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Product: Audio Origami Pu7 Titanium 12 inch pickup arm
Supplier: Audio Origami
Price: £4500 (12 inch) £3900 (6 inch) YMMV
Author: Mark Wheeler, The Old Scribe - TNT UK
Reviewed: Summer 2024
Published: October, 2024

Introduction

In the review of the Dynavector Te Kaitora Rua, your Old Scribe claimed that the greek word 'stereo' translates as 'solid', having first claimed this in a piece explaining the contentious issue of PRaT. That repetition of my ignorant mistranslation of the Greek led to a reader correction that 'stereo' actually better translates as 'stable'. Either way, that reader exchange sprang to mind during the first lp played with the new Audio Origami PU7 titanium tube twelve inch pickup arm.

The cure for boredom is curiosity - I love the Hadcock's universality and it would be a challenge to adapt the much modified Michell Orbe SE to suit a 30cm arm wand but I just had to try it at home. I have heard various versions of the Audio Origami pickup arms at Stephen Cosh's home, even before he became proprietor of that company. There were enough hints of the Audio Origami Pu7 performance in an unfamiliar system to make this experiment worthwhile. A special arm board was ordered from True Point Audio (review soon) in Linn arm base fitting but for a longer arm than usually accommodated on the Gyro/Orbe mouse ear subchassis.

The Audio Origami Pu7 looks like the natural descendant of the Syrinx PU3, but "looks is deceivin' man". The shape of the bearing housing hints at those genes but the housing conceals a Delrin arm tube carrier whereby lies the unique Audio Origami properties. The equally Caledonian Syrinx achieved cult status back in the day, especially as an alternative to the SME and Grace arms on turntables such as the Linn Sondek LP12 before Linn offered their own Ittok. Despite what has been written elsewhere, only the Scottish origins and bearing housing shape are common to both the Syrinx and the Audio Origami. The current latest generation of the Audio Origami Pu7 is a very different beast from the old Syrinx.

That Audio Origami Delrin bearing block is a more effective termination for the vibrational energy transmitted along the tube from the cartridge/disc interface. It also better terminates reflected energy from the counterweight from being transmitted all the way back to the cartridge. Furthermore it performs a similar function reducing energy reflection from the arm base. This is all achieved without the usual floppy counterweight decoupling that simply creates its own problems.

The Audio Origami Pu7 is available in two lengths and two arm tube materials. Even when committed to buying an Audio Origami pickup arm, the buyer has 4 choices. John Nilson has been developing and producing these arms since 2005 alongside his other analogue activities. John will continue to restore and rewire arms while the Audio Origami manufacturing business becomes a separate entity from 2024. Having produced about 500 Audio Origami arms in the intervening 19 years, often working until 11 at night, the need to make more to meet demand was the catalyst for restructuring. Serial entrepreneur, devout audiophile and Audio Origami enthusiast Stephen Cosh is perfectly placed for this challenge.

"ffs it's 2024 and the Old Scribe is reviewing a new pickup arm" complain Plebs Chorus, stage left

Installation

The Audio Origami 12 inch arm is designed for the bearwald alignment. The box comes complete with an arm base mounting protractor and a QR code that opens a video of Johnny Nilson providing set up instructions. There is also a "certificate of authenticity" with fields showing your arms's serial number and date of assembly. This certificate serves as your warranty five years from the assembly date or from any later upgrade date. The arm is well packed safely in foam cutouts in a sturdy two-layer corrugated cardboard box. Your Old Scribe hates to see money wasted on fancy endangered hardwood boxes for audio equipment, which only end up gathering dust in the attic, so this postal-safe packaging is more than adequate.

Key claims for titanium are extra strength and rigidity from the ultra-rigid seamless titanium tube leading to greater accuracy. The moving mass of the titanium tube twelve is 14g against the aluminium 12g. Claims for 12 inch arms (sorry but everyone seems to use inches in this context) started in the late 1950s (Ortofon and SME) with arguments in favour of lower tracking error distortion. The fanatical drive to high compliance cartridges led to an equal fanaticism for low mass pickup arms in the 1960s and 1970s, which meant 12inch arms were inherently disadvantaged against 9inch arms. By the 1990s an equally religious devotion to rigidity was the theoretical advantage favouring shorter pickup arms. Only among the wilder corners of the valve and vinyl world, where inhabit builders of hand wound exotic cartridges and single ended triodes, were 12 inch pickup arms held in high esteem.

The inevitable resonances of any metal tube are countered by the Audio Origami Meta Material Armtube Damping System (M.M.A.D.S.) system. The two USP's of this tube within a tube are that resonances are controlled with an internal structure rather than damped by lossy materials, better preserving dynamics. Secondly the internal cabling is separated from the armtube rather than rattling around on its internal surface. Audio Origami claim: "M.M.A.D.S is a tunnel embedded within the arm tube, made from a material that 'floats' the internal cabling and reduces any resonance reaching the cables. The tunnel is suspended by ultra-thin flanges made from a material that rejects vibration. Unlike other damping methods, such as foam or rubber, M.M.A.D.S doesn't dull the sound. In fact, it lowers the noise floor so much that you experience more clarity and air from your records."

Even more exciting to your Old Scribe is noticing that the cartridge pins are tubular and far better than those dreadful folded bits of plated brass, or worse.

Arm set up is remarkably simple. The threaded counterweight avoids the need for a small fine adjustment counterweight. Bias is applied by an ingenious system that is as foolproof as the original Connoisseur SAU2. The thread and pulley system is as different from a SME 3012 as possible. The diameter of this pulley minimises any pivot friction or thread friction effect on bias.

On the subject to friction, the gimbal bearings are carefully designed and adjusted to minimise friction while avoiding chatter. Testing with the Wallytools jig indicated no measurable friction. These Audio Origami Pu7 bearings are well adjusted with no detectable play either. The bearing chatter vs friction challenge of gimbal bearings requires very careful manufacture, which Audio Origam seem to achieve.

In Part 2 we'll hear what the twelve inch Audio Origami Pu7 Titanium sounds like with a familiar cartridge.

"Wha-a-at?!?" squeal impatient plebs, stage left, "All this waffle and we don't even get a hint of the sound quality."

Conclusion

This is a seriously expensive pickup arm at the higher end of prices by UK manufacturers. It is more expensive than the fundamentally different unipivot Nottingham Analogue Ace Space ANNA 12" Tonearm. However, it is considerably cheaper than the no longer available £7500 SME V-12. The Audio Origami Pu7 it might well fill the place once occupied by that arm or the similarly priced £4800 SME Series M2-12 (prices from online retailers who seem still to have stock). It certainly looks like a bargain compared with the £26,000 Origin Live Renown. Hence at £4500 it demands detailed analysis and serious scrutiny. Look out for part 2, the first of the listening tests.

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Copyright © 2024 Mark Wheeler - mark@tnt-audio.com- www.tnt-audio.com

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