The Italian Atmo Sfera
The Italian Atmo Sfera is really great and packs an absolute punch audibly too. Designed by an Italian trio whose passion for music production and engineering are all too obvious, the Atmo Sfera Turntable is their long-desired contribution to the technological world of analog (and their home-nation's famous design heritage).
Presently just a Startup company that has launched their two products on Kickstarter, Audio Deva's designers (and SATORI & SCOUT) are confident that they will "make a great leap forward in the turntable market...offering to vinyl music lovers an amazing design and a sound quality barely matched in a commercial product."
In general terms, vinyl players offer much more of a smooth and warm sound than any other form of sound production, and as this record gracefully spins, the Atmo Sfera breaks technological boundaries with its almost disappearing vinyl platter, further improving vinyl spinning smoothness and offering a new, delicate paradigm in turntable design. Even the lesser well-tuned of audio lovers will probably recognise that almost all commercial turntables are equipped with a large platter that is offered upon a squared wooden box; the Atmo Sfera is almost the very opposite. Such a design has remained centuries-old, never much changing, and SATORI & SCOUT are glad that these designers have formulated a product without the usual dead-weight, oversized nature and vulnerability to vibration that we have grown to associate with vinyl players. Only the vital components have been focussed on, a design movement idea that we fully support.
So how is the Atmo Sfera so innovative and different? Each turntable is in effect a large spring, and the more the weight, the more the springiness. Each spring oscillation absorbs energy as it moves, simultaneously releasing such energy (think back to Physics at school here) as buzzes, noises and muddiness in the audio range. The most popular way to counter this issue of vinyl music is for turntable manufacturers to design platters of sufficient weight as to not act like a spring; whereas conversely, the Atmo Sfero eliminates the spring by minimising the turntable to its bare minimum. To achieve this design flair, the designers have a solution that is as minimal as possible and uses only a very low-torque motor, both to result in the record practically freely floating in thin air. Even the most desirable of brands haven't taken this tack on the vinyl player's infamous issue...
With a single manufacturing location, and careful analysis of every single component to minimise erroneous doings and unexpected setbacks that may hinder this Kickstarter campaign, Audio Deva have done the hard work, and deserve their vinyl player to be a success. Because you know we love aspirational mantra, paraphrasing their comments...
Atmo Sfera is named as such to be a shortened version of 'Atmosphere in Space', and is aimed at everyone from the first-time record listener to the vinyl enthusiast. With its industrial design matched by its technological advancement, we see the Atmo Sfera one day widely available beyond Kickstarter... For more information regarding the Atmo Sfera, including technological data and funding opportunities, please visit Kickstarter.com.
Photography Credit : AudioDeva.com