Everything upgrades. Nothing changes.
The Symphony is our flagship turntable, and the Conductor SE is our flagship speed controller. We developed it for the Symphony and the Allegro, whose thicker platters and sub-platters give the motor more weight to turn. It takes the Conductor’s design as far as it will go: a larger transformer, twice the capacitors, a faster processor and faster DACs, in the same chassis, with the same three buttons.
It is standard on the Symphony and the Allegro, and it can be specified on any new Encore or Harmony. Owners of an Encore or Harmony, with a Conductor or an original Maestro, can upgrade to it. Like every Conductor, it is calibrated to its turntable before it leaves the workshop.
Brushed Silver
Brushed aluminumThe chassis and faceplate in brushed aluminum. The faceplate is shaped on CNC and bead-blasted, and the Pure Fidelity mark in the power button lights when the unit is switched on.
Brushed Black
Brushed aluminumThe same chassis in brushed black, with the lit mark in the power button as its only light. Also available in brushed black with a silver faceplate.
Choose the finish
Click to enlarge
Why we built it
The Symphony asked more.
The Symphony asked more of its speed controller. Its thicker platter and sub-platter put more mass on the motor, and we wanted the drive to hold far more in reserve than the motor would ever draw. Rather than start again, we took the Conductor, the controller that had already made the Harmony a Mk2, and rebuilt everything inside it that generates and delivers the drive signal. When the Allegro arrived with the same platter and sub-platter, the Conductor SE came with it.
Made for one motor
A motor and its controller, as a pair.
Every motor has a speed at which it runs most smoothly, in the way a car engine has an ideal range of revs. We studied ours to find it, sized our pulley so that the motor turns at that speed at 33⅓ and 45 rpm, and shaped the Conductor SE’s signal to hold it there. The motor is a custom 12 V AC synchronous motor, made for us in the Netherlands specifically for turntables. Tuned this closely to its controller, it might as well have been made in our own workshop. The two are designed as a pair, the way hardware and software can be.
The engineering
01
A 35-watt transformer.
Forty percent larger than the standard Conductor’s 25 watts, which is itself well beyond what the motor draws. The drive never works near its limit.
02
Twice the capacitors.
Twice as many as in the Conductor, and each one larger. They smooth the supply, so the drive electronics receive quiet, stable power.
03
A faster processor.
The quartz-locked signal for 33⅓ and 45 rpm comes from a faster processor, which computes corrections more often and applies them more precisely. A synchronous motor follows its signal exactly, so the accuracy of the signal is the accuracy of the motor.
04
Faster DACs.
The motor’s drive waveform comes from faster digital-to-analog converters, producing a purer, more precise sine wave and a more stable signal to the motor.
05
A shaped faceplate.
Thicker, shaped on CNC and bead-blasted. The Pure Fidelity mark in the power button lights when the unit is switched on.
06
Set on our bench.
Every turntable leaves our bench running at exactly 33⅓ and 45 rpm, with the speed adjusters on the back at twelve o’clock. If an adjuster is moved, returning it to twelve o’clock restores the factory setting.
07
Identical operation.
The same three buttons, pitch trim, soft start and factory calibration as the standard Conductor. Nothing needs to be relearned.
Specifications & finishes.
Designed in British Columbia. Built in British Columbia. Calibrated on John’s bench.
Complete the system
Build your setup.
The tables that ship with the Conductor SE, and the Conductor itself.
Step up.
Encore and Harmony owners, with a Conductor or an original Maestro, can upgrade to the Conductor SE; we calibrate it to your turntable before it ships. If you are ordering a new Encore or Harmony, the SE can be specified with your order.
