SPACE BUBBLE

Hi Fi Choice Review ·

By Jason Kennedy, Published: May 2009

Lumley's £14,000 Stratosphere turntable is something of an analogue tour de force, with its opposing-magnet suspension and magnificently heavy platter. But, costing as it does, as much as a family hatchback, it's out of reach for the majority. So, Lumley's proprietor, John Jeffries, decided to offer a people's Stratosphere, without the astronomical price tag and using a design that had been evolved through applying years of experience. And so the £2,495 Heliosphere was born...

The similarities between the Heliosphere and Stratosphere are few, as you might expect from the price difference, but they both have a triangular-shaped plinth and support their tonearms on a cylindrical base. The £2,495 Heliosphere is distinguished by an unusually chunky acetal platter - 74mm-thick - a size that you might be able to associate with the more expensive Clearaudio designs, but one that's rarely seen with any regularity.

One aesthetic advantage that the substantial depth of the platter confers is that it allows the drive system to be hidden, despite the fact that this is a largely skeletal design. When it was first set up we assumed the motor would be free-standing and drive the periphery of the platter. But you have to lift the 6.3kg slab of acetal to see what makes the thing go round.

» Read the next page

« page 1 »