David Price listens to Michell's latest evolution of the popular GyroDec, the Spider Edition.
It isn't every day that Britain's longest lived turntable manufacturer brings out a new disc spinner. The Orbe was the last back in 1994, while Michell's original Gyrodec appeared a further thirteen years previous. So, all things considered, the launch of the Gyro Spider Edition is a bit special.
Designer John Michell says his new baby came about for several reasons. First is the huge sound quality gain from physically detaching a turntable's motor from its base. To wit, the new Spider gets an Orbe-style separate motor unit. Second is the current fashion for stripped out decks that Clearaudio and Pink Triangle have so astutely identified. Thanks to their minimalist design they offer a high sound per pound ratio, but John was unimpressed by their lack of any proper isolation and believed he could do better. Third, all those acres of beautiful Danish Acrylic that the standard Gyro uses in its base and cover cost a packet. By offering a naked version, he found he could knock UKP200 off the purchase price. And so the UKP??? Spider Edition was born.
For those unfamiliar with the original Gyro, it's a cast aluminium chassis holding a high quality inverted bearing. On this sits an Acrylic platter, from which gold plated brass weights are suspended to add mass. This is driven via a long rubber belt by a high quality Papst motor housed in a large billet of aluminium. Rather than being mounted to the deck itself, this now sits directly on the equipment support
The chassis rests on three height-adjustable springs mounted to the base. In the classic version of the Gyrodec, which is still available for UKP???, this is a full size affair with a dustcover and comes in a variety of finishes. The Spider Edition does away with all this, using a simple glass clear Acrylic 'spider' to hold the deck's feet and suspension mounting points instead. Finally, all Gyros come with aluminium armboards custom machined for the user's choice of tonearm. These are designed so that, together with the arm, the total mass is a constant one kilogram. To offset this, the underside of the Gyro chassis carries lead balancing weights, meaning the subchassis is always in perfect balance whatever arm is used.
Offboard motor aside, the Gyro SE brings two further upgrades. First is a 40Va power transformer, which is a considerable improvement on the previous 10Va 'wall wart'. This is just as well, because before its introduction there was a yawning chasm between the standard PSU and the UKP??? Gyropower QC. (T