Origin Live Gravity Two record weight
Most of you will know Origin Live as a manufacturer of turntables and pickup arms. Founded by Mark Baker, they have been manufacturing these products for several decades. Record weights, though, are a new development for them – until very recently they had always found that the weights and clamps they tried made the sound worse.
The Gravity Two weight is a ground-up redesign of the Gravity One, introduced in 2020. But what changed their minds and why did they suddenly decide to make a weight?
The story goes that it was at one of the Indulgence shows in London organised by retailer Unilet (in 2017/18), that Mark Baker had an epiphany, when he heard a demonstration of a weight made by Chinese company Shun Mook. This was the first time he had heard a weight that improved everything in the music without the usual downsides he’d noticed with other weights and clamps, which mainly revolved around slowing the sound down.
The Shun Mook is made from exotic ebony root and although it was higher mass than the Gravity One or Two, it did things they hadn’t heard from a weight before and set Mark thinking about previously untested materials it might be worth trying. Their first weight, the Gravity One, was launched around 2020.
Mark already knew that just adding a weight to sit on the record was not the answer. Sales manager David Baker explained to me that they had previously machined spindle holes into blocks of steel to test adding weight and it simply did not work. He said they found it adversely affected transients and the soundstage right across the frequency band.
Around that time, David explained, they’d been playing with multi-layer turntable platters and wondered if that idea could be applied to a record weight. It might be worth saying at this stage that the name ‘weight’ is perhaps a bit of a misnomer, as the Gravity Two weighs only 70g (about half a vinyl record). It does not set out to flatten warps or add any ‘mass damping’. Instead, it is intended to damp out vibrations coming from the turntable bearing and from the record itself caused by the action of the stylus tracing the groove.
The outer housing of the Gravity Two is 3D printed and has a ridges to increase stiffness, as well as a complex interior design using special cavities to further enhance rigidity. You will notice that when you pick up the Gravity Two, it rattles. That is because the outer and inner components are only joined together very loosely, making them ‘essentially decoupled’.
Internally it uses layers of different materials that sit on top of each other, with gaps designed to absorb and diffuse vibrations and resonances. This tuned internal assembly is made from lightweight metallic parts with precision-cut profiles, combined with layers of wood, composites and polymers. These materials have different properties and vibrate at different frequencies.
One for all?
Origin Live say they have tested the Gravity Two on every type of turntable, when I tried their excellent Strata turntable mat, I found it improved every turntable I used it on. So I was curious to see if the same would be true for the Gravity Two.
To test this out, I must thank the guys at my local retailer, Home Media in Maidstone, for making three turntables available to me: a Rega Planar 2 (£525) fitted with Rega Carbon MM cartridge (£35); a Clearaudio Performance DC (£2,300) fitted with Clearaudio Virtuoso V2 MM cartridge (£900), and a Michell Gyrodec SE with Rega RB330 arm (£3,935) and Gold Note Donatello MC cartridge (£740). These were hooked up to a Gold Note PH-5 phono stage, Vitus Audio R101 MkII integrated amplifier and Oephi Transcendence 2 standmount speakers.
First up was the Clearaudio, playing the track No One Emotion from George Benson’s wonderful 20/20 album. Using the Gravity Two weight really tightened up that driving synth bass line and made it easier to follow the drum machine and intricate percussion play from Paulinho da Costa. Benson’s voice was smoother and more articulate and lacked the splashiness I heard when not using the weight. Michael Sembello’s wonderful guitar solo was cleaner and better focused, while still retaining its biting edge. The weight made the track flow better, move faster rhythmically and allowed me to listen into the various layers of this lavish arrangement more easily.
A quick blast of Fergus McCreadie’s track Sun Pillars from his Stream album yielded similar results. Using the weight, his piano was more solid with better leading edge detail and fluidity. It also had more weight in the low registers and you could hear just how hard he struck each key. Subtle detail and syncopations in the wonderfully nuanced drum play of Stephen Henderson also came across better using the weight, while the acoustic bass line had more leading edge note detail and moved better.
Moving on to the Rega Planar 2 record player, I spun up Broad Daylight from Ben Sidran’s The Doctor Is Inalbum. With the weight in place, I immediately noticed how his piano was cleaner and had a richer tonality, while his vocals were more open and expressive. You could also follow his nimble-fingered play on fast runs better with the weight, while the bass line also moved better, had more weight and was easier to follow. Again, each musician was better separated and had more space around them.
Playing Hello Tomorrow from guitarist Larry Carlton’s superbly recorded Discovery album, drum beats had much more impact and dynamics when using the weight, while Kirk Whalum’s sax solo had more emotion and movement. Carlton’s guitar was sharper with the weight and you could hear better how he shaped each note. The bass line was also tighter and more tuneful. In short, the track moved better and made more sense musically.
Last up was the Michell Gyrodec SE setup. First track on was another absolutely stunning recording, namely Ben Sidran’s Bop City (still one of the best recordings I have heard). On It Didn’t All Come True, from the first few bars, the weight was obviously working its magic and those stabbing chords from Sidran on the intro somehow had more leading-edge bite, body and oomph, as did the superb bass line which really tightened up when the Gravity Two was in place. Drumkit was also much cleaner when using the weight, making it easier to pick out delicate cymbal and snare detail as well as lending greater impact to tom and kick drum strikes. The music really moved better when using the weight and Sidran’s vocals were cleaner and more real.
Finally, I played Lo Siento Mi Vida from Linda Ronstadt’s superb Hasten Down the Wind album. The Gravity Two helped differentiate the two guitars on the intro better and let me hear what the two guitarists are doing. Her voice was also more sensual, emotive and when she unleashes her considerable range and power, any slight harshness or glare there was before was banished when the Gravity Two was in place. It also separated out her voice from the backing vocals on the chorus better and gave the pedal steel more focus and life in its own right.
Weight for it…
Well, it seems that Mark Baker may have done it again. His Strata mat improved every turntable I tried it on, and the Origin Live Gravity Two certainly improved the sound of the turntables I tried it on for this review.
What the Gravity Two did was consistent across the three turntables I used. The sound was cleaner, more open, more dynamic, putting more space around individual instruments and allowing you to listen in to and better appreciate how and what each one was playing and their contribution to the music as a whole. And unlike a cable, which can often emphasise a particular frequency band, the Gravity Two should bring the same improvements to most record players. At £230, it is therefore a bargain and a small price to pay for the significant improvements it brings. I recommend it wholeheartedly