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U-Turn Audio’s Orbit Turntable Gets a Refresh

The U-Turn Audio Orbit has been refreshed with a new tonearm, revamped drive system and other changes.
The little engine that could is tucked away in a suburb outside of Boston, and after almost 11 years, it is hard not to be impressed by what Ben Carter and the folks at U-Turn Audio have accomplished. U-Turn Audio was founded in 2012 by Benjamin Carter, Robert Hertig, and Peter Maltzan.
Northeastern University was the setting for a rather bold concept — could a start-up focused on building affordable turntables in the United States compete with Rega, Pro-Ject, and Audio-Technica?
Having sold more than 120,000 turntables over that time period to a new generation of vinyl listeners and seasoned audiophiles looking for a secondary table, U-Turn Audio proved that it could be done.
The U-Turn Orbit was a great idea at the time, but the industry caught up and that forced them to develop necessary improvements to the existing design culminating in the the release of the Orbit Theory in 2022.
Those improvements came with a rather steep uptick in price — the new table sells for $999 USD.
Convincing your base to upgrade from $300 to $1,000 might be easier for a brand like Rega that also offers amplifiers, digital sources, and phono pre-amplifiers in the same price range, but it has always felt like a stretch for U-Turn.
The affordability of the Orbit was the key to its success and many of us wondered when the technology developed for the Orbit Theory would start to trickle down.

This article originally appeared at ecoustics.com and an intro has been published here with permission.
Read the full article: https://www.ecoustics.com/products/u-turn-audio-orbit-turntable-2023/