2. analog
  3. 169429-486

3 New UBER Decks - Is this Turntable's SwanSong? 🦢

Michael Fremer has recently reviewed three new turntables designed to be the 'Last Word', 'Cost no Object' STATEMENTS!!!!........Do I recall hearing this claim before??
I love Mikey and have followed (and trusted) him for decades.
He has been the longest and foremost published 'champion' of the superiority of vinyl (uber alles) in the world.
I am thus ecstatic that he has been able to listen and compare these decks in his own room, with his own equipment virtually side-by-side
It's almost a 'given' that he will be the ONLY person on earth given that privilege....

So what Mikey HEARS.....is indisputable

Given his 'character' and desire for accuracy and honesty.....years ago, Mikey started including some 'objective' measurements in his turntable reviews.
These measurements were done utilising the Dr Feikert PlatterSpeed App which has since been discontinued.
As the App only worked with the Mac iOS of many variations ago.....Mikey has kept an old iPhone which can still operate the App.
The PlatterSpeed App had a few technical limitations.....
Foremost amongst these, was its dependence on a 7" record with an embedded 3150 Hz Frequency track to produce a test-tone which the App could process through its algorithm to produce the graphs and all the corresponding numbers.
To stamp hundreds of 7" discs with perfectly 'centred' HOLES is a nigh impossibility.
It's almost impossible to do it with a 12" disc!!!

This means that ALL the figures produced in their Chart Info are dubious and mostly UNREPEATABLE!!!!
I have Chart Infos for the same turntable/arm combination but with the 7" disc moved slightly producing different figures.
I even have Chart Infos produced with the same turntable but different arms ALL with different figures (the arms are in different positions surrounding my TURNTABLE).

So what is my point......?
The GRAPH produced with the PlatterSpeed App is accurate and USEABLE when looking at the 'Green' Lowpass-Filtered Frequency.
If the hole was PERFECTLY centred.....this 'Green' line would be perfectly STRAIGHT......but only if the turntable was maintaining its speed PERFECTLY.
The wobbles in the 'Green' line are due to the hole's eccentricity as well as any speed aberrations.
So the best performing turntables are those with the most constant and even wobbles approaching as closely as possible a STRAIGHT LINE.

Now the SAT Direct Drive Motor is actually the same as Technics developed for their latest SL-1000R except with some bespoke modifications.
It appears that SAT have corrupted what is a very good DD Motor unit....🥴

Mikey says that the OMA-K3 produced the best PlatterApp figures of any turntable he has tested 👏
Does this mean that the OMA-K3 is the most accurate turntable of these three decks.....or maybe of ALL turntables?

Mikey can't (and won't) test and review products from the past which are no longer produced because that's not his job!
But wouldn't it be great if someone WOULD review products from the past against the modern equivalent?
Classic turntables with reputations....gravitas...like the legendary EMT 927 and Micro Seiki SX-5000 and SX-8000.
And what about the NOW lauded Japanese DD Turntables from the '80s...the 'Golden Age' of Analogue?
  • Technics SP-10Mk3
  • Kenwood L-07D
  • Pioneer P3
  • Victor TT-101
  • Yamaha GT-2000
Because we know that Direct Drive is now 'Flavour of the Month' for the new Uber Decks due to their superior speed accuracy....a 'Flavour' that started with the legendary Rockport Sirius III.
But what about Belt-Drive units like my 20 year-old Raven?
So much for science and technology.......

We can do things today that were only dreamt of even 10 years ago
Except learn from history, harvest experience, expertise and craftsmanship......

Here endeth the Sermon for today 🤗


halcro
halcro's avatar
halcro OP
2,664 posts
 
I don’t have a problem with Mikey’s reviews of these three turntables....
He doesn’t pronounce a ’winner’ and he treads a diplomatic path between all three which is understandable considering the huge costs each manufacturer bore in relation to delivering, unpacking, assembling, disassembling, re-packing and transporting these beasts.

None of them would be happy to receive criticism for their troubles....🥴
Mikey basically said, in so many words, that the Air Force was dull and plodding.
No he didn’t!
.....he’ll be disappointed that I DIDN’T write that "the K3 blows the fat, sluggish, energy-retaining AirForce Zero out of the water."
If one reads between the lines of his conclusions.....you wouldn’t imagine that Mikey will be trading in his beloved Continuum Caliburn, although I wouldn’t be surprised (given his relationship with Marc Gomez) if he added the SAT XD-1 to his listening room 🤔

halcro's avatar
halcro OP
2,664 posts
 
Just for the record....if Mikey claims that the OMA-K3 produced the BEST speed and wow/flutter figures of any turntable he has ever tested...

CHART INFO OMA-K3 

CHART INFO VICTOR TT-101 

Then the savvy engineers at Victor in Japan, managed to produce a better turntable 40 years ago!!!! 😂

OMA states on their Website:-
The design of K3's mechanicals is the work of a team led by Richard Krebs in New Zealand, the world's foremost authority on direct drive turntable technology.
Perhaps a Footnote is needed:-
Assuming all the Engineers at Technics, Victor, Pioneer, Yamaha, Kenwood et al are now deceased?
mickeyb
590 posts
 
My turntable has a swansong recording on it as I type. Sounds good. 
freediver
1,247 posts
 
You vinyl junkies do know that WAYYY back,sometime early 80’s,that "guru"Fremer DID NOT EVEN OWN A TT & in Stereophile magazine STATED DIGITAL WOULD BE KING!!!
jallan
332 posts
 
Back in the day when I was selling stereo equipment putting myself through school, we had both a Revox A700 and B77 in the store. Also sold B&O. I slummed with an Ariston RD11S at home with a Grace arm.

the Revox decks had substantially more “slam” and sense of dynamic realism than vinyl did. I think of how much better sounding those decks were with the few recordings we had in the shop, and wonder to this day why folks spend hundreds of thousands on elaborate mechanical devices to play such a seriously flawed media as records. Tape is better…

And I throw my hat in with the digital streaming folks for bang for the buck and most realism. It’s a far cry from 10 years ago…
More to discover