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Trans Fi Salvation direct rim drive turntable

Hi A'goners, I've just bought this turntable, confident it'll be my last upgrade. The rest of my system is a Tom Evans Groove Plus SRX phono stage, EMM Labs CDSA SE cd player, Hovland HP200 pre/Radia power amps, Zu Definitions Mk 4 loudspeakers, so a pretty good way to listen to vinyl.

Over the years, since 1995 I've progressed from a Roksan Xerxes/Artemiz/Shiraz, via a Michell Orbe/SME V/Transfiguration Orpheus, finally ending up last week with my new Trans Fi Salvation/Trans Fi T3Pro Terminator/Zu modded Denon 103.

This turntable (£2500 UK price, approx $4000-$5000 US) is the brainchild of Vic, a retired dentist, who, fed up with the shortcomings of belt drive and traditionally-pivoted tone arms, literally from the ground up devised first the Terminator air bearing linear tracking tone arm (now in T3Pro guise as on my system), and now the direct rim drive Salvation turntable, a technology in direct opposition to the hegemony of belt drive we've come to accept from the '70s.

In summary, he has developed a motor that directly rim drives an oversize platter. The magic is that vibrations are drained away from the platter and hence stylus. So minimal rumble is transmitted, the weakness of Garrards/Lencos in the past. This is mated to a substantial slate plinth which does a great job of isolating the whole rig from external vibrations.

Where this differs from direct drive is that the torque applied is high enough to counteract stylus drag, but it is strictly analogue controlled ie no digital feedback applying constant micro speed control. Speed is set correctly, torque is sufficient, and speed stability is like a rock.

This is combined with his air bearing linear tracking arm, discussed on other threads.

So technical description over, how about how it sounds? Well, years ago I always assumed the overhang in bass when playing lps on my previous belt drive/pivoted arm tts, apparent as a benign artifact, was all part of the 'romance' of vinyl, esp. when compared to the dry, clinical sound of early cd. But in 2007 I acquired the EMM cd, which had a natural analogue sound playing silver discs, but none of this bass colouration. On studying the growing reemergence of idler/direct drive, and their superiority in maintaining speed stability, I agreed that the belt speed instability might be introducing this.

Two years ago I came across Vic, and now I can report that eliminating the belt for high torque rim drive has taken this whole artifact out of the equation. Whole layers of previously masked information like rhythm guitars are now present, treble information has abundant naturalness and decay, and bass, which appears to be less in quantity compared to belt, is actually more accurate with a real start-stop quality, much more like digital, and the real thing. The other positives are more linked to the arm, including uncanny tracking across the whole record side; I'm really not exaggerating in saying that the last few grooves at the end of an lp side are as solidly reproduced as the first. Music with strong dynamic contrasts are really served well by the Salvation, and I am shocked at how good this all is after trepidation that the sound might be hyperdetailed but too assertive etc. In fact music is reproduced with a relaxed incision, and a welcoming detailed transparency.

The amazing thing is that all of this is not in anyway at the expense of the natural warmth and tonal dimensionality that still puts vinyl way ahead of any digital (imho).

The only thing, and Vic would like this to be known, is that his creation is a cottage industry, and he can only produce limited numbers to order.

I'm happy to answer qs on it, as I really want our community to know about a possible world beating product at real world prices. My tech knowledge will be limited, but no problem discussing sound quality issues.

I'm not affiliated in anyway to the product, just sold my Orbe on ebay and bought this. Regards to all
spiritofmusic
lewm
13,014 posts
 
Spirit, I am interested to hear the Salvation. I am already convinced that the Terminator is a great audio bargain, if you can put up with the fussiness of any air-bearing tonearm. However, I would take issue with your hypothesis that whatever it is that you did not like about the GP Monaco (or any other modern high-end DD turntable) is due to audible distortion induced by the servo mechanism. The one in the GPM is truly space age and is working much too fast for you to perceive its action on such an elemental level. (Of course, it is equally presumptuous of me to say that as for you to have posited it.) I expect the "sound" of the GPM is more due to the materials chosen for its construction than anything else. (I have yet to hear a carbon fiber audio tool that I could love.) From what I have read about the GPM, I expect I would not care for it, either, but I am a big proponent of DD. There are good and bad servo mechanisms, but I would bet the GPM has a good one. If you've heard the NVS and did not care for it, you can't blame the servo; I don't think it uses a servo feedback system. The Beat may not, either. On the other hand, the SP10 Mk2 unmodified has a very faint "gray-ish" coloration that I always thought may be due to its servo mechanism in action. It's completely absent from the Mk3 and can be ameliorated in the Mk2 by various strategies.

These accolades for the Salvation/Terminator make me curious to hear a shoot-out between it and the Amadeus, which has a huge and adoring fangroup, with nary a dissenting voice. Retail cost of the two is similar, I think.
atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
11,793 posts
 
I am curious about something I don't see on the website.

The motor is a rim drive- similar to old Presto transcription machines used in radio stations in the 1950s. How is it set up? Can the motor pivot inside its housing? Or you you just push it until its close enough to engage the platter?
acman3
4,237 posts
 
Hello Atmasphere, There is a picture of how that works about halfway through the Salvation manual and is usually for sale on his Ebay website but not at this time.
spiritofmusic OP
828 posts
 
Lewm, I completely take your point. I've spent the last couple of years listening to a handful of excellently engineered tts with various drive technologies, and within each I've heard common audible traits. All the belt drives I listened to (my Orbe/SME/TW Acustic/Clearaudio) had tonality in spades and good soundstaging, but afflicted by time domain bass smear leading to an obscuring of detail, blunting of timing, and homogenising of sound. The DDs I listened to (Brinkmann Bardo/Inspire Monarch modded Technics SL1210/modded Technics SP10 Mk2) had dynamics and propulsion, but a whitening of sound and lack of true relaxation. The idlers I listened to (modded Garrard 301/401/Lenco L75) had the tonality of the belt drives, and the dynamics of DDs without the time smear colouration. However there was some extra bass warmth which veered away from true neutrality.
Vic's direct rim drive belongs more in the idler camp, but he has admirably managed to eradicate the one idler weakness to provide a tt with positives from all technologies.
One caveat is that I cannot divorce the effects of his unique arm since it comes as a package, and I do believe this really boosts the neutrality of the overall sound.
spiritofmusic OP
828 posts
 
Atmasphere, Vic is particularly proud of his motor since vibrations introduced into the platter-stylus interface was always the bane of idlers of old.
To engage the rim wheel, one just turns the lever on the motor pod and a delrin wheel spinning at 300rpm contacts a delrin stripe bonded into the heavy outsized aluminium platter, bringing it up to correct speed in seconds. Turning the lever again disengages the rim wheel. In effect the pod tilts to engage/disengage contact.
I'll be darned if I can feel any vibrations in the pod as the rim is spinning. Vic has used clever engineering in the pod base and engagement lever to drain vibrations away from the platter, and I feel he has succeeded. There certainly appear to be no negative colourations or obscuring of details that would suggest vibrations reaching the stylus.
To illustrate this, I've just finished listening to a couple of Rush tracks that I thought I knew backwards: on "Stick it out", Geddy Lee's vocals are clearly double tracked and you can hear each layer clearly; on "Cut to the chase", vocal phrasings are subtly but unmistakenly heard at the back of the mix. On my old belt drive Orbe, none of this was evident.
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