Origin Live MkV tonearms at Bristol HiFi Show 2025
Meaningful enhancements in vinyl playback are hard-won. In the four years since the launch of their Mk4 tonearms, ongoing research and development have led Origin Live to a number of improvements to tonearm performance. The renowned British manufacturers are excited to roll out their MkV generation arms in to a burgeoning market.
‘With the vinyl boom, there has been a flurry of new products into the market.’ Mark Baker tells us, “Many large brands with little experience in vinyl have made gestures towards the vinyl market that seem to resemble quality, but fall wildly short of what vinyl playback is truly capable of. There are however some genuine additions to the space have made things a little more competitive and pushed the space forwards. Rising to the challenge, we’re trickling down a Multi-Layer Counterweight from our flagship designs and also implementing some major developments we’ve been working on since Mk4.”
Starting from the Illustrious arm (£2,340) upwards, a refined Multi-Layer Counterweight (MLC) is now included as standard. Origin Live stress that a counterweight is not merely a way to adjust tracking force, but an integral part of controlling the stability of the pivot, and the resonance of the tube. The MLC’s multiple layers absorb and diffuse vibration travelling along the arm tube, and crucially, part of its weight is placed on an outrigger that positions mass underneath the pivot. This gives more stability in busy/dynamic vinyl passages that put more strain on the pivot.
As one of the inventors of the dual pivot tonearm over 20 years ago, Origin Live are eager to reassert the importance of this technology today. The dual pivot (imagine a unipivot spike and cup on either side of the armtube) ‘has the best torsional resistance, providing the most stability for the azimuth of the cartridge stylus. No unipivot arms possess this quality. The stable nature of the dual-pivot also allows the pivot to be mass-bearing, which has a significant impact on the control over the arms inertia. ‘Good tonearm design is the compromise of many opposing ideas’ Baker says, “For instance, freedom of movement is fundamental to playing a record, but the cartridge also demands rock like stability from the tonearms tube and pivots. Finding a solution that satisfies both of these demands is not simple. Having tested the latest developments on the market, I’m confident that the dual-pivot remains the best solution.”
The new line of arms represents the ‘culmination of almost 40 years of test-driven development in vinyl playback’ and ‘probably the best performance value of any products Origin Live have ever produced.” The official launch of the MkV range is scheduled for February 21st, 2025, at the Bristol Hi-Fi Show.
New tube treatment
This improves transparency and separation significantly. It’s not rubber, foam, or a tube within a tube. Without revealing specifics, Origin Live say it is highly effective without overdamping or leaving residual vibration. This treatment has been included in all arms since September 1st, 2024.
MkV multi-layer counterweights
Trickled down from their Agile and Renown tonearms, this is a further refined version of the multi-layer counterweight that absorbs energy and reduces resonant reflections from the counterweight to the arm tube. Its outrigger positions mass beneath the tonearm pivot point, providing more stability and better handling of busy/dynamic passages in the vinyl groove. Due to several design refinements and additional layers, the multi-layer counterweights on the MkV Agile and Renown are more advanced than those in the arms below them.
MkV MLC counterweights can be retrofitted to Mk4 arms.
Improved tracking force adjustment
Having explored various options OL have found a method of attaching the counterweight to the rear sleeve that makes large adjustments in tracking force much easier to set and fix. Additionally, the fixing itself has been developed to provide a marginal performance improvement, resulting in a reliable adjustment that is not detrimental to the arm’s performance. The fine adjuster on the multi-layer counterweight now allows for a much greater fine adjustment range, making it significantly easier to set tracking force.
Cable housing for increased freedom of movement
People sometimes measure the bearing friction of a tonearm, but freedom of movement is often more affected by the mechanical resistance of its cable to bending and twisting. Some tonearm manufacturers route the cable around the arm and into the top, which adds significant resistance to movement. Reducing the influence of the cable’s mechanical resistance to movement is a difficult but important task, which is why Origin Live have worked on a solution that reduces cable resistance. This, of course, improves freedom of movement and aids performance.