Would Like To Hear From Strain Gauge Owners

Dear Hxt1: +++++ " There, I said it Raul!! " +++++

Now, you are done!!! and happy, good.

Btw, Lewm and Peter: thank you for your understanding and kindness words.

Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.

I agree with all of you. For the record, Raul has given me very helpful advice on these forums, I simply got caught up in the passion of it all, and perhaps allowed my own dogma to colour my previous post... Consider this a retraction(?) and thank you again Raul for your advice on the Shure 97! I may remount it this weekend and try again ! Enjoy the weekend guys, I have to work:-( Harv.

Raul,

I don't know about the speed of the table that Chris builds, but mine sends a signal that is accurate to around one part per billion, and the idler wheel tracks within its theoretical limits, but that isn't the point. The point is that there is a lot going on in a turntable, wires, tonearms, cartridges, preamps, etc. We can talk about RIAA till the cows come home, but that isn't what definitively makes the music anymore than the speed. It is a culmination of things, and those things differ a little bit with each design. Nonetheless, guys design things that sound great, even if they choose different paths to do it. There are workarounds for some obstacles, and there are also unforeseen pitfalls, yet to be pursued. Also, there are quantities that cannot be measured. Still, pleasing results are often delivered. If that were not so, anything that perfectly hits your implementation of RIAA would sound exactly the same as the next product that met that same criteria. I'm not saying that the RIAA topic is a moot one, but the overall picture is what counts at the end of the day. Chis and I can build speed accurate turntables, but the real mettle is to be found in the overall implementation of our work, not just in a single parameter of it. The same goes for Peter's Strain Gauge cartridge. It sounds good simply because it sounds good. He made sure of that by carefully voicing it every step of the way. You may find a $35 moving magnet out there someplace which meets the RIAA sniff test to your satisfaction, but do you really want one? I think not. The reason I don't think so is because of the other aspects, and those are the same attributes that puts such a product on the market for such a cheap price. There are few free rides, but there are even fewer 100% perfect products. I will go so far as to say there are none in existence. If there were, we'd be done here, right? Everyone would have a perfect system, and the only discussion on Audiogon would be the passion of music. Maybe one day.

"and the only discussion on Audiogon would be the passion of music" (Mosin)

Wouldn't that be nice? Nothing wrong with obsessing about technical perfection, as long as we don't forget that it should not be at the expense of how it all relates to the things that really matter in the music. Which takes me back to the comment I made earlier, wich may have come across as overly critical of Raul's stance on this subject: Why no references to music?

I am always a bit perplexed when I hear (read) very strong opinions on the merits, or lack thereof, of this or that product, or the merits of a particular design approach that is not accompanied by at least SOME references to MUSIC. Without SOME comment along the lines of:

"Yes, I appreciate what this design tries to accomplish, but because of inaccuracies in it's RIAA eq, every time that I play a Joni Mitchell record, her voice sounds too full in her lower range. I have heard Joni Mitchell live many times, and that is not what I remember...", or:

"That's not the sound of an oboe in that register", or:

"The Strat has never sounded so thin on every other system that I have heard this recording on", or:

"Why does the bass player sound like he can't keep up with the drummer? Never sounded like that before", or: