This hi fi icon got me (more or less) into high end Hi Fi back in 1997 the look is still stunning and doing the business in 2025.
Met the founder at a Bristol Sound and Vision many moons ago a proper gent too!
This hi fi icon got me (more or less) into high end Hi Fi back in 1997 the look is still stunning and doing the business in 2025.
Met the founder at a Bristol Sound and Vision many moons ago a proper gent too!
Yeah loved my original 1992 (ish) Gyro, which ended up as a GOrbe.
Could have bought one back in the early naughties for not alot wish i had now
I have had my Gyrodec since the early 1980s an early mk1 model with aluminium platter.
I have updated the spec over the years and so apart from the platter itself it is up to spec with modern made version. I like the look of mine and I can’t bring myself to replace the aluminium platter for the acrylic.
I also met John several times at HiFi shows and factory tour back in the day when I worked in a HiFi dealer. My Gyrodec was the shops demo unit when it was changed for a newer model with a clear acrylic base instead of my opaque black version.
I will never get rid of it and it performs very well indeed. It has a change of arm from time to time. I started with a Mission 774 then a Rega RB600 until recently and now an Audiomods series 6 arm.
I loved my gyro deck, shame it didn’t sound as good as the LP12 that replaced it….
I demo’ed a Gyro vs Orbe in around 2001, to understand what the differences between the two were. I had seen & heard both at various Hi-fi shows, on demo but always separately.
Was upgrading from a Thorens TD160 that I got while at University.
I have now had my Orbe, full plinth edition, since then. Was used with a Cardas wired Mission 774 & AT OC9 (from the Thorens, which no longer was working).
Today used with a SME V and Lyra Skala/Helikon, looking great and sounding fine. Still with the Papst AC motor with QC power supply.
I fell in love with the looks of the Gyrodec - and by that I mean the full on acrylic number - and bought one back in the '90s. I went from a standard deck to an Orbe platter, then to a QC supply, then eventually sent my deck back to John Michell for a complete Orbe upgrade including Orbe motor pod, damped chassis, and new split turret bolts for easier set-up. He also sent me a blank armboard of suitable weight so I could drill it for an Aro. However, I had joined Naim and so decided to get my old Sondek rebuilt to Armageddon spec and then somebody in R&D fancied the Michell, so we did a deal and it was gone. I do miss it a bit - still such a great looking deck!
“Full on Acrylic number” love it.
Here with a rectangular ISObase, obtained directly from Steve Rowland at Michell, one of only two produced. So plenty of the acrylic!
Note the additional acrylic Armboard spacer, providing some further isolation, and the alternate pylon suspension, so without the bounce (solid floors, Nordost Ti Pulsar points under the Aavik table, Michell Tendercups etc.)
Considering some of the newer Levis feet for the Orbe.
But that’s an Orb and this thread is about Gyro !
Actually it started about John Michell, and meeting him at Hifi Shows, which is where I heard both the Gyro and then the Orbe, when it was released.
But never properly back to back, which is how I subsequently auditioned them, in the same system, same tonearm/cartridge on both, in the same room, with the same music.