ON TEST
24 Australian Hi-Fi http://www.aushifi.com
Mag-Lev Audio ML1 Turntable
These, too, should be kept well away
from the Mag-Lev Audio ML-1. But one final
thing that Mag-Lev Audio does n0t men-
tion—which means no-one at Mag-Lev has
ever watched any of the hilarious You-Tube
videos which feature them merrily spinning
about—are cats, which will find batting the
ML1’s platter with a paw irresistible (or even,
perhaps, pouncing on top of the platter, with
predictably calamitous results for both the
platter and the cat).
So... be warned: No pets allowed!
InstallatIon, Use and
lIstenIng sessIons
As I said before, I read the manual very care-
fully before assembling the turntable, during
which time I also noted that it is recommend-
ed that the turntable be positioned a least one
metre distant from any metallic object, which
presumably means that equipment racks that
have steel struts or surfaces are out, and in my
case meant that I had to move a little steel
sculpture my wife is particularly fond of fur-
ther away, to a position in the room that she
found less feng shui-ish. And just in case you
thought that the Mag-Lev ML1’s platter being
suspended in mid-air meant that you could
get away with any old support, you can’t. I
found that the Mag-Lev ML-1 was just as sen-
sitive to external vibration as any other turnta-
ble (and in some cases even more so) so you
should make sure that in addition to being
non-metallic, the Mag-Lev NL-1 is positioned
on a really solid support that effectively and
properly isolates it from external vibrational
influences.
You also need to position the Mag-Lev ML1
well away from windows that would allow
sunlight to shine in on it, because sunlight (or
any bright light) can interfere with the sensors
that control the speed of the platter, in which
case the turntable will not operate and you’ll
get a red flashing light warning. (A flashing
white (amber) light indicates that the magnet-
ic coils inside the player are too hot, in which
case you have to turn the player off and wait
for them to cool down, a process that Mag-Lev
Audio says ‘usually takes about 30 minutes’.)
Having followed the Owner’s Manual
assembly and installation instructions to the
letter, I was so shocked by the noisy, grinding
mechanical sounds that emanated from the
turntable when I tried to play my first LP that
I immediately switched the turntable back to
‘Off’. A quick phone call to the editor revealed
that these rather nasty-sounding noises were
‘normal’... one of them being the sound that
the tonearm lifter motor makes when it raises
and lowers the tonearm, and the other the
sound made by the motor that raises and
lowers the four platter support pylons. So, re-
I could not hear any
rumble at all. This
complete absence of
rumble resulted in an
incredible clarity of the
sound, particularly at
low frequencies
assured that I had not made a mistake during
assembly, I again switched the front panel
control to ‘33’, and waited for the platter to
spin up to speed. And waited... and waited...
and waited.
It took so long that I stopped it and
started it again, simply so that I could use
the stopwatch app on my phone to time it.
It took thirty-six seconds for the speed to
stabilize on 33.33 rpm. Since I had the phone
in my hand, I then timed how long it took
to for the platter to stop revolving (since the
platter must be stopped, and supported on
its four supports before you can change from
Side A to Side B of an LP). Stopping took even
longer—38 seconds. This means that it will
take more than a minute and a half to go from
playing one side of an LP to playing the other.
I know a minute and a half isn’t a long time in
the great scheme of things, but when you’ve
just finished listening to Great Gig in the Sky
and are anticipating Money bursting forth from
your loudspeakers, one and a half minutes can
seem like an eternity!
Once play had re-started, I checked the
small record label-sized stroboscope I’d
attached to the LP label and discovered that
the Mag-Lev Audio ML1 was maintaining an
almost-perfectly steady 33.33 revolutions per
minute. To check the speed accuracy at 45
rpm I lifted the tonearm from the LP manually
and turned the front panel control to ‘45’.
Eighteen seconds later, the speed had finally
stabilized and my strobe again showed an
almost-perfectly steady 45 revolutions per
minute. So it was back to 33.33 rpm (which
took 16 seconds) and back to enjoying Pink
Floyd’s classic ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ (the
40 th Anniversary re-master, which I think
has the edge on sound quality over the
second-best sounding version of this album
that was pressed by Mobile Fidelity SoundLab. I also have the original EMI/Harvest from
1973, but I keep it only for sentimental value,
because it’s so worn and scratched that I never
play it for fear of wrecking a stylus.)
My enjoyment of Pink Floyd’s masterpiece
was enhanced by total lack of background
noise. The music was issuing from a perfectly
silent background. OK, so there the inevitable
surface noise from the LP itself, but on the
new remaster, it’s a long, long way down—
pretty much on a par with the CD version, in
fact. The really important thing to note is that
I could not hear any rumble at all. This com-
plete absence of rumble resulted in an incred-
ible clarity of the sound, particularly at low
frequencies, such that it was rather difficult to
believe I was listening to a cartridge that retails
for under a hundred bucks. However I wasn’t
totally happy with the stereo imaging I was
getting from the OM10, so I switched in my
own Ortofon 2M Blue, noting in the process
that Mag-Lev had aligned the OM10 perfectly
in the Pro-Ject 9cc’s headshell, so you can be
perfectly happy with the factory-set align-
ment... including its VTA setting, which was
also perfect.