McIntosh MT5: The Silent Magnetic Turntable

Vinyl has been making a comeback over recent years and for serious music lovers, there’s just nothing that compares to the sound of vinyl. It’s not about how many songs you can fit on a memory card in your smart phone or iPod, it’s about hearing every single stroke of every single instrument in one song. The daddy of stereo designers has released their latest precision turntable, the McIntosh MT5 and it has sent vinyl lovers into a spin.

McIntosh’s aim was to bring out the sound of any vinyl record while at the same time trying to eliminate any mechanical noises and imperfections from the turntable itself. To do so, the designers have used magnets to keep the platter and the arm stable on a silent floating bed.

The motor for the turntable is Swiss manufactured and replaces the standard ball bearings with two neodymium magnets that oppose each other. By adopting this technique, low end rumble which usually interferes with the audio quality of a turntable is abolished. Magnets are used again to stabilize the tone arm, stopping the arm from skipping across the beloved vinyl record without making any sound at all.

Award Winning

Although the release of the McIntosh MT5 turntable was only recent, the mechanically silent stereo system has been eagerly anticipated by true music lovers for months ever since it picked up an award at the Consumer Electronics Show back in January, 2013.

The debut of the MT5 matched the hype around the turntable perfectly. Questlove himself was genuinely amazed at the quality of the sound that the MT5 created when it played a selection of records at Electric Lady Studios.

Serious About Prices

The McIntosh MT5 is not for the general hipster who decides they’d like to have a cool turntable to go with their quirky vinyl collection. At $6,500 the glowing, floating magnetic turntable will only appeal to people who have a serious love and appreciation for that very unique vinyl sound.

[Image via Cedia]