U TURN “ORBIT” Review vs Dual CS 505 by
ROD ORCHARD
U-Turn Turntable review | Rod Orchard Back in 1980 I remember buying my first turntable. It was a Dual CS 505-1 that I bought with my NAD 3020e PreAmp. I had a solid full time job and decided the ghetto blast system, while pretty damn good (A JVC PC-55), needed to replaced. The Dual turntables were renown for their great German engineering and high quality decks even at the entry and mid levels. I’ve used that deck since then until about a year ago when the cartridge simply fell out after playing a record and raising the tone arm. Those old cartridges had these tiny plastic hooks that help it keep the cartridge in place. I figured that since most of the parts for the deck are still available this wouldn’t be a big deal to fix. Boy was I wrong! The recommended replacement cartridges for Dual decks have always been Ortofon. I figured I’d just install the adapter that came with the deck and install a nice upgraded 2MRed for better sound and the same kind of cash as what places were asking for the lesser quality cart that would fit the original setup. That’s where things got tricky. Any time you are dealing with vintage gear you have to do some solid homework. I tend to over research anything I buy to the point of frustration. In this case it was a good thing. I managed to get a contact with an Ortofon distributor in Ontario who has worked in the turntable industry for about 40 years
and got some good news/ bad news. The great Ortofon Red would fit my TT but the sound difference between that cart and a cheaper one would be the same. Why? Because the tone arms back in the 80’s went through a trend of being much lighter than Tone arms of today. The Ortofon 2M Red would fit but because there wasn’t enough weight in the tone arm to push the needle deep enough into the records grooves to take advantage of the higher quality product I was putting on it. It seemed clear that for my money going with a new/ modern deck was going to be the way to go. Either that or go with a high-end vintage deck that had the proper tone arm for the cart. While I love the look and build quality of higher end vintage decks with the resurgence of vinyl those decks are priced through the roof. Add to the fact that if you even come across a good deck cheap, chances are you’re going to have to take it in and have it cleaned and lubed plus possible wiring and cart upgrades. Like anything vintage, these decks need parts that are sometimes hard and expensive to replace. Seeing as I set a pretty modest budget of $500 CDN I was going to have to look at something new, as a $500 vintage deck doesn’t get you anything superb. Plus I needed a deck sooner than later! After researching and asking around it came down to 2 decks. The very popular Pro-Ject Debut carbon and a newcomer, the U-Turn Orbit. The Pro-Ject brand came highly recommended by a few stereo people and the reviews were very strong. However there were more
and more reviews about how the quality control on the Pro-Ject decks had been gradually slipping. While the issues weren’t widespread or anything, they did put a bit of doubt in buying the brand. That sent me looking at the U-Turn Orbit to see what the quality was in comparison. The reviews were very strong and while there were reports of a few minor issues, people reported that the company was very quick to fix any issues with their products. Even better, the problems were addressed by the owners! U-Turn prides itself on the fact that every deck made-to-order and assembled by hand in their Woburn, Massachusetts workshop. They state on their site that “We source nearly all of our parts from US suppliers. Our acrylic platters are fabricated in Ohio. Our plinths come from Minnesota, and our machined metal components from Connecticut. By keeping our suppliers close and our assembly inhouse, we are able to maintain a consistently high level of quality. Prior to shipping, each turntable goes through comprehensive listening, wow & flutter, and rumble tests, as well as a 15-point performance evaluation.” As a consumer, I like the idea that they aren’t mass-producing decks with Chinese parts to pad their profit margin. Plus you can build your deck online adding what you want including the cart that it will come with.The bonus for those just getting into the TT/analog world is that the decks come shipped ready to play. So instead of buying that record player in a box that actually destroys your records, you can get for the same price point a solid, high quality deck that will last you a lifetime or until you want to perhaps upgrade into something in the higher snack bracket. I contacted Ben at U-Turn
to ask him some questions about the decks and my concerns about buying online from a different country. Seeing as a majority of US companies look at Canadians as foreigners and therefore don’t feel the need to give us the same service or warranty as the Americans. In the end I decided that while the Pro-ject had a longer history in the market and the name was considered a good brand, the fact that I was able to actually talk to the guy who owned the company (more than once), their passion for putting out a great product at a great price, the U-Turn was my final choice. I went with the Orbit Basic but added the acrylic platter, which would give an overall better sound. I wanted to stick with my budget of $500 and seeing as I was dealing with a weak Canadian dollar, the Plus model didn’t really give me anything that made it any better than the Basic (remember I added the acrylic platter). The Plus did have the Ortofon OM5E, but the Basics Audio-Technica AT91B was a very decent cart as well. The deck arrived as described, ready to play out of the box and sounded great! In the end not only did I get a decent deck under my overall budget (some cash left over for a few records) but also I felt that I had given my money to a company that cared about the product they made but also the people who bought the product. Perhaps in the future, I might upgrade the cart to see if it gets me a better overall tone. Perhaps. While I still love the look of the vintage decks, I also love the idea of not having to worry about replacement parts and expensive tune-ups. If I had the kind of cash for that I wouldn’t have been shopping around as aggressively as I did. I highly recommend that if you are in the market for a new deck, give Ben and the guys at U-Turn a serious look. I actually touched base with Ben and U-Turn has added some new tone arms to the latest decks and a wood plinth option. https://uturnaudio.com/blogs/uturn/introducing-orbit-arm-2 https://uturnaudio.com/pages/turntables