"Brilliantly Listenable"
After the first impressive and highly acclaimed model Forte turntable, the European Audio Team follows with the small brother, dubbed EAT Forte S. The letter "S" is for "small." However, there is nothing small about this turntable, so we'll take EAT at its word that they are having a bit of a joke with this name. As always, EAT is deadly serious about creating a high-end turntable at a "small" price considering the level of performance on hand.
With the Forte S, EAT reduced size of the huge platter from the 15.75" to 14.2" and trimmed down the weight from 44 lbs. to a somewhat more svelte but still formidably heavy 33 lbs. Performance remains amazing. The idea behind the slightly smaller platter is to keep as much of the effective moving mass as possible on the outer edge of the radius. EAT calls the net result of controlling the distribution of mass in this way: "Double size of diameter and four times more effective sound."
The platter incorporates sorbothane damping on the inner side and on the outer side black damping matt produced from recycled vinyl. The end effect is a completely quiet platter. Sophisticated inverted bearing construction with a ceramic ball on the top faces the Teflon material. The pressure on the ceramic ball is reduced by two enormous neodymium magnets that are suspending the heavy platter and which take over most of the load.
This version of the EAT Forte S turntable comes with the new C-Note tonearm and may be ordered with an optional EAT Jo No. 5 MC phono cartridge, EAT Jo No. 8 MC phono cartridge, or Ortofon A95 cartridge MC cartridge.
"Best Multimedia" Award-Winner
"Old-fashioned acoustic excellence," declares Esquire magazine, which honored the Forte S with a "Best Multimedia" award in December 2010. "This polished paean to vinyl is the latest design to emerge from the eminent European Audio Team (EAT). Accurate snap and crackle is assured via a dampened 15 kg aluminum platter and floating magnetic turntable, in a choice of two high-gloss finishes."
"A brilliantly listenable bit of kit," notes Hi-fi World magazine. "The Forte S is fast and lucid, but focuses on stringing everything together rather than excelling in our particular respect."
Dual Motor Design
The original model "big brother" Forte turntable has two motors built into a separate chassis that contribute to its imposing 27.6" width. EAT Forte S is "only" 21.7" wide and uses single-piece rather than dual-chassis construction. Nevertheless, the Forte S also has two AC motors. They are symmetrically positioned on the right side adjacent to the platter. Therefore, you do not need two belts of different lengths, as you do with the "big brother" EAT Forte. Operating the motor from the display panel is a cinch, thanks to three available settings: 33.3 rpm, 45 rpm, and on/off.
Both the original-model Forte and the Forte S turntables are mass-loaded with huge magnetic feet, which act as a sub-chassis. Forte S uses four magnetic feet that allow height adjustability. This brings impressive low and excellently damped resonance to the entire system. Vibration distortions have no meaning at all for Forte S or his bigger brother.
EAT Forte S measures 21.7" × 17.7" × 9.8". The total weight of the complete turntable including the platter is 97 lbs. It is available in gorgeous finish options: high gloss piano black or high gloss Makassar (ebony wood).
C-Note Tonearm
The C-Note tonearm is a completely new design which combines all advantages of an uni-pivot arm with a Cardan design. The uni-pivot in the middle only helps bearing to be less loaded. The traditional Cardan bearing insures high stabilty and easiness of use with very low friction. Also inside the tonearm is a special silicon-based grease to damp the tonearm / cartridge resonances by more than 50 percent. The tube is constructed from carbon and is super stiff and rigid.
EAT made the head shell out of special light and rigid aluminum to get the perfect combination of the advantages of carbon with better inner damping of the aluminum as well as the possibility of tighter mounting of high-end MC cartridges.
Optional Ortofon 95A MC Phono Cartridge
The Ortofon MC A95, a world class moving coil cartridge was launched to commemorate the 95th anniversary of Ortofon’s technical leadership in the audio industry. The Ortofon MC A95 has gone to the next level by reducing unwanted vibrations and increasing the dynamic capability of the cartridge. Ortofon's extensive knowledge of vibration properties, characteristics in different shapes and materials, competences in magnetism, mechanical design and new technologies has been applied for optimization of the MC A95.
"With a titanium cartridge body literally built from the ground up using the Selective Laser Melting (SLM) manufacturing process, the MC A95 replaces the discontinued MC A90 in the Ortofon line up and improves performance in every area," reports Andre Jennings in The Absolute Sound magazine. "This Ortofon is the most complete all-around cartridge to date in the current lineup."
Benefits of High-End Materials and Advancements in Technology
The housing of the cartridge is made of Titanium, using Ortofon's famed SLM manufacturing technique which was pioneered by Ortofon during the manufacturing of the MC A90, SPU A90, Xpression, MC Anna and SPU A95 cartridges.
Considered an engineering breakthrough, the Selective Laser Melting process welds fine particles of Titanium together, layer-by-layer, to construct a single piece body devoid of extraneous material. This technique allows for precise control of the density of the body material, allowing for extremely high internal damping.
The final result provides freedom over vibrations within the cartridge body material. The use of Titanium has provided a further improvement to the internal damping capabilities as well as to the overall rigidity of the structure.
The magnet system is based on an extremely strong, compact neodymium magnet, which makes the generator system both compact and lighter through its minimal dimensions.
Using Ortofon’s Aucurum coils of gold-plated, 6NX oxygen free copper allows for zero-loss transmission of the diamond’s movements via its boron cantilever. This combination combines low moving mass with an extremely high degree of rigidity.
