Hifi Pig thought this was an interesting audiophile item on the business start-up funding site Kickstarter. It’s for a fully manual, belt-drive turntable called The Orbit which the people behind the project say is a turntable of “engineering and playback quality never before seen at the entry-level”.

The turntable doesn’t have any gimmicks with the company prioritising the ability for it to play music.

Interestingly the tonearm fitted to The Orbit forgoes gimbal bearings and uses a“unipivot-style” tonearm which comes factory fitted with an Ortofon moving magnet cartridge.

The Motor on The Orbit is a 24V AC synchronous model which is decoupled from the plinth by a “unique rubber suspension system”. The platter rides upon an inverted main bearing that has been optimized for the platter’s centre of gravity and the plinth uses CNC cut MDF which is supported on SBR rubber feet.

A pledge of $150 got you the basic turntable whilst a pledge of $250 secured the turntable in Kickstarter green with an upgraded acrylic platter. For those who pledged $500 there was the funky looking Orbit Renaissance which had been hand painted by the company’s resident artist.

It’s clearly been a huge success for U-Turn Audio, the company behind the project, as their $60 000 target has attracted 1133 backers and raised $233 940.Sadly the project now appears to be closed.