Synergistic Red Fuse ...

nyame ...

I agree with you on IAR and Peter Moncrieff. I was a real fan and subscribed to his publication for years.

It was Peter who led me to the original Well Tempered Turntable. He loved it and continually raved about it. Too bad he didn't hear it with all of the mods and tweaks that can be done to it. I've had mine since it first came out. I bought the arm, new in the box, from an engineer who bought it directly from Bill Firebaugh after Bill demonstrated it at the engineer's audio society meeting. Then, I subsequently bought the bare table from a WT dealer. Total outlay was $1,900.  That was the best buy I've ever made in the audio hobby.  Thanks to Peter Moncrieff I will never need another table for the rest of my life. I've been told by really credible sources that to get better than what I have now,  I'd have to exceed $50,000 for a new table. 

I've searched the web over and over for Peter's Well Tempered review. Not attainable.

Here's Peter's review on the Von Gaylord IC's:  

http://vongaylordaudio.com/beta/wp-content/uploads/pdf/pmoncrieffreview.pdf
 
On the Von Gaylord IC's. I have one pair of balanced between my preamp and amp and an RCA pair between the turntable and phono stage. They are the Von Gaylord "Return of The Legend" IC's.  $1,995 for a meter pair. I was so impressed by them that I now have the Von Gaylord speaker cables as well.

When I refer to my system as a "Magic Music Machine," the Von Gaylord cables are a big reason. Ray Leung, the designer, is truly a genius ... and he knows the sound of music too. I heard his system this past year at the Newport Show .. .and was so taken by how accurate and musical the sound was that I had to try the cables. Not looking back at this point. No need.

 The Von Gaylord cables are very compatible and synergistic (no pun intended) with the Synergistic Research power cords too. Great combo. For those who say cables don't make a difference, I'd say ... get the wax out of yer ears. 

I'm tellin' ya nyame ... its Nirvana. :-)

OP

Hi Frank,

Your mentioning the Well Tempered Turn table (WTT) brings back memories. I own that (the original classic model, early 1990s) and the Linn Sondek LP 12, the WTT was easily the better turn table. The Linn was a very good table with proper set up but the WTT was truly special IMO.I owned it for many years and finally sold it to a friend who literally begged me to sell it to him.

In hindsight I should have probably kept it as it would’ve been a superb mate with my terrific  Yamamoto YDA DAC. Both cut from the same natural sounding cloth that just gets the tone,harmonics and fluidity /flow of music right. Frank here’s a recommendation for you. Lee Konitz, "Live At The Half Note" 1959. It’s very good.

Charles,

Hi Charles,

I am not familiar with the Well Tempered table but I am very familiar with the Linn Sondek  LP 12. I used it with a Grace 707 tonearm and a Fidelity Research low output moving coil cartridge. I have forgotten the name of the FR cartridge. The Grace tonearm was very popular with reviewers in HIFi News and other English publications. I eventually found out that the main reason they liked it (apart from the fact that is was awesome) was that it was available with several heads so that reviewers could conveniently
change heads for cartridge performance comparisons. I epoxied mine to prevent vibrations at the point of connection to the arm. My Linn Sondek was one of the early ones. The bearings were so precise it would cause problems in the summer when the temperature rose. To prevent this I used a very fine oil to keep things running smoothly. I really loved the LINN Sondek. and was a bit of an expert on setting it up. However at a later date I made a policy to throw away any- thing I owned that was not used in the previous 2 years. I made no exception with the Linn and put it in the garbage. In retrospect it was an unwise decision.

Geez, I am getting old. I thought this lovely thread ended two pages ago, then tonight I noticed two more pages. I could have done without the page before this one, but it's nice to see things back on track and positive.

Earlier this week, I subjected my system to the "Grog test." Grog (actually Greg--a friend since high school) is famous for passing out early. But this time, with my system sounding really good (SR Black outlets fully stabilized) and Grog listened until after two AM (and he was visiting the West Coast from Chicago, so we had the time zone difference working against this outcome as well). Grog is no audiophile, but he likes music, and he really enjoyed what he heard that night. Apologies to my long suffering neighbors.

One of the fun aspects of having one's music library accessible via iPad is that you can just turn it over to a guest and let them have at it. It's fun to have another person crawl through your collection. It's like getting a different perspective on the music you loved enough to have purchased and added to your library....

Charles & Nyame ...

Some of the most musically accurate systems I've heard had a Linn turntable in it. I used to seek out the Linn room at CES every year just to sit and listen to their wonderful systems.  Not only did the Linn TT play music, but the Linn folks had exemplary taste in music. You could always count on being entertained with great music in their demo rooms.

Enter the Well Tempered TT.  What could be better than a well designed tonearm bearing? How about no bearing at all? Yes, the WT tonearm looks like a Rube Goldberg contraption, but it works amazingly well. Here's an early (2006) review written by Paul Dudley:

 http://www.stereophile.com/artdudleylistening/1106listening/index.html#xGYT2q7bzxmimwgy.97

OP