Reed built their first commercially available turntable Muse 3C after many years of idea-crunching and countless man hours of CADing, prototyping, programming and real-life testing. Whether you are fan of friction-driven turntables (the famous Garrard is made that way), or if you think that the right way to build turntables is to use a pair of motors and a belt, Reed Muse 3C should catch your eye. Thanks to its unique and innovative design, you can convert friction-driven turntable to a belt-driven machine in 5 minutes.
Long-term prototyping
After extensive prototyping and long-term experiments they came up to a solution of using a reverse sliding thrust ball bearing for a main axis. The bearing ball is made either from steel or ceramics and the lateral stability is achieved by using very durable and low-noise polymer sliding bearing. The symmetrical drive system is designed to avoid radial bearing load, hence minimizing possible mechanical noise and ensuring longevity of a master bearing.
Convert from friction-driven to belt-driven
Muse 3C is powered by two direct current motors and by design is friction-driven, however its major innovation is possibility to convert it to a belt-driven system in minutes by replacing traction rollers and putting on a belt (and, of course, setting a switch to a correct position). To prevent possible mechanical vibration, they use traction rollers (be it friction or belt) of different diameters, spinning at different velocities and having mathematically non-multiple diameters to driving disc diameter. The disc velocity is stabilized by quartz-based phase locked loop (PLL) system, so average speed deviation depends solely on the parameters of quartz crystal. The turntable drive is equipped with both mechanical and electronic protection systems.
The Muse 3C turntable also features electronic inclinometer (electronic level dedicated to measure turntable slope/tilt angle), which allows users to achieve perfect horizontal alignment without using additional tools.
The Muse 3C turntable can be equipped with one or two tonearms with effective length ranging from 9.5” to 12”.
