Say it aint so--- Teres quality question

As far as the Teres tables not being stable, I live in a log cabin in East Tennessee, and I am currently sitting in my living room, where it is currently about 48 degrees INDOORS. I have a coat on. I am often out for nights and weekends and don't even run the heat during these times. I have temperature swings indoors from about 35 degrees in winter when I come back before I get the wood stove going, to about 95 degrees in summer because I have no air conditioning. The humidity ranges from about 20% during the winter to about 95% very commonly all summer, even when it isn't raining. Very humid climate here in the summer. I'd dare say that my temp and humidity swings are far far greater than ANYBODY reading this post. Sometimes I have temp swings of about 40 degrees IN A SINGLE DAY, like today when I came home this morning during an ice storm and then started warming up the house with the wood stove, which will eventually get it up to about 75 degrees before I go to bed. Also, my TT sits right next to a 6' sliding glass door, which doesn't have the greatest insulation, and gets opened to go out from time to time, even when it's very cold out.

I have a wood based Teres 245, and have NEVER had ANY instability problems whatsoever with my table. My table sounds great any time I play it(although I do have to adjust the VTF because of temp sensitivity in the cartridge).If any of you reading this even come close to this level of change in your listening environments, I would be VERY surprised.

In case there is any concern about my system having enough resolution to hear any changes, I might refer you to my system thread which will show a high efficiency SET OTL tube system that will reveal EVERYTHING mercilessly through 100db single driver speakers.

I fully understand the idea about wood moving around, since I also do woodwork in my custom acoustic guitar making activities. But I can state unequivocally that my Teres does not change sound performance because of any wood instability.

As far as no wood being used in tonearms, one of the highest regarded tonearms in the world right now, the Schroder, has a wood wand on it. Nobody seems to be complaining about it.

I'll try not to enter an opinion as to why there is an attack coming upon the Teres tables, even though I think it is quite apparent, due to the sales being taken away from the other more famous TT manufacturers.

I have nothing to do with the Teres Audio company now, nor have I had anything to do with them in the past, ever. I work for another audio company, and have no axe to grind about Teres, nor do I have any profit or loss motivation involved. I simply use their table, and am very happy with its performance and value, and have experienced none of the things being discussed on this thread in almost 2 years of ownership time.

IMHO, and YMMV.

Doug,

Yeah, all I've heard so far is the relative potential of this table since VTA (SRA) is so critical, especially with the 901. I will let everyone know what my impression is once it's set up properly. I imagine it will meet my expectations or exceed them. Just for the record, if the armboard would have been the right height I would never have looked so closely at the surfaces of all the pieces. Keep in mind though that the Teres website says the platter is MACHINED to very close tolerances. Like 4yanx, I too would like to know exactly how the platter is made. If the parts are run through a planer and then sanded, that doesn't meet my definition of machined.

On a side note to everyone I would like to express my appreciation for the kind remarks. I feared that I would really be seen as a touble maker which I'm not. The trouble was with the armboard, not me. It took quit a bit of effort on my part to eliminate every other possible part as the culprit. Maybe I'm wrong but I haven't been able to find detailed drawings of the armboard or platter on the Teres website. If those would have been posted then I would have found out long ago that the armboard was about 1/2" too high. Chris said to me repeatedly that there must be something different about the Illustrious. In retrospect it should have been obvious to him when I had to buy a 2" Forstner bit to deepen the bottom hole 1/2" just to attach the nut to the arm. In this case, getting his attention was like pulling teeth and I've got to say this aspect really pissed me off. There is really no excuse for shipping the wrong bolt length since the potential of stripping the wooden threads goes way up when one is trying to secure the armboard to a point where a minor bump doesn't require you to re-setup the whole package. Drilling the wrong size hole for the VTA collars is inexcuseable also. Honestly, these issues may be minor in the scope of things but how would the Teres group like it if their tire dealer only had 3 of the correct size tires and mounted the fourth tire with whatever size they had on hand?

Once again, there aren't that many critical dimensions. Not many of the surfaces are critical either. Those that are should be held to the standards expressed on the Teres website.

Tom,

I haven't detected an attack on Teres like you are insinuating. I don't think you are referring to me but for the record I recommended this table combo to my friend. I still own the same turntable I've had for well over twenty years. I am not affiliated with any audio manufacturer nor do I own stock in any audio companies. I'm not trying to use this situation for personal gain in any way. I know you already know these facts but provide them for the rest of the audience. Do you have any examples of an attack against Teres to share with us?

Tom:
You are wearing a coat indoors? Sounds like my wife, except it is 65 degrees in our house when she wears hers! :-)

My particular questions are not an attack on Teres, or anyone else, I just have reservations with respect to wood platters that have not yet been fully addressed, at least in my mind. You, and others, know how I feel about the sound quality the Teres tables produce.

However, you alluded in an earlier post that some were conducting such attacks as a means of promoting an agenda against Teres. In your last post you say:

"I'll try not to enter an opinion as to why there is an attack coming upon the Teres tables, even though I think it is quite apparent, due to the sales being taken away from the other more famous TT manufacturers."

This begs a couple of questions which, in the interest of full disclosure, might be of interest. Are there those who have specifically posted in this thread who stand to gain from an anti-Teres campaign? Or, is this something you've seen elsewhere? I mean this board is intolerant of manufacturers and dealers hiding under the cloak of anonymity to unduly bash competing products (and rightfully so). If someone here is entering the discourse with a monetary interest to gain or lose (as opposed to being informative), I, for one, would like to know their identities. On the other hand, I'm sure you'd agree, that otherwise innocent contributors should not be wrongly labeled as a result of possibly incorrect suppositions. I also know that you would never intentionally do such. I don't mind a response "off the air" but others might have interest, as well.

Take it easy all you Tree Huggers.