Dear Sirs.
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I wanted to take the opportunity to comment on this incredible piece of art and design that is the Origine Turntable. For years I have been a music lover, but since the 80’s I had stopped listening. All formats out there, sounded dry, harsh, bright, with no soul or feeling attached to it. So for 30 years I had stopped totally listening to music, with the exception of a concert here and there, well about five years ago at a friend’s house he showed me his new turntable and we started listening to some vinyl, and man, there it was, that sound I have been missing for 30 years.
So I order my first turntable, and, I went thru all the usual suspects, but still there was something missing. Well after going thru 4 different brands and still not satisfied, my wife showed me one day a picture of the Origine and mention how beautiful it looks, my answer ?, Hun just because it looks beautiful, does not mean it sounds good, Oh Boy !! here comes the look, so I decided to do some digging on the Origine and since it was a relatively new product very little information was available, but the reviews on her older siblings were impressive, so I took the plunge and I order the table, of course, I went to my dear wife and proudly declared, that I had taken her suggestion and order based on her recommendation. Her Answer? About time you listen to me... Well after a week or so I received the table, which came extremely well packed and in many pieces, so panic takes a hold of me, as I have never attempted to assemble a turntable, please understand that if I have to change a light bulb, at my house I call the handyman.
Well after reading very concise and clear instructions I began the task, and after about 30 minutes this incredible work of art has taken form, and believe me when I say, this thing is gorgeous. But with huge amounts of doubt on my assembly skills, I decided to pick the phone up and call Oracle, expecting, of course, a machine to answer, and then after innumerable prompts to be transferred to customer service, where a barely English speaking person will start to read from a q card, as response to my questions. So the phone rings and gets answered by a gentleman, conversing in French, of course my mind immediately screams at me “ you should had learned French when you had the opportunity” so I muster the little French I know and murdering the pronunciation I tell the gentleman that I do not speak French and if he speaks English, and of course he does and this wonderful and extremely polite gentleman, Martin, starts talking to me, and what immediately struck me was that Martin, spoke about this product like if it was his child, the passion he conveyed was astonishing and so refreshing.
So Martin spends an enormous amount of time with me and the set up, until he believed all was perfect. After hanging up, I thought, where in today’s market do you find a company, with this level of commitment and passion for their product, and where do you find someone that is willing to spend enormous amounts of time on the phone with a customer, it made me feel like the most important customer Oracle had. Well time for music, and here it was, I was blown away, 30 years waiting for this, the richness, warmth, imaging all of it was superb. After, the bugs bites me, and here comes the tube phono stage, the tube preamp and the tube amp, and this wonderful and amazing turntable drives all to almost perfection, but, still something missing. So I bought a Kiseki cartridge and had it mounted, the installer looks at me, as I am crazy and says “ you are spending more on the cartridge that you spend on the table HUH !!” my answer, let’s get the cartridge installed, then we will listen to it and that will be my answer to your statement. Which is what we did, after listening to a variety of records this guy turns to me and softly says” I have never heard something that sounds so good”
On my way home, and being after 5:30 PM and being extremely unease about a comment about skating force, that the installer made, I decided to call Oracle and surprise, no machine and a gentleman answers, and that was Jacques, the owner, we discussed the Kiseki for about half an hour and it almost felt he was more excited about it than me. So we decided to speak further, later, so we could tweak the turntable to fit perfectly with the Kiseki cartridge. And he does, call me a couple of days later, and spends about an hour with me over the phone, tweaking the table, and again you could not help feeling that Jacques was talking about his child, his creation, it almost felt that I was only a custodian and that turntable belong to him and it will always be so.
Today I can not be happier with this turntable and the glorious and magical sound it produces, that sound that belongs to equipment that is worth 10 times what I paid for the Origine.
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So Jacques and Martin, thank you!! for letting me take care of your amazing creation, I promise I will take good care of it !!
Ricardo Illanes - march 2018
