Here is the information that some of you will be interested in regarding the turntable and Chris Brady's and my observations. First, I want to thank Chris for coming to install my Certus 450 Turntable set-up and Soundsmith Set-up in eastern Pennsylvania.
My particular Certus 450 is now finished in the satin silver just like the Certus 460 on the Teres website. The black finish is no longer available. In addition, I have the 3rd Certus 450 that has ever be made. After a wait of approximately 10 months the turntable and the new and first and only produced Teres Audio Reference (wooden) tonearm are now set-up and in operation in my living room.
Without the opportunity to actually listen to a Soundsmith Strain Gauge Cartridge, I had followed Chris' suggestion and ordered a Soundsmith Strain Gauge Cartridge and a Soundsmith Strain Gauge 410 Phono Preamp. Chris had listened to the Strain Gauge Cartridge and had been extremely impressed by its performance.
I would like to premise our listening observations by indicating that Chris Brady and some people have previously listened to both the Prototypes of the Teres Reference Tonearm and of I presume, my tonearm are of the opinion that it sounds better than the Schroder Reference (and possibly the SQ) version of said arm. Additionally, Chris has now been using the Soundsmith Voice Cartridge for much of his listening now and likes this cartridge very much. He is usually using this instead of the XYZ Universe.
Chris Brady had previously shipped the turntable to me and it was awaiting assembly. Chris came to my home bearing both the new Teres Reference Tonearm and a set of Marigo Labs TR Mystery Feet. Chris proceeded to set up the turntable, tonearm, Soundsmith Strain Gauge Cartridge, and Soundsmith Strain Gauge 410 Phono Preamp. When the Turntable was set-up, we used the Still Points (what is usually used) under the Teres Certus Control Box and proceeded to use quite a number of discs to make the adjustments for both the Teres Reference tonearm and the Soundsmith Strain Gauge Cartridge.
The whole turntable system is set-up on a 3 tier all black Adona Classic AV45G rack system with the sandwiched granite/mdf platforms.
Much of our listening was done on some extremely fine pressings including a number of records cleaned by Better Records and in particular a number of Better Records Hot Stampers. One record stood out for much of listening experience and as a reference which was the Peter Gabriel Security LP. My Hot Stamper copy of this LP is just stunning in its sound, depth, detail, and information.
Once we had everything adjusted, we listened to several records with the Still Points under the Certus Control Box. Then, we swapped out the Marigo Labs TR Mystery Feet under the Control Box for the Still Points several times. Each time, Chris and I had the same reaction and almost immediately. Our jaws dropped as we heard a difference. We further fine tuned the adjustments to optimize the settings for the cartridge. Chris had previously found that the Mystery feet had improved the sound of the less expensive Verus Motor and Control Box. But, the Mystery Feet under the Certus Control box (at least on the Adona Rack) was just a very dramatic improvement in the audio performance.
I asked Chris his opinion, and Chris volunteered that there was so improvement in the sound of the Certus 450 with the Mystery feet that he was of the opinion that it sounded better than the Certus 460 with the Certus Control box sitting on Still Points (that is the way that I had heard the Certus 460 10 months earlier when I visited Chris). Based on our listening experience, Chris now intends to offer the Certus turntables with the Mystery Feet I presume as a replacement (and a price increase) for the Certus turntables.
