Turntable in 20 K$ price range - Design & Music

I was very surprised to learn during my conversation (April 2009) with owner/designer Alvin Lloyd that arm boards are "only" available for tone arms he accepts on his TT : Tri-planar, Graham and Morch.

The Grand Prix Monaco whitepaper on their website says (in part):

Another key element of our listening tests was the tone arm evaluations. We evaluated a number of the more popular high end tone arms; Tri-Planar, DynaVector, Graham Phantom, Morch (both length tubes), SME 4.5i, and Wilson Benesch. In order to do a proper installation and then an evaluation of performance, we had to acquire one of each. After careful inspection and confirmation of the physical dimensions and mounting details for each tone arm, we designed and produced the required arm boards. We then set up and listened to each individual arm with at least two different cartridges (DynaVector XV-1s and Transfiguration Orpheus). What we learned was that the Monaco Turntable is fundamentally free of coloration and has proved to be an ideal platform for comparing and evaluating tone arms. We can design and produce arm boards for other tone arms as required by our clients.

It looks like--in the time since that white paper was written--they've decided that the Wheaton, Graham, and Morch arms are a better match.

This is especially interesting since the (very favorable) Positive Feedback review was of a Monaco with the Dynavector arm.

Johnnyb53,
I did not read the whitepaper, seems instructive.

And they have changed approach from:

"We can design and produce arm boards for other tone arms as required by our clients"

Since :

"What we learned was that the Monaco Turntable is fundamentally free of coloration and has proved to be an ideal platform for comparing and evaluating tone arms"

That is what I was expecting, like any high end TT, and different arms have different merits, just enjoying the arm/cartridge combo on the TT is important for many.

Tim

I'm looking for a nice turntable in 20 K$ price range.

There is a nice one available, from Switzerland, DaVinci Audio designed it. It is called "Unison" (I think).

Davidri,
Have neither seen nor heard the Bergmann but on the review that's come across my eyes, and a post or two on here, it seems to be deadly quiet. Do you have experience to the contrary?

I like the SG TTs very much but they are out of my price range. I was pleasantly surprised that the Ayre DPS set-up for which I paid $13.5K was nearly as good to my ears as the nearly twice as expensive SG set-up I also auditioned. And I believe the Ayre DPS qualifies as a "beauty" in terms of both looks and sound. You can configure it with a "better" tonearm and cartridge than I have and easily hit or exceed the $20K price figure. Worth an audition IMHO!