Vinyl Asylum: REVIEW: Nottingham Analogue Horizon Turntables by falcon

Model:	Horizon
Category:	Turntables
Suggested Retail Price:	$1000
Description:	Belt drive manual turntable
Manufacturer URL:	Not Available
Manufacturer URL:	Not Available

Review by falcon on March 17, 2004 at 15:32:59
IP Address: 172.173.29.93

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for the Horizon

I still have a couple of boxes full of my old 45s from when I was kid that I bought for $.99 from the local music shop. Ok, so some of them belonged to my sister, but they became mine when she grew tired of them. Thatâ€™s the way it works when youâ€™re the younger sibling, right? By the looks of these old 7â€ I must have really loved them.
Thereâ€™s one in particular that must have been especially loved by the looks of it. Comparing the date of this one to the rest and using what memory cells I have left devoted to that portion of my life, I believe it was my first 45. It wasnâ€™t bought with my weekly allowance or given to me as a gift, well at least not knowingly. It came in the back of one of my dadâ€™s books and its called â€œThe Art of Duck Callingâ€ .
Why in the world I played this so much is one of those mysteries of life that is just futile to ponder. But my best guess is that at the ripe age of 3, I just liked to watch the darn thing spin around. And maybe I liked duck quacking back then as much as I do today, who knows? But I bet there was something about putting that record on the portable and listening to it while it spun around 45 times a minute that must have been just plain fascinating.
Which brings me to my latest turntable purchase some 30 years later. I am happy to say that I am no longer using a turntable with a built-in carrying handle or a plastic tonearm. Iâ€™ve moved on. Or have I? Hmmmmâ€¦...
Ok, Iâ€™ll start the review already. I hate to admit this, but I think that maybe I still have a fondness for watching records spin. And manually cueing up the beginning of a side and then listening for those first few sounds as the needle settles comfortably into the groove must be one of lifeâ€™s simple pleasures. The Nottingham plays perfectly into these tactile sensations that Iâ€™ve associated with playing vinyl most of my life. There is no on/off switch on Tom Fletcherâ€™s Nottingham turntables. When you want to start the platter you must use your hand to push it and then the small (read: low torque) a/c motor will take over and keep it spinning perfectly. When the side is over and after youâ€™ve lifted the tonearm, you slowly brake the platter until it stops. The perimeter of the platter is grooved and in the middle groove rides a large rubber dampening ring that facilitates its manual operation. As far as I know, Nottingham is the only manufacturer with this approach to motor design. And that part of me that hasnâ€™t changed in 30 years â€“ the part that still likes to spin records â€“ thinks itâ€™s great.
Another unconventional aspect of the Nottingham turntables is their plinth design or lack thereof. Although â€˜boxlessâ€™ designs have become more and more common in recent years, Tom Fletcher claims that when he started designing turntables without a conventional box plinth 40 years ago that reactions were mixed. The Horizon certainly doesnâ€™t look like anything else on the market and one is immediately aware, even before youâ€™ve started searching for an on/off switch that this is something different.
So on to the soundâ€¦.
When I received my Horizon and Rega RB250 arm I installed an already broken-in Dynavector 10X5 along with the Expressimo Heavyweight counterweight. Iâ€™ll say that it took about a week to settle in but I had already taken notice of how well this table performed.
First off, this table is able to convey a complete musical picture. I found that I had very little interest in analyzing what I was hearing â€“ were the highs accurate? Did the bass have depth and detail? Was the midrange what I expected? The answer was yes to all of these, but to break it down in this manner would be to miss the big picture. The Horizon was making music and it was cohesive from top to bottom. There was an effortless quality in the transmission of sound from that spinning chunk of vinyl to the air surrounding the room. Dare I say it was somewhat magical to hear the music flow in such an organic and non artificial way. Yes, of course music can be magical, but this was the first time I experienced it in such a way from a recording in my own living room.
The noise floor is extremely low and dynamics and transients are excellent with the Dyna/RB250 combo. Imaging and soundstaging are also impressive. When listening to Tony Bennett Bill Evans Album opening track â€œYoung and Foolishâ€ the stereo imaging of Billâ€™s piano is clearly defined. The chords from his left hand are left of center while his right hand is right of center. During his solo this imaging becomes quite entrancing and itâ€™s so easy to forget your listening to just a little old humble lp.
There is one other point I would like to make about my experience with this table. Iâ€™m not sure how to say this in the proper jargon, but the Horizon has a sense of delicacy, or I should say the music does when playing through it, that Iâ€™m not used to hearing in my system. This sense of delicacy in the music keeps appearing consistently and I have to wonder if the low powered motor in combination with a relatively high mass platter (10.8lbs) is allowing for this greater resolution. But this may be something inherit in the designs of Tom Fletcher. Iâ€™ll have to listen to others in the line to understand this better.
But I gotta say, after living with the Nottingham for the past three months my admiration for Mr. Fletcherâ€™s design has grown more with each record I manually spin. Heâ€™s brought me a little closer to those innocent days when the process of playing records was fun. I think the manâ€™s a genius.

Product Weakness: Not sure of any at this price point
Product Strengths: Great sense of timing, low noise floor, dynamics, etc.
Overall Musicality

Associated Equipment for this Review:
Amplifier:	Anthem Integrated 1
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated):	Integrated
Sources (CDP/Turntable):	Nottingham Horizon
Speakers:	B&W CDM-1SE
Cables/Interconnects:	Tara Labs, Synergistic Research, audioquest
Music Used (Genre/Selections):	Jazz, Rock, R&B, Folk, Classical, etc.
Type of Audition/Review:	Product Owner

Product Weakness:	Not sure of any at this price point
Product Strengths:	Great sense of timing, low noise floor, dynamics, etc. Overall Musicality