It is a felt pad you place under the cartridge with felt washers that go under the screw heads on the opposite side of the head shell. If you tighten it up firmly it is going to do nothing. Depending how loosely you tighten the screws down it might decouple the cartridge from the tonearm at certain frequencies in the bass. I can not see how that would be valuable with a stiff cartridge like the Koetsu. You SME does not ring and it is a light tonearm for that cartridge. If you really want to hear your cartridge sing get headshell weights and add 2-3 grams. They go under the cartridge like the Enabler. If you want to be accurate about it get a test record and set the resonance for 8-10 Hz. That will give you the best bass possible from your arm cartridge combination.
Origin live Cartridge Enabler - a review
This is a basic review aimed at those who are in a similar
middle lane of the audiophile analogue motorway.
Enhancements are plentiful for turntables and provoke much intense debate.
However I feel as though the use of them is particularly relevant for those
like me who have turntables at a lower end level.
So after much review and forum research I decided on Origin live also because I
could save on delivery by obtaining a few items at the same time. Analogueseduction
is another good option in this regard. Unfortunately, the platter mat I also ordered hadn’t
been packed, so I only had their brush and the enabler to enjoy.
I`m aware that the theory is to channel unwanted disturbances from the cartridge into the arm, but I`ve always considered that just damping them would be better. Anyhow that in simple terms is the Enablers job.
The turntable itself is a 1990`s Roksan Xerses, the (platter is aluminium). I have an old Ringmat as platter mat at present. The arm an SME IV, the cartridge a VD Hul retipped Koetsu Black.
I became familiar with a fine pressing of Alan Parsons Eve, first track Lucifer which has quite a lot of detail before installation of the Enabler.
So installation was a bit fiddly, and note well, you will need bolts that are at least 5 mm longer to successfully complete the job. I made every effort to set the VTA as it was before installation, and checked alignments and the settings to make sure that they hadn’t changed.
The very first impression is that the sound is slightly thinner. Straight after that you realize that is because some of the – ringing, bloom? has been removed. So for example, a percussive tap, ting or knock is more definite. Again the bass is slightly lighter, but far less boomy. I player a Peter Gabriel track that sounded overblown in the bass when I listened a couple of days before. Now the bass was tuneful and balanced in tone with the rest of the instruments.
So initial impressions are ones of a satisfactory improvement, and again I maintain that with more modest equipment, if care is taken with the details, the end result can result in a worthwhile improvement. So as the professional reviewers say – highly recommended!
- ...
- 31 posts total
I've considered this, based only on the assumption that since Origin Live makes a great arm they must know what they're doing. But the combination of the work involved along with changing VTA so much, it would have to offer really significant improvement to be worth serious consideration. Especially in comparison to something like Synergistic Research PHT that simply stick on and can be easily moved around and compared and do deliver really significant improvement. Thanks for the review. |
Hi
millercarbon
. well I had a look at the
Synergistic Research PHT. That`s crazy! Never heard of it. I wonder what it is, but its a lot more expensive than the OL Enhancer. To be honest if these enhancements are so good, why dont the turntable and cartridge manufacturers just supply them as an extra option with their products!? The other thing is that it is really difficult to place a value on most enhancements. I could have probably used regular piece of extruded rubber product in its place and have got a similar response! But I definitely noticed an improvement on my system as related, and thought that there are so few reviews on the Enhancer that I would add my 2 cents worth. |
- 31 posts total