Soulines tt42: user-friendly flagship turntable
For a long time, the top of the catalog of the Serbian company Soulines was the Kubrick DCX turntable. The founder and chief designer of the company Igor Gligorov decided to improve this design, creating “a high-end turntable that gives out a high-end sound, while remaining a mechanically balanced system, user-friendly and beautiful” – the result was the tt42 model.
The name conceals the answer to the main question of life, the Universe and all that, borrowed from the book “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” by Douglas Adams, due to which the alphanumeric name acquired a philosophical connotation. In general, Gligorov’s approach has a lot of philosophy.
“Since no one can say which turntable is the best in the world, since we do not know what such a turntable should be, with what characteristics, and so on – we in fact do not know how to correctly formulate the question of which turntable is the best in the world, ”he explained. – In about the same way, it is impossible to correctly formulate the question about the meaning of life, the Universe and all that, and get a meaningful answer to it. Therefore, 42 is the perfect answer to a question formulated this way. Until we figure out what the best turntable in the world should be, the tt42 may well be the answer!”.
To achieve the ideal mechanical balance, Gligorov used 3D modeling tools, where he actively applied the golden ratio and Fibonacci numbers. Therefore, the center of mass of the spinner is located exactly on the vertical axis of rotation of the main bearing.
This design is designed to reduce the moment of inertia. Uniform vibration protection was achieved through the use of different materials in different layers of the table. All elements are cut on a CNC machine and decorated by hand.
The disc is acrylic, 60 mm thick, weighs 5.4 kg. The massive aluminum sub-disc and motor have 3- or 4-point decoupling with cork rubber plates, which the company says gives maximum control over vibration propagation throughout the structure.
There are two arm stands, and they consist of several parts: upper, lower and a platform for the arm. Each element is machined from aluminum, and three sets of four spacers of different heights – 15, 20 and 25 mm – are made of steel.
The well-thought-out system is said to make it easy to tune geometry for different arm lengths, both 9 and 12 inches. The turntable comes with an SME tonearm platform already installed, the second tonearm stand is free, but the installation process itself, according to the developers, is very simple.
The arm stands and the main bearing are fixed directly to the aluminum sub-table, which in turn is attached to the acrylic main table at three points – also through cork-rubber spacers. The bearing itself is inverted, with a bronze insert in a steel glass and turf. Bearing and disc are manufactured in perfect matching pairs.
At the heart of the motor is a brushless motor and an electronic speed controller – Igor Gligorov called it a completely analog device, “providing a constant speed and uniform rotation, which, in turn, gives the ideal realistic dynamics, timbre, timing and musicality of each record.”
The turntable is installed on three steel legs, which, in turn, are connected to aluminum washers through the familiar cork-rubber gaskets of different diameters. Washers also use such spacers to connect to an acrylic table.
The exact cost of the Soulines tt42 has not yet been announced – but, most likely, the player will be offered for about 15,000 British pounds. The start of sales is scheduled for the middle of this year.
