Turntables — Auris Audio Bayadere 5

The Bayadere 5 is the flagship turntable from Auris Audio, a Serbian manufacturer founded by Milomir Trosic, built around a revolutionary planetary design that merges cutting-edge engineering with timeless analogue principles. Priced at €12,000 and sold without a tonearm or turntable clamp, the Bayadere 5 is engineered around two fundamental objectives Auris considers non-negotiable - maintaining perfectly constant speed and minimising the transmission of disruptive vibration - a genuine culmination of everything the brand learned building its earlier Bayadere 1 and Bayadere 3 models.

Key specs that matter

The base combines aluminium and composite Kerrock material in a sandwich construction - a Corian-like material also used in Auris's other turntables - where the aluminium lends stability while the composite layer alters the resonant frequency, effectively thwarting the transmission of disruptive vibration into the platter and bearing. The bearing support is delicately suspended on rubber O-ring absorbers, with a bronze liner coupled to a chromed, electropolished steel spindle featuring a "Widia" cemented-carbide steel insert - a material with a Rockwell hardness rating of 90, sourced from Widia Products - supported by a ceramic ball lubricated with high-viscosity oil for impeccable rotational precision. The tonearm base combines solid iron with an aluminium tube, its substantial weight and meticulous construction minimising external influences so a fitted tonearm can operate with maximum precision; the base accommodates a wide range of tonearms beyond Auris's own. A synchronous frequency motor, housed in fully independent enclosure separate from the plinth, is driven by Auris's own proprietary linear power supply featuring a 32-bit DAC for precise speed control, generating a silky-smooth, sinusoidal drive frequency. Stands are crafted from the same aluminium-and-rubber sandwich construction as the base for further stability and vibration isolation. Standard colour options are Black or Silver, with delivery typically taking around six weeks.

Sound and use context

Expect flawless performance with every single revolution, backed by a level of mechanical precision uncommon at this price - Auris specifically designed the 32-bit DAC-controlled linear power supply and sinusoidal drive signal to eliminate the speed inconsistency that undermines many rival designs, letting whatever tonearm and cartridge a buyer fits perform to its own fullest potential.

Pairing

Auris specifically pairs the Bayadere 5 with its own Hawk tonearm (€5,000 for the 12-inch version), a design using dental-industry-sourced bearings rated to withstand 300,000rpm, on-the-fly VTA adjustment and a ceramic-bearing anti-skating mechanism rather than the conventional string-and-weight method - though the turntable's universal tonearm base accepts arms from other manufacturers equally well.

Alternatives

Auris Audio's Bayadere 3, reported by reviewers to be the sweet spot in the brand's six-model turntable lineup, offers a more accessible alternative sharing the same core aluminium-and-Kerrock sandwich philosophy, worth considering instead if this Bayadere 5's flagship price and planetary-design ambitions exceed what a specific system and budget call for.