The Lector is an excellent player and is more suited for someone who prefers an atmospheric sound.
The unit is rich,musical,slightly dark and romantic.
It does not have the dynamics of a good analog set-up,although I hear this unit compared against analog in ads.
IT IS NOT and DOES NOT sound like analog.
The Lector does however put it's trademark sound on each an every recording.
That trademark being slightly warmed over and a little slow of foot.
As with all good players you are now more at the mercy, or blessed by the actual disc quality.
The Lector may make some of your older disc(sounds good in the car cd's )sound tolerable in your home system because of this flavor.
The Lector is definately more suited to acoustic,vocal and
less complicated jazz recordings
Old RCA 6201 Black plates were my favorite in the Lector.
I tried every other tube I could get a hold of(I had over 15 different pair)
My intention with the tube rolling was to reduce the coloration of the unit, without losing some of the players natural bloom and decay.
The unit throws a very deep and black background and the RCA's did indeed enhance the units strong points other than alter them.
Isolation truly does make a difference in the Lector as a reviewer pointed out.
Rubber,Plasic and Ceramic devices only helped slightly with the bass hump.
Brass cones by Walker,Mapleshade,etc tightened up the bottom end,but took from the players other strengths.
Symposium Rollerballs were a compromise between the two,however,because of the Lector being a top loader with your finger doing the opening and closing and because this top lid does NOT open and close very smoothly.The player had a tendency to move,shift and sometimes tip regardless of how careful one is when changing disc.
I finally settled for the Sound Fusion Vibe Buster 8.
I chose these after hearing the difference the Sound Fusion
SF-60 made on the Blue Note Stibbert.
The Lector is a s/e designed player and this has no bearing unless of course you have true -balanced gear elsewhere in your system or if your player will be located some distance away form the component it will be connected to.
The Bluenote Stibbert and it's appearance is not for everyone.
You have to initially get over issues.
The remote is terrible.The instructions for set-up worse and if you are listening to one of those old disc, that have only a few good songs on it(and the rest make you cringe with shame as to why you still own it)
You will have to "man the gates" because the Stibbert does not offer a program feature on either the faceplate or remote.The button is there on the remote it is however not active within the units capability.
The display color is blue and it is small.
One nice thing about the Lector is the nice big display.
You can see the track number from your neighbors house.
The Bluenote may be a set-up issue for someone who has a rack or gear that allows for a turntable on top (and using)and has other shelving that has little or no room for adjustment.
The Stibbert has larger than normal dimensions and with the Sound Fusion Kit it takes up even more room.
The New Stibbert is truly balanced in design and is user friendly for tube rolling.
It has a removable rear panel with easy access.
The chassis is also metal,therefore it is not suseptible to static build up
The older Stibbert became a partial disassemble when switching tubes out.
Once settling on a tube this is not an issue,however,when deciding on a tube I feel this is a pain in the @#$.
You just have to handle it too much.
The Stibbert takes a long time to break-in.
The sound of the stock unit with good tubes is fast,accurate to the recording with a capability to reveal
information that was once obscure.
Initial reaction is that the unit must be over accentuating
things across the board to achieve this,however,this is NOT the case.
The Stibbert extracts more information from the disc and portrays it naturally across and into the soundstage.
I found this truly amazing.
The unit never sounds analytical, bright or fatigueing.
If you have a bad disc in there "bare it" or change it.
The Stibbert does not re-engineer,re-master or re-produce a disc that you hoped would sound better.
That is the disc you listen on your way back and forth to work unfortunately.
What the Stibbert will do is re-create a live performance and recording to the extent that you are either "there" or at least very "involved" and taken back by the performance like it or not.
If you don't like the show leave!
But you are being taken pretty close to hearing DiMeola at Toads Place again "in your room" when you want.
The Lector let's you listen to a DiMeola disc when and if you want.
The biggest improvement one can make when owning a Stibbert is to Upgrade the suspension to the Sound Fusion Kit.
This kit is actually easier to assemble than the stock suspension and it even comes with directions!
The difference between the the 2 suspensions is drastic.
Car enthusiast will understand this comparison.
"you own a 98 BMW 328is.It's a nice car handles pretty good,has that nice BMW feel,it's reliable(not like that Audi was)and all is well.
Then you drive your friends BMW M5.
Now your car SUCKS!
The difference is that substantial with the Sound Fusion.
Bass is improved over what was already graet bottom end.Limitless layering of music"bring on those complex passages"
More natural air around each note than you can imagine.
The big difference is it will only cost you a few extra dollars to turn your 328is into an M5.
With all the quirks and all I'll recommend a Bluenote
Stibbert over a Lector in a heartbeat.
I can hear! and this is fact not opinion!
