DPS/Schroeder Ref. Turntable

The DPS is an interesting table but falls short of the performance of designs from Galibier, Teres and TW Acustik.

When I auditioned the DPS/Schroeder Ref/Airy3 the detail and imaging were good, however timing and dynamics fell short of the others mentioned above.

The Schroeder Reference is virtually unobtainable new (ask anyone who has ordered one how long they have been waiting). The Schroeder is at its best reproducing small ensembles of acoustic instruments but is bettered on rock/pop (where bass guitar and drums feature) by the Tri-planar and Dynavector DV507 (although the latter isn't the best at imaging I prefer it to the Schroeder for rock music).

The Verdier is widely respected although I get the impression that many owners upgrade the motor/speed control units in pursuit of better attack and speed stability. There are better options available for your money IMO.

Flyingred,
Thank you very much for your advice. I must say that I have the opportunity to buy this TT/TA combo for about the half of the retail price (~ $8500) and I don't really think any other option. By the way, what are the better options you're thinking of?
Best regards,
Pentatonia.

Before you pull the trigger, check out service, support and warranty for the DPS - their motor controller is proprietary and complex. I chose the Galibier, not just because it sounds better, but because the motor controller is a simple circuit using very common components. The only part with a failure risk is a regulator costing $2 that will be available indefinitely. The rest of the table is built like a tank and will last for ever.

A Tri-planar is all the tonearm that anyone would ever need ($4k) so with $4500 left to spend you could have yourself a new Galibier Gavia with Serac platter. I know the Schroeder new retails at $5500, but that just makes the Tri-planar even better value in my view.

The great thing about the Galibier design is the mylar belt which delivers rock solid speed stability (compared to the DPS's rubber). The DPS has an AC motor (vs DC) so will be prone to cogging and it needs that stretchy belt to counter this - the result is you don't get the dynamics and absolute pitch stability of the Galibier. Also compare the bearings between the two tables.

And you would have the pleasure of owning a new piece that was built especially for you.

Hi All,

I look at this tonearm thing just a bit differently. I'll stay out of the turntable discussion for obvious reasons ...

I truly believe that if you lined up an optimally set up Triplanar and Schröder Reference (not necessarily identical cartridges - I said optimal), you'd get one person preferring one tonearm over the other. It's definitely a Porsche vs. Bimmer sort of thing and the results / preferences could easily be reversed.

If you've read my rants on this forum and on my website, you'll know my stance - that between the Triplanar and the Schröder, the one you relate to best on a mechanical level is the one you'll set up the best, and the one you set up the best will be ... the best. No surprise here, and people fall on both sides of the fence on this issue.

I have a few owners who own both arms, as well as a few who have a Triplanar and are waiting on their Schröder. My advice to customers trying to decide on one verses the other is to get a Triplanar now, and in 14 months when their Schröder is ready. In this way, they can decide for themselves. Invariably (unless finances are an issue), they end up keeping both and loving both tonearms for their unique virtues. Of course, the upside of this is that they get to enjoy their Triplanars now, while visions of sugar plums (err ... Schröders) dance in their heads.

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About two months ago, I had an eye opening experience. Lynn Olson's Karna Amplifiers were guests at my house while he was evaluating some recent changes made to them. For those who are wondering, development and any final commercial product is still quite a way off, because Lynn has become involved in his first calling - speaker design. Lynn is working on a high-efficiency coaxial, hemp-cone driver that builds on the expired Tannoy patent.

One evening Lynn brought over an AC sine-wave generator from Monarchy Audio.

We used this supply to run the AC heated filaments of his Karnas (2-45's and 2-300b's per amp). The Karnas have an accessory IEC connector that Lynn installed in the amplifier for just this purpose. Of particular interest is that the Monarchy provides the ability to vary the "wall voltage" from 100 to 120VAC. Of course, we couldn't resist twiddling the dial (well ... truth be told, it's a button).

I had two identical Gavias set up. One 'table had my Schroeder and the other had a Triplanar. Both arms were hosts to Dynavector XV-1s cartridges. The first thing we noticed was that somewhere around 106 to 110VAC everything sounded better in every way.

The second thing we noticed was that we had a sort of "tonearm button" - that 108VAC with the Schröder and 106VAC with the Triplanar brought the two tonearms to sound remarkably alike.

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Warning! Technical analysis follows ...

Now, keeping in mind that the filament transformers on the amplifiers are wired to convert 120VAC into 2.5VAC for the 45's and 5.0VAC for the 300b's, we created a situation where the tubes' filaments were seeing about 88% of their specified voltage - about 2.2VAC and 4.4VAC respectively.

Even more provocative is that we were hearing musically significant differences in a roughly 2% change in wall voltage (108 106). Read this sentence again.

For the technically inclined, Steve Bench writes quite a bit about this operating condition which is referred to as starved filaments. You can link to Steve's site by clicking here. By means of introduction, Steve has built a world-class phono stage which is in the class of the Artemis, Nick Doshi's Alap, Raul's Essential (we'll verify the Essential for ourselves in February when Raul spends Valentine's day with us). Steve's is not a commercial product, and I'm not hyping anything but rather trying to convey my respect for his innovative designs and his technical insight.

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So, when someone tells me that component A sounds this way or that way, I smile quietly to myself and remind myself that I have no idea how component A will sound when optimally set up or when set up in my system. We're all in this together of course, and dialogs like this help us to triangulate in on absolute truth such as it were.

Cheers,
Thom @ Galibier

I had the DPS and loved it. Very dynamic and lively. I know Willi Bauer who makes the table and I'm sure you would have no problem if you needed a repair.
I compared the DPS to a Kuzma Reference. Same arm and cartridge No contest. Sold the Kuzma right after that. Kuzma was dead sounding in comparison