Teres, Galibier and Redpoint

... some records need different clamping pressure than others. I'm not sure how that translates to the weight.

I've never tried a weight either, for exactly this reason.

It's only Rudolf Bruil's ring that is a problem, due to its unusually large diameter. Sound Engineering should be able to make a TriPlanar-compatible ring. There's also an Audiophile Club of Athens (Greece) member that offered custom made rings. I'd have to google to find it, it's been a year or two since I looked at it.

I don't think you ought to write off your Avid table just yet. The Volvere is an excellent table, no existing arm or cartridge is sonically too good for the table although linear trackers are not a great match. You should consider getting the motor and power supply to upgrade it to a Volvere Sequel.
The high mass tables have a very different flavor but I am not convinced that they are better in an absolute sense. The Volvere has an articulate, incisive sound with tons of PRaT (apologies to those who hate the term). I think you will find the Teres especially something of a sonic polar opposite. While you will gain some sonic weight and richness you will also give up something. To use a motoring analogy I think you are looking at going from an autocrosser to a grand touring car.

Now that CES is over, I would like to keep the above question going. I've discovered that there are some opinions out there that say the Galibier and Redpoint tables have more PRaT than the Teres. ???????

Yes, I was hoping that someone who went could offer a review of these based on what they heard. That's assuming Thom, Chris and Peter were all in attendance.

Teres has never shown at CES before. Don't know about Galibier or Redpoint.

Richardmr,

All Teres models got a huge PRaT upgrade in late-2005. Even better, this upgrade cost virtually NOTHING!

In early September CB sent a few owners, including me, a new drive belt. Instead of the previous 1 mil x 1/2" mylar tape, the new belt is 2 mil x 1/2" mylar. The improvement this thicker, sturdier belt makes is phenomenal.

Two years ago when my first Teres was new, I started a thread to report the improvement made by 1 mil x 1/2" mylar tape vs. silk thread. One Galibier/Redpoint owner (Salectric?) added that he got still better results with 2 mil tape. I should have tried some then but it slipped my mind until CB sent me one.

Here is an excerpt from an email I sent CB on 9/12/05:

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!

The clear belt provides MUCH superior coupling of platter to motor. This is 100% good. (I'm ignoring motor vibration transmission, not really a big issue with Teres motors). Superior coupling forces the playback stylus to more accurately reproduce the path of the cutting stylus in the TIME dimension.

In our system amplitudes became greater across the board, dynamics got stronger, leading edges got quicker. Bass response in particular increased so much that many familiar records actually sound strange: frequency balance shifted so radically they literally sound like different (and much better) recordings. All this from a belt change.

Last night I played Acts 2 and 3 of Wagner's 'Gotterdammerung'. That's 7 sides, I couldn't stop myself. The music and the drama were compelling, terrifying, overwhelming, shocking and real - exactly how the death of the Gods should sound. All this from a belt change.

This morning I played Bach's Well Tempered Clavier performed by Ralph Kirkpatrick. These are the most delicate sounding LPs I know of. Kirkpatrick's 36"-wide clavichord was never more fully present, despite the necessity to play these records at very low levels. (A live clavichord is very quiet. Two people having a conversation will easily drown one out.) All this from a belt change.

Our preamp gain control is now set lower to achieve the same SPLs. We hear less tube rush, less vinyl surface noise and our preamp gain tubes aren't being pushed as hard. All this from a belt change.

Clarity, tunefulness and pitch accuracy are improved on nearly all records, sometimes dramatically so. I have one or two really torturous records that I've never been able to play cleanly to the end. (Operatic sopranos on inner grooves mostly.) If I told you everything I've tried it would take hours. The new belt solved 90% of the problem with the very toughest of these, and 100% of it on the others. It helped more than the TriPlanar vs. OL Silver, more than a 320 vs. 265, more than a ZYX UNIverse vs. a Shelter 901. All this from a belt change.

Methinks FlyingRed's comparison from last Summer, which found the Teres lacking in PRaT, convinced CB to make a change that worked. I don't know if anyone's compared these tables since then, but I do know any comparison using the old belt is now quite outdated.