What Does It Take To Surpass A SME V?

@pindac , Boo away friend.

@whart , Great job Bill, Putting the Kuzma on the MinusK is the way to go. Quite a chore getting the Kuzma on there and maintaining the balance on the MinusK. If you get an itch down the line you might have a look at the Dohmann Helix.

I believe Frank used an air bearing which diffuses the air through microscopic pores in the metal and not the much larger holes you see in most air bearing arms. this would put the whistle factor way up high, high enough to cause less if any issue. The demand for air is high with any air bearing device requiring a larger compressor. Does it have to run continuously? It is impossible to make them silent. The hush box is a good idea. The vacuum pumps used for vacuum clamping are much smaller. The Sota's pump is not dead silent, but very close. It sits on a ledge about 3" off the floor behind the records. You can't hear it at all. 

The Koetsu would be the best cartridge to use in that arm given it's very low compliance. I am wondering given the table is on a Minus K platform whether or not the position of the arm effects level. I would think the most effective way of finding level would be to counter balance the arm so that it floats horizontally then adjust level so that it does not travel on the beam. 

You did not make any comparison statement on the Airline vs the 4 Point. The 4 Point is one of my favorite arms. If you have to have a tangential tracker you might have a look at the Schroder LT, look mom, no compressor. 

Love the horns. They make a vivid visual statement. IMHO running only the subs on DSP might be a mistake. You need to use a measurement system to look at any group delays. If there are not any then you are good to go but if there are they should be eliminated, but the only way to do that is with a digital processor. The new top processors from Trinnov and DEQX are very powerful and run at high speeds. The improvement made in channel balancing and group delays far exceeds any detriment effect the digital processing might have.

I don’t know about Minus K as a separate device, but the Minus K built into the Helix poses no problems in operating the TT itself, once you learn not to push down too forcefully. But when it does flex due to downforce, it does so very smoothly and without the bounce associated with undamped springs.

@mijostyn -sorry about that-school starts tomorrow (I teach part-time) and there's always a lot of last minute stuff no matter how well prepared you are.

I bought the big Minus K bench top rated for a 250 lb load because I was concerned about footfalls in this old (restored) 1880s Victorian home. The building is a jewel, vibes like a Western museum downstairs, original wood, wainscoting, high ceilings, almost all the glass is original on the main floor, transom windows, almost all original metal guides, rails, latches replated, all indoor shutters disassembled and restored, etc. It's a cool house if you ever visit Austin you must see it. The fact that much of it is original is due to poverty of the owners during the 20th century. The house does have a storied history but I won't go into all that here. 

I was going to build a separate outbuilding, but once we decided how to use the space, the upstairs "loft"- which is more modern, was perfect (and the cost and disruption associated with the outbuilding was more than I wanted to bear). 

I did have a structural engineer look at it and he said no way on wall mounting the table- he said the walls would move even if he did a steel install (you know those hanging toilets-- they hang from a steel substructure that can take huge weight). 

So, balancing the XL was a little tricky, getting the right level for the arm to do its thing is a little like dialing in VTA- you adjust an increment and check. It's actually a tiny adjustment that nails it. 

The bearing- I know I researched this at one point, I think Franc buys those, yes, hi pressure (well, 65psi), the little Slientaire suitcase style was supplied with the arm, it eventually died (I gather they all do and it had to cycle frequently because the tank was small); I think got a 6 gallon 1/2 HP one, very quiet but it ran into problems, mainly having to do with not draining properly-- for some reason, Silentaire has the drain the top of the tank with an "auto drain" feature that siphons the oil/water out but they are finicky. (At one point a had a 1 hp 13 gallon compressor set up-- total overkill, it was also tripping a 20 amp breaker). 

Now using an oilless custom job from the Houston folks--I think it was meant for a tattoo gun--it is noisier than the oil compressors and has a small stainless tank but a drain on the bottom. In my silencer box, it is dead quiet in the music room but if you are downstairs you can hear it thump when it kicks on. 

Silencer box, above. More later if you can stand it. 

@mijostyn - Didn’t mean to turn this into a full length book, but to finish, taking some of your questions, I had both arms on the XL for a little while but at a certain point, found I could not get the Minus K to do its thing--it wasn’t load per se, but balance. So, I now have one of the Kuzma arm pods being used as a doorstop and mounted the baby 4 Pt on my vintage Technics SP-10, which runs in my vintage Quad system downstairs in the front parlor. My brief comparison while they were both on the same table/system, using the same cartridge- a Koetsu Jade-- was that the Airline sounded better but truth be told, I had not spent enough time with the 4 Pt to be confident I was getting the last measure out of it.

On the subwoofer settings, if you are familiar with the older Duo, they are hard to dial in (Jim Smith knows how). If you get them to deliver bass, you can hear the discontinuity, if you make the integrated woofers cohere with the mid-horn, they are bass shy. The 15" subs are set to roll off at around 50 or 55 hz (can’t remember without checking) on a 24db slope. I was reluctant to introduce processing on the main two channel system, but did a pretty good job, starting with letting the DSP do its magic to flatten some humps, then dialed them in with the continuously variable phase knob, gain and that roll off. Final adjustments were made with the help of my wife and a selection of records.
I think the combo of Koetsu, the Minus K and the subs gives the system real (but not "look at me!") bass with tone, texture and dimensionality. I listen to a lot of small combo post bop jazz- am a big fan of Cecil McBee and the darn thing sounds like a real double bass in a club. Most of his output was in the ’70s, not the high point of vinyl in the US, but he’s still with us.

I do know there is a school of using processing for crossovers, phase, etc. with otherwise antiquarian equipment. That’s a whole other subject. It’s a very good system, tuned to my taste without sounding bombastic (or sounding like different systems playing at you at the same time). I did have a mini-HQD system back in the day (didn’t use the Hartley 24" but Quads, Decca ribbons and a few different woofers). Although my friend said "you can kiss every note," it did sound like three different things playing at the same time.

Whew.

How are you feeling?