Atmo Sfera Platterless Turntable Spins Vinyl in the Air
The record player of the future is here
Chicago’s Gramovox already defied gravity with their vertical Floating Record Player, and now Italian start-up Audio Deva offers their own “upside-down” take on a turntable. It eschews the basic design that has “remained the same for about a century.” The thinking goes, the heavier the platter and plinth, the more vibrations that can be absorbed and overall a more stable speed (Fern & Roby made a 70-pound cast iron plinth and 35-pound bronze platter version) yet they end up being cumbersome and bulky. Funding through Kickstarter, Audio Deva’s belt-driven Atmo Sfera looks more like a compact drone than record player: it reduces the platter, and paired with a very small, low-torque motor, the vinyl seems to be free-floating in air.
It’s not merely a novelty. The form purportedly has much fewer vibrations and unwanted noise because there is no mat or platter for them to travel through. The space-saving aspect, too, is a bonus.
Revolutionary design, of course, doesn’t come cheap: a €895 Kickstarter pledge reserves your Atmo Sfera, with estimated delivery by September 2016. But a few thousand more euros gets you a turntable and a four-night stay in Milan, including a visit to the Audio Deva factory.
Images courtesy of Audio Deva
