Why will no other turntable beat the EMT 927?

Dev,

you make a fair point about telling what is doing what outside of direct comparisons.

that said; when an unfamiliar system sounds crummy, who knows why? but when an unfamiliar system sounds very good, particularly a vinyl sourced system, i believe some things can be learned. either the speed is good or it's not. either the music has flow and energy or it does not. and familiar pressings reveal plenty about noise levels and such.

this weekend at the Newport Show i heard a number of rooms where the system sounded good but i did not hear the 'magic' in the vinyl front end, and other rooms where i heard quite a bit of 'magic' from a vinyl front end 'through' a less capable system. last year at the Newport Show i wrote of my impressions of taking one Lp around to 10+ rooms and hearing one same cut from all those systems. yes; no ultimate truth was revealed but lots of pretty good ideas were percieved.

i had heard the OMA system for a couple of years running at RMAF prior to that year, so i had a bit of a feel for it. and i had been living with three turntables at that time and paying very close attention to how various turntables were sounding then.

so while i agree with you in general principle, i am confident that my impression of the Saskia at the 2008 RMAF was useful to me and worth sharing.

i respect your right to dismiss it. it might have been better for me to have qualified my impression of the Saskia from that 2008 show.

"either the speed is good or it's not."

That's easily measured and determined. $150 Japanese turntables from the seventies used strobe lights as indicators. Most decent tables in good working order had good speed control. The most common problem was belt drives with dirty or defective belts, usually an easy fix. I heard many tables and was able to recognize speed issues to some degree by listening but not always with enough precision to detect minor speed problems.

"either the music has flow and energy or it does not"

This is one I do not understand. Is this a speed thing again? Is it dynamics? If the latter, the table itself has little to do with it. The overall phono setup and system as a whole is what matters. The cartridge matters a lot more than the table itself. IT has to have good performance in general and especially with the specific tonearm on that table to be truly great.

"and familiar pressings reveal plenty about noise levels and such."

For a reference point, my 30 year old Linn Axis that cost me about $600 new at the time is still as dead quiet as my digital with good quality records in good condition. Again, setup of the rig and quality of the vinyl are the main factors, not so much just the table itself.

Things like these are why it never surprises me when a seemingly meager or ancient device on the grand scale of things perform like champs. Ability of the owner/user to make good equipment choices and get things set up right is probably the biggest factor of all with phono.

Dear Mapman, my experience suggests there's more to speed control than watching those built-in strobes. But I agree that cost of the tt is no parameter by which to judge it, either.

Lewm, no problem.

I'm not privy to the history of this specific table but have quickly found it appears to be sensitive subject from a past situation.

Some of your guys are obviously aware of such and I wasn't.

I agree tone of writing can come across improper, it's much easier to be able to communicate in person.

I was just curious about this table and have read a little of this and that but all very vague and then Mosin "Win" replied and suggested I do some research so I did.

I would like Mosin "Win" to know I have no hidden agenda, just interested to learn more about his product.

A suggestion would be to do a simple web site with a few pages, include some pics of the product, history etc with a contact email and phone number. We are talking about some serious change here.

Hi Mikelavige,

We can agree to disagree you know how it goes Ha! HA!, see below my response. My posting is just discussion and my 2-cents worth and nothing else ;-)

Firstly I agree we are on the same page when you wrote;

when an unfamiliar system sounds very good, particularly a vinyl sourced system, i believe some things can be learned.
either the speed is good or it's not. either the music has flow and energy or it does not. and familiar pressings reveal plenty about noise levels and such.

but Mike you and I both know there is allot more going on then just to do with the actual table it's self, you could have that identical set-up and if not set-up correctly - arm off- cart misaligned - phono setting different would not sound the same.

Do you agree with this?

Now if you placed this same "Saskia" table within your system, used the same cart and arms etc and made those same comments in your original posting well that would greatly make sense to me but you didn't.

To me shows in general should be used to meet others, see and possibly touch actual product and see what's new. Hey it's a bonus if the sound is decent but to go around and evaluate the way you mentioned just makes no sense to me, way too many factors come into play and in the end not fair to any of the product.

I can just picture guys scurrying off to different rooms wanting to hear their specific pce, cough cough I gotta laugh. No disrespect, if this is your thing and you truly feel the way to compare well what can I say.

This Saskia table in question alone Win said charges $36K, far from being chump change.

Honestly not trying to attack you!

P.S. Your system is looking marvelous, you mentioned the importance of speed etc. Have you ever placed a Sutherland TimeLine on your current NVS table? If so what were the results because this has been asked prior in other threads but never actually answered. I know Albert did this and mentioned it would not and has sense sold his table.

I know this is also a sensitive subject but please do share.

I want to make it clear that I have no agenda in relation to the Saskia table, actually only personal interest.