter if you play old blues records, grooving Jazz or big orchestras, the music goes straight under your skin. Even with the most exacting test records it was absolutely impossible, not to get caught up emotionally and to only analyse the sound reproduction. If there is program material the Origin Live loves most, it is fast and percussive music. Here the combination could present their speed best. In terms of speed, the combination not only gets from zero to one hundred in record time, but also gets back to standing in the same time. So much detail, so much speed, so much space and such a full presentation should be hard to get anywhere else at this price. For me ORIGIN LIVE in the analogue sector is the discovery of the year!”
Review IMAGE HIFI July/August 2004 Nr.58, Dirk Sommer

Introduction
The Sovereign turntable is our top of the range deck. It incorporates the latest thinking to produce what we believe is the highest performing turntable available, regardless of price or reputation. The deck is a semi suspended sub-chassis design built with the highest grade materials to the highest design tolerances.

Features and Specifications
Fabulous Style
Chrome plated pods, chrome assemblies with black plinth and frost finish or white platter make this deck a design showpiece.

High Grade Parts
High mass plinth using low resonance sandwich construction.
Triple plinth decoupling.
Low resonance high inertia platter.
Platter de-coupled with an inert sub-platter.
Highly specified bearing.
Special high grade oil is employed in the bearing.
Rigid sub-chassis with low resonance and unique centre point support arrangement along with damping devices.
High mass and specially damped motor housing.

Power supply
The new, regulated Ultra power supply feeding the motor is load compensating and stable across a wide range of temperatures. It uses more sophisticated circuitry, higher grade components and a top grade transformer. Speed control is switched electronically between 33 rpm and 45 rpm.

Setting up
There is nothing to go "out of tune" on the Sovereign. The deck is a non-suspended design using our unique single point cantilever suspension system, which requires no setting up and fuss free. VTA arm adjustment is provided for Origin Live and Rega arms, which makes setting the arm height much easier.

Dimensions:
490mm wide, 400mm deep, 160mm height.
Weight is 9Kg including arm.

Overview
Read turntable overview & design philosophy for an indication of the depth of research behind the Sovereign. It is this depth of research that has made the Sovereign so musically revealing. Why not discover for yourself the astonishing potential of the world's highest performing medium for the reproduction of music?

OPTIONS

Heavyweight Platter - This option is a special combination of materials, designed to increase mass without incurring the penalty of increased energy storage and slow resonant decay. These are well known problems identified in most high mass platters. However the heavyweight platter uses a unique combination of laminated materials and sandwich construction to dissipate energy quickly and effectively. To produce such a platter is not easy. It is effectively like manufacturing 5 platters which must be free from accumalated distortion. Benefits are immediately obvious in deeper more powerfull bass, increased dynamics throughout the frequency spectrum and a greater sense of solidity / realism. When purchased with a turntable or exchanged for an existing standard Sovereign platter the heavyweight platter is £500

Finishes - Mirror finish black is the standard plinth finish however we offer frosted finish and polished white as other options for £150 - see Aurora for examples of frosted finish and Calypso for example of white finish. Please note clear finish is not available or recommended on the Sovereign due to the centre structural plate. We also do not recommend frosted finish if you are going to fit the heavyweight platter as this platter is white and black whereas the standard Sovereign platter is opaque and matches frost finish nicely.

Different arm fitting - The Sovereign can accomodate most arms by simply changing the sub-chassis plate. Subchassis plates are available for SME, Linn, Graham, Hadcock arms for an additional £100 as these are specials - All Roksan arms can be fitted using an adaptor at £25. Arms not listed in the above can be quoted individualy.

Heavy weight platter option (Sovereign only)- The Heavyweight platter achieves a rare feat by increasing mass without slowing down musical transient speed and live feel. The music gains in bass weight along with a greater sense of power and dynamics. Imaging also improves along with a sense of rock solidity in the performance.

This is accomplished by using a unique sandwich construction that combines materials with resonance characteristics that cancel each other.