TEAC TN-4DSE - Vinyl Turntable with Phono Stage

The TN-4D-SE is a direct-drive, analog turntable with an elegant, low-profile design, made possible by the use of a newly-developed brushless DC servo motor.

Its brushless DC motor (with feedback control system) achieves crystal-locked speed stability and smoother rotation while also eliminating cogging*. This low-profile motor allowed us to design a plinth that’s extraordinarily sleek and stylish compared to that of most other direct drive turntables. The new tonearm employs knife-edge, pivot-point bearings, developed in collaboration with SAEC Corporation, a world-famous, high-end tonearm manufacturer. The result is an insightful, high-resolution sound quality that tonearms with conventional bearings can’t match. Partnering it is a carefully designed PHONO EQ amplifier that allows you to directly connect the turntable to the line-level inputs of your existing hi-fi system. A high quality NJM8080 op-amp, specially designed for hi-fi applications by New Japan Radio Corporation, is employed to convey the finest of musical detail.

To extract the music from your vinyl, the TN-4D-SE comes with a highly-regarded Oyster MM cartridge from SUMIKO – a legendary American cartridge manufacturer. Noted for its innate musicality, the cartridge comes pre-installed on the headshell at the factory, allowing near ‘plug and play’ operation. The S-shaped tonearm meanwhile allows for quick cartridge/headshell swaps, so users can alter the sound quality by experimenting with different cartridges, if the desire takes them.

The TN-4D-SE is an analog turntable that achieves highly accurate rotational speeds and is very distinctive, for a direct-drive design, thanks to its sleek and stylish aesthetics. 

What is Cogging?
Cogging is a phenomenon in which the periodic attraction of the armature and rotor inside the motor is dependent on the rotation angle, resulting in a fine pulsing. For example, if you turn the axle of a motor with your fingers, you'll feel the rotation occurring in steps. This phenomenon is known as cogging. In order to eliminate cogging on a direct-drive turntable, a motor needs to have large numbers of poles, along with complex circuits and a mechanism to achieve smooth rotation. As a result, most turntable direct-drive units are relatively large, which is why the resulting turntables are so bulky.

Specifications

Reviews

• Hi-Fi Journal