Item Description

The Zephyr is a considerable advance on the Silver arm. A stiffer arm tube and higher-grade materials in the yoke and arm base improve the definition and impact of notes, particularly in the bass which is tighter, lower and weightier than the silver. However, all aspects of the music are improved by a more sophisticated costly approach to each component.

People often ask 2 questions.

Firstly, which arm is best for my particular deck and/or cartridge?

The answer is simply that all Origin Live arms work well with all decks and cartridges. Unlike many arms, there are no synergy or compatibility issues to consider.

Compliance: If you wish to optimise your cartridge compliance with the arm, we offer headshell weights of 2, 5 and 10 grams. Compliance matching is audible but of relatively minor importance compared to other factors in arm performance. Testing reveals that a poor compliance match with a better arm design will track and perform much better than a lesser arm with a perfect compliance match.

Origin Live arms can fit most decks thanks to 4 length options and mounting adaptors.

For Rega arm mounts (221mm effective length arms) – Origin Live arms have a threaded base mounting that fits all arm-boards designed for Rega arms. This is literally a fuss-free drop-in replacement with no modifications needed, regardless of whether the Rega arm has a threaded base or 3 point mounting.

For Linn style arm mounts (211mm effective length arms) – We offer predrilled arm-boards for fitting our standard arms (221mm effective length) to the Linn LP12. Alternatively, we offer our arms with Linn geometry (211mm effective length) and Linn style 3 bolt base mount. This allows our arms to work as a simple drop-in replacement for all Linn arms and those which follow this geometry.

For SME arm mounts – you can fit our bolt-on SME adaptor which means the arm can be fitted to any SME arm-board.

People often ask whether a certain cartridge will match a certain Origin Live arm. In short, the whole issue of cartridge matching and compliance is irrelevant for our arms – All our arm models track every cartridge with ease (no exceptions) and handle high energy levels with equal ease.15 years of people mounting all types and brands of the cartridge (even Deccas – the hardest to track cartridge) have taught us this. Users attest that Origin Live arms are entirely at home with Dynavector, Kuoetsu, Lyra, Benz and any other brand you care to name.

Origin Live arms are probably unique in this aspect due to various damping tricks and handling of inertia. These overcome the problems which plague other arms.

Yes, compliance matching can help badly behaved arms but with a well-designed arm, it’s of very low significance and is best ignored.