What Does It Take To Surpass A SME V?

@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?

@whart  Seeing such height for a Standalone Tonearm Pod is something I do not see everyday. The Structure of the Turntable requires such an elevation for the Tonearm Mounting

Are there other methods on offer to mount a Tonearm for use with this type of design for a TT.

As Your Kuzma XL and the TT in the Link share similar Structure as a design, are there any real differences that can be determined for how the Stand Alone Tonearm Pod, Interfaces / Functions that has been purposely produced for both the XL and the OneDof.

I am sure the designers of each TT have very carefully considered, going above and beyond to ensure the maintenance of the critical  interface between the parts. 

It is the known differences, if any are known that has my interest.

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@whart , I am very familiar with the HQD system having personally replaced 3 ribbons and two toasted Quads from overexuberant use of the go knob. They sounded so effortless tied to 6 Levinson amps, all the way to death. They were far from perfect. Their image was not realistic probably because they had an inconsistent radiation pattern going from point source to line source back to point source each driver with different dispersion characteristics. We made a system with stacked Acoustat Monitor 4s and RH Labs subwoofers that was so amazing I  continue to use that format 40 years later.

Although you did not specifically invite me over, I have been invited to the Ducati Tent at next years MotoGP race. I also intend on seeing the Formula 1 race at some point. The Circuit of the Americas is in your back yard I believe:-)

@mijostyn - my oversight and certainly not meant as a slight to you. Consider yourself invited. Formula 1 is crazy town here. All restaurants packed, many locals used to leave town during the music portion of SXSW, but they've scaled it back and the film festival part is actually civilized. 

Didn't know you did bikes. My first bike was a Ducati Monster-- somewhere around 740 cc-- it was fun. There's a custom bike shop down the street that is over the top expensive but they have a bunch of interesting things. I stopped riding a while ago. Have you ever been to the Birmingham, Alabama bike museum and track? It's a pretty amazing facility- if you are into cool bikes, you'd know the guy-- he supplied most of the machinery that was on display some years ago at the Guggenheim Museum. 

If you do come down please let me know. Maybe a home cooked meal and a hang. The track isn't too far out of town but the traffic can be sinister. This was a cowtown 30 years ago. It's now a boom town for tech + UT. It's nice here, too hot though. Feel free to PM me at any time.