This is a review written by Terry Ellis July 2024.

For my video review please see my YouTube channel link here

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The next step in the journey

This review is very much about my general experiences living with the Origin Live Calypso Mk 5 turntable and their conqueror MK4 tone arm. What they were like to setup for some still relatively new to vinyl playback and then how much did I enjoy using them over months they were here. The word enjoy really encapsulates my experience with this anallogue setup because its really made it easy for me to enjoy the experience of playing records and why we might do it in the first, the unique sound. But its not cheap and its not perfect of course so I have a lot of thoughts to share with you.

Origin Live are a very long established UK specialist turntable or vinyl playback manufacturer and they make all their products essentially by hand here in the UK. I have been to their factory in Southampton, it about a year ago now and saw this all for myself so I feel I have a greater appreciation of their products as a result. I made a video of my visit which you can see here. I would strongly recommended it to you as company founder Mark Baker shares some very interesting and useful insights into vinyl playback in general, there is something in that video for everyone I feel.

A household name

Both the Calypso turntable and the Conqueror tone arm sit in the middle of Origin Live full product line and that is normally a great bang for buck spot, but these are not cheap products. The Calypso MK5 turntable costs £3170 and I had latest version with the multi layer platter. The conqueror tone arm is the top of the middle, or the top of what OL call their premium tone arms, it costs about the same £3100. With a total cost of over 6 grand this is a serious chunk of money, but its far from crazy money in the crazy world of analogue but its still enough money for me to rightly have very high expectations.

That starts with the unboxing and setup experience which I would say is just about right. It was a good experience without being wasteful of packaging or plastic but still with touches quality such as  this upper cardboard layer designed specific for the platter.  Included were lots of extras I didn’t expect to get, I think its to make sure someone could get fully setup even if this was there first foray into vinyl and I think that is great.

Origin Live did offer to come and set this all up for me but I wanted to do it myself to get the same experience you might do if you bought these products. I also thought if I can do it, I am sure you could do it too.  The manual was easy enough to follow but there were a few things that I wasn’t sure about and I was lucky to have the OL guys at the other end of the phone to support me.  That is also what your dealer is for by the way.

Easy setup

First impressions were all good, the Calypso turntable’s main plinth felt well built and solid although not overly heavy. I think the overall concept for the Calypso design is all about balance. Performance to cost balance for starters but there is a great balance to the design that I appreciated more when I was looking back over all of the footage I shot for the video review some months earlier.

Starting with the all-important centrally strong, high specification sub chassis and suspension that you cant miss. There are obvious circular sections or heavy inertia disks as they are called that form part of the aesthetic but are also there for vibration management. Its an interesting way to manage vibration different to springs or other methods we see used.

The platter is also interesting, because it’s the new multi layer platter and its pretty obvious to see differing layers to it. I thought the platter was  a simple acrylic design with the Origin Live Strata platter matt screwed to the top and I would have been happy with the as the Strata is awesome, I speak about in this video link here.  I checked with OL and they told me the Strata needs a solid base to make it flexible to work on any platte, but as the multi layer platter is all one design it allows OL to make it a more effective version of what the Strata offers and that I found very interesting.

To get setup we have to install the MK4 turntable bearing that has a tungsten carbide ball bearing that you can easily see. OL showed me at the factory how crazy tight the tolerances are for the manufacturing of important parts like this. I don’t remember the exact tolerance but I saw the test equipment and I know its crazy tight which is great to know.  Before you install the bearing you have to drip some of the included oil into the bearing housing making sure there is a little overshoot. I was really quite concerned about getting this right but I needn’t have worried, you just take your time and you can have as many attempts at it takes getting the oil right. Then call me impressed when I lowered the platter down and gave it a little spin and the platter went on spinning seemingly forever, clearly a testament to the build quality of this thing.

Next I unboxed the conqueror tonearm, I love that name by the way. It’s a very nicely built you can tell when you hold it in your hands but its not overly flashy.  Its also surprisingly light but still feels pretty solid where it counts. Its also very easy to install, you remove the main washer and bolt, slide it into the only place it can go and fit the washer and tighten the bolt under the housing.  I did this all by hand, making sure the orientation of the tone arm was perpendicular to the platter and a minute or two later she was good.

One things that caught me out with the tonearm was the long screw type bolt that is sticking very much out to the side and I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to remove that but you don’t, its the lock for the VTA adjustment.  To adjust the VTA you rotate a mechanism clockwise to raise the arm and vise versa.  There are markings so you can see what you are doing and I found this to be a great way of adjusting the VTA once I got used to it.  The markings made it easy for me to visualise the changes I wanted to make with a reminder marker so I could put it back easily if the adjustment made the sound worse.  So setting the VTA by ear with the conqueror is made easy and I really liked that.

Loving the connectors

One other thing I like about the conquerer is the lockable counter weight. I like the look of it for starters, the balance again of black and silver but I also I like being able to get it right and then secure it just in case of a clumsy mishap.

Now one thing I love about this tone arm is the cable that’s inside, well more importantly to me are the connectors at the cartridge end. Already in my short time in vinyl playback I have learnt there is no standard size for the pins manufacturers use on their cartridges, which seems ridiculous to me. I leant quickly I hate having to squeeze down larger connectors to fit smaller pins, I really hate doing it it feels barbaric.  I knew there must be a better way and it seems OL have solved this problem by using high quality silver plated connectors that have what I am going to call a splay clip design, so they adapt to the size of the pin when you push them on, they open and grip.  This made the fiddly job of connecting up the cartridge and keeping the cable runs nice and neat and out of the way much easier than I am used to so super Kudos to OL for this its great.

I definitely want to talk about the included Silver Hybrid 2 tone arm cable because this is an absolute cracker as well. The angled din connector was nice, the Rhodium RCA connectors are nice and there are loads of extra earthing connections here I didn’t understand what they were all for. I was told to just connect the ground connectors at both ends and that means connecting three cables with spades and that can be fiddly and its not my favourite setup task for sure. Its worth it though as this cable made for a very quiet connection to the phono stage and this is a £580 retail priced cable that’s included so I think it’s a very nice thing to have included with the arm.

I nearly forgot to install another nice included upgrade the OL cartridge enabler that is a little device acting as another layer of vibration isolation and absorption between the cartridge and the tone arm head shell. It was easier to fit than I was expecting and I appreciated that and you can easily see what it is and easily guesstimate what its looking to do. But I didn’t test with and without it to be able to speak about any difference it made to the sound and I apologise for that but you can buy them or all tone arms I believe and it only costs £27 so its not expensive to try out.

The motor for the turntable is in a separate circular housing and its quite sizeable  but not overly heavy.  This is probably my least favourite aspect to the overall  Calypso turntable design. I think it looks nice, its easy to setup, its easy to turn on once to 33 rpm and twice to 45 and its totally fine,  just not my favourite part. Although inside OL say the motor is very high quality and Swiss made and the power supply is supposed to be improved from previous models which sounds great.  This is powered from a typical looking laptop style power brick which is fine but nothing to get excited about.

Once the table was levelled I could fit and install the motor pod and the thick high quality belt, I liked that and start getting the speeds perfectly dialled in.

Spinning some plastic

I did the obligatory phone RPM tests to tweak the final speeds and this was definitely made much easier because I have the OL Gravity One record clamp here and that allowed me to rest my phone on it centrally to the spindle.  I was able to get pretty good results and I didnt spent a huge amount of time on this obsessing over the Wow flutter and speed variation.  I actually got a slightly better results later by tensioning the belt a bit more by moving the physical distance of the motor pod away slightly more.  This seemed to help with the fine adjustment to the speed when turning the screw on the motor pod with one control for 33 and one for 45. I did find the speed adjustment was not that sensitive and it was tricky to get things perfect.  It was easier to get the speeds just right on the Turntbale I had here before thew Bergmann Modi but that costs significantly more.

With everything setup and dialled in what does the OL turntable setup sound like.  Listening to vinyl in general far for me up to this point has been quite a noticeable step down in overall sound quality compared to the crazy high end digital setups I have had here this year. The bass has always been too light for me and I have been tying to work out why.  Do bear in mind I am still new to vinyl playback and I am learning all the time.  We all know HiFi sound quality is all about balance and more recently I have been using a more real world priced digital setup that’s still very good but at the crazy high level of the kit I have had here recently. So in a comparison with what I have here now this Origin Live turntable setup or the sound of the whole analogue system here at the moment has been sounding better to me in most ways compared to the digital. That is the first time I have felt that about listening to vinyl and that has ben a really big thing for me and super encouraging for where I am at with the overall journey.

I think this is due to this being a quiet turntable setup so the analogue high gain and high background noise or hum or hiss is minimised here, its still there of course but its not as invasive as it could be. The cartridge I am using is the Sumiko Starling, an approx. £2k high end moving coil that I really like as it has a full and punchy sound that’s nicely balanced for detail and dynamics not prioritising one over the other. I think its great at retaining the smaller details and character of the vinyl sound and by that I mean the overtones or harmonics that make records having some analogue warmth and character.

Its slightly higher 0.5mv output works great with the Modwright PH9 phono stage that I also found sounds infinitely better if you just leave it on for days. The speakers I had here at the time I think are great, the SVS Titan. They are not too brutally resolving and they mask a little of the small details in favour of a full and rich and ballsy sound and they worked great to balance my perceived vinyl short comings by masking some of the unwanted vinyl noise and having a big bass.

The system just all seemed to be clicking it’s a great feeling when a system does that, especially for a reviewer because even if the sound is not perfect in every area, ot doesn’t have to be when the balance is right, you can listen to any music, listen to it all day, day after day and enjoy every second of it.

Music examples

To try and be a little more specific I made some notes about some of the more mainstream records I listened that I will share with you.

Daft Punk, Random Access Memories 10th Anniversary

This record sounded particularly its a fantastic pressing for sure.  The music presentation was warm, full rich, with GREAT BASS (capital letters on purpose) with good space, great dynamics and very good projection of sounds into the room.  The music had great scale, it was clean quiet, smooth with lovely organic character.  I felt I could  reach out and touch the music its presentation was that strong.  It was a turn it up and be happy sound that was totally satisfying even the crazy fast pieces.

James Taylor, Greatest hits
The record was presented with a good sound stage depth beyond the speakers,  it sounded a little spindly but that’s this album.  Overall is was still a warmer sound with a lovely organic character. Smooth in the main but still sharp enough in the transients. There was some pretty big full percussive bass which is amazing for this record.  Overall it was a little noisy but this record but is old and bought used from Ebay, but it was still totally satisfying and very good listen.

Inakustik, Reference Sound check Volume 2

This whole record sounded incredible and it’s a nice variety of music. In particular record two side 1a sounds big and full and very dynamic, the bass is superb, maybe a little fat but in a good way. Its a full and bouncy that’s always pleasing. maybe not the last word in articulation but it has a live energy about it and I was cranking the volume of the Gryphon Diablo 300 Integrated amplifier.  One song on this side stood out in particular What a difference a day makes by Dinah Washington, it such a raws nostalgic presence and aura as the music was so full of character an yes it sound ed of its time but still big and full and rich and lush.  It was fantastic to listen to.

Gregory Porter, Liquid Spirit 10th Anniversary

I had been really disappointed by the sound of this record, but not now, its sounds big, full, lively and energetic but maybe a little too digital for some as it definitely lacks the obvious organic character of vinyl. But on the OL setup it still a good listen to this classic modern jazz album, and for once it has a pulse or an energy about it with great scale and a nice depth to the sound stage. The music has a sense of occasion especially the brass instruments in some of the songs they had has some serious pizazz going on and that was my big positive take away from listening to this album on this setup.

Adele, 25

This is another album I had not enjoyed that much before on vinyl, buy on this OL setup the vocal had a wonderful rich and organic character, even in the overly strained belting sections. The vocal was smooth and very organic and palpable so call me super impressed by this. Then projection of backing layers of the music across the sound stage left to right was very stand out and that created a greater sense of occasion. The bass was great and again totally satisfying and I really enjoyed this record it was a great listen.

I think I could go on describing a number of records, but it easier to say pretty much everything I tested I enjoyed listening to. It was not all perfect of course but I could enjoy the imperfections because there was far more positive there than negative, far more.

I have enjoyed myself immensely 

Overall the main stand out sonic strengths of this OL vinyl setup for me is the musics light footed nimbleness and by that I mean, you get to appreciate the overtones or the musical information. You hear or experience music between the main notes or elements and that knits the whole picture together and gives music a lovely vibe and flow about it. This aspect has been obviously better than from the quite a bit less expensive digital setup I have been using in the same system.

The other main strength for me is the lack of weakness or weak point. I think you can tell these are products that have been developed over time as they have a general excellent overall balance of sound. So while everything is not perfect, the vocals, the sound stage, the background noise, the amount and quality of bass and all the other important music factors we listen for are all about equally good. Nothing stands out as maybe exceptional, but nothing stands out as a negative either so I think you end up getting more as a result of the sum of all the parts and that is where the OL guys have been really clever here.

But nothing is perfect, I would have said more bass from this setup would suit me better but now with the SVS Titan speakers and big Gryphon amp I don’t feel like that, far from it, but I have felt like it at times throughout the full review period with other setups.

I have some usability niggles, the yoke on the tone arm is very wide and it gets very close to the lever for raising and lowering the tonearm .  At first when I was aligning the cartridge to the outer playing edge of the record of course to play the first track at first as I was dropping the lever I would knock the yoke and move the arm. I had to retrain myself to do it with a straight finger rather than a hooked finger.

Also I mentioned earlier the motor unit as being my least favourite thing about the Calypso. The big chunky switch on top looks pretty cool and feels reassuringly clunky to use, but I think I would prefer a control for 33 and 45 rather than a turn for 33 and a second turn for 45 but this just a personal preference tiny niggle but a niggle for me nonetheless.  Also a more responsive change to the speed when making adjustment to the motor would be easier to use and dial in.

Also the hanging side bias sometimes I have knocked it off by mistake when I have removed the soft cloth I am using as a dust cover. I was wondering why there was not a rubber stopper or someway to secure this mechanism in place.  One of my viewers in the YouTube review kindly pointed out I have missed the bolt that locks this mechanism in place so that was a niggle from user error and I take that one on the chin.

Time to sum up this very long review as concisely as possible, I have had a blast with these Origin Live products and right now I have no desire to want to change them out the system I could happily listen to them much more.

Easy conclusion

Time to sum up this very long review as concisely as possible. I have had a blast with these Origin Live products and right now I have no desire to want to change them out the system I could happily listen to them much more and that tells me a lot. Coming back down to earth for a minute over £6000 is a lot money and there is a lot of competition at this price level, its pretty crazy how much actually.

I see it like this, if you appreciate the aesthetic design of this turntable and tonearm, a modern but quite understated look then I think its very likely enjoy how it sounds more, because its substance over style in my opinion.   Sadly I can’t separate the table from the tone arm to say where the best value lies here I wish I could, I need to work on that and will do rest assured.

I will end the review by saying I think a pairing the Origin Live are in a simple word – GREAT!

Special Performer Award is Pursuit Perfect Systems highest accolade and is in recognition of exceptional product performance regardless of price

For the full specification of the Origin Live Calypso MK5 Turntable and the MK4 Conqueror tonearm see their website linked here