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Origin DC Motor in LP12: Marketing or reality?

I have asked this before and gotten NO (zero, nada, zilch, bupkis, null...) response. From what I can tell, there is 10 times (100x?) the amount of promotional material as there is personal experience of this upgrade on the internet. I am starting to wonder if they have ever sold any.

My TT is a Linn LP12, with Linn Basik Plus arm and Clearaudio Virtuoso Wood MkII cartridge, and it is fitted with the Valhalla board. I have a great isolation stand that gives me incredibly musical and natural sound and I love this in my system. I do not want to screw up the sound, but I'm willing to try to improve it without spending big bucks. I can afford about $400-600 for a large upgrade at a time, once or twice a year.

Everyone I know who has added a motor drive (Lingo, Walker, Clearaudio, VPI) reports fantastic results, and I have heard it myself on many of those systems.

I have considered, on and off, trying to upgrade with the Origin Live DC Motor Drive, but I can only find about 2-3 professional reviews, and no individual (amateur) critiques, just comments from people who have read about but haven't actually installed one.

Have any of you actually tried this upgrade? Would I get a great improvement over the Valhalla board? How does it compare to a Lingo? What are the pros and the cons?

p.s. Does anyone else notice that there are certain products that are very heavily promoted in this and other sites (classified and dealer), but rarely see comments about someone who bought the product?
pbowne
abucktwoeighty's avatar
abucktwoeighty
1,034 posts
 
Have had my upgrade for 2-3 yrs. now, and the improvement was huge. My experience for the most part mirrors Stops, above. I wish I would have made the change from the Valhalla to the Origin Live sooner! One can never be sure of how much bang for the buck one gets, and I wasn't sure I would get a $600 improvement. I took the plunge, and found it to be money very well spent.
I see the original post was nearly seven years ago, but it doesn't hurt to let people know about it.
david12
1,398 posts
 
OI put the OL motor on my Valhalla Linn some years ago and did'nt hear a dramatic change. My system wasn't that good then, so it may have been hard to hear the change. I put on a OL Silver taper tone arm and that was a real upgrade on the Ittok
cakyol's avatar
cakyol
112 posts
 
I am late to this forum but here is my take on it.....

Synchronous motors are DESIGNED to be constant speed based on supply FREQUENCY.

DC motors have inherently variable speed based EXTREMELY  sensitively on DC voltage.

To ensure that a DC motor stays on constant speed, the speed has to be sampled many times a second and "CORRECTED" if the voltage drifts.  And, voltage will ALWAYS drift no matter what.

With a sync motor and specially with Valhalla, the frequency is derived from a xtal oscillator and is therefore EXTREMELY STABLE.

Therefore, in conclusion, it is much more difficult and troublesome to adjust speed by continuously correcting it, rather than having a motor which inherently runs at a constant speed by design, especially driven by a xtal oscillator.

The ONLY saving grace of the DC motor may be its quietness.  However, the synchronous motor can be made just as quiet by reducing the applied voltage to it and adjusting its phase shift capacitor to be as close to 90 degrees as possible.  These are still MUCH easier to achieve in practice than to build a speed sampler and correct the voltage.

bimasta's avatar
bimasta
158 posts
 
Origin Live told me that I may need to help the platter to get rotation started with my hand. If this turns out to be true, this is unacceptable. I was not thinking that my hand would be a crank for the turntable start procedure.
I’m the opposite. I always ’help’ my platter get started and up to speed. Otherwise, all the work is done by the belt and motor, or on a DD, by the motor. It causes belts to stretch, and motors to do far more work to overcome inertia, and the heavier the platter (and most think heavy is good) the more work is required. Once at speed, maintaining speed is much less stress on motor and belt. And I don’t think I’m being imposed upon: I’m helping.

Synchronous motors are DESIGNED to be constant speed based on supply FREQUENCY.
Supply frequency is not stable nor reliable. I filmed a documentary in a new power station. Everything was the latest tech. Very impressive — until I reached the frequency control room. The "high tech" controller was a guy at a big steering wheel (looked like the helm-wheel on a racing yacht) and staring at a huge meter. 50Hz was the target, and despite his efforts, the meter was always moving — 49Hz, 50Hz, 51Hz — and he would correct by turning the wheel. Sometimes it dipped to 48 or rose to 52. It AVERAGED 50Hz over 24 hours, but with many fluctuations. I hope, but don't know, it's been improved since then...
nandric's avatar
nandric
3,263 posts
 

There are many MODIFICATIONS by LP 12 which can't

be called ''IMPROWEMENT''. Raul ever stated ''if an design is

good why so many modifications?'' My Kuzma Stabi Reference

was without any modification for years. My old LP 12 have had very

simple capacitors network and old Philips motor. Both caused

me to buy OL alternative. If i remember well for 500 euro.

My other reason was the possibility to adjust the speed.

I deed prefer  OL version but in comparison with the old

LP 12. But since than there were many modifications about

which I have no idea. So my experience of limited ''range''.

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