Origin Live (OL) is a boutique manufacturer of quality turntables and tonearms in Southampton, England. It’s a family company with owner Mark Baker and his sons Luke and David doing the bulk of the design and manufacturing. They have been producing analogue products since 1984.

OL produces six turntables and nine tonearms. This review is of the Enterprise MK4 Tonearm. The nine tonearms they manufacture are divided into three series, “Value”, “Premium” and “High-End”. In the “High-End” series, we have Enterprise (USD$6995) then Agile (£10,500) ending with the top Renown Tonearm which retails for £26,000.

I was introduced to Origin Live products by John Stratton of Pure Fidelity Turntables when he began using their tonearms as standard on his line of Canadian handmade ‘tables. Stratton uses the Encounter MK4 Tonearm ($2495) as standard and recommended I replace the excellent Acoustic Signature T-1000 Tonearm on my Harmony Mk2 with one from Origin Live. While Stratton and his customers love the quality and performance of the Encounter, he suggested I try the arm he uses on his personal ‘table, the higher-end Enterprise MK4 ($6995). This brings the price of my supercharged Harmony Mk2 with the Enterprise to well over $15,000.

I want to thank John Stratton for providing the tonearm (purchased at an accommodation price). I trust John’s ears and the faith he has in his ‘tables, so I bought the arm outright without auditioning. Even at an accommodated price, this represents a significant investment and faith in a friend’s recommendation.

My Use

The arm was shipped directly from the factory. Typical of British design, even the box had a few idiosyncrasies (more on the arm’s unique design shortly, specifically dual-pivot and anti-skate). What looked like a standard shoebox, was filled with laser-cut foam to protect the arm. It arrived from Southampton to the Pacific intact. In the box was the standard 9.5” Enterprise MK4 Tonearm (it also comes in 9” specifically for Linn ‘tables and a 12”), 1 metre of their upgraded Origin Live Silver Hybrid 2 phono cable with a straight 5-pin DIN connection (£580 if sold separately and unused during the review period—I used my superb Ansuz Acoustics C2 Phono Cable 1.25 m/€4200) and sundry setup items. Everything I needed for a successful start was included in the box.

British industrial design can look as awe-inspiring as Spitfire and Lightning fighters or an Aston Martin sports car—sexy and dreamy. But, as an example, once you begin to look closely at an Aston, especially those from a few years ago, there are add-ons from the Ford parts bin. Nothing like that with the Origin Live Enterprise MK4. It looks unique and is finished to a very high spec. The Enterprise sparkles (beautiful, polished chrome details) and looks completely at home on the gorgeous quilted maple plinth of my Harmony Mk2. Also, the IV has the most beautifully finished headshell I’ve ever seen.

Installing the arm was quite easy. Some time and patience with the right setup tools and you're done. The toughest part of any tonearm install chez nous is remounting my reference Phasemation PP-2000 MC Phono Pickup Cartridge with its tiny under mount screws, washers and nuts. It’s a divine-sounding 8K Japanese cartridge, but what the hell were they thinking?

Once set up, I played the arm for about 30 hours before I began to focus on the finer points. I don’t think an arm needs to break in (lead wires, possibly), and it shone right out of the box.

Features and Specifications

What looks like an elegant and sexy tonearm, is, in fact, a highly-functioning, complex and well-designed product. Please read Origin Live’s specific Enterprise page for all the bells and whistles. It’s quite something. I’ll touch on the salient points here.

The arm is adjustable every which way. And easily. There’s an Allen key or scrub screw for that. (Keep the provided Allen keys handy in a mini zip lock bag in your analogue accessories box for later tune-ups). Unlike my Bergmann Audio and Acoustic Signature arms, the OL was not fussed by VTA. When parallel to the LP, it was dialled in perfectly (VTA adjustment is accessed easily by setting a scrub screw). Azimuth is adjusted via two Allen screw indents at the top of the shiny chrome yoke (no adjustment was needed). With an easy-to-adjust counterweight and its “Counterweight Fine Adjuster”, setting my favoured 1.85g tracking weight of the PP-2000 was simple and quick. Offset and overhang posed no problems, either.

I did send a photo of my somewhat finalized cart position to our Advisory Council just to be sure and he was a little critical of the overhang. A minor adjustment and he was a happy Advisory Council!

Armtube wiring is OL’s ultra-low loss Silver Hybrid that is said to improve transparency and detail and is free from artifacts.

And unlike the inconsistent arm drop cueing lever on my Technics SL-1200GR (read the review here), OL is very specific about how to drop the needle and why. As such, the cue works smoothly and flawlessly. Every time.

Other than sound, I’d like to focus on three areas of outstanding analogue technology—arm tube construction/materials, the dual-pivot design and anti-skate.

You’d think there would be far more interesting things to write about than anti-skate, but OL takes it very seriously and has an interesting implementation. Other high-end companies believe anti-skate is an afterthought, and if not, can be controversial and always involves geometric compromise, especially with uni-pivot tonearms. As this is a dual pivot, Baker wanted to implement it correctly. He has a video talking about it here.

I read somewhere that the armature is made from five different materials. Original Live tells us its “Higher Strength Low Resonance Arm-tube” is made from aircraft alloy (tube) strengthened with carbon fibre. The tube is then modified for resonance control with the “long rear stub sleeve providing further reinforcement carefully interfaced to provide maximum energy dissipation and minimal reflections.” The arm tube is beautifully manufactured which no doubt adds to its inert nature while producing perfectly voiced sounds with unwanted resonance and vibration. It’s a rock. Moderately warped or dished records presented no problems for the Mark IV.

Baker uses a dual-pivot design. A first in my experience. I’ve had great luck with unipivots, including those from VPI and Mørch.

Baker describes his Dual Pivot Bearings:

For vertical arm movement, the bearings consist of Ultra-hard tungsten carbide points sitting in hardened and burnished steel cups. This combination not only delivers incredibly low friction levels but is also much more robust than jewelled bearings which tend to shatter under stress. The results are incredible transparency, fluidity and retrieval of fine detail.

Without totally understanding the physics, geometry and material implementation involved, I’m convinced of Baker’s choice. OL’s description of transparency, fluidity and fine detail retrieval is spot on, heard on countless records of all genres. The Dual Pivot is the gift that keeps on giving—months after the first blush of the Enterprise’s superior sound, fine details make themselves known at every listening session. It’s a total delight.

Now to “Falling Weight Side Bias” (Antiskate).

Baker says: Tests show this (“Falling Weight”) to be the highest-performing method of achieving side bias. It has lower friction, better constant force and lower resonance than other alternatives such as magnets, springs, levers and twisted threads.

Falling Weight Side Bias photographed with the Counterweight Fine Adjuster.

Getting the “side bias” just right (there is no such thing; test, test, test, and more tests using your ears) takes time and effort. Me, three or four tries to get my favourite setting. Watch the linked video first then have a go. It’s kind of fun. On my first attempt, the record started skipping. I had the thin adjusting pivot post in the wrong position which made the ball end up too high and it was jamming when close to the end of the side with resultant mayhem. Have fun, you’ll eventually get it right for your tastes. And no jamming!

Sound

Origin Live says:

Hearing an Enterprise is an unforgettable event. Breathtakingly realistic, it simply lets the music flow out to the listener in an unmediated way. Although it deserves the very best turntables and cartridges that money can buy, it unlocks huge performance gains from lesser ones and makes mediocre recordings positively sing. From its massively powerful and highly tuneful bass to a treble that is gorgeously silky yet amazingly spacious, it’s a sublime performer. The mineral clarity of the mid-band is uncanny, and the sound staging is profound. Prospective purchasers of a high-end tonearm owe it to themselves to audition for this seminal design.

PR speak, for sure (“mineral clarity”—that’s a new one!), but not too far off this “sublime performer”.

The basic tenets of a high-achieving tonearm are all present—fantastic speed and articulation, a big, realistic picture of the soundstage with super precise imaging. And most important to me, beautiful but accurate timbres, vocal and instrumental. (In this, it mimics other fantastic medium mass tonearms like those from Graham or Tri-Planar; in no way does this arm sound like an SME, Linn or the like). Troublesome timbres such as piano, French horn (conical bore) and sopranos (chest tones) presented no problems. On the first play, the tonearm got everything I wanted right. It was very impressive and outshone both my previous arms for deep bass, rich but diaphanous mids and a wonderfully ethereal treble.

After his recent trip to LA, Audiophilia writer Ian Kershaw used the What’s App video player to give me a personal tour of the best LA-used record shops. High Fidelity Records, had a truckload of sealed Classic Records and knocked them out for $20 to $30. Ian grabbed me a couple of armloads.

Upon his return to the island, the first one cleaned on the Degritter Mark II (review next month) was Reiner/Chicago Symphony RCA Victrola (yes, not a shaded dog) called Overtures and Dances (Classic Records 2000 recut). As it was late at night, I didn’t want to disturb the house so I played it low. Smetana’s fun and speedy overture to The Bartered Bride starts with an explosive opening then immediately quietly (“subito” in musical terms) with whizzing violins. The tonearm’s low-volume detail retrieval was extraordinary. Every violin ppp détaché was heard from the Orchestra Hall stage. Then, a shock. After the intro, in a kind of fugue, Smetana introduces the string sections in snippets, first violins/violas then cellos. These small themes are played very loud and jumped out of my Børresen loudspeakers with the most perfect timbres (violins and violas played at the heel). Uncanny realism. Of course, to get this type of playback requires a top-class analogue front end working flawlessly in harmony, and mine only served to highlight the excellence of the Enterprise. Vinyl folks know, especially those like me completely focussed on the quality of the pressing and/or AAA remastering, what we’re after with every upgrade to our system is more reality. The Enterprise Mark IV will give you a lot more.

It also gave this 1969 Victrola, of a hodge podge of mid-‘50s very early stereo recordings, a home for previously unreleased (?) material. The Classic cut is hot, but the tonearm revealed to me, at least in ensemble and ultimately refined timbres, that this Reiner performance is not quite up to the legends receiving a Shaded Dog release.

The Enterprise MK4 has silver-plated headshell clips with a slightly splayed opening for easy connection and tweezer tightening. Important? OL says “At such low signal levels, electrical interfaces can be heard and silver marginally outperforms gold”.
And just look at that headshell!

The Enterprise/Phasemation truth machines continued on another Classic Records reissue, Heifetz playing the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto with Reiner and the CSO. I could hear every nuance of Heifetz’s particular genius; nothing left unheard, no thought, no suggestion and certainly nothing of import (even the great man mistakenly touching an adjacent open string in an opening phrase and it ringing slightly in the soundstage!) Sadly, the final movement had some vinyl overfill and the OL’s complaint was heard very clearly. There has been some criticism of these ‘90s seminal Classic Records’ reissues for their bright character. Many are fine, but I must attribute the brightness characterization to this Heifetz recut.

My journey into prog-rock has been noted in these pages and on our YouTube channel. What a blast. Of course, I’d heard of these famous groups and albums but didn’t pay them any mind, totally obsessed for many years with classical (and jazz). As such, the last six months have cured me of my genre myopia and I am loving all the great albums and searching for the best OG pressings or reissues of each. Once again, Ian Kershaw to the rescue—he found me an early British pressing of The Dark Side of the Moon. I streamed it first and fell in love with the brilliant musicianship, sound world and themes of this masterpiece of prog rock.

The Enterprise and Phasemation tell me every pressing’s story. In triplicate! Nothing goes amiss. This British Harvest first press is as good as I’m going to get and on my system it is remarkable. Layered, powerful, delicate and every dynamic in between. Pink Floyd’s vision and brilliant non-musical insertions (clocks, voices, sound effects) into the mix (thanks to Alan Parsons) sound perfectly in their place. And that first “heartbeat” crescendo to “Breathe” is stupendous. The harmonic changes, gorgeous and unpredictable, would give Mozart and Beethoven pause for thought. It has become my favourite rock album played weekly ever since that first stream and the Entreprise keeps uncovering as much as my ears will behold.

It’s the same on Jethro Tull's debut, bluesy This Was, The Who’s Tommy, and other spectacular rock and blues albums introduced to me over the past while. And 1960s folk princess Vashti Bunyan’s vulnerable recorder tone and her gentle, sweet sibilance sounded amazing even from the DSD-sourced inexpensive reissue Just Another Diamond Day (I wish I had the Electric Recording Co’s $600 all-tube AAA remaster). And massed string tone, so important in a great arm’s timbral arsenal was played with exceptional fidelity on the sometimes odd-sounding “Decca Phase 4” The Great Movie Thrillers, the “Psycho” track especially, with its shrieking violin murder motto. So, if you are into only one style of music or have catholic tastes, the Enterprise Mark IV has you covered. And if you reward it with clean vinyl quality pressings, OGs or reissues, it will give you rewards like few other analogue pieces of kit.

Summary

The $6995 Origin Live Enterprise MKIV Tonearm is not inexpensive. If you are seriously into vinyl and have the ‘table, cartridge and phono stage to do the arm justice, adding the Enterprise MKIV would bring you to the end of your vinyl journey. Stratton tells me the second-from-top Agile tonearm is also remarkable. No one I know has heard the top Renown. But for not insane money in the high-end analogue domain, the Enterprise MKIV will take you places you dream of daily in your vinyl journey. Very highly recommended.

Further information: Origin Live