Kuzma STABI S Turntable:

The Kuzma STABI S Turntable The Turntable - Making a mega bucks turntable is so much easier than a mid price one, you don't have to fret over what you can leave out in order to reduce costs. For the manufacturer of a mid-price table, which has highish-end ambitions the cost cutting has to be very careful. Look at most turntables and straight away you can spot two of the most expensive parts of their construction - the plinth and the lid. Junk these and in theory you've saved a big slice and not effected sound quality. In fact junking an often resonant box and lid can have beneficial effects, so for those in dust free environments it's no contest. The next item that can be junked with a big saving is a suspended subchassis (or other isolating structures) and all the springs and washers and rubber etc that go with it. This is more serious. There are those who support the 'solid' plinth design over the suspended on sonic grounds alone, but ditching that big level of isolation makes the result inevitably more susceptible to outside vibrations and more sensitive to what it's put on. So having dispensed with all that you end up with a Kuzma Stabi S :-) And it's an interesting design. The plinth/chassis is made of a 50 mm diameter brass rod formed into a 'T', the long arm of which supports the brass armboard. Picking it up was a shock, I'd expected it to be hollow but it appears to be beautifully machined from solid and is much heavier than you'd expect making up much of the turntables 14 kg mass. 'O' rings near the ends of each arm of the 'T' offer support and stop the thing sliding around but offer precious little in the way of isolation. The main bearing is conventional single point (rather than inverted) and is supported by a resin/textile collar at the top. This is a lot cheaper than going the "massive brass shaft and inverted bearing" of the Orbe but showed little drag and no free play. Kuzma Stabi S synchronous AC motor is free standing and is placed at the opposite end of the 'T' from the arm. No fancy power supply here and speed is changed by lifting the platter and pushing a larger diameter spindle on the motor. As for the platter there's no fashionable and expensive acrylic platter, just a 4 kg metal one which is coated in some crinkly black paint and sits on top of the turned aluminium sub-platter. The Kuzma Stabi S platter rings like a good 'un but is helped a little by a felt like mat permenently bonded to it's surface and a rubber ring inderneath. It's all obvious where costs have been cut, but what's there is very well made, and beautifully finished. The arm is the interesting bit. It's very unconventional. To look at it's well finished in similar black paint to the platter but with polished brass counterweights. The headshell is an unusual circular design but looks stiff and is seamlessly attached to the fat armtube - all in aluminium. Certainly it looks more expensive than it is and shames Rega. The arm cable is continuous from cartridge tags to phonos, a practice I am totally for. I find it hard to believe that any expensive fat cable can make up for the eight soldered joints and four pressure contacts any kind of removable cable requires. As the cable is a decent one (Cardas) with good plugs Kuzma Stabi S have taken full advantage of the "one-piece" design. Beyond that look closer and the arm starts to look very original. It's a unipivot, but the point is on the arm and the cup on the base (a la ARO - which it resembles) which is rare. Stability is provided by a very low centre of gravity, this has advantages in making the arm easy to cue and resisting twisting during play but will mean tracking force increases as the arm rides over warps. Also new from Kuzma is their more cost effective Stabi S turntable and Stogi S tonearm. Like the XL, the main structure consists of solid highly polished brass to give high structure rigidity while various non-metallic rings are used to reduce acoustic resonances. The Kuzma Stogi S tonearm is of the unipivit design with the main section being a solid brass/aluminum combination. Specially shaped headshell and internal dampening in the tonearm tube insure minimal acoustic feedback from the tonearm. This is further enhanced by using Kuzma Stabi S silicone fluid dampening. A special Stabi S isolation platform is also available to complete this special offering from Kuzma.