If I could afford, I’d purchase 100% Oswald Mills Audio gear

i will add that i enthusiastically applaud OMA’s efforts to build their vision of a SOTA turntable. and even admire their road less traveled. i’m glad to be a vinyl lover at a time when these type products exist and that we have the marketplace to sustain them.

i’m betting that the hedge fund whales will have their interior designers spec’ing this new "bauble to have" enough times to keep the OMA fires burning. hard core vinyl lovers? the jury is out. unlikely that 'we' are the target audience.

Agree. The fact that there are still folks willing to try and push the SOTA in high end vinyl is definitely something to be applauded. With the stand that goes along with the OMA, most designers will have an easier job integrating the package into the summer house. 

Mike, have you heard the K3 or are you extrapolating from your vast prior experience as to its sonic character? Also, would you care to mention which of your turntables wins the sustain trophy? I’m guessing it’s a belt drive type.

If you read MF’s review........

Sorry Lewn but here let me disagree.
MF is just a voice among millions of fans, certainly he is not the spokes person for all the audiophiles in the world who says it is true are shared 100% by all.

I gave up believing the personal opinions of journalists or reviewers also because apart from the experience, the ears have become old and the drop at high frequencies is inevitable, so what can reviews that are only personal opinions serve?

The turntable does not convince me, however, also because there are no explanations on the technical reasons and the measurements in the field that dictated the choices for its construction so .... IHMO thumbs down.

@lewm

Mike, have you heard the K3 or are you extrapolating from your vast prior experience as to its sonic character? Also, would you care to mention which of your turntables wins the sustain trophy? I’m guessing it’s a belt drive type.

my take is based on feedback; (1) mostly Fremer’s review, but also.....(2) feedback from ears i trust who has heard it in Fremer’s room, and (3) feedback that people who have heard digital transfers from it compared to other similar transfers from other tt’s under review.

all those sources are saying the same thing. they respect it, but hear what it’s doing.....and not doing.

my take is also based on looking at the design and how it approaches each design aspect. having owned a number of direct drive turntables; the Rockport Sirius III, which had an air suspension, air bearing, and linear tracking air bearing arm. the Technics SP-10 Mk2 and Mk3, EMT 948 and Wave Kinetics NVS with active isolation.......the presentation feedback for the K3 approach, connects the dots completely. it’s exactly what i would expect.

the K3 ultra focus on speed accuracy maybe does not yield the musical benefits that were intended. a little too ’left brain’ maybe. matters of taste and preference i suppose. the K3 miight be the perfect answer for some.

i’m sure it’s a dynamite turntable and does it’s thing superlatively. the question being whether you like ’it’s thing’ $360k or not. at a more reasonable price point it would be fun to have this formula one car of turntables sitting here to do hot laps. but music is more than hot laps to me.

as far as my turntable that absolutely does sustain most beautifully; that is the CS Port LFT1; which uses a non feedback motor, driving a aramid thread ’belt’, with a 100 pound granite plinth, a 60 pound stainless platter, with low flow, low pressure air bearing, air float platter and air bearing arm. it’s magical with delicacy and nuance, yet boggies and does scale and beautiful bass impact and textures. very micro-dynamically ’alive’....but always human sounding. the Saskia model two idler also is no slouch at sustain, and once i added the active isolation to the NVS it’s sustain improved.

i like all my turntables plenty, and sustain is not everything. but my choice of listening does seem to be drawn to it.

an aspect of music that is essential to me is a liquid, grainless, continuousness. a humanity if you will. sustain is a part of that idea.