The Genuin Drive, Point & Sting: Turntable, Arm & Cartridge from Germany

The Genuin, belt-driven Drive turntable, 10″ carbon fibre Point arm and Sting MC cartridge have all been created by experienced designer, Helmut Thiele

The Genuin Drive (€7,000) is based on a sub-chassis design, in which three torsion bars carry the suspension. Each of the three height-adjustable spring elements can be individually tuned to an identical resonant frequency of the sub chassis-independent of the respective load of the three spring positions, “This avoids uncontrollable tumbling movements of the sub chassis,” said the company. The turntable immediately returns to its default position after any movement, “The feared repeated oscillation of the sub chassis drive does not take place here,” said Genuin.

Each of the three bearings consists of a base plate that is pivoted on the plate made of artificial stone. The tensioned torsion spring consists of two superimposed spring plates made of high-precision spring material. The twisting produces the required spring force and the friction between the two spring plates during the twisting produces the desired damping, so that vibrations, reportedly, quickly decay. The rubber element connects the spring arm to the sub-chassis. Once it has been set at the factory, the position of the sub chassis in the housing never changes again.

The sub chassis, made of high-damping, foamed aluminium material, is a carrier for the plate bearing, the motor unit and the arm board. The motor unit and the arm board are each mounted via rubber composite elements and made of artificial stone. Both are coupled to the sub chassis via high-attenuation material. The drive motor is intentionally positioned on the sub-chassis to connect the platter and the drive as firmly as possible together. The base of the record player is a sandwich made of MDF and artificial stone with an intermediate damping layer of cork. The artificial stone slab carries the three torsion bar spring bearings and is screwed to the outer housing, which is made of MDF.

The three independently adjustable torsion spring elements are mounted on the base plate. At the factory, the drive is aligned to a resonance frequency of 4.5–5Hz. The height adjustment can be adjusted from below the floor of the Drive if additional weights such as pucks affect the position of the sub-chassis.

The platter is driven by a synchronous motor via a round belt. The belt tension can be varied within a range of ±5 mm. In this way, the ratio of the musical drive and the smoothness can be adapted to your own preferences. Both of these are set on the top of the unit. There is also a keypad with illuminated buttons for on/off and speed selection. The two speeds 33 1/3 and 45 rpm can be adjusted by means of a potentiometer on the back of the Drive. The motor is driven by an internal motor control, while the power supply is by means of an external power supply.

The Premotec engine is bolted onto a motor carrier, which in turn is pivoted on the engine board made of artificial stone. The entire motor board is bolted to the sub chassis by means of three rubber compound elements, with an additional damping element between the sub chassis plate and the artificial stone plate.

Genuin Audio’s 10” unipivot, carbon tonearm Point (€2,900), is screwed to the arm board with its base tube of 18mm by means of a massive pressure plate and an M8 screw. The arm features an anti-skate at bearing level while the bonded head shell is made from aluminium.

“The largest resonance vibration of the carbon tube is to be found approximately in the middle of the length of the tube,” said the company. Which is why, at precisely this point, a damping element made of Visco foam was inserted, which is connected to a concentric inner tube, also made of carbon.

“This second tube is at the front connected relatively firmly with the headshell over an O-ring and glued to a weight at the other end, right by the pivot. By means of this arrangement, the low-frequency vibration energy is transmitted from the outer tube via the Visco foam and the inner tube to the free-swinging inner weight and is largely absorbed. Higher-frequency vibrations with a small amplitude are soaked up by the large-area Visco foam,” said Genuin.

The LEMO socket, which connects the tonearm cable to the balanced XLR or RCA jacks, is integrated into the arm board. The cable was wired all the way through to reduce interference points.

You can add Genuin Audio’s own MC cartridge to this set-up, the Sting (€1,950). Contained within a graphite-fibre body, the basic magnetic circuit of the pick-up is supplemented by an iron neodymium magnet, which leads to an additional amplification of the entire magnetic field. This increases the output voltage. The Genuin Audio Sting is equipped with a cantilever made of boron. This cantilever was fitted with a stylus from Van den Hul.

A Genuin Drive can be manufactured in different versions: the Drive includes, in addition to the motor control, the tonearm Point, the cartridge Sting or the integrated phono preamp Pearl with symmetrical signal routing for MC cartridges and a variety of setting options.

The company is currently offering a package price of €12,740

To learn more, click www.genuin-audio.de/en