Can Origin Live be as good as the ads say?

All companies trumpet themselves and their products favorably. If you expect objectivity and honesty in company-paid advertising you will be disappointed every time.

OL is no better or worse than any other company in this respect. One could find a hundred examples without even trying, from the audio industry or any other.

You didn't mention which OL products interested you, but I used a Silver Mk I for a couple of years and it was one of the best value components I've owned. It wasn't world class, but in a world of $8,000 tonearms I didn't expect world class performance for $800, marketing claims notwithstanding. With a few cheap tweaks that Silver outplayed some $3K arms I compared it with, so for my tastes there was plenty of steak. ;-)

I wouldn't choose OL's highest priced arms because they lack the precise adjustability which today's reference level cartridges respond to with stunning sonic results. But for most rigs and systems you can spend more money and do much worse than buying a mid-level OL arm.

I own an Origin Live Encounter arm. It's been great for me. However, I agree with Doug that the arms are hard, not impossible, to tweak precisely. For this reason alone I am considering trying something different. If you decide to go that route and are interested in my Encounter , let me knokw.

Strangely, I have just sold my OL rig, feeling a bit troubled by it. I settled on the Resolution with an Illustrious arm, which I have used for about 3 years, very good too, good pace detail soundstaging. I agree about the lack of fine adjustment on the arm. I have ordered a TW Acustic Raven one, which I auditioned a few weeks ago, initially with the Vivid arm, ultimately the Graham Phantom, hopefully.

I have been very happy with the performance of my Encounter III.It is more dependable and less problematic than my prevoius uni-pivots.I chose this arm because it was the lowest cost model in their line to offer adjustable VTA,w/o after-market unit.A very solid performer.

What I don't get about OL tonearms, is that the angle of the up/down ivot is perpendicular to the arm. Every other tonearm I've seen has the angle running perpendicular to the needle/cartridge mount (i.e. Rega, SME &c.).

I have the encounter MkIII and it sounds great with my Garrard 401. As above, I agree that fine adjustability is not there like some other arms, but it really wasn't hard to dial this arm in. I've used multiple cartridges and moved it to different turntables without any issues. The arm is manufactured very well and is still a great deal at $1680.00. Talk to Jay at Audio Revelations about different options.

I've had good results from OL Illustrious with Shelter 90X and now 9000 cart. Perhaps the Shelters with eliptical as opposed to "fine line" tips are more tolerant of small VTA and azimuth errors. I have purchased a "VTAF" device to allow on the fly VTA adjustment, but haven't installed it yet. Azimuth can be adjusted, not easily, by loosening the headshell. I've gotten best results from accurate overhang setting using a Feichert protractor and setting VTF with a digital scale. BTW, the 9000 is much improved over the 90X. So much so, I wonder if my 90X was defective.

What I don't get about OL tonearms, is that the angle of the up/down ivot is perpendicular to the arm. Every other tonearm I've seen has the angle running perpendicular to the needle/cartridge mount (i.e. Rega, SME &c.).

Good observation. It was a design choice presumably driven by cost. Tooling is undoubtedly simplified by setting the bearings at a right angle to the armtube, rather than offset by 22-23 degrees.

There is a sonic penalty however: making the vertical pivot arc non-perpendicular to the cantilever results in an azimuth change whenever the arm rises or falls, as over a warp.

Of course OL arms don't have an azimuth adjustment either. Perhaps they're not much attuned to that parameter or its effects on sonics, though in fairness I think you have to climb fairly high on the cartridge and system resolution ladder before small azimuth inaccuracies become a major factor. Stable azimuth, even if slightly off as with an OL, usually sounds better to my ears than unstable azimuth, as is common with many unipivots. Every non-reference level tonearm contains compromises. The ones OL chose work quite well IME.

Perhaps the Shelters with eliptical as opposed to "fine line" tips are more tolerant of small VTA and azimuth errors.

Very true, IME.