Galibier owners How do you like your music now?

Gosh, I don't think I have a Stelvio armboard picture out there, but Dan describes it well.

There's a big "can" (3.625 diameter x 3" high) hanging under the arm mounting area of the Stelvio armboard. It damps spurious resonances.

You can't drill any through-holes in the armboard to pass an arm stub through (or an exit hole in the "can" to feed an arm cable). There'd be lead shot and oil all over the place.

Stated another way, only arms like Triplanars, Schroeder References, ET-2's and such can be used with the Stelvio armboard.

Cheers,
Thom

Thom and others,

How would you compare the Stelvio Armboard against the Gavia armboard. Assuming one is looking to upgrade the Gavia(oops I can't believe I am eben thinking of this already), would you look at the platter first or the armboard?

I'll leave that question for Thom. When I ordered my Gavia I already had a Triplanar so I just went with the Stelvio armboard. I was familiar with the benefits of a heavier platter so again I just chose the Gavia platter. I often wonder how the Stelvio platter sounds? :-)

Hi Ddriveman,

The Stelvio armboard is a "nice to have", but of course is only compatible with arms that don't protrude through an armboard hole. The mounting holes for Triplanars and Schroeder References are blind holes - meaning that they do not go through the armboard. So, from this perspective, your SAEC, Audiocraft, and Fidelity Research arms can use only the standard armboard.

The Gavia TPI platter on the other hand is a fairly significant improvement over the Serac. Before the TPI interface (in the days of the Teflon top), the choice was a bit more difficult. A little of the positive attributes of the Serac's PVC were lost in the Teflon topped composite. The sound was just the slightest bit "nervous" ... emphasis on the word "slight".

Still, most people opted for the Teflon topped, composite platter, because on balance it did almost everything better. Most everyone has commented that they don't hear this nervousness in the Gavia TPI, and everyone who has heard the demo mats I've loaned them has opted to convert their Teflon topped platters to TPI.

I feel a bit uncomfortable talking at this level of detail on this forum. Perhaps it's only me, but I fear that delving into further nuanced discussion on the topic here crosses over the line of propriety and is unfair to other manufacturers. I'd be happy to take this discussion over to the Galibier forum for those who are interested in digging deeper into the topic.

Cheers,
Thom @ Galibier