Saturday in Denver was, if nothing else, a tremendous amount of fun for me. As you can imagine, traveling almost 3700 miles in one weekend is very tiring and it really took a toll on my wife and me on the way home. Flight delays and cancellations put us back in New Hampshire about 4 hours late. Add to that the fact that we came home to a state of emergency due to some intense rain and subsequent flooding. But we dodged the floods and washouts and made it without serious mishap. We're high and dry but there are many people around us that are going through a very diffcult time up here.
I'll try to hit my main impressions here and then continue with follow up posts because I know more memories will pop as the conversation flows.
As Thom mentioned, I spent good deal of time with his system. We did go through the arm/cartridge combinations he mentioned and I do have some thoughts and observations on those but I want to first get out my impressions of the tables that I heard. I have had the pleasure of hearing Doug Deacon's Teres 320/Triplanar/UNI no too long ago so I was over the initial first impressions of how massive these table are. The first thing I noticed was how much these tables, both Teres and Galibier, just completely remove themselves from the sound. Both at Thom's and again at Chris's some less than pristine LP's were played, because what good is a table that won't allow you to also enjoy those 25 cent garage sale records as well as the expensive audiophile LPs. All of the tables I heard did an excellant job here. So you get to have fun with these tables as well.
I must admit that I did bring some expectations with me concerning what I thought I would hear between an all wood table and an all metal table. There are differences in the sound to be sure, but perhaps not near as much as one might expect. The Galibier, the Stelvio model, was very dynamic across the entire range. Nothing unexpected here at all. Lots of attack and plenty of decay with cymbals. Bass was very detailed and controlled. Several times I heard that bass string growl I'm always listening for.
What makes it tough is that I heard much of the same from the Teres 320. I do think there is a smoothing effect that may be the characteristic Teres sound. Keep in mind I'm trying to relay what I heard from the tables in two different systems and with a good two hours in between. I should also point out that the 320 was set up with a Moerch DP 6. No slouch at all but no where near the dynamics of the Triplanar and DPS. I think it possible to totally screw up the presentation of either table with the wrong arm and cartrige. Naturally, screw up is entirely subjective but I have no doubt that both tables will give you exactly what you ask for.
If you haven't caught on by now here it is. I'm not going to decide this for anyone because I can't even do that for myself at this point. If I take a bit off of the Stelvio to get to to the Gavia (I have not heard the Gavia) and then try to hold that up against the 320, now try to compesate for two different systems and rooms. I cannot make a real stand either way. Everyone is going to have a slight preference one way or the other. Anyone considering Galibier and Teres (Redpoint as well) owes it to themselves to make the trip out and hear for themselves which table they might prefer. If nothing else you get to meet two of the nicest people you could ever hope to meet. They would be Chris's and Thom's wives! They're both good guys, too.
Here's some even more fun stuff. Chris has a new, all Birch model (280 I believe) that is really cool to watch spin. The platter is made from the good, multi-layered, cabinet grade birch plywood sandwiched between birch hardwood top and bottom. Nicknamed "The Blonde", it gives this iredescent strobe effect as the end grain spins by. Some of us are quite sure there are subliminal messages implanted within. This table has the characteristic Teres smoothing but it is a step down in dynamics from the 320. But it is also a big step down in cost. Really could be something of interest to the mid-market owners looking to upgrade.
Here is where the rubber hits the road. The most profound experience of the weekend for me was the new Teres Direct Drive 380! Hands down the best sound of any table I heard. The attack and tempo this new beastie puts out is awesome! Dynamics were very good but I expect this since there was Schroeder Reference and ZYX Universe mounted on it. These don't account for the obvious superiority in timing. Naturally, the cost is much higher starting around $9K. Every genre was played on this table and it just powered right through them. Classical, jazz, piano, mandolin, big band, even Stevie Ray Vaughn could not make the 380 even break a sweat. Chris says he has some more improvements to make to the controller and the final form of the platter and plinth to get to where he believes the table has the potential to go.
