U-Turn Audio OPEN BOX Orbit Plus Turntable w/ Built-In Preamp - Red - Excellent Condition
U-Turn Audio OPEN BOX Orbit Plus Turntable w/ Built-In Preamp - Red - Excellent Condition
Free Shipping On All Orders, No Minimums.
We offer free 2-day shipping on most products within the continental US.
Weekdays - Orders placed by 2pm EST ship same day. Orders placed after 2pm EST will ship the following business day.
Weekends - Orders placed on Saturday and Sunday will ship Monday.
Orders requiring motor freight delivery may take more than two business days. Once your order has shipped, you'll receive a shipping confirmation email with a tracking number for easy tracking.
Orders that contain items that are currently backordered, special order, or out of stock will ship complete once all items are in-stock unless otherwise requested.
If you need it faster, you will have the option of choosing a quicker shipping option when you checkout on the website.
At this time, we do not ship internationally and orders to Hawaii and Alaska may incur an additional shipping charge. Please contact us at 888.899.8776 or email support@audioadvice.com to confirm.
Rerouting and Address Changes
We cannot make ANY address changes once an order is placed. If you are unable to accept delivery of your package as ordered, we will need to cancel your order, return the package to sender and have you replace your order through our website.
Keep the Box
We suggest you keep the shipping box or boxes for at least 30 days. It is actually a great idea to keep boxes for audio products for the life of the product. Having the box and all packing will increase the trade-in value should you decide to move up and they are handy to have should you ever need to send the unit in for repair.
How To Receive a Motor Freight Order
The trucking company will contact you to schedule a convenient time to deliver the order. Please note that you must be present for delivery.
Visually inspect the box to make sure you see no signs of damage. If you notice any damage at all, take some pictures with your phone and make a note of them on the delivery receipt the driver will ask you to sign. If it is obvious that the product is damaged, please refuse the order and contact us immediately at 888.899.8776 or email support@audioadvice.com.
Open your box as soon as possible and inspect the product for damage and contact us if you find anything wrong.
uShip In-Home Delivery
Due to current concerns surrounding COVID-19, uShip is able to offer THRESHOLD SERVICE ONLY at this time. To ensure everyone’s safety, uShip is advising carriers to refrain from making room-of-choice deliveries. Threshold service consists of the shipment being brought into the first door of the address or the lobby of an apartment/condo, and does not include set-up, installation, assembly or debris removal.
What to Expect: Most oversized items will be delivered within 2-3 weeks. Your carrier will place your item inside the first door of the address or the lobby of an apartment/condo.
Appointment Scheduling: Your delivery partner will call 24-48 hours prior to delivery to arrange an appointment window.
How to prepare for in-home delivery:
- Determine the clearest path from the street to your home
- Measure entrances and hallways to ensure your item will fit
- Remove any wall hangings or clutter to ensure a clear path and to prevent damages
- Remove old furnishings to allow placement for your new piece
Check your furniture for damages: We rarely expect damaged furniture, but in the instance it does happen, we have you covered. Once your item’s packaging is removed, check for any damages that may have occurred in transit. Take pictures of any damages and notate appropriately on the delivery receipt. Keep possession of the damaged piece and contact us via phone or email and we’ll start the process to repair/replace your new piece of furniture. For uShip customer support, please call 800-698-7447.
At Audio Advice, we pride ourselves on customer satisfaction. We'll bend over backward to make sure you're 100% satisfied and we won't accept anything less. We offer 30-day hassle-free returns and personalized service from real, live people.
If an item doesn't meet your expectations, you may return or exchange it in its original condition and packaging within 30 days for a full refund, minus shipping fees. Items shipped back in like new condition through standard shipping carriers will only incur a flat fee of $15 to return. If the items were initially shipped through free scheduled delivery via motor freight (commonly referred to as LTL), returning them will result in return shipping fees starting at $150. These items include but are not limited to, oversized items such as TVs, certain subwoofers, floorstanding speakers, furniture, and most items weighing over 75 pounds. Return fees will also apply for exchanges. We want to treat your system as if it is our own and want you to be completely satisfied with your purchase.
Please see the instructions below. We only accept returns for any product purchased directly from our website. If merchandise is not returned in its original condition or is missing packaging, manuals, accessories or other parts, or the resale value of the product has been impaired, a partial refund will be given and calculated on a case-by-case basis.
Non-Returnable Items
The following items cannot be returned or cancelled:
- Special/Custom Order Items
- Open Box Products
- Gift Cards
- In-ear headphones cannot be returned once the packaging has been opened due to personal hygiene reasons. Please contact our customer care team if you'd like help choosing.
-
Turntables With a Broken Stylus: All turntables ship out with the stylus intact. If you return a turntable or phono cartridge with a broken or missing stylus you will be subject to a return fee. Please be careful when setting up your turntable and contact us with any questions.
Is It Easy To Return An Item?
Yes, simply give us a call at 888.899.8776 or you can email our support team at support@audioadvice.com. Many times our team of experts can help figure out why the product might not be working like you expected and get things fixed over the phone, so don’t be surprised if we ask a few questions, we love troubleshooting!
If our tech help can not make you happy, we will email over a return shipping label with a Return Number.
Hopefully, you saved all of the original item’s box and packaging inserts. You will want to pack back up your return or exchange in the same way it came out of the original box. Once you have everything packaged correctly, tape the box on the top and bottom to assure it stays together. If Audio Advice shipped the item to you inside a second box, it's a good idea to use that same extra box to help prevent damage on its way back to us. To avoid it accidentally coming back to you, use a magic marker to cross out the old shipping label or just tear it off.
The return shipping label we send you will have our address on it, just make sure you take the box to the right shipper (UPS, FEDEX, or USPS) as per the label.
If you are close to one of our stores, please let us know if it is more convenient for you to return it to us directly. You will still need to get a return number by contacting us and shipping and/or restocking charges may apply.
When Will I See My Refund?
It usually takes around 7-14 days for the refund to show up on the payment method you used. We do inspect all returns for damage and accuracy of the item inside the box before issuing a refund. Some items may be subject to shipping and restocking fees.
Can I Exchange My Purchase For Something Different?
Sometimes those big speakers just don’t fit in the room or you might have bought a small subwoofer and later found out you’d love a bigger one. If you would like to make an exchange within 30 days of receiving your item, just give us a call at 888.899.8776 or email support@audioadvice.com and we will help work out the details. Additional shipping charges and return costs may apply.
How Do I Cancel An Order?
If the item has already shipped out or is a special order item, it is not possible to cancel the order. Please contact us at 888.899.8776 or email support@audioadvice.com to start the return process.
What If I Find Shipping Damage?
We need to know right away about any shipping damage. Please contact us at 888.899.8776 or email support@audioadvice.com within 48 hours of your delivery so we can get the ball rolling on making things right. It’s very helpful to take some pictures and email them to us if possible.
Can I Refuse A Shipment?
You can, but unless the item is damaged, shipping and restocking fees will be deducted from your refund. If your item arrives damaged and you are lucky enough to be there, snap some quick pics and refuse the order. Then contact us so we can get a replacement on the way.
What Happens If My Order Is Defective?
This is actually pretty rare, most consumer electronics work fine out of the box 99.9% of the time. We’d like for you to contact us first by calling 888.899.8776 or email support@audioadvice.com so we can help get to the bottom of things. If your item is indeed defective during the first 30 days, we can usually exchange it for a new, replacement unit.
What About Service After 30 Days?
Audio Advice has a great relationship with all of our brands and can help you with warranty service by the brand after our 30-day guarantee period. Even after the warranty expires, we can arrange for service by the brand on products purchased from Audio Advice. Just call 888.899.8776 or email support@audioadvice.com.
How Do You Determine A Restocking Fee?
You may not believe it, but sometimes we receive items back that were put in the box with zero packaging and are completely destroyed or are missing many of the pieces that came with the item. We also track serial numbers and will get back different serial numbers. We’ve even seen different items than what we shipped out be returned. However, it’s very important to package your return properly so that nothing goes missing or gets damaged in shipping, which will result in a restocking fee or even no refund at all. If a product is opened and the market value of the product is reduced, then a restocking fee may be applied to the cost of restocking and the reduced market value of the product. The bottom line is if you treat us fairly, we will do the same.
Audio Advice strives to provide industry-leading support and service while also maintaining the lowest prices available on products for our customers. We work hard with our vendors to bring our customers the best products at each price point. As a part of that process, we work with our vendors to provide the lowest pricing in our stores and on our website.
Our prices should always be the same as any other authorized dealer, including big-box retailers and major online retailers.
If you believe that you have found a lower advertised price from a legitimate authorized seller, call us and let us know so we can make sure we can correct any inadvertent error on our side. As a matter of policy, we update our prices automatically if a vendor changes its authorized pricing policies, so we generally have the best prices all the time. Increasingly, there are knock-off copies of products online, usually sold by non-authorized dealers.
Please be sure that the item meets the following conditions:
- The item is brand new, in stock, and available for purchase
- The item has the identical model number, color, etc as the item on our site.
- The seller is an authorized dealer
As always, our goal is to provide a terrific customer experience, including industry low prices. We appreciate your support.
Overview
Company & Product Overview
U-Turn Audio is a great American success story. Their three founders are diehard music lovers. Back when they were in college, they were looking for great quality turntables, but simply couldn’t find anything that met their standard and their budget.
In other words, they had filet mignon ears with hamburger helper wallets! With their creative and mechanical design backgrounds, they decided to put their heads together and build a great turntable at an entry-level price.
Ten years ago this would have probably never made it off the ground, but they decided to launch a Kickstarter campaign. During this time, in 2012, turntable sales were on an almost straight up growth curve, so they got the investment they needed to get going, and by mid-2015, had already produced over 10,000 Orbit turntables in their home town of Woburn, Massachusetts.
Amazingly enough in this day of international manufacturing, today 80-90% of the parts in an Orbit table still come from local suppliers, and the entire assembly is done in their Woburn, MA plant!
The Orbit is a manual, belt-drive turntable. Instead of offering a variety of different models, all of U-Turns turntable configurations are extensions of the base model. The Orbit is available as the Orbit Basic, Orbit Plus, and Orbit Special.
Design & Build Quality
All of the Orbit turntables share the same tonearm, but there are many different options to configure it to suit your needs and budget, including five different color choices on the main model and a custom Orbit available in either a maple or walnut finish.
The Orbit was specifically designed to get the best sound for your money, so don’t expect any bells and whistles. It has an AC motor that is mounted in the back left corner of the table, suspended on rubber dampers to reduce motor noise from getting into the turntable plinth. The on/off switch is on the front left side, and to change speed, you simply move the belt on the exposed motor pulleys.
The Orbit tonearm is extremely impressive for the money. It is virtually friction free, and we detected almost zero bearing wobble. The arm even has anti-skate built-in as well. While it will come preset for the cartridge you select, tracking force is adjustable if you decide to upgrade your cartridge. Like almost all turntables in this price range, VTA (or vertical tracking angle) is fixed. U-Turn suggests a handful of cartridges (all of which we like here at Audio Advice) that work great with the tonearm’s fixed VTA.
The plinth (or base) of the Orbit comes from a manufacturer in Minnesota, keeping with the American-made tradition. It even comes with a hinged dust cover -- a real bonus in this price range. The base has three rubber feet which compress a bit, just like you would find on turntables selling for far more than the Orbit.
When we first tested it, we were most surprised by the quality of the turntable bearing. At first glance, it looks pretty small in comparison to what you find on a much more expensive table, but we found it did an amazing job. They use an inverted bearing design, which means that the shaft of the bearing points up and is anchored very well to the plinth. The inner platter sits on top of it and uses a bronze bushing with two Teflon inserts. The inner platter has a tapered spindle that locks perfectly into the platter. We can’t overstate how great this bearing is on a table in this price range; it spins freely for a very long time and appears to have zero noise.
Being a basic belt-drive turntable means that there isn’t a ton of cutting-edge technology to talk about like we have with some of our new digital toys. However, all of the tech investments that U-Turn Audio puts into assuring the customer that every product is perfect is quite remarkable.
Each motor is checked out before it is mounted to ensure it meets their spec for lack of noise. Once the platter is on the table, a digital microscope is used to make sure it is perfect with no wobble. Every single tonearm has its bearings hand calibrated. Once the table is assembled, it gets checked out at several locations with a stethoscope to confirm that it is lacking in noise. Then all tables are burned in for two hours on a test bench and tested (every single one) with familiar records. Pretty impressive!
All and all, the U-Turn Orbit is a brilliantly impressive work of American engineering.
Features & Technology
Most basic belt-drive turntables do not really have a ton of “features”, but there are some different choices you can make when selecting the Orbit in order to customize it just for you.
Built-In Phono Preamp
If you have a phono stage already, either separately or in your amp, we’d suggest you save the money and get it without -- but a built-in phono stage is an option on all Orbit tables. If you do not have a phono stage, however, having it built into the table will save some cable clutter, and the preamp that’s included is actually pretty decent for the price.
It is designed to work well with the handful of moving magnet type cartridges U-Turn suggests for the Orbit. The phono stage is a $70 option. You can also purchase U-Turn's Pluto Phono Preamp for $99.
Cue Lever
Another intriguing option on the Orbit is the choice of a cue lever. This is a really clever way to be all about performance. If you have a steady hand (or you’re old school) you may be perfectly happy carefully dropping the stylus on the record and picking it up at the end. The Orbit tonearm has a very nice finger lift, so with a steady hand, this is actually no big deal. However, if you are a bit timid about the possibility of damaging your stylus, you can opt for the cueing lever for an extra $40.
If you decide to get an Orbit without the cueing mechanism, then get the jitters about going the self-cuing route, you can simply purchase one after the fact and pop it right in! That is a first for any table we have ever seen!
Choice of MDF or Acrylic Platter
You will also have a choice of two different platter materials on the Orbit. The base model comes with an MDF platter, similar to what we see on some tables in the $300 price range.
There is an acrylic platter for $90 that we feel is worth every penny. The acrylic platter is finely machined to spin more accurately with less wow and flutter than the MDF version. It is also constructed of a type of acrylic that is very good at trapping and rejecting energy. What you will hear with the acrylic is much more punchy bass, a better sense of rhythm to your music, and many more of those fine details that draw you into the music. This one is well worth it -- we strongly recommend anyone interested in the U-Turn Orbit add the acrylic platter to their table.
Choice of 5 Cartridges
Finally, you have a choice of five different cartridges with the Orbit. The base model includes the Audio Technica AT91B. This is a really basic cartridge with a conical stylus. For an additional $35, you can step up to the elliptical stylus based Ortofon OM5E. For $55 you can get the Grado Black: one of our favorite cartridges for the money, and it's made just south of U-Turn in Brooklyn, NY.
For $75, you can jump up to the Ortofon 2M Red. This is probably the world's most popular mid-level cartridge as it comes on several other brands of tables. If you want something even better, the Ortofon 2M Blue with its special nude elliptical stylus is your top choice for an extra $211. While you can upgrade later to any of these if you start out with the basic, there are some savings if you start out with the one you want.
Additional Upgrades
If you’re interested in additional upgrades to improve the quality of your U-Turn Orbit turntable over time, there are a few more things that you can tinker with.
The phono cable for the Orbit is user replaceable, so a better RCA cable would be an easy thing to upgrade. It comes with a basic RCA to RCA cable that’s about 6 feet long. Like the Rega tables, the ground is on one channel of the cable. Before we tested our demo unit, the first thing we did was swap out the included RCA cable with a 1M Audioquest Evergreen, which is by far the best $35 you could spend. Since we were using an external phono stage, those entry-level cables would crimp down the super low-level signal coming out of a phono cartridge (it’s about 1,000x less than a CD player). Bass got tighter and deeper, and the sound became much smoother as you would expect.
The Orbit actually comes with a very nice felt record mat. It’s far more dense than most mat’s in the table’s price range and reminded us a lot of one you would get with a Rega or Linn turntable. Of course, there are tons of options for upgrading the mat as well, but for most people it will probably be fine.
Performance
While we suspect most people purchasing a U-Turn Orbit would not connect it up to one of the higher end systems we set up for testing, we wanted to really push it and find it’s limitations! Both of our test systems had built-in phono stages, so we used the Orbit without the phono stage.
The first setup consisted of the new Anthem STR Integrated amp and a pair of Vandersteen 2ce Signature II. The second setup included the new Rotel A-12 integrated amplifier and a small pair of Bowers & Wilkins towers.
Our test table had the acrylic platter upgrade and the Ortofon 2M Red, which put the combo at $329.
We played a lot of our favorite tunes and came to the conclusion that the Orbit is just flat out fun to listen to. Speed consistency is very good for its price, which results in that tuneful sound a good table can reproduce. On a good system though, limitations are revealed. Our better (and obviously more expensive) tables get more music from the grooves. We found, for instance, that the Rega turntables were able to track more difficult passages with less distortion and produced an even more pure speed (which they are known for). Of course, you can’t buy a Rega for $329 or less!
Overall Recommendation
If you are looking at some of the cheap suitcase turntables, like a Crosley Cruiser for instance, we strongly recommend that you save for a little longer and get the U-Turn entry-level Orbit with a built-in phono stage.
We think the best bang for the buck is the Orbit with the acrylic platter, and either the Ortofon OM5E or Ortofon 2M Red.
If your budget allows you to go above the $400 range, have a look at the models from Rega and Pro-ject, because remember, all of the sound begins at your turntable.
