We had high hopes for the Saffire, the 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.

The top-of-the-range Saffire features Funk's patented K-Drive, belt-drive system that employs one motor, one belt and three pulleys. There is also an additional switch on the power supply case that'll illuminate tiny LEDs in the plinth, adding a whimsical bling element to things.

Solid design

The Saffire also benefits from a refined iteration of the Anniversary's famous inverted main bearing configuration supporting the acrylic main platter and 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 tonearm meets the turntable plinth - hence the carbon-fibre/acrylic sandwich construction of the tiny arm-board.

Setting up

Our review Saffire came fitted with a tonearm that would be very familiar to any fan of Sondek 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. This wasn't the most practical of solutions though, 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 tonearm 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 ANTI (Advanced Neutral Transcribing Instrument).