Turntables — Audio Note TT-Three

The TT-Three is a three-motor suspended turntable from Audio Note UK, built on the brand's core insight that high mass torque can be achieved without the energy-storage problems a high-mass platter creates. Sharing its bloodline with the legendary Voyd Reference, the TT-Three sits above the two-motor TT-Two and single-motor TT-One in Audio Note's turntable hierarchy, incorporating what the brand considers close to the ultimate solutions to most of the solvable problems in vinyl replay.

Key specs that matter

Three immensely powerful special German motors, equilaterally mounted under Mu-metal shields on the rectangular base plate, drive the platter via external-rotor rubber belts around its outer rim, with their speed locked together by the separate power supply unit's completely analogue control system - Audio Note fine-tunes these motors relative to each other with considerable, deliberately undisclosed care, stating this parallel three-motor arrangement is absolutely essential to the sound quality achieved. The platter itself is a very light, highly inert design made from Lexan, chosen specifically because it has virtually no reflective properties or resonance-storage problems, completely inverting the usual high-mass-platter approach - when high mass instead sits in the motors, the energy delivered to a light platter focuses purely on rotation rather than being stored and released as unwanted resonance. The suspended sub-chassis uses a three-point design centred precisely at the bearing, which also forms the epicentre of the motors' own inertia - this removes the most common suspended-turntable problem, where motor and suspension centres are misaligned, causing the platter to constantly vacillate between the two. The sub-chassis carries three arms - one holding the tonearm in the standard right-hand position, with the other two carrying mass-balancing weights exactly equivalent to the combined arm-and-cartridge mass, loading every suspension tower equally. The TT-Three is supplied exclusively with an arm board cut for Audio Note's own /II 9-inch tonearms, with no other manufacturer's arm boards offered.

Sound and use context

Expect a purity of reproduction so complete it becomes transparent to the listener - when Audio Note UK's own Managing Director asked a listener how the TT3 sounded, the reply was "I can't hear it," precisely the compliment Audio Note aims for, since the design simply allows the recorded music through without imposing its own character.

Pairing

Because the TT-Three is supplied only with an arm board for Audio Note's own 9-inch tonearms, a buyer commits to that specific tonearm ecosystem, though Audio Note maintains this pairing is deliberately optimal rather than a limitation, given its own tonearms are engineered as an integral part of the complete turntable system.

Alternatives

Audio Note's TT-Three Reference sits above this model as the flagship of the range, supplied with the larger 10-inch AN-1S tonearm and adding a third speed setting for 78rpm records with adjustable calibration, worth the further investment if this TT-Three's already considerable refinement still leaves ambitions for Audio Note's absolute top current turntable design.