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