| Imperium is designed with the optimum linear power supply internally to reduce any external noise pickup and lower the impedance path.The result is a subtle but, at the same time obvious, improvement of timbre and low-level information and stereo precision, even over Tempo which itself was a significant improvement over the original SG motor drive.Imperium is supplied fully optimised and set up for the record player motor. In the case of an upgrade, the retailer can adjust the output voltage and phase for absolutely the lowest motor noise and vibration. This is adjustable for both 33.3 and 45rpm rotational speeds.One, sometimes forgotten, element of record player design is the future technology of the belt. Should a new material be researched that delivers improved performance but requires a different thickness of the belt, this would change the platter’s speed as speed is related to the circumference drawn by the centre of the width of the belt – Not the inner circumference as would be expected. In this case, Imperium (in fact, all Vertere digital motor drives) could be reprogrammed to deliver precisely the correct speed and pitch. Touraj explains the source of some of his background knowledge“Our collaboration with music industry engineers has given us invaluable insights into the art of cutting. This knowledge has enabled us to advance our record player design in many ways to extract the maximum from vinyl records.For example, with his recent remixes of the Beatles albums, Giles Martin – son of the late Sir George – used a Vertere MG-1 record player, including SG-1 tonearm and PHONO-1 preamplifier throughout to check and approve the acetates and the test pressings.And we’ve worked closely with the multi-award-winning mastering engineer Miles Showell: since February 2017.Miles has been using his own extensively customised Neumann VMS 80 lathe, incorporating Vertere cables, to cut normal and half-speed masters for the likes of ABBA, Cream, The Police and The Rolling Stones, and also the 50th-anniversary release of The Beatles’ Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and The Beatles (otherwise known as ‘The White Album’).Working closely with Mileshas led to the first releases on our record label Vertere Records. Releases: a three-track EPand first albumby Scottish band Caezar, and the first album by Dutch singer/songwriter Elles Springs, which was specially tape-transferred and then half-speed mastered and cut by Miles for our label.It’s only by involving ourselves at every stage of the record-making process that we can ensure our players bring you as close as possible to what the artists and engineers wanted you to hear.” About VertereReducing engineering to its fundamentals, to get you even closer to the original recording.When aiming to reproduce the complexities of music, it’s all too easy to introduce even more significant complication in the engineering of audio equipment, putting in place one element to solve the problems until the whole design escalates into something fiendishly intricate – and expensive.That’s not the Vertere way: coming at the whole problem with decades of audio and mechanical engineering experience, plus close collaboration with the recording and mastering industry, we step back, take a long hard look at the fundamentals, and look for simple, elegant solutions.That may sound like a simple ‘less is more’ philosophy, but we prefer to look at it this way: the best audio equipment shouldn’t add anything to or remove anything from the original recording. Instead, it should affect it as little as possible; bringing the listener ever closer to what the artist, producer and mastering engineer wanted you to hear. |
