$50K turntable puts magnets to work on quieter, smoother spin
Turntables are supposed to hiss and hum a little. It's part of the deal. Esoteric's new T-01 breaks that deal by swapping its belt for a magnetic field, leaving the platter to spin in near-total mechanical silence.
The Japanese audio maker calls the system MagneDrive, and the T-01 is its second act. The idea first showed up four years ago on the Grandioso T1, a flagship model priced around US$86,000, which was less a turntable than a proof of concept with a hefty price tag attached. The T-01 simplifies that original design and its installation and comes with a tonearm included at $50,000 in the US or €48,000 in Europe, still comfortably in exotic hi-fi territory. Buyers who already own a tonearm they love can opt for the bare T-01AL instead, at $46,000.
Esoteric's pitch for that price is ambitious: a vinyl playback experience so clean it's indistinguishable from the...
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