Brinkman Balance Comparisons

Rwd,

I was listening to a Nottingham Hyperspace w. a SME V. I used a Koetsu Urushi with the Groove and a VdH Condor w. a custom phono stage. An excellent table at its price point in its time. Once the Urushi broke in there was magic that made me stop listening to CD. Once the Urushi broke (cleaning woman) I went through a bunch of changes. Then I went after total neutrality which the Raven has in spades. I strongly suggest you look at the phono stage as an integral part of your analogue setup. People disagree but my suggestion is that cartridges are too often judged out of context as the phono stage is part of the synergy. I will report more later on this but not for now. I know people who love the XV-1s and those who don't . Very polar opinions. I believe this is phono stage dependant. The new Tri Planar is lower mass than the original VII. The Graham can be adjusted from my understanding. Hope I help you with your decision.

Thanks Dgad! I have a Rhae phono stage and it has the ability to select a laod for the cartridge. I garee it is very helpful!!!

Rick,

It was great listening to you system the other day. I was impressed with the detail, soundstage and separation of instruments.

As we discussed, I think the Raven AC is a very good bet. The high torque motor will be the closest thing to a direct drive which are supposed to be a very good design. Plus tthe bearing design and weight of the platter are optimum and produce some necessary drag. Latly, the materials are exotic enough. Many different substances are used to create enough impedance mistmatches to produce very effective isolation. Whta impressed me was Fremer's account of the "tap test".

Anyway, the Raven Ac is the table I would like to have.

andrew

Andrew, it was my pleasure having you over this past Monday. Please feel free to stop by again (and anyone else in the tri-satte area) for some music, good chat and some fine espresso!!! Let's try to get a group together for the May stereophile show???

RWD (Rick)

Cjfrbw says: "With this in mind, all of those turntables would be more or less equivalent in sound quality with minor qualitative or subjective differences."

Dgad says: "...my suggestion is that cartridges are too often judged out of context as the phono stage is part of the synergy."

I find myself agreeing with these statements. At the level of play of these very best of turntables--where all the resonance, noise and speed stability problems are pretty much resolved--the character of the sound is largely determined by the arms, cartridges, loadings, and rolling tubes in the preamp.