In mid-2009 Soulines decided to finally start doing for a living something that they  really liked and enjoyed. Being discerning music lovers and trained musicians with solid experience in recording, mixing, production and sound restoration on the one side and trained mechanical engineers on the other, they decided to commercialise their long-time hobby and passion, turntable tweaking/upgrading/redesign/building.

 In a short period of time they established themselves as local turntable specialists, successfully redesigning and upgrading turntables for local clients. Along with commissioned projects, they produced a number of turntables successfully employing their own design ideas. Soon, these models gained popularity among local audiophiles, winning "The Best sound award" at the Belgrade Hi-Files Show 2010.

"How or why should a belt-drive turntable with a skeletal plinth, an acrylic platter, and an apparently lowish-torque DC motor pull so much impact, tone, and musical satisfaction from my LPs? Damned if I know—but it did. Next to the enduringly recommendable PTP Solid12 turntable—which itself uses some vintage components—this is one of the very best non-vintage turntables I've heard outside of the enormously expensive Döhmann Helix 1 ($40,000). Very highly recommended."
Art Dudley Stereophile

 

 

"A few minutes later he caught his first glimpse of Space Station One, only a few miles away. The sunlight glinted and sparkled from the polished metal surfaces of the slowly revolving, three hundred-yard-diameter disk.... The central axis of the Space Station, with its docking arms extended, was now slowly swimming toward them. Unlike the structure from which it sprang, it was not rotating - or, rather, it was running in reverse at a rate which exactly countered the Station's own spin. Thus a visiting spacecraft could be coupled to it, for the transfer of personnel or cargo, without being whirled disastrously around."
Arthur C. Clarke - 2001: A Space Odyssey

A 33.33rpm revolving, three hundred-millimetres-diameter disk, with its drive block and three docking arms-cone supports extending from the underneath. Tone-arm firmly mounted on its own curved extension, steadily track the grooves, transmitting the music and transferring emotions ........Enter the Kubrick DCX turntable

Inspired by the S. Kubrick classic "2001: A Space Odyssey", the Kubrick DCX turntable is conceived as smooth looking musical "space" object.

This is our most advanced turntable to date. Building around our inverted main bearing and Acrylic platter, developed for the Hermes DCX model, we designed a highly rigid aluminium plinth and sub-plinth, built from differently shaped layers-blocks, coupled together and strategically damped.

Design (dimensions, shape and arrangement of different openings/holes) of plinth and sub-plinth aluminium blocks employs the Golden Ratio and Fibonacci sequence, thus gaining uniform vibration damping and the reduction of the Moment of inertia in all three planes (along all three axes) to the Centre of mass. Although the Kubrick DCX looks asymmetrical or unbalanced, it is in fact perfectly balanced, providing smooth platter rotation and steady tracking.


The drive mechanism utilizes a high quality DC motor optimised for turntable use. Along with an easy operation and fine speed adjustment feature, an electronically controlled power supply provides stable current for smooth motor rotation.

The inverted main bearing, machined from solid brass and stainless steel to extremely high precision, and solid aluminium arm-board are mounted directly on the sub plinth which is in turn 3-point de-coupled from the main plinth in order to maximize performance and minimize acoustic break through. The motor assembly is mounted on the main plinth.

The turntable is supported by three adjustable cones machined from solid aluminium to allow levelling and provide optimum coupling to the surface that it sits on. Supporting cones are coupled to the main plinth by means of rubber-cork washers of different diameters, providing better vibration transmitting control.

A high-performance rubber-cork mat and the Protractor LP (a cartridge alignment tool) are supplied as standard.
To allow easy VTA setting (for the tone-arms without this feature), two sets of spacers of 6 and 8mm, are supplied.

Soulines Kubrick DCX turntable £2,995.00 (please specify arm mount, SME, Rega, Jelco) as below.

Three different (user) exchangeable arm-boards for 9" tone-arms; one of your choice is included.  Extra ones are £95.00 each.
- SME arm-board - tone-arm pivot to spindle distance from 204-239mm
- Rega/Origin Live arm-board - tone-arm pivot to spindle distance 222mm
- Jelco arm-board - tone-arm pivot to spindle distance 214mm

An acrylic (Perspex) dust cover (the SA cover) is available for £110.00
Upgraded belt (check for availability) £40.00

Reviews :
HiFi News UK review click here
Stereophile click here
Tone Audio click here
HiFi Pig click here
TNT Audio click here
Stereonet click here

 

 


Perspex cover and optional armboards

Drive:
electronically controlled high quality DC motor
Speeds:
33.33 and 45.00 RPM with fine speed adjustment feature
Bearing:
inverted solid brass/stainless steel; Derlin thrust plate
Platter:
40mm thick 3.2kg weighing, machined from laminated Acrylic
Chassis:
multi layered aluminium main plinth with 3-point de-coupled aluminium sub-plinth
Finish:
silver anodised aluminium
Extras:
 
3 exchangeable arm-boards for 9" SME, Jelco and Rega/Origin Live/Audio Note tone-arms; 2 sets of spacers of 6 and 8mm (for VTA setting); SA cover /Acrylic made dust cover
Power:
AC 240V/50Hz; DC input 12V/300mA
Dimensions:
470x350x160mm (WxDxH) overall; 400x350mm (WxD) footprint
Net weight:
14kg
Packaging:
530x400x260mm (WxDxH)
Shipping weight:
15kg

Design

Every manufacturer say their design is made with a CAD system, they almost certainly are, but that is to get it look right and to program the CNC machines.  So why were  Stereophile so deeply impressed and shocked?

The designer Igor Gligorov has a degree in mechanical design and engineering and knows a thing or two about turntables.  Using SolidWorks he designs out all stresses and unwanted forces, it's complicated, very complicated, and this is only part of it.  The secrets are held solely by Igor and Dave Cawley (also a qualified engineer) and account for why so many have said "a turntable of this price has no right to sound as good" !

E&OE  Prices calculated at EUR : UKL of 1.08  & import duty 5% Summer 2017.  All prices include UK VAT (sales tax) of 20%        15 June 2018