Hi guys, glad that I could add a little something to the group. I have received so much help here. It feels good to give back once and awhile.
Gladstone, I would include the Walker in with the SME 30, very smooth, VERY quiet and very well crafted but also very polite. So it would not make my personal top five. The silk thread Lloyd uses may be a part of the sound. When I tried their silk drive thread on my Teres, it lost dynamics and became slightly quieter. I would include the Continuum in my top five for sound. However the price excludes it from my list. $100,000+ gives it a poor return on investment. I could buy a Raven or Teres and for the extra money, make much bigger improvements elsewhere in my system than the Continuum could ever give. And I would still have enough left over to buy the sport exhaust system for the 911. Now that is another kind of music I love. A 911 at 7000 RPM...goose bumps!
As an aside, I have talked to someone that heard the Continuum's Cobra arm replaced with a Schröder Reference and the room pretty much agreed that they preferred the Schröder over the Cobra overall. Just a rumor from a reliable source.
I was going to mention the Raven 1. It does sound oh so very close to the AC. However the unit I heard had the Raven AC bearing so it may not be indicative of the final production sound. If they would build one with the bigger AC bearing, that might be a no brainier. What a huge bang for the buck that would be!
Rick, I have heard the Galibria tables several times at shows, but for some reason there were issues with something in the system or it was too noisy and I can't give a solid personal opinion except that Thom's tables are VERY well made and a lot of people like them. From what I have heard, I would say they are very similar to the belt drive Teres tables except the Galibrias delivers a bit more in the way of dynamics. No question they deserve one of the great arms on your list.
Andrew, I will be at CES too, dinner's on me if you want to get together. Might be fun listening to a few rooms together to get an idea on what each of us likes in our music. I would like to talk to you about your new Trans cartridge too.
Briz, I think we are in agreement on what we are describing. The EMT carts are indeed very sensitive not only to loading but on which arm they are mounted. I still own an EMT cart but it has too narrow of a sweet spot for me. If you want to take the Brinkmann up another level, put a Schröder on it. Wow! I think the Tri-Planar is also better than the Brinkmann arm. The Tri-Planar is more versatile in regards to which carts it will handle and more neutral than the Brinkmann arm. The Brinkmann arm really needs the Brinkmann/EMT cart because of a strange midrange hump situation.
Regards, Steve
