ORIGIN LIVE ILLUSTRIOUS MK4

ORIGIN LIVE ILLUSTRIOUS Mk4 Tone arm

PLEASE NOTE: We import OL Tonearms in to order, made to order means you get the latest version with latest updates and any options you might want in the one ready to go package. Our experience is OL often updates their designs and everyone wants the latest version, it only takes around 2 weeks to get you the latest and greatest!

Ground-breaking design is behind the astonishing performance of the Illustrious arm. This award winning arm has been highly acclaimed as a true performance leader.

Origin Live's MK4 version of this tonearm is an arm that easily compares to arms that cost double and more - and that is without exaggeration but based on real listening comparisons.

The MK3 featured a completely redesigned bearing housing (yoke) that utilizes an unprecedented dual jewel pivots for vertical movement while enhancing the fixed bearing in the horizontal plane. The result is a more agile arm with greatly reduced friction yielding a faster, purer sound and greater dynamics. Soundstage has expanded into a considerably more three-dimensional or holographic image while the bass response is a touch enhanced.

NEW: Higher Strength Arm Tube. The high-grade aircraft alloy tube is reinforced using a long rear stub sleeve which is carefully interfaced to provide maximum energy dissipation and minimal reflections. This frees up your cartridge to perform as it should, away from the colouration and disruption caused by resonance and reflected vibration. This frees up your cartridge to perform as it should, away from the colouration and disruption caused by resonance and reflected vibration.

Surprising to many, the arm tube is the most critical aspect in tonearm design. It affects performance more than any other single component of the arm. Many of us make the mistake of thinking bearings must be the most important aspect of an arm and while critical to keep the arm tube stable and tracking, the effect of detrimental arm tube resonances, as amplified 8,000 times from the cartridge signal to the final speaker output, destroys sound quality in a way that can have devastating effects. The most powerful optical microscope can only magnify 1000 times. When one looks at an arm tube as it plays a record, all seems calm and serene, however at a microscopic level resonant waves in tonearm are like watching the Atlantic sea in a hurricane.

The cartridge is held by this constantly heaving / rippling surface and its accuracy in reading the grooves of the record is directly proportional to the level of micro vibration in the arm. Origin Live maintains that for this reason alone the money performance ratio of using a superior tonearm can have very substantial paybacks. Origin Live's carbon-hybrid technology addresses this problem head-on and the result is an unprecedented reduction in unwanted and sonically compromising tonearm resonance. 

NEW: A Sleeved Rear-Stub with larger diameter, higher strength and improved energy dissipation. This improves counterweight stability in vibration – thus enabling the arm tube to hold the cartridge more steadily.

NEW: A Rigidly Attached Counterweight. The counterweight attachment has been carefully engineered to hold the armtube more rigidly for cartridge stability whilst at the same time decoupling itself to minimize energy reflection back down the tube.

NEW: Counterweight Fine Adjuster allows you to easily set the tracking force with a high degree of accuracy.

NEW: 1 Meter Upgrade External Cable. (6mm diameter) Low resistance cable with high-grade Gold Plated RCA plugs to fit directly into your phono-stage or amplifier.