Turntable Reviews

Palmer Audio 2.5 turntable & Audio Origami PU7 tonearm Specifications

Sidebar: Specifications

Palmer Audio 2.5: Belt-drive, two-speed turntable with separate power supply.
Dimensions: 18.9" W by 7.5" H by 13.8" D. Weight: about 44 lbs.
Price: $7995 (2014), $8990 (2017).
Manufacturer: Palmer Audio. Web: www.palmeraudio.co.uk. US distributor: Fidelis Home Audio, 460 Amherst Street (Route 101A), Nashua, NH 03063. Tel: (603) 880-4434. Fax: (603) 880-4433. Web: www.fidelisav.com.

Audio Origami PU7: Tonearm available in 9" and 12" versions.
Price: $3000.
Manufacturer: Audio Origami. Web: www.audioorigami.co.uk. US distributor: Hammertone Audio, 252 Magic Drive, Kelowna, British Columbia V1V 1N2, Canada. Tel: (250) 862-9037, (780) 991-1960. Web: www.hammertoneaudio.com.

COMPANY INFO
Palmer Audio
US distributor: Fidelis Home Audio
460 Amherst Street (Route 101A)
Nashua, NH 03063
(603) 880-4434
www.fidelisav.com
ARTICLE CONTENTS

COMMENTS
grantray's picture
Submitted by grantray on July 6, 2017 - 1:17pm

My two favorite tables have been the high-torque grease-bearing Garrard 301 that I restored and a low-torque Nottingham Hyperspace with the extra heavy platter, sitting in one of my audio dealer's demo systems. In some ways, they're very similar tables. In other ways, antipodal. The Nottingham remains out of my wallet's reach, but if the day comes that I can, I certainly will. Herb, if you decide to live with the Palmer, I totally get why.

Herb Reichert's picture
Submitted by Herb Reichert on July 7, 2017 - 12:45pm

The Garrard 301 and the Palmer 2.5 ARE very similar in their presentation of recorded music.

I decided to take Mikey's and Michael's advice -- I bought the Palmer and Audio Origami combo.

grantray's picture
Submitted by grantray on July 9, 2017 - 8:22am

Everything about the PU7's design and "less than optimal damping" sounds very similar to my Ortofon AS-212 that's been reborn as an AS-309 with interconnects from Zu Audio. Since I'm on the lookout for a new cartridge that's 2mv or higher, I'll definitely be keeping an eye on what you'll be using on that PU7.

On my Garrard/Ortofon setup, the Zu DL-103Mk.II is a beast. Have you tried yours on the Palmer/Origami yet? I adore EMTs, but I bet the Zu'll give that TSD 15 a run for it's money :)

airdronian's picture
Submitted by airdronian on July 6, 2017 - 6:26pm

Lovely 'table. It may never grace my system, but like so many things it's nice to know it's out there....

dalethorn's picture
Submitted by dalethorn on July 6, 2017 - 9:27pm

Given some of the $100k-plus turntables reviewed here, $11.7k seems like a bargain for the quality you've described. The need to provide extra isolation/damping hardly seems like a downside at that price.

Robin Landseadel's picture
Submitted by Robin Landseadel on July 7, 2017 - 4:09am

"The 2.5 ran at the correct speed and produced very good measured performance (fig.1), both raw and low-pass filtered to remove problems caused by eccentric LPs (fig.2)."

And throwing money at the problem will never eliminate all those off-center records. Which is one of many reasons I've given up on this inherently flawed medium.

PAR's picture
Submitted by PAR on July 7, 2017 - 6:42am

" Audio Origami PU7: Tonearm available in 7" and 12" versions.
Price: $3000."

7"?

John Atkinson's picture
Submitted by John Atkinson on July 8, 2017 - 7:08am
PAR wrote:
7"?

Thanks for the catch. I must have had my brain disengaged when I was writing the specifications text.

John Atkinson
Editor, Stereophile

Christian Goergen's picture
Submitted by Christian Goergen on July 7, 2017 - 7:54am

Torque is needed to overcome the frictionforce of the platter bearing and the force of needlebreaking during playback. Not mentioning the belt tension. Given the weight of the platter any motor develops the identical torque to hold a constant speed of the platter. Different torque is needed for different friction. Any other opinions?

Onewhohearsmost's picture
Submitted by Onewhohearsmost on July 7, 2017 - 1:12pm

I just figured it out. My yearly salary and my maximum allowable yearly expenditures in audio represent a valid ratio. In that case, to afford the Palmer next year I will need to make approximately $810,000. Don't I wish and boy is it fun to dream.

Howard Swayne's picture
Submitted by Howard Swayne on July 12, 2017 - 6:58pm

Hey Michael, Try the new Transfiguration Proteus Diamond. I just mounted one on my Technics SP 10/Kuzma 4 Point 14 inch, and it is better with 10 hours on it than the standard one you reviewed, well broken in.

Island971's picture
Submitted by Island971 on August 21, 2017 - 7:09am

Hello everyone,

What do you think of the tornarm Viv Lab Rigid Float ( 7" ) ? This arm seems to have very positive opinions and seems to be a very interesting couple with La Palmer 2.5! It also seems that with the MC Stein Aventurin 6 MkII cell, this would form a very musical trio!

Look this vidéo ! https://youtu.be/_-GYM-uOs7g

Ôther suggestion or alternative of Palmer 2.5 is Acoustic Solid Wood MPX or Wood MPX Referenz , what do you Thank ?

PS: Pardon my bad English please!

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