Lumley Stratosphere Mk 3 Turntable

BIRTH OF A VERY SPECIAL VINYL PLAYING TURNTABLE. WHERE DID IT ALL START.

Fifty years ago and some, vinyl records were pretty well the only medium to play music in the home. There were cassette tapes and reel to reel recorders the former developing through the 80's to a very acceptable standard albeit, vinyl in those days held the top position. There were one or two names synonymous with top vinyl playback, many of them still with us today. Linn, SME, Michell to name just a few all worthy of very special merit. However, being an enthusiast always searching for the very best or indeed any improvements possible, I had some ideas from my engineering background that there may just be a different way and maybe even a better way of retrieving whatever is in vinyl records grooves. Solidity has always been something I have been interested in concerning many commodity products and that is how the Stratosphere emerged from looking at the solution from a slightly different angle. Many turntables of the day used a fairly lightweight philosophy to achieve the results desired, perfect timing with minimal wow and flutter, quietness of bearing and motor, low rumble and most of all, serious dynamics. Enter the Stratosphere.

The Stratosphere was firstly conceived nearly 40 years ago and the philosophy I used was down the solidity road. My theory was, as it is now, solidity has less chance of adding any unwanted problems or frequencies or what is know in the Hi-Fi world as 'colouration'. In other words, deviation from the original program material. The world is full of vibrations. Even the ground we stand on can deliver measurable vibrations that can in the world of vinyl reproduction, be detected albeit in very small quantities through the record grooves up to the stylus that retrieves the music from the grooves and then further up the chain, from the pickarm, cables and just about anything that may interfere with a true and accurate musical signal. My theory was if you start with solidity, there will be less corruption and less additives to the sound, the true music on the record being delivered in full.

That was the start of the Stratosphere some time ago. There are many users of the first MK 1 and MK2 versions which have been running successfully for many years. Although I believed at the time that the original Stratosphere was pretty good for it's day, I have over the last few years realised that it needed updating and over the last 18 months I have been working on every aspect of the turntables performance raising it to Stratospheric levels (sorry) and I am now confident that it stands superior to many of today's reference products where vinyl production is the most important part of an enthusiasts life. The Stratosphere is a life product and hopefully the MK3 will be so for another 40 years.

So, how have all those improvements materialized. Basically solidity of materials is the key plus the use of the quietest materials possible. Here follows a summary of how all this is achieved to produce one of the quietest low noise and dynamic turntables currently available today. The Stratosphere has always been substantially solid but some of these latest improvements have taken solidity coupled with refinement to another level.

THE STAND

The stand that the Stratosphere rests on is substantial to say the least. It supports the main turntable by 3 legs that can also be filled with sand if the situation permits rendering the main part of the turntable sitting on a pretty special isolation platform.

THE CONNECTION TO THE BOTTOM STRATOSPHERE PLATE

This if further isolated from the main turntable by in house designed what is known as 'Air Pods' These clever items enable the main turntable to literally hover in air the connection from the stand to the turntable itself being almost 99% free and without any vibration being transmitted from the ground.

BASE PLATE TO BEARING CONNECTION

The main quite technical bearing that supports the flywheel is itself situated on a substantial flange/spacer using the most noise rejection material that we could find.

BEARING ASSEMBLY

After considerable research over the last few years, a very special plating material has been discovered (as used by Nasa in some space products) which is incredibly quiet offering almost zero friction and a noise level that lowers the noise floor to a great degree. A truly substantial development.

FLYWHEEL ISOLATION

The main flywheel weighing in at around 25lbs has a series of spikes on its upper surface. The weight here plus the spikes offer the next stage of isolation. Finally at the very top of the design, there is a 20m platter which supports the record in it's final isolation, this platter is again made of special inert material and coupled with it's support on the top of the flywheel spikes culminates up to a turntable that is supporting a record in a near floating state.

MOTOR SUPPORT

Lastly the electrically speed controlled motor stands on a separate pillar preventing any further vibration coming from one of the quietest motors current available.

All in all, the Stratosphere MK 3 is one of the quietest turntables ever designed. Vinyl has over the years has had a very up and down journey up to it's present position in music reproduction in the home. The emergence of the CD temporarily blurred the scene to some extent with superb performances delivered from the most modest of Hi-Fi systems. However, if nothing but the best music retrieval bringing the music and artist right into the domestic environment, vinyl still holds the number one spot. It delivers what the enthusiast describes as truth, dynamics, alarming detail retrieval but most of all, just the most musical sounds you can achieve. The jury is still out for many a serious listener (the CD world and music server products currently available providing great competition and many arguments as to which is best) and many more enthusiasts who may possibly have never heard a turntable as good as the Stratosphere but when they do, their world may have to change.

Bring music at its best into your life. The STRATOSPHERE MK 3. It takes you into another world.