New Horizon GD3 turntable - Clearance

Brand new New Horizon GD3 turntable (clearance product), with a 2-year warranty and in its original packaging.

The New Horizon GD3 turntable represents the mid-range of the Italian manufacturer's production. It is built on the "multi-plinth" principle, dear to the brand.

However, like all turntables from New Horizon, it offers simple functions and a sleek design to meet audiophile demands while remaining at an affordable price.

NEW HORIZON GD3: DESIGN

The design is very successful. The traditional rectangle is made unique by a half-moon cutout on the front of the turntable, which is the manufacturer’s trademark. Indeed, this feature is found on all New Horizon products.

Right out of the box, the New Horizon GD3 turntable pleasantly surprises with its weight and look. The technical solutions are reminiscent of Music Hall products.

The designers took similar approaches in terms of decoupling. New Horizon offers a fully optimized product to extract maximum performance from the various components of the turntable (arm, motor, platter, etc.), aiming to provide the best possible quality/price/performance and musicality ratio.

The "Made in Italy" construction is meticulous, with attention to detail.

NEW HORIZON GD3: CHASSIS

The New Horizon GD3 is built on a triple-layer chassis. Each plinth is decoupled in MDF of different thicknesses: the thickest (25mm) forms the base, and the other two are 16mm each. These three chassis elements are decoupled by anti-vibration mounts.

The top plinth holds the arm, the middle one the motor, and the bottom one the spindle. This design ensures these three fundamental elements do not interfere with each other. This principle reduces mechanical noise, extracting more music from the groove.

The lower chassis rests on four specific feet designed to minimize vibrations from the support surface. They allow leveling adjustments for the turntable.

NEW HORIZON GD3: PLATTER AND DRIVE

The 25mm, 2.1kg methacrylate platter is driven by an extra-thin silicone peripheral belt via a suspended AC synchronous motor.

The platter’s drive spindle is precisely machined from 16mm diameter milled aluminum. It rests on a ¼ inch steel ball atop the spindle. This ensures frictionless, perfectly silent rotation.

NEW HORIZON GD3: TONEARM AND PHONO CABLE

The 9-inch tonearm is a well-known Austrian model. Its aluminum tube provides sufficient rigidity and mass to pair well with many MM and MC cartridges.

This tonearm is simple yet highly efficient, known for its reliability and precision machining. It offers all possible adjustments (VTA, azimuth…).

As with all turntables in the range, the phono cable is not captive and can be replaced later with a more ambitious model. The RCA female connectors and the turntable’s ground terminal are of excellent quality and gold-plated.

NEW HORIZON GD3: DUST COVER

The New Horizon GD3 comes with a high-quality methacrylate dust cover.

It simply rests on the turntable and locks via two slots, eliminating the need for traditional hinges.

NEW HORIZON GD3: TEST AND LISTENING

We paired this New Horizon GD3 with an Ortofon 2M Black MM cartridge and a Hana SL MC cartridge, along with a Vertere Phono-1 MKII phono preamplifier.

From the first notes, the solutions adopted to avoid vibrations are fully effective! The New Horizon GD3 is indeed very quiet. The background noise is very low, and vibrations are almost non-existent. This allows the phono cartridge to extract the maximum information from the groove.

The level of detail is very high without making the turntable overly analytical or clinical. Its overall balance offers an excellent timbre with a rich texture. This is noticeable, for example, in female voices and strings.

The bass is substantial and remains very clear, even with an entry-level cartridge. There is also excellent tempo tracking, with a solid impact on percussion.

The soundstage is very realistic and sufficiently precise to appreciate different sections and sound planes.

This New Horizon GD3 turntable offers beautiful musicality and performance matching its well-executed design. The work on the chassis is a real success, especially since it is rarely (if ever) optimized in this price range! It provides a genuine alternative to traditional turntables like Rega and Pro-Ject...

It is a success in our view! Highly recommended!

Note that it can be upgraded with the New Horizon GD Double Belt kit and the New Horizon ALE power supply.