Yes, forgot to mention that, thanks for the reminder. Highend-electronics has a promotion through the end of the year, one free Blue Quantum Fuse with your ECT. Killer deal.
I also have something interesting to add to my review.
My first ECT placements, based on info from Synergistic Research as well as users, were near electrical components. Well they are after all SUPPOSED to be ELECTRONIC circuit transducers. But for various reasons I won't go into I was pretty sure they are in fact vibration control devices. Very, very amazingly effective vibration control devices!
That is why the first thing I tried, mounting one on my turntable motor, was a place no one had suggested they be used. The improvements I heard were at least as big as what I heard using them in the usual placements near tubes and transformers.
Well, last night I decided to try one on the base of my tone arm. The Origin Live Conqueror has an aluminum base that extends out to first the cueing lever and then the arm rest. Sticking out as it does this would seem to be a prime target for vibration control, as indeed OL seems to agree, as they put several curved cutouts in it. There really is no reason for these I can think of other than vibration control.
In fact, they cut out so much it was hard to find a place wider than the ECT!
Now being ELECTRICAL CT's nobody should ever think to try this. Nothing electrical about an arm board. But if they are, as I think, really doing vibration control then there may be no better place for them.
Which does indeed seem to be the case. Because when after sticking one on there I sat back down the results were staggering.
Everyone I'm sure is familiar with the sound, often at the end of a recording, or even sometimes during a piece, where the music suddenly stops and you're left with the reverberation of the recording venue. That sound that gives you a real impression of the space around the musicians. I always love that part.
Well, with the ECT on the Conqueror I wasn't just hearing that space at the end, I could SEE that space AROUND the singer DURING the song! Yes the noise floor dropped that dramatically. Dynamics, especially micro-dynamic shadings, took a big step up as well. All the little timbral signatures that contribute so much to the sense of a say a sax really being a sax, or a human voice an actual human being, they got so real I still can't believe it.
Okay, granted, this is on one mighty fine turntable. The Conqueror is a superb arm. Koetsu Black Goldline, PH-3 SE. You get the picture. Every single one of these components was chosen for its inherent ability to present fine detail naturally and effortlessly. But still. Never heard anything like this before. Not. Even. Close.
I'm ordering more.
