Vertere DG-1

Vertere DG-1 Dynamic Groove Record Player is Vertere’s most affordable design; easiest to set up and contains some of their most innovative thinking

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Vertere DG-1 Dynamic Groove 

Discontinued replaced by Vertere DG-1S

The Vertere DG-1 Dynamic Groove Record Player is Vertere’s most affordable design; the easiest to set up and use, and also contains some of their most innovative thinking.

DG-1

For those daunted by the idea of setting up a record player, many of which seem to arrive in kit form, the DG-1 is as close as you’re going to get to ‘plug and play’ in a high-end, high-performance record player, and yet packed with innovations.

The DG-1 is their simplest record player, yet also their most highly-developed.

Here’s why… When it came to building a new, easy-to-use, entry-level model for Vertere’s record player range, they could have taken the easy route of simply replicating much of what they have already done in their flagship models, just using less expensive materials and components.

But that would have been too easy and rather unsatisfactory – after all, they are all about designing to a level of performance, not a price.

So a complete re-imagining was the only approach to take.

Why Record Player DG-1 Dynamic Groove?

  • Simple – High end, high performance out of the box
  • Sophisticated – Innovative technology encapsulated in elegant design
  • Precise – Fully programmable, microprocessor controlled made future proof
  • Fun – Supreme platform to bring your vinyl collection to life

The Motor

In case you thought the motor’s only job was to make sure the record rotates at the right speed, think again: as the only source of energy for the signal generated by the cartridge and fed out to the amplifier, it’s arguably the most important part of any record player.

The DG-1’s 24-pole Precision Synchronous motor is individually tuned to minimise noise, uses an offboard power supply, and is controlled by circuitry derived from that developed for the flagship RG-1 Reference Motor Drive.

For the DG-1, the advanced electrics have been designed down to a single microprocessor PCB, which is both addressable for precision setting during manufacture and programmable for future upgrades. Copper/stainless steel shielding protects it from unwanted interference.

The Platter

Drive to the platter is via a precision machined aluminium alloy pulley on the motor and a bespoke silicon rubber drive belt for smoothness and durability, while electronic speed change, via a switch to the rear of the plinth top-plate, adds to the ease of use and removes any need for belt-handling.

Like the pulley, the platter itself is also precision-machined alloy, to the top of which is bonded a PETG record interface mat.

On the underside a cork/Neoprene/nitrile bonded disc controls platter resonance.

The Bearing

The platter rotates on a highly polished stainless steel spindle, which rides in a main bearing housing using a super precision tungsten carbide ball, avoiding the need for complex regimes of lubrication, while still retaining the smoothness of rotation essential for the accurate playback of records.

That’s another example of the many ways in which the elements of this record player have been simplified to optimise performance.

The Tonearm

DG-1 Tonearm

The DG-1 tonearm is uniquely Vertere, and differs from established thinking in its use of a flat profile – one of the most striking visual elements of the whole record player – in place of the usual tube.

Conventional arms use tubes for stiffness, but these bring all kinds of problems with resonances, and thus need damping if they’re not to ‘ring’, and pass those distortions back to the cartridge.

The DG-1’s three-layer, non-resonant tonearm beam avoids these problems and, in place of conventional tonearm cabling, uses a flexible PCB sandwiched into the arm itself to carry signal from the cartridge to the output terminals.

It’s a one-piece design, running continuously from the cartridge connections all the way to the output to the amplifier.

The Thread Bearings

The bearings allowing the arm its horizontal and vertical movement are also innovative: there aren’t any – well, not in the conventional sense!

Many solutions have been sought in the past for these precise bearings, which need to be small, precise and as near-silent as possible, but for the DG-1 they have developed a very simple solution: twisted nylon threads – one for movement in the horizontal plane, and two for the vertical axis.

These threads are simple, exhibiting none of the stiction – or initial resistance to movement – of conventional bearings, as well as being super-light and noiseless.

They’re also self-damping, with just the twist of the thread controlling their movement.

The Plinth

Like the tonearm, the DG-1 plinth is a sandwich construction, using non-resonant cast acrylic to form the main plinth and the sub-plinth for a clean and sophisticated look.

This three-layer design incorporates the control button,the speed indicator and the user-selectable standby mood-lighting, as well as the silicon rubber isolation between the plinth and the platter assembly.

The whole assembly sits on a steel chassis, chosen for optimal stability, housing the motor drive circuit and the motor all supported by three adjustable feet.

The DG-1 comes complete with a non-resonant acrylic dust-cover, where its hinges are integrated into the plinth for a sleek and modern profile.

DG-1 Cover

Technology

The development of the DG-1 gave Vertere the perfect opportunity to go back to the fundamentals of playing records, examine every element of the task of a player, and develop innovative solutions to deliver the performance they were seeking without compromising the performance – or the affordability.

The result is a record player that looks very different from their other models, but still succeeds in delivering exceptional performance.

Everything was re-examined, reconsidered and, if necessary, re-engineered, with some unusual solutions from the motor to the plinth, and from the tonearm to the bearings supporting it.

Yes, at first glance the most striking features may be the multi-layered plinth, with its built-in standby mood lighting, and the flat profile tonearm with its apparent lack of wiring, but there’s a lot more going on beneath the skin to squeeze the maximum resolution and musical involvement from the DG-1, making it the best-sounding ‘plug and play’ record player you can buy.

And that ease of use was also a major consideration in the design here: we all know that record-playing systems with hugely adjustable suspension, tonearms and more may deliver satisfactory levels of performance in the right hands, but what they wanted was a model you could just unbox, place and plug in – well, it’s almost that simple – and yet achieve the maximum sound quality of which the design is capable.

Throughout its development the DG-1, like all Vertere record players, has been benchmarked against master tapes and the half-speed-mastered LPs made from them.

They have close friends in the recording, mastering and pressing business, including award-winning engineer Miles Showell and producer Giles Martin, and they draw on their expertise when it comes to the way their products perform.

They know how their recordings should sound, and it’s to that Vertere aspire

DG-1 Record Player/ Specifications

DG-1 Connection Panel
Type Belt Drive
Motor 24 Pole Synchronous
Acetal Spindle Thrust Bearing
Motor Mount Axially De-coupled
Pulley Super Precision Aluminium Alloy
Drive Belt Bespoke Silicone Rubber
Platter DG-1 Precision Machined Aluminium Alloy
PETG Bonded Record Interface Mat
Underside Bonde Resonance Control Disc
Bearing Spindle DG-1 Stainless Steel
Super Precision Machined and Polished
Roundness / Concentricity < 5 Microns
Bearing Housing Brass
Super Precision Machined
Bore Tolerance < 5 Microns
Super Precision Tungsten Carbide Ball
Plinth Structure 3 Layer Acrylic
Top and Sub-Plinth, Internally Illuminated
Isolation System 4 Point, Bespoke Silicone Rubber
Support Structure
Steel Chassis
Three Adjustable Feet
Motor Drive Advanced Microprocessor Controlled
Fully Programmable and Motor Noise Reduction
Speeds 33.3 and 45 rpm (+/- 0.2%)
Electronically Selectable
Dust Cover Non-resonant Acrylic
Dimensions (W x D x H) 469 x 384 x 130mm (including dust cover)
Power Supply Wall Adaptor Type
UK, US, EU and AUS Exchangeable Plugs
100 – 240 Vac with 1.5m Cord
Weight 8kg

Tonearm

Type Fixed Axis Bearing
Effective Length 240mm
Overhang 17.5mm
Offset Angle 22.9°
Tonearm Beam Aluminium/Polymer Sandwich
Bearing Structure Twisted Nylon 6.6/6 Thread
Counterweight Stainless Steel
With Adjustable Tracking
Weight Block
Internal Wiring Gold Plated Flexible PCB
With Gold Plated Cartridge Tags
One Piece From Cartridge
To Output
RCA Sockets
Weight 280g
Dynamic Groove

Magneto Cartridge

Magneto is closely related to the Audio Technica VM520EB cartridge originally fitted to the DG-1 and is stylus compatible with the AT VM5x range.

This allows you to upgrade to a improved stylus profile,should you wish to,when the time comes to renew.

The Magneto was chosen as the ideal starter cartridge: it is tolerant of records in less than perfect condition which may be the case with owners returning to vinyl after many years absence.

Magneto however is superbly musical and delivers all the qualities one would expect of a Vertere product. Magneto is quiet, dynamic, accurate, and easy to optimise.

Vertere will be publishing a blog and video later in the year discussing the upgrade paths available to DG-1 owners.

While the DG-1 is significantly more of a plug and play record player than Vertere’s more upscale range.

Magneto

Want to upgrade, consider Vertere’s MG-1 MKII

Additional information

Version

with Audio Technica VM-520 cartridge, with Magento MM cartridge, with Sabre cartridge

Brand

Vertere Acoustics

Vertere Acoustics Reducing 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 greater complication in the engineering of audio equipment, putting in place one element to solve the problems of another 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, they 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 they prefer to look at it this way: the best audio equipment shouldn’t add anything to the original recording. Rather 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.

Working with music industry professionals, they have access to master tapes and the acetates made in the production of records, and can compare the way the engineers heard them with the way they sound on their record players and via their cables. Vermeer Acoustics are constantly learning about how records are mixed, mastered, cut and pressed, and applying that knowledge to the way we design and build Vertere products.

The fundamentals of a record player are pretty much set in stone, in that a record needs to turn at a certain speed, and the stylus needs to follow the groove and allow the cartridge to convert its undulations into electrical signals with what is literally microscopic accuracy. However, just because those are the basics, that doesn’t mean there’s only one way to achieve them – which is why we take a long hard look, apply our ‘do no evil’ way of thinking, and endeavour to develop simpler, innovative solutions.

That’s why you’ll find their record players look different, both outwardly and in some of the engineering solutions you’ll probably never see. It’s all a matter of stripping down the engineering to those fundamentals by considering the absolute essence of how a record player works – from re-examining the way a cartridge gets its energy to ensuring it extracts maximum information from a groove that’s trying to throw it off track over a thousand times a centimetre.

So yes, the way they design and build their products is unique, but it’s not all about being eye-catching (even if we have to admit we think they look rather good): we hope you’ll find they sound just as unique, too, simply by bringing you even more of the music

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