Michell turntables, Stevenage, England
When John Michell passed away at the age of 67 after a short illness it was left to his daughter Julie and her husband Steve Rowland to pick up the business that he had started in 1967. J.A. Michell Engineering Ltd was officially incorporated 1973 and started out making parts for all manner of applications when John was based in Edgeware, these included the model spaceship in 2001 a space Odyssey and OEM work for Proac and Transcriptors turntables. Michell made the early Hydraulic Reference models for that company until it moved to Ireland and carried on making them under licence with the Michell Engineering badge. He also provided many costume parts including parts used for cap badges and was commissioned to make C-3PO’s eyes in the first Star Wars films, apparently fans of the genre still turn up hoping to buy authentic components for their cosplay outfits.
The first Michell turntable proper was the Electronic Reference in 1976, this was essentially an upgrade to the Transcriptors design but had a more accurate controllable motor, the following year this evolved into the Prisma and used a similar platter to the Electronic Reference, it was the first turntable to use a thick clear acrylic base. Two years later John created the Focus One with its distinctive suede mat and aluminium platter on an acrylic and wood base with sprung feet, acrylic has since become a signature Michell material found in all the company’s designs.
The iconic Michell Gyrodec, which first saw the light of production in 1982, had an acrylic chassis underneath a spring suspended metal sub chassis and an alloy platter with rubber mat and AC motor. Nothing in that original Gyrodec remains in today’s models even though the name remains the same, now the platter is in Delrin with the distinctive gold lacquered weights beneath, the sub chassis is balanced with stainless steel rather than lead weights and the motor is a DC type that no longer sits on the same plinth but on the supporting surface below the turntable for maximum isolation.
Even the springs hidden beneath the caps in the circular sub-chassis have changed, formerly these operated LP12 style with springs sitting atop one part adjusters, now they hang from two part adjusters that allow the spring to be rotated without this changing height. Modern Gyrodecs are supplied with a collet based record clamp, something that Michell came up with in the late seventies way before anyone else. This clamp is lighter than most at 70g and ensures that the vinyl is pressed against the platter in such a way that energy is damped and vinyl vibrations are minimised. It is sold separately and can be used on virtually any turntable.
Michell was also the first to use an inverted bearing on a turntable, the advantage of this is that it provides better lubrication where it’s needed. This is achieved with a spiral groove (rifling) Archimedean screw cut into the body which makes oil flow up to the point where the weight of the platter sits on a hardened ball, this lubricates the shaft and the pressure point. Recent refinements to this design include more precise roundness or concentricity of the bearing shaft. MD Jonathan Nye explained that the spindle and body are matched by hand because this is the most accurate way to find a precise pairing of these critical parts.
Other changes to the design include decoupled spacers between arm base and sub chassis, these parts used to be joined by a bolt that went straight through both parts but now Michell use Delrin components to provide a degree of isolation without undermining rigidity.
I asked why Michell had stuck with the rotating gold weights under the platter and was told that this adds mass in the desired peripheral position and provides what the marketing world calls ‘visual drama’, which it clearly does. The flagship Orbe came along in 1995 with a more substantial all Delrin platter and damped two part chassis for increased isolation, this was joined in 1998 by the first Gyro SE which has a much more open ‘spider’ plinth that makes this model look more up to date and has proved to be the most popular Gyro to date.
Michell created a variety of turntables in the eighties and nineties, these included the rather attractive glass platter Synchro in 1984 and the Micro in 1991 which was similar but had an acrylic platter. Today Michell’s entry level turntable is the Tecnodec, a compact non suspended design where the minimal acrylic plinth is no bigger than the platter and sits on three legs with a free standing motor and outrigger armboard. This has a smaller inverted bearing and Delrin platter than the Gyrodec but embodies all the design principles that Michell has developed save for spring suspension. With the T2 tonearm (a Rega RB220 with RB330 wiring) and Goldring E3 cartridge it costs £2,000 including separate in-house designed power supply and dust cover.
Michell went through a phase of selling its own line of electronics in the nineties, this started with the popular Iso phono stage designed and built by Tom Evans (his Microgroove is a modern equivalent) and continued with Delphini phono, Orca pre and Alecto power amplifiers created by Graham Fowler of Trichord fame.
Michell today is a family run affair, Steve and Julie Rowland and their son John and daughter Gemma are all involved as is Julie’s sister. Jonathan Nye, Gemma’s husband, heads up overall management and pushes the engineering side to improve and expand the product range, but not too frantically. A recent addition is the Cusis range of moving coil cartridges, these are made in partnership with Excel Sound and feature Delrin, and in the case of the flagship Cusis M, carbon loaded acrylic bodies. The various cartridges use the same generator but have different stylus profiles and cantilever materials. More recently Michell have developed magnetically isolating feet that are available as an upgrade for their turntables, these beautifully machined devices are quite substantial because they contain a pair of opposing magnets that are spaced to give one of two degrees of weight bearing. The plan is to offer the Levis feet as an upgrade for products other than Michell turntables at some point, one also wonders whether the interest in magnetic isolation might lead to this technique being used to support turntable platters as is found in a few high end designs. But don’t hold your breath.
Michell is by virtue of its engineering lead approach a very down to earth company, they design and build products in a practical and efficient manner to offer highly reliable, well made record players at the most competitive prices that they can. They don’t bring out new models every few years, rather the turntables and other products evolve over time. A modern Gyrodec looks very similar to the forty plus year old original but, as mentioned, no single part is the same. This is clearly not a marketing lead operation, they only spend the money on what counts for the end user and it’s a policy that has served them well for over 50 years. That is a rarity in this business and one that should be encouraged.
Jason Kennedy