Great news Peter, it's Christmas!! I look forward to handling these beauties myself, using one as a platform for my "Lenco-Noll," contact me for shipping, moneys owed and so forth.
And up here it is going to be an Audio Christmas for me, as I'm allowing myself a few days to play with my new and old toys. Through a lot of complicated horse-trading I have acquired a VPI JMW 10.5 for my Decca, and this pairing is singing sooo sweetly on my Lenco!! The Decca is slamming and induces the Kundalini Effect, to the extent the ESS can manage it, I'll be setting up the Fabled AR2ax's (they are the seismographs of PRaT) tonight to get the full brunt of the Kundalini Effect in swing in time for Christmas!!
I'll also re-wire my new/old Rega RB-300 and test it out with a variety of MCs to see how it rates/compares against the Morch UP-4 (a fabulous match for the Garrard 301 btw), and also set-up the MAS with a variety of cartridges to see how IT rates against the various Giants inhabiting my plinths!! I am still blown away by just how good the MAS sounded with an ACE recently at a buddy's place, exactly the same strengths as I heard when it was mounted with my Grado in my own system: dynamic spread and dynamic speed/acrobatic alacrity, and ensuing clarity, which proves that detail/information-retrieval is GREATLY affected by the successful retrieval of macro- and micro-dynamics.
For those who have MAS tonearms, this tidbit of information from a necessarily old review of a MAS ‘table/MAS 282 tonearm dug up by a local. It also shows just how deep the understanding assumed by the reviewers for the readers in a world in which record players were the chief source, a different world from today:
"The indicated vertical tracking force was accurate to within 0.1 grams. Although the anti-skating is adjustable only in 0.5-gram steps, it proved satisfactory, since skating compensation can only be approximate anyway. The arm-cueing was well damped, providing a gentle descent of the stylus into the groove with no sideward drift. The arm exhibited very low pivot friction and no detectable play, a result which is consistent with the claimed bearing tolerance of only 10 microns. The capacitance of the tonearm wiring was measured as 100 pF in each channel...The tonearm’s infrasonic resonance was assessed with a Shure V15 Type IV phono cartridge. Since the MAS-282 tonearm has vry low pivot friction and no provision for damping, the arm/cartridge resonance was very pronounced, rising to a 30-db peak at 11 Hz with the Shure’s damping brush disengaged. Engaging the damping brush brought the resonance down to a 10-db peak from 15 to 19 Hz. One of the major byproducts of an undamped resonance is exaggerated cantilever deflection in response to surface irregularities and disc warps, and a consequently large variation in the effective vertical tracking force that acts to hold the stylus in contact with the groove...Therefore, it is recommended that the MAS tonearm be used with an external damping device or with phono cartridges having internal damping. (This advice, of course, applies to all tonearms that have low pivot friction and no provision for their own damping.)...Most important of all, the reproduced sound was excellent. Even with thunderous bass levels the instrumental textures were clearly defined, the background noise was very low, small details were heard with exceptional transparency, and the stereo image was both deep and stable.”
Lots of interesting stuff there to absorb and cogitate on, enjoy a look back at a World of Vinyl all, and once again, have fun and Merry Christmas!!
