For over half a century, Michell has dedicated themselves to perfecting the art of analogue vinyl playback, not by following trends, but through a deep-rooted passion for music and engineering. Michell believe in doing things properly, with patience, precision, and purpose
When you enjoy a Michell turntable, it’s not just about hearing music, it’s about feeling it come alive. You notice the silence between the notes, the texture in every voice, the weight and presence of every instrument. There’s a connection to the music, to the moment, and to the care that went into making it all possible. It’s an experience that draws you in and stays with you, every time you lower the stylus.
Every Michell design begins in-house, shaped by decades of experience and a clear focus on performance, longevity, and serviceability.
In the Hertfordshire United Kingdom Michell workshop, every product is carefully assembled, tested, and packaged by hand. Everyone at Michell take pride in what they make, and at Michell they make it to last, so it can be enjoyed for years to come.
Michell Orbe SE Small Footprint Flagship System
Michell’s Orbe SE delivers a reference quality listen identical to the Orbe but in a smaller package. The Orbe SE is renowned for delivering a high-end, neutral experience. With two layers of isolation, a 60mm thick vibration damping platter, a sophisticated, Never Connected™ power supply and motor configuration, the Orbe SE simply elevates music to extremely high levels.
Low Contact Area Feet
The solid aluminium feet of the turntable are shaped so the area in contact with the supporting surface is very small, this is done to minimise the transfer of vibrations from the supporting furniture into the turntable.
Three Point Spring Suspension System
Three suspension towers are fixed to the secondary acrylic base to hold the suspension springs in place and provide height adjustment for the sub chassis.
Weighted Pendulum Style Sub Chassis
Hanging on the three suspension springs, this provides a rigid dense platform to mount the main bearing, platter and tonearm assembly, ensuring there is no movement between them, while also acting as a ‘resonance / vibration sink’ drawing away unwanted vibrations from the sensitive elements of the turntable.
Inverted Oil Circulating Main Bearing
Contrary to traditional designs, our main bearing has the point of rotation at the top of the assembly, not at the bottom. This orientation allows us to fully lubricate the inside of the entire bearing while the platter is turning. We achieve this by way of a modified Archimedean screw that we machine into the inside bore of the bearing. The oil is drawn from a reservoir at the base of the main bearing up to the thrust ball at the top, fully lubricating as it goes, it then returns to the reservoir via a waste hole drilled into the bearing spindle. Lubricating the precision parts of the main bearing in this way means that any potential for noise or vibration created by the rotation of the platter is avoided.
Extra Heavy Impedance Matched Platter
The platter material was chosen for its vibration dampening characteristics and because sonically it is a very similar material to vinyl, so it has a very neutral sound characteristic. The extra mass of the Orbe platter gives it great momentum when spinning aiding in speed stability.
Free Standing Motor Unit
The motor unit used to drive the turntable is completely separate to the turntable, meaning it doesn’t touch the turntable in anyway. The only connection between the motor and the turntable is the drive belt that drives the platter. This stops any noise or vibrations created when the motor is running, getting through to the sensitive parts of the turntable.
Orbe Controller Power Supply
The most sophisticated power supply we manufacture, the Orbe controller uses a large toroidal transformer, Never Connected™ circuitry and servo motor control technology to make sure the platter is always turning at the correct speed. All the time the platter is turning, the motor is reporting back what the RPM is, if this changes even slightly, the controller automatically adjusts its output to correct the change. The result is that the speed stability of an Orbe turntable is absolutely rock solid.
Orbe Record Clamp
The Orbe clamp is a screw-down design, which allows you to exert more force on to the vinyl when clamping it to the platter, than our standard clamps allow. This further helps flatten warped and uneven vinyl and eliminate resonance in the vinyl disk.
Industry Accolades
“It has a breadth and appeal that none of the alternatives could quite match which is impressive to say the least.”
"Sonically, I still have not heard many turntables that comprehensively better the Orbe, at any price"
