Origin live Calypso MK3 User manual

Aurora & Calypso MK3
Turntable Manual
*** NOTE : Final Speed must be
reset accurately after 1 day of
continuous running at 33rpm ***
It cannot be overstated t at it is VERY
important to read t ese instructions
to really get t e best out of your
deck. T ere are details t at are
remarkably+ counter intuitive.
Arm shown is not included
PLINTH
PLATTER
SUB-CHASSIS
MOTOR POD

Introduction
Congratulations and thank you for choosing an Origin
Live turntable. This should give many years of
enjoyment, reliability and low maintenance.
It's critical that these instructions are read fully to
achieve best erformance. Underlined text is es ecially
im ortant.
The instructions are written for owners with no revious
ex erience, however there are as ects of the deck that
run contrary to ex ectations, so ex erts should not alter
anything without absorbing these instructions first.
Diagrams cover 3 different turntables so are for guidance
not exact re resentation.
Origin Live turntables are sim le to set u . The
instructions a ear lengthy because they give ro er
ex lanation of factors that are different to conventional
set u s. If you have a roblem not covered in the
instructions - you should s eak to your dealer or refer to
technical su ort on the Origin Live web site
www.originlive.com - See to navigation bar “ su ort”.
There is a wealth of 3rd arty information online.
YouTube videos are articularly hel ful on how to set u
cartridges and tonearms should you need more hel –
Just Google what you need to know.
Kee the turntable acking box for secure future
trans ort.
Safety Warnings
Voltages inside the wallwort or U grade transformer
(o tional) are dangerous so they must not be o ened.
The out ut wires from the transformers carry a very low
voltage and are therefore safe to handle, as are all
com onents inside the motor od.
Never use the transformer on equi ment other than the
turntable or irre arable damage may occur.
Ensure Mains lead to the U grade transformer cannot be
ierced by s ikes or similar abuse. Also ensure the leads
cannot cause anyone to tri .
Kee transformer and leads away from areas where
liquids could s ill on them.
Parts list
Plinth & Sub-chassis - including 1 cable cli with nut
& bolt.
Bag of arts
Cork washer for arm
4mm black acrylic s acing washer for arm (white
rotective film to be removed)
Oil bottle
screwdriver
2.5mm allen key for arm cli
4mm Allen key
8mm A/F s anner – (12 inch arms only)
Platter
U grade latter mat
1 Belt + S indle for latter + Strobe card
Motor od
Wallwart
Fully balanced grade transformer for 230 volt or 110
volt mains su ly (O tional)
Owner manual, assembly sheet, Packing instructions
Set up & operation
Subchassis for 12 inch tonearms need to be
assembled to Plinth
Fit the 12 inch sub-chassis version to the deck as er
instruction sheet at the beginning of this booklet.
Note the above diagram is for guidance only – it's not an
exact re resentation

Fit the platter
Oil the bearing
Run 7 dro s of the oil su lied into the to of the
bearing house. The s indle will a ear a loose fit in the
bearing house until the oil is added. Do not use anything
other than Origin Live oil for erformance reasons.
Insert the spindle
Inserting the s indle into the bearing house needs
attention as careless handling can damage the bearing
surfaces. Wi e the s indle surface first to ensure that it's
absolutely clean and very gently insert it into the bearing
house. If the oil does not overflow when the s indle
touches the bottom then try 2 more dro s re eatedly till
you achieve overflow. Overflow can only be seen by
looking at the to of the bearing house with the s indle
inserted. You should notice an oil ridge around the
s indle – see diagram below.
Wi e away excessive overflow at the to of the bearing
house but be careful to leave oil clinging to the s indle
as you need the to of the bearing to be lubricated by oil
overflow and things like tissue a er can suck this area
dry by ca illary action. You should s in the s indle
slowly after it has settled into the bearing to ensure even
distribution of oil.
Note that when you oil the bearing, you can get a false
im ression of overflow if the s indle has oil on it - the
oil sim ly scra es off as the bearing slides in and ends
u on the to of the bearing house. You can “feel”
overflow when you insert the s indle and it meets
resistance at the bottom. This is not a “thud” of the
s indle hitting the bottom but rather a build u of
ressure as the bearing lands on a bed of oil. By further
ressing, you can then see the oil being squeezed out at
the to .
Ensure the s indle ta ered mating surface is absolutely
clean before assembly. Place the latter on the s indle
and finally add the latter mat.
Notes on bearing:
For lowest friction, the oil film has a significant de th of
“float” so an almost im erce tible latter movement is
inevitable. Small low frequency deviations of this nature
are insignificant to erformance.
All latters are rigorously checked for level s inning u
to 45r m - if you notice significant latter flutter once
the belt is fitted, then remove the latter and clean ta er
surfaces. Refit it till it sits true. It may hel to rotate the
latter slighty before refitting so that it's at a different
orientation.
Do not s in the latter faster than 45r m as the bearing
relies on a high recision oil film designed for o timal
sound quality within a s ecific s eed range. At higher
than normal running s eeds there will be slight latter
flutter.
Adjust deck feet
No foot should be tightened fully onto the linth as
erformance is best when the foot sits on the thread
alone.
Set the linth height by rotating the 3 adjustable feet. It
hel s to lift the deck slightly for access to each foot in
turn.
To set the linth height correctly, lace the motor od
just beside the latter as shown below.
REAR METAL THREADED FOOT
PLASTIC THREADED FEET
CABLE CLIP

Correct height description
Set linth height using the adjustable feet, to give the
latter 1 to 7mm clearance between the to of the motor
od screws and the underside of the latter as shown
below.
Level the deck using platter as reference
For accurate levelling lace a bubble gauge on the
latter. Now adjust the feet till the armboard is level.
Position motor pod & fit belt
Power up
Plug the Wallwort transformer or larger fully balanced
transformer directly into a mains lug. We suggest
omitting mains conditioners, filters or anything with
surge rotection as these can be highly detrimental for
erformance. The aforementioned items inflict no
damage so you can ex eriment with their inclusion if
you wish.
Ensure items such as ower am s or ower su lies with
strong electromagnetic fields are ke t away from the
motor od (i.e not directly underneath or alongside).
Insert the jack lug of the transformer out ut cable into
the motor od’s largest side hole at the rear.
Motor Pod position
Move the od into osition as shown below. The od and
od cable should not touch the linth so rotate the od if
necessary. Check the ulley to latter distance is initially
217mm or slightly more.
Fit the belt over the latter first and then ull it over the
motor ulley taking care not to twist it.
To set belt tension, sim ly move the od.
As a rough guide, centre of latter s indle to centre of
motor ulley should be between 217 - 227mm. Note -
Low belt tension can result in slight latter flutter but for
a new belt start at 217mm.
The belt initially stretches slightly during the first hours
of use so leave final tension adjustment till 48 hours
have assed.

Final positioning of motor pod
To set correct belt tension finally, lift the belt off the
ulley and let it lose it’s tension almost com letely
whilst still holding it gently - With no tension
whatsoever in the belt it should be a rox 7mm off the
nearside of the motor ulley (flange edge) as er
diagram below. Move the od till the ulley is this
distance from the belt, then stretch the belt to fit over the
ulley.
Check belt rides correctl
Rotate the latter by hand for a cou le of turns and
check that the belt still sits between the 2 flanges of the
ulley. If this is not the case and it has ridden u onto a
flange ush the belt back onto the crown (Curved ortion
between the flanges) and turn the latter. Check the belt
remains on the crown.
Peo le comment that the lastic ulley looks chea -
However it's made from a s ecial lastic which sounds
better than metal and is notably more ex ensive to
machine.
Controlling the motor & speed
Note that belt gri varies according to the way it's fitted.
This means the deck will run at a slightly different s eed
if you refit the belt inside out or u side down from
reviously. Therefore when removing and refitting the
belt take care to re lace it with the same side in contact
with the running surfaces.
You will need to set the motor s eed yourself. In the first
24 hours of continuous running the motor, the s eed
tends to drift but then settles down ermanently. You can
listen to the deck from the outset but remember to reset
the s eed after the 24 hour run in eriod and then check
again after a week or so.
Initially motors may be a little noisy but soon settle
down within a cou le of days continuous running. Do
not run at over 78r m as this can harm the brushes over
rolonged eriods.
Fine Tuning Motor screws
It should not be necessary but you can fine tune the
motor mount to give minimum noise by adjusting the
tightness of the 3 screws next to the motor ulleyfor
minimal tension - “just ni ed” on the small rubber O
ring. Always check that the motor ulley is
a roximately vertical and that the belt runs clear above
the bottom flange as er earlier diagram.
Motor “running in” should be carried out with latter
turning (no faster than 45r m).
Control knob operation
The motor is “off” when the s eed control knob on the
od is turned fully anti-clockwise and the indent on the
knob aligns to the LED.
Turn the knob one click clockwise to turn the motor on
at 33.3 r m - The second click clockwise is 45r m
Operating the strobe
Place the strobe disc on the record to be layed. The
strobe rings are labelled on the centre of the disc for
s eed and mains frequency.
When setting s eed, lace the arm on the centre track of
a record, so that the cartridge is tracking the grooves.
This ensures that the drag of the cartridge is taken into
account. S eed variations of u to lus or minus 1% are
quite common on decks and the dc motor is ca able of
lus or minus 0.1% accuracy.
MOTOR POD
PULLEY
33 rpm Speed adjuster
PO ER
INPUT
LED
45 rpm Speed adjuster
SPEED CONTROL KNOB

Use correct lighting
You can see the strobe effect best in fluorescent light,
although an ordinary bulb held about 2 feet from the
strobe disc will also work fine. The bulb flickers at 50
Hz in the EEC and 60 Hz in the USA.
You can urchase bayonet fitting fluorescent or halogen
bulbs to fit normal lam s. Try to shut out daylight when
carrying out s eed setting. Also be aware that energy
saving lighting with switch mode high frequency ower
su lies or certain energy saving bulbs will not work
with the strobe disc.
Reading the strobe
As you lay the record. watch the relevant ring on the
strobe disc. Adjust the s eed as described in next sub-
heading until marks on the ring concerned a ear
stationary. It sometimes hel s to stare the strobe but
focus your eyes on infinity.
Alternative methods
There are other strobes which are easier to read such as
the KAB strobe which can be found on our web site
under vinyl measurement accessories.
There is also a hone a that you can download for
Android or IOS. You sim ly then lace the hone on the
latter and it reads the s eed.
Adjust the rpm speed
Set the switch on the od to the first click i.e. 33 r m
setting.
Fine adjust the motor s eed by inserting a small
screwdriver into the hole indicated on the Motor od
illustration. This is not easy but you need to locate the
screwdriver blade in the slot of the s eed adjuster screw.
It hel s to look into the hole to see the “slot” orientation
before inserting the screwdriver.
To increase s eed, rotate the screw clockwise a small
fraction of a turn. To decrease s eed, rotate in the
o osite direction.
Notes on Trimmer screws
Full s eed adjustment takes lace over 18 turns of the
trimmer screw but you normally need never adjust by
more than half a turn.
If the screw reaches the end of it’s travel you can usually
hear a faint clicking. You will not damage the s eed
trimmer by over turning, as sli age occurs. Neither will
the trimmer screw fall out. The trimmer screws are
adjusted at factory to give a roximately the right s eed,
so you need only fine adjust.
Adjust the 45 rpm speed
Click the s eed control knob to the 2nd click clockwise.
Now set 45r m s eed (or 78 r m if you wish) by
inserting the screwdriver in the 2nd hole indicated on
motor od diagram and use the same rocedure as for
33r m.
Notes on Belt & Motor running
Motor Tilt
Check that the belt rides clear of the flanges – nearly
touching is OK but if the belt sinks down to touch the
flange you need to either increase belt tension slightly or
adjust the tilt of the motor by turning the small crosshead
motor mounting screw ositioned nearest the latter.
Motor Noise
DC motors are often slightly noisy initially and never
com letely silent in com arison to a/c motors. This may
be due in art to the high conductivity recious metal
brushes. These roduce much lower levels of vibration
and hence better erformance.
Like most turntable manufacturers we recommend you
leave the turntable running between changing records as
this reduces belt wear due to constant sto ing and
starting.
Notes on final speed setting:
The motor and main bearing can take at least 4 days to
fully run in and sound it’s best. For this reason it is best
to do a final s eed check at the end of this eriod.
Set final s eed only in following conditions
•Motor od is in it’s final osition.
•Room tem erature is normal and has been so
for 2 hours or more.
•Transformer and motor od have been lugged
in for over 1 hour as the circuit takes a while to
warm u .
If you move the od, you will need to re check the s eed
and if necessary correct it, by re ositioning the od till
the s eed is correct. Never move the od beyond the
ideal distances mentioned in “fitting the belt”. This is a
quick o eration if you just leave the motor and latter
s inning, as you slide the od to adjust tension.
Remember to always set s eed with the cartridge
dragging on a centre track of a record.
If moving the od does not achieve correct s eed then
use the s eed adjuster screws.
Affect of temperature on speed
The s eed stability of your deck is excellent once
everything has settled down in a listening session.
Be aware that s eed is slightly affected by tem erature
variation. However most houses are centrally heated and
maintain tem erature without significant variations.
S eed variation due to tem erature is due to oil
thickening as the tem erature dro s. 1 degree centigrade
dro in tem erature results in a 0.1% dro in s eed ( a 5
degree dro will be 0.5% slow). 0.5% s eed drift is
barely noticeable to the average listener so this is not
significant. Rega decks used to run 1% fast all the time
to ut things in ers ective.
Bearing oil can take 2 hours to reach o erating
tem erature if the deck is left in a cold room. The air in

the room may warm u quickly but the metal in the
turntable takes a lot longer. For this reason it is not worth
constantly changing s eed settings for absolute accuracy.
The ear is more tolerant to music running fast than it is
to slow. For this reason it's best setting the deck to run
very slightly fast at your average room tem erature.
Wh measurements can be misleading
It's worth ex laining that absolute s eed accuracy is easy
to achieve at the ex ense of sound quality. The AC
motors, common to most decks are not rone to s eed
drift - however they do inject a great deal of vibration.
This, sadly is never measured in technical reviews or
eo le would be a lot wiser. The subjective effect of
vibration is highly detrimental to sound quality when
com ared to fractional s eed drift. For this reason we
refer to offer su erior sound quality rather than the
flawed illusion of technical erfection.
Further to this it's worth adding that we've ex erimented
with highly so histicated encoder s eed controls (£2000
trade cost) and found that although they hold s eed with
unerring accuracy, the sound and dynamics of a more
subtle a roach is far su erior.
Fit the tonearm
Mounting Origin Live arms
All newer Origin Live arms have built in VTA
adjustment and can be fitted directly to the arm board as
illustrated below.
If you have an older Origin Live or Rega tone-arm which
has a threaded base but no vta adjustment, you can fit a
threaded VTA adjuster. The adjuster must be threaded
onto the base of the arm first and oriented such that the
flange is u ermost.
Insert your arm through the hole in the arm board.
Next fit the cork washer followed by the large clam ing
nut as shown in the diagram on this age.
Lastly fit the tone-arm cables through the cable cli on
the underside of the deck. This im roves erformance
slightly and safeguards the cables from stressing their
joint at the arm base in the event of being “tugged”. The
cables should not be tight but form a gentle loo .
If clam ing the cable is undesirable you can omit this
ste .
We will cover setting the arm to exactly the correct
height later as you need to do a number of other things
first.
Final setup of tonearm
You should refer to your tone-arm instructions for
detailed set u of the arm and cartridge alignment.
Fit the arm cable clip
Pass the arm cable through the cable cli su lied and
fasten in osition with the M5 bolt located in the
threaded hole near the rear foot. Leave a slight droo on
the cable so that it isn’t “tight”. The bolt is hel ful to
minimize cable vibration.
Note – Silver Hybrid cable is relatively thick but both
left and right channels will fit trough one of the cable
cli s su lied.
Maintaining your deck
Cleaning
It aids erformance to clean all running surfaces every 3
months or so with mentholated or surgical s irit but do
not use this on the belt.
Belts should only be cleaned with water as rubber care
roducts can leave behind a sli ery residue.
To clean the deck, use a dam soft lint free cloth and
wi e gently – if you have grease marks etc then you can
use a general- ur ose anti-smear, car window cleaner
such as Auto-glym “Fast glass”, but only if necessary.
Wax furniture olish is to be avoided . Do not s ray
directly on the turntable as it may clog u the cartridge
internals etc but rather s ray onto a soft olishing cloth
and then use it on the turntable. Do not use tissue a er
or kitchen cleaning a er towels as a er is abrasive and
can ut faint scratches in the olished surface.
Scratch removal
If minor abrasions occur on the surface, you can remove
them using a ro er lastic scratch remover olish such
as “Xera ol” by E.V.I of Germany or “Plastic Clean &
Shine by Novus inc of USA. Avoid Car and other

olishes as they leave light scratching or bloom.
Ever 2 Years or so
The deck is not rone to going out of tune:
Check that the sub-chassis curved damper is
tensioned lightly onto the late every 2 years or so as the
dam er can com ress a little over time.
Check belt tension is correct using the method
described for final od ositioning. All belts stretch over
the years so the motor od may need to be moved out
further than the initially s ecified 227mm maximum.
De ending on your use of the deck, the belt should
ideally be re laced every 2 to 4 years.
Ever 3 ears
Only use Origin Live oil. Oil should be re laced every 3
to 4 years so you will need to clean out the old oil with a
lint free a er towel or similar wra ed around a thin
rod. When you do this, be sure to also wi e oil off the
s indle as this may contain microsco ic contamination
that's not visible.
If you ever withdraw the main s indle you should ut a
few dro s of oil into the bearing house to com ensate for
any ossible loss occuring in the withdrawal.
Never tam er with the bolt in the bottom of the bearing
or oil leaks will occur and you will robably not succeed
in re-tightening it.
Alternative Mats?
Many of the mats on the market have been tried on our
latters and do not work so we recommend saving
yourself the ex ense of trying them.
Troubleshooting
Refer to the Origin Live website > Su ort > Turntables if you
have any roblems

Wra motor od in olythene bag then ta e ( or
rubber band) round the cardboard tube which has
a slit in it’s side - the tube sits on to of the base
late, not round it. This is to rovide rotection
against anything that might knock the end of the
motor shaft as this can cause damage. Note that
the motor od must be ositioned in this corner
of the box where there is the greatest de th i.e
not over the linth armboard
Place the strobe card and belt in the to of the
motor od card tube.
WRAP PLINTH IN POLYTHENE BAG BEFORE
LOWERING INTO BOX
VERY IMPORTANT -
This card and foam eice
must be laced here as
shown to rotect latter
and ensure no damage to
sub-chasses
BELT & STROBE CARD PLACED IN MOTOR
POD PACKING
The belt needs to be rolled into a s iral and
laced in a small olythene bag - if loose acked
the belt can get crushed on bends and
ermanently deformed.
REPACKING METHOD - Please read carefully and pack exactly as
instructions show.
Place the wall wart transformer here and then lace
the bubble bag containing the following items on to
of the transformer
Wra latter and latter
mat in olythene bag
before lacing in foam
cut out
Instruction manual
Bag contains - Cork washer for arm, Oil bottle,
screw driver, 3mm & 2.5mm allen key