Spin Doctor

It doesn't happen very often, but every once in a while a new turntable comes to my attention that I have no prior knowledge of. The last new turntable company that was a complete blank slate was J.Sikora, which I first encountered about six years ago courtesy of importer Jeff Fox of Notable Audio.

Now I find myself in that position again, with UK-based Connected-Fidelity and their turntable the TT Hub (footnote 1). Until I read the press release last December, sent to me by Mike Fajen of importer/distributor Sierra Sound, I was completely in the dark about the TT Hub, its manufacturer Connected-Fidelity, and that company's owner and head designer Michael Osborn.

Connected-Fidelity is the manufacturing arm of Air Audio Distribution, which imports Hana cartridges and Sorane tonearms into the UK. Founded in 2017, their product lineup was until recently composed of accessories and necessaries: cables, footers, and power conditioning and distribution products. The TT Hub turntable is their first contribution to an audio system's core components.

Built primarily from bamboo ply, the TT Hub is a semisolid three-layer design. I say semisolid because the rectangular base plinth sits on four embedded silicone rubber domed feet; the rest of the assembly is solid. These feet are not adjustable, so make sure whatever you put it on can be leveled. The base plinth supports the motor directly, while the main chassis stands on the base plinth with three adjustable spikes, which fit into three small composite discs recessed into the base plinth. Yes, I wrote "adjustable spikes," so, yes, the turntable can be leveled here, but I don't feel this is the right place to do it. If you level the main chassis using the spikes, the belt may ride too high or too low on the subplatter; there's a risk it will rub against the belt guide.

Topping things off, the subchassis is bolted to the top of the main plinth with short spacers separating the two; this in turn supports the platter bearing and the bolt-on aluminum armboard. The bamboo parts are available in two finishes, a natural light bamboo and a deep-red stained bamboo; the review sample had the red stain. (Some speaker manufacturers stain walnut red so that it looks like rosewood and call it rosenut. With that in mind, perhaps TT Hub should call this dark red finish roseboo.)

The platter bearing has a long shaft with sintered bronze bushings housed in aluminum. The advantage of sintered bronze is its porous structure, which allows it to retain oil, minimizing the need for lubrication. The flat bottom of the bearing rides on a small sapphire ball with a PEEK (polyether ether ketone) thrust pad. The 1¼"–thick acrylic platter weighs a little over 5lb and sits directly on the subplatter. A stiff but slightly compliant mat is bonded to the top surface to provide an interface with the vinyl record. The center of the mat has a logo that looks suspiciously like a Mercedes three-pointed star. TT Hub Importer Sierra Sound also imports AMG turntables and Benz Micro cartridges—I think I'm starting to see a pattern.

The TT Hub's AC synchronous motor sits in a separate pod to the left of the main chassis, directly on the base plinth. It is powered by an outboard, quartz-governed AC-regenerating power supply. Controls on the front of the power supply allow you to turn the motor on and off, select 33 1/3 or 45rpm, and fine-tune those rotation speeds. No speed adjustment tools are provided, so you will need a strobe disc or an app to adjust it. I used my Shaknspin2 and found it was easy to fine-tune precisely (fig.1, above).

Sierra Sound supplied the TT Hub with the excellent Sorane TA-1 9" tonearm and its associated armboard. Additional armboards for popular tonearms are available, along with blanks if you want to drill your own. I plan to write about the Sorane TA-1 tonearm in the near future, so I won't cover it in detail here. Instead I'll just say that over the years, I have installed several of these excellent arms, so I'm pretty familiar with its characteristics.

To audition the TT Hub, I partnered the Sorane with a Lyra Delos cartridge, which is also a well-known quantity for me. I know it to be an excellent match for the Sorane.

If there is such a thing as a British sound for turntables, then the TT Hub has it in spades. I'm thinking of what my friend Herb Reichert likes to call the boogie factor, which makes you want to tap your toes and dance. The Man with the Horn (Columbia FC 36790) may not be the most revered Miles Davis album, but it was my introduction to the trumpeter after I saw him perform live in 1982 at the Landmark Theater in Syracuse, New York. About halfway through the song "Fat Time," guitarist Mike Stern clicks on his fuzz pedal and starts to wail in a searing solo as drummer Al Foster and bassist Marcus Miller jam along forming an incredibly funky trio. The TT Hub nailed this part, sending Foster deep in the pocket as he bashes his cymbals while Miller slaps time on bass. It brought me back to 43 years ago at the Landmark Theatre, grooving along. The TT Hub's sound is fast and pacey, not fat and deep like some more heavyweight designs.

For a change of pace, I played "Part II" from Jean-Michel Jarre's Les Chants Magnétiques (Polydor POLD 5159). Jarre created his music by overdubbing synthesizer parts one at a time, building up each song track by track in his home studio. "Part II" kicks off side 2 of the vinyl with an infectious, rapid-fire electronic beat that propels the music forward. Synthesizers can be brutal for exposing pitch instability in a turntable, but with the TT Hub, everything remained stable and in tune.

It's great to see a new turntable from a new company. Apparently designer Michael Osborn has a clear vision of what he is aiming to achieve and a clear idea of how to achieve it. The retail price of the TT Hub equipped with a Sorane TA-1 is a very fair $6000; Sierra Sound says you can get it without an arm for $5000. The TT Hub is also available in packages with AMG and other Sorane tonearms. A two-arm–capable version is also available.

A Warp In Time
Back when I was a budding audiophile living in England in the 1970s, I was deeply influenced by the British audio press and their penchant for promoting British brands like Linn, Naim, and Rega. When I moved to the US in 1980 to study sound engineering and started to build my hi-fi system in my college dorm room, I carried that thinking with me. The UK press influence was still strong enough that by the time my 21st birthday rolled around, I had convinced my parents that the perfect birthday present would be a new Linn Sondek LP12 turntable. They paid for it—but I bought it from my friends at a London shop called The Sound Organisation, where I had previously bought some equipment for a film-production company when I had a summer job in London (footnote 2).

Back then, Linn was adamant that dealers must set up the Sondek in customers' homes, but after he had trained me in what was considered the black art of Linn setup, store co-owner Roger Macer trusted me enough to get it back to New York and running properly. That was my first introduction to setting up turntables properly, a skill I have carried for the 43 years since. During that time, I have set up many hundreds of Linn LP12s. For that, I am forever grateful to the late Roger Macer and the staff at The Sound Organisation.

Before long, I had Linn's top setup, with the Ittok LVII tonearm and the Asak DC-2100K cartridge. Thinking back today about how quickly I upgraded as a student, I start to wonder where I got the money from. I did have a couple of jobs, including a brief stint as a delivery driver for early Domino's Pizza, but I quickly gave that up so I could have more time to hang out with friends listening to music.

The Linn Asak was based on the SDX-1000 made by Supex in Japan, and while it did all the stuff the Linn crowd prized—pace, rhythm, timing, and playing the tune as they used to say—it earned a reputation for not being the best tracking cartridge out there. The suggested solution was to keep the cartridge warm by placing a lamp a foot or so above the record and cartridge, so the heat from the incandescent bulb could keep everything nice and toasty. I dutifully procured a classic Anglepoise desk lamp and positioned it to the side of my turntable stand equipped with a 75W bulb that would warm the cartridge, softening up the rubber suspension parts for better tracking. All was well for a few weeks, but then disaster struck. I had just bought the Columbia Mastersound half-speed–mastered pressing of Elvis Costello's Imperial Bedroom (Columbia HC 48157). Halfway through the first side, I was distracted by some friends who wanted to head out to dinner. In my haste to leave, I lifted the needle and turned off the turntable's motor, but I forgot to switch off the lamp. It continued to shine away on one edge of the now-stationary record. By the time I returned, the record was ruined, with a big, potato chip–like warp where the lamp had heated it most. The record was unplayable, but rather than discard it, I filed it away, hoping that someday I would have a way to fix it. After 42 years of waiting, that day has arrived—or has it?

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Footnote 1: Connected-Fidelity, Rosebank House Shepherds Green, Oxfordshire, RG9 4QL UK. US importer: Sierra Sound, PO Box 510, Wilton, CA 95693. Email: info@sierrasound.net. Web: sierrasound.net.

Footnote 2: Sound familiar? The Sound Organisation is the US company that imports British brands including Rega. I asked head Steven Daniels if there was any connection. His answer: not really, except that he used to visit the shop years ago, and he liked the name. The Sound Organisation (the shop) still exists in some form, in an "iconic 3 storey building on the corner of Gillygate, York—our home for the last 25 years," says the website. So they moved to that location 20 years after Michael Trei bought his LP12.—Jim Austin