Funk Saffire
The team at Hi-Fi Choice are big Funk Firm fans; this relatively new company is already a multiple award winner and scooped two Gold honours in the HFC 2007 Awards issue. So they had high hopes for this new top-of-the-range model, which is hailed as the modern day replacement for the still-popular-after-all-these-years Pink Triangle Anniversary.
Funk Firm Saffire turntable
A quick historical re-cap is in order. Cast your mind back a decade or two. While there were many companies producing turntables with high-end aspirations, there were two major protagonists as far as most people were concerned: Linn with the formidable Sondek LP12 and Pink Triangle with, among other models, the philosophically opposing Anniversary. The LP12 was all about rhythm, timing and pitch accuracy while the PTA favoured the master-tape-style neutrality paradigm. People thought that these two approaches to music reproduction could never meet and that they were effectively mutually exclusive. PT fans believed the Linn to be coloured and lacking transparency while LP12 supporters deemed the Anniversary neither very rhythmical nor tuneful. These arguments continued until Pink Triangle committed the ultimate heresy…
In 1991 the company threw a multitude of spanners into the works when it introduced the sacrilegious Pink Link modification for the Sondek. This replaced the LP12’s AC motor with a DC variety powered by an external battery supply. The motor was bolted into a replacement top plate with a reconfigured layout that positioned it opposite the tone-arm mounting. Many people deemed this an outrage, but I had no qualms about becoming a Pink Link owner as soon as I heard it. Indeed it was only ousted from my system very recently by a Funk Vector Link LP12 kit. This particular near complete remodelling of the Sondek was engineered by Arthur Khoubessarian, a former principal of Pink Triangle and now head of The Funk Firm.
A while ago, Mr K decided that the Pink Triangle Anniversary deserved to be revisited and the Funksters produced a thoroughly modern iteration of that famed turntable, which was christened the Saffire. Unlike the traditional looking original, the sleek 21st Century design reflects the way Funk perceives consumers’ aspirations and needs having changed over the past twenty years or so.
The Anniversary was a sprung, suspended sub-chassis, wooden-plinth design but the Saffire is based upon a solid acrylic platform, which makes it far easier to use. Hard-core audiophiles will be pleased to hear that it can be positioned upon an optional, dedicated isolation base for optimal performance. The top-of-the-range Saffire features Funk’s patented K-Drive belt-drive system, which employs one-motor, one belt and three-pulleys. The Saffire version includes an additional switch on the power supply case to illuminate tiny LEDs in the plinth that add a whimsical bling element to the deck.
The Saffire also benefits from a refined iteration of the Anniversary’s famous inverted main bearing configuration supporting the acrylic main platter topped of with a Funk Achromat, which, says Funk, provides the best impedance termination for records. The K-drive configuration prevents the drive belt tugging at the platter and causing it to oscillate around the main bearing. What’s more, the K-Drive system uses asymmetric slave pulleys that by rotating at different speeds ensure that the drive does not generate any resonance. All of this adds up to a ferociously stable platform that spins the record at an absolutely constant speed.
The arm mounting plate is the only part of the system that has been designed to lose energy. Khoubessarian opines that the least deleterious place to dissipate the extraneous energy that cartridges produce is at the point where the tone-arm meets the turntable plinth – hence the carbon-fibre/acrylic sandwich construction of the tiny arm-board.
The review Saffire came fitted with a tone-arm that would be very familiar to any Sondek fan who was around in the 1980s and 1990s, the venerable Linn Ittok LVII. The Ittok was a great arm but it had a tendency to be a little ‘zingy’. This annoyance could be reduced by removing the arm rest from the Linn’s arm board along with the lift/lower mechanism, which wasn’t the most practical of solutions because it left one’s cartridge exposed to potential damage. The Funk Firm’s answer is rather more radical and involves replacing the arm-tube.
The Ittok F-dot-cross tone-arm modification (you have to supply the Ittok) retails at £700 and features the ultra stiff, carbon fibre with crossed I-beams arm tube construction of Funk’s new A.N.T.I. (Advanced Neutral Transcribing Instrument). The supplied arm also came re-wired and with a £399 Wraith Flexi Link interconnect, using rather delicate, air-dielectric, flat conductor wiring, which along with transmitting maximum amounts of data from the cartridge is also said to negate the problem of the Ittok’s performance being dependant upon careful cable-dressing – though that is hardly a major consideration with the skeletal, unsprung design of the Saffire. Sadly, mine got damaged in transit and so I did my listening with a standard Linn lead.
Fitted with a Dynavector 10X moving coil, and sitting on a mix of Hutter and Mana supports, the Saffire/Ittok’s sound displays a wonderfully sure-footed, firmly rooted quality: there’s a sense of real substance and solidity about it. Every voice and instrument is sturdily planted in the soundstage and is presented with a credible three-dimensionality and conviction that make suspending belief delightfully easy. Even when playing frenetic punk or mental free-form jazz, the Saffire exudes an air of untroubled relaxation and calm composure. There is none of that “will it manage to hold on?” tension that accompanies the performance of such music on lesser turntables.
Aiding it in this respect is an equally delightful ability to reveal nuances and detail in an unforced but genuinely insightful manner. This is not the over-egged detailing that some high-end hi-fi throws at the listener: rather one listens to a piece of music and subtle differences in the way that the performer approaches his instrument or sings a particular line emerge in a completely natural fashion.
Nor does this turntable have any problems with conveying rhythm and timing information. In fact, it emerges with often shocking clarity thanks to the deck’s seemingly complete absence of extraneous noise. With many deck and arm combinations there’s a near constant, albeit typically very low level, background hash that masks and blurs subtle timing clues. The Saffire/Ittok, however, sounds markedly quiet and that absence of noise is apparent from the first time the stylus hits the groove. This is not an artificial cleanliness: you still hear imperfections on a disc but the Saffire does not make a meal of them, dealing with clicks and pops quickly and quietly, which is always an encouraging sign.
Doubtless the K-Drive system plays a huge part in this as it certainly does in the Saffire’s rock solid portrayal of the piano. This challenging instrument’s pitch never wavers. And this dogged nature also helps the deck give wonderful renditions of vocalists. If, for example, you ever doubted that Ella Fitzgerald’s voice was anything less than a divine gift, take a listen to her singing on the 1957 Verve album Ella and Louis Again Vol 2. The deck traces every inflexion and modulation in each phrase she sings, while displaying her flawless intonation perfectly. What’s more, the Saffire extracts the full emotional content from the songs on this album recorded with Louis Armstrong and Oscar Peterson’s trio, which, as you might expect from the calibre of the performers, isn’t exactly short of feeling.
The deck’s speed stability naturally helps it accurately portray note shape. While this is perhaps most apparent with instruments such as guitar it also enhances its portrayal of instruments with less sharply defined leading edges: for example, the Saffire provided a highly realistic performance of sax player Andy Sheppard’s Java Jive, capturing the timbre, attack, delay and release of each of the variety of horns in the ensemble. Even trombone slides enjoyed razor sharp definition.
Another major factor in this turntable’s success is its sense of balance and lack of exaggeration. Tonally it doesn’t favour any part of the spectrum, which means that it will happily play any recording of any genre you throw at it. It treats all music with equal respect: for example, it switches from Oscar Peterson to The White Stripes with equanimity, which is just as well because Icky Thump currently tops my playlist. The Saffire’s controlled nature works well here portraying Meg White’s heavy-footed drumming and Jack White’s often feverish guitar playing with noticeable composure while easily maintaining the dynamic contrast of tracks such as 300mph Torrential Outpour Blues.
I conclude my listening with The Devil’s Right Hand from the Webb Wilder and The Beatneks album It Came From Nashville, a slice of no-nonsense, country-flavoured, Southern rock and roll that demands no intellectualising: it either sounds right or it doesn’t. On the Saffire it comes across just as it should – like an extremely tight and practised band playing live in a Tennessee bar and having a great time doing it. Interestingly, the deck gives one of the finest portrayals of the song’s drum patterns we’ve heard. Feet were tapping so furiously that one laptop came very close to forsaking its lap and meeting the floor. The sheer power, impact and weight of the drums also shines through on the White Stripes disc, which suggests that the designer’s claims about the Saffire’s speed staying absolutely constant under dynamic load are truthful.
All round, the Funk Saffire proves to be a highly capable, entertaining record spinner and the modified Ittok makes a surprisingly neutral partner for it. Whether your tastes favour raucous rock or calmer classical, this funky record player deserves a place near the top of your need-to-audition list.
