Teres still the way to go?

Nrenter:

I would be curious to hear your impressions. For me the Verus was a non-starter from the get go. I own one of the first batch of Teres 265 tables. I tried the Verus motor but had to return it to Chris as it was not compatible. The original 265 platters did not have seamless edges - there are ridges from the joints. Every time the rim drive would rotate and hit a joint it would be extremely audible (it sounded like rumble). The best analogy I could give is that it was like driving your car and continually hitting speed bumps. Chris mentioned that he eventually veneered the edges of the 265 platters so that there is no seam. If I want to experiment with the Verus again it would take either Chris reworking my 265 platter or swapping for the 260 composite.

I actually sent Chris an email yesterday asking him which he thought would be preferable - the 265 platter with the standard motor or a 260 platter with the Verus drive. I'll post his response when I hear back from him.

Ken Golden

Interesting. I have not been keeping up on my Teres conditions.

Santa came today!!! Well, it was actually the FedEx delivery truck. He brought one large box with 3 smaller boxes inside - a box for the base, arm board and clamp, a box for the platter and a box for the Verus motor and controller. The ancillary parts / pieces were found in the packing between the boxes.

If you haven't seen any of Chris' work in person, I strongly suggest you find a local Teres owner for a viewing. The first box I opened contained the base, arm board, and the clamp - all in cocobolo. I was floored. I thought my previous monkeywood base was beautiful. IMHO, the current production cocobolo bases look 3x better. I really wasn't expecting to be as impressed as I was - the craftsmanship is amazing and the finish is stunning. Once I get the rest of my system in, I'll post pictures. However, I implore Chris to contact Albert Porter and have him shoot some pictures of the Teres line (I'm even willing to model my system). While the current photos on the Teres site are good, they don't convey the depth of beauty of the woodwork. Oh, the clamp now has a black "knob" rather than the silver finish of old. Very sexy.

The next box I opened contained the solid acrylic platter. This platter is crystal clear all the way through, and really allows you to see the wood grain underneath. I was (pleasantly) surprised to see that the platter did not have the white markings on the underside required for the Signature motor. I like this look much better than the lead-loaded acrylic platter. However, when the platter is spinning, from a distance it looks like it stands still. Sonically, this platter may be a step backwards, but visually, it looks much more elegant (IMHO) than the lead-loaded 255 platter.

The final box contained the Verus motor and controller. The motor itself is much more svelte than I expected (it is considerably smaller than the Signature belt-drive motor). The controller is about what I expected from the pictures on the Teres site. The form factor of the motor is excellent, and the controller is relatively unobtrusive (visually). I expected the controller to be much heavier (why I expected the controller to be a 20 lb lead weight, I do not know). I'm going to miss starting and stopping the platter by hand, but that's the price you pay for progress.

After setting up the table and waiting for the platter to settle, I had to fire up the motor (even though I'm still waiting for my arm to arrive). The motor itself is dead silent. However, within minutes, I have 2 minor suggestions for version 1.1 of the controller: 1) the controller housing needs to have more dampening, and 2) there should be an indicator light above each of the speeds to indicate current speed selection. Both "issues" are trivial and are inconsequential or easily remedied.

So, although I haven't been able to evaluate its sonics with my Beatles "Love" 2-LP set yet, visually my new Teres had exceeded my expectations. When I post pictures of my system, you'll see that the wood grain on the arm board makes a face and a body of the "man inside the table who makes the music". I'll post more once the rest of my system arrives and settles in.

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Nick,
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Congratulations - I feel quite sure that you will love the sound from your new Teres TT.
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Please do let us know when you get it up and running and how it sounds.
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Rgds,
Larry
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Hi Nrenter,

What's going on with the Serac? I see the pricing has increased by about $1k. Any updates?

I just caught your question from November 10th. You might have noticed the diminished frequency of my posts over here, due to several factors:

(a) I've been on the road 4 days/week on average since this past July
(b) The normal catch-up process after the Audiofest (audio shows eat up some 5 weeks in a small manufacturer's year)
(c) I started up my own support forum to build a knowledge repository for Galibier owners

In early December, I'll begin fulfilling the first round of Seracs orders. I'm most appreciative of those who have patiently waited on this project, and your patience will be mightily rewarded.

My apologies if the following sounds like a sales pitch, because it's the polar opposite of what I'm trying to do, which is to reduce demand. I think it's important however that I give you some insight into what's going on, in no small part because of how long the Serac project has taken to clear the trees.

The Serac we took to the RMAF (http://www.avguide.com:80/news/2007/10/19/rocky-mt-2007-galibier-design’s-affordable-serac-turntable/) was the pre-production base. This is the one with paint that was a bit too fragile for my tastes. The first day of the show, my painter delivered the bases for the first production run, BTW.

Shortly after the show, we selected Discovery Cable Plus-4 tonearm cable for the Artisan tonearm. What you heard at the show will be tonally very similar to the Discovery, something I didn't think would be possible with the price target I set for the Artisan. I won't bore you with the details, but if you're interested, you can read more about this decision process at the bottom of this thread: http://www.galibierdesign.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=6.

This first round of Seracs is accounted for, and I'm now going through a self-evaluation of how best to handle the Serac moving forward. I'm coming to understand how difficult it is to build and support a more affordable 'table.

This is the first time (apart from Schröder tonearms) that I've felt unable to appropriately set expectations and deliver on them in what I consider to be a timely fashion. Moving forward, I have a much better idea (and hopefully control) of production lead times, but I still have to get smarter with the manufacturing and personal support side of the equation.

It's unrealistic for a Serac owner to expect the same level of hand-holding that a Gavia or Stelvio owner receives. At the same time, a Serac owner needs to have a real opportunity to get the best out of his turntable. This support issue played a large part in my decision to set up the Galibier Forum, and the expanding community of Galibier owners will certainly help to a certain degree.

Unfortunately, the forum will accomplish only so much, and my current focus is on the remaining time constraints.

The labor involved in building and testing a Serac is the same as that of a Gavia. The Serac benefits from the same QC standards as every other Galibier leaving my shop does (receiving a thorough, multi-day break-in and audition). The manufacturing time, support requirements, and price increases in the PVC required for the Serac platter have all combined with the expiration of the introductory pricing to the price increase.

As I consider setting realistic of delivery expectations, I may well suspend taking orders for all turntables for a short period of time later this Winter. I'd much rather catch up, sell fewer 'tables and know that I can deliver support them.

Cheers,
Thom @ Galibier