The Vertere DG-1 is the company’s most affordable design. Additionally, it is the brand’s most straightforward to set up and use.

The DG-1 is as close as you’re going to get to ‘plug and play’ high-performance record player from Vertere - yet it is still packed with innovations.

The new Vertere record player retails at £2850 (including Audio Technica AT-VM520 cartridge) and so required the North-West London-based brand to take a back to fundamentals approach. Simply, reducing material quality and slackening tolerances would not be the Vertere way.

From the plinth to the arm and its bearings, everything has been redesigned and re-engineered, developing some of the basic principles of a record-playing system while completely rethinking others.

The DG-1’s motor system is derived from the flagship RG-1 Reference’s Motor Drive. Here you have a low voltage 24-pole synchronous design, controlled by a microprocessor PCB. A copper and stainless steel cover provide shielding.

An aluminium alloy pulley on the motor is connected to the platter by way of a custom silicone rubber drive-belt. The platter itself is machined alloy with a bonded PETG record interface mat. On the underside, is a cork/neoprene/nitrile disk controlling resonance.

You also get an electronic speed change found at the rear of the plinth.

The platter fits onto a polished stainless steel spindle riding the main bearing housing on a tungsten carbide ball.

Aside from the plinth, the DG-1 arm is perhaps one of the most striking elements. The flat profile, three-layer, non-resonant tonearm beam eschews cabling in favour of a PCB sandwiched into the arm itself that carries the signal from the cartridge to the output terminals. The arm also features a stainless steel counterweight and tracking adjustment weight.

The DG-1 plinth is also a three-layer sandwich and uses non-resonant cast acrylic to form the main plinth and the sub-plinth. The design incorporates the control button, speed indicator and user-selectable standby mood-lighting, as well as the silicon rubber isolation between the plinth and the platter assembly. These layers sit on a steel chassis for stability which also houses the motor drive circuit and the motor.

Finally, the plinth assembly is supported by three adjustable feet.

The DG-1 comes complete with a dust-cover and costs £2750 without cartridge or add £100 for an Audio Technica AT-VM520 fitted.

More information can be found at Vertere Acoustics.