Lumley's £14,000 Stratosphere turntable is something of an analogue tour de force, with its opposing-magnet suspension and magnificently heavy platter. But, costing as it does, as much as a family hatchback, it's out of reach for the majority. So, Lumley's proprietor, John Jeffries, decided to make a people's Stratosphere, without the astronomical price tag and using a design that he'd evolved through applying years of experience. And so the £2,495 Heliosphere was born...

The similarities between the Heliosphere and Stratosphere are few, as you might expect from the price difference, but they both have a triangular-shaped plinth and support their tonearms on a cylindrical base. The £2,495 Heliosphere is distinguished by an unusually chunky acetal platter – 74mm-thick – a size that you might be able to associate with the more expensive Clearaudio designs, but one that's rarely seen with any regularity.

One aesthetic advantage that the substantial depth of the platter confers is that it allows the drive system to be hidden, despite the fact that this is a largely skeletal design. When it was first set up we assumed the motor would be free-standing and drive the periphery of the platter. But you have to lift the 6.3kg slab of acetal to see what makes the thing go round.

Aluminium plinth

The plinth itself is aluminium, a fact that the painted finish tends to hide. In fact, the finish is very good, but an anodised silver or black would have been nicer. It's something that would, however, have impacted on price which Metropolis was keen to make competitive, a job it seems to have had some success with.

The plinth sits on large inverted cone feet that are free standing and have to be carefully positioned so as to intersect with the nylon inserts on the underside of the plinth. This is a tricky job because you have to guess where to position the cones and then align them properly without scratching the underside of the plinth.

There is little to stop energy travelling up through the turntable and into the platter, so this is one of those record players that like many others should be carefully supported away from loudspeakers.

Energy excited in the vinyl by the stylus is partially damped by a large aluminium clamp that uses gravity alone to keep the record flat. This makes for quick disc-changing, but is not as effective as a threaded design in pinning down less than flat LPs.

Carbon fibre tonearm

Our sample came equipped with a Clearaudio Unify tonearm (£1,400) and a Sumiko Blue Point Special Evo III high-output moving coil cartridge (£220), both components selected for value for money. A state of affairs somewhat undermined by the value of the pound which has meant that the tonearm has risen in price by £500 since it was originally selected for the turntable.

The Unify is a very well put-together arm with a carbon fibre arm tube, sapphire unipivot bearing and an eccentric counterweight. The latter can be twisted on the stub in order to make the cartridge body/stylus sit upright in the groove (azimuth). VTA can be adjusted with two grub screws in the collar and the arm wires exit at the top of the arm and go to a connection point with the tonearm cable proper, there is said to be no break in the actual wire itself. The BPS Evo III is the current version of a classic budget cartridge, it's a moving coil, but has the output characteristics of an MM design.