If I were to be hunting for the world's most expensive turntables only, I guess I'd shout a "hell yeah!" as I discovered the AAS-Gabriel unit. This turntable comes from the German hands of the DaVinci Audio Labs and by all means it is as audiophile as audiophile could ever be.

Even more, the construction principles of this turntable are the ones that dramatically raised my interest; the AAS-Gabriel tries to offer a sonic reproduction as close to the original sound being recorded on vinyls as possible... and according to DaVinci specs, it does a pretty damn good job.

In case you didn't know, sound is recorded on vinyl discs by a cutting stylus that actually makes grooves in a special plastic disc, with the cut-arm's movements being perfectly controlled by the sounds to be inscribed on the record. Well, it seems like the secret for an audition in perfect conditions is to reproduce them as in the initial recording session... this is what the AAS-Gabriel from DaVinci tries to replicate.

The AAS-Gabriel comes with three separate structures: one for the motor, one for the swing-arm and one as the turning table. This architecture was chosen because it sports the minimal vibration possible, transmitted from one component to the other. The belt transmission ensures a distribution of force and further damping the potential vibration that could impede the audiophile listening session.

As DaVinci specs, the "cornerstone" is made from several characteristics that together ensure conditions as close to the recording process as possible:

-a highly stable drive chassis
-an acoustically "dead" turntable
-completely silent bearings
-a pick-up de-coupled from the chassis
-separate drive and control unit
-an absolutely stable power supply.

Now, the AAS-Gabriel comes in two flavors: the regular one, in black and silver, will make your pockets $35,400 lighter. The "true" version, in 24-karat gold and white will drain $41,250. So, have you figured out what is that you want for your next birthday?

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