U-Turn Audio's New Configurator Lets You Spec Out Your Own Orbit Turntable

U-Turn Audio is now offering a build-to-order path to its popular Orbit deck, giving listeners a chance to assemble a record player piece by piece instead of picking a fixed model off the shelf. The configurator walks buyers through seven decisions: plinth finish, platter material, speed control, cartridge, cue lever, preamp, and feet. Pricing opens at $249, matching the entry-level Orbit Basic.

The base configuration arrives with a black plinth, rubber feet, a grooved MDF platter, manual speed changes, no cue lever, and an Audio-Technica AT91B cartridge. From there, buyers can swap in a frosted acrylic platter machined in Massachusetts or step up through five moving-magnet cartridges: the AT91B, Ortofon OM5E, Grado Green4, Ortofon 2M Red, and Ortofon 2M Blue. The acrylic platter is the steadier of the two, with wow and flutter under 0.125% versus under 0.175% for MDF.

Speed changes come either manually, by shifting the belt between two pulley grooves, or electronically via a knob. Every Custom build uses the OA3 tonearm and its one-piece tapered magnesium armtube, formed in the United States, plus a gimbal bearing. Optional extras include a silicone-damped cue lever, a built-in Pluto 2 phono stage for connecting directly to an amplifier or powered speakers, and height-adjustable aluminum Iso-Level feet with Sorbothane in place of rubber.

Each turntable is hand-assembled and tested at the company’s Woburn, Massachusetts workshop, and ships with a dust cover, felt mat, and RCA cables under a three-year warranty. U-Turn’s story began in 2012, when three Lexington High School friends launched the company on a $2,500 university grant and a Kickstarter campaign that pulled in far more than its$60,000 goal.