Ok, RMAF 2009 is over and Ive yet to comment on my observations. There were a few things that were of interest to me prior to the show that I was looking forward to observing: The Durand Talea tonearm, The Soundsmith Sussurro Cartridge, The TW Acustic Raven .5 and Black Knight turntable. Along with these things I knew about, I also spotted the Bergmann Sindre airbearing turntable and tonearm, The Artemis Labs Schroder designed tonearm and low output moving Iron cartridge similar to the Sussurro (both cartridges a collaboration between Soundsmith and Schroder).
First up, The Galibier (sounds like Guh-lih-bee-yay) room had the ALWAYS rock steady Gavia turntable with Stelvio platter designed by Thom Mackris hosting the new Durand Talea tonearm. This is a very unique Tonearm. A couple of its features are a very well CNC machined VTA tower and antiskate mechanism. The tonearm is a uni-pivot design. The arm itself is wood. The designer (Joel Durand) mentioned that the wood he chose (jatoba) was for its neutral properties based on listening and later some FEA (Finite Element Analysis). One of the most unique features of this arm is the azimuth adjustment. This adjustment can be done on-the-fly. Yes, I did Say on the fly. I witnessed several demonstrations of this adjustment during record playing. The sound produced was enjoyable with the ZYX UNIverse mounted on the Talea. The UNIverse with its higher compliance was at home in this arm and produced some of the better sound this cartridge is capable of creating.
Having read a blurb on the Soundsmith website, I was keenly interested in the Sussurro cartridge. According to Peter Ledermann, he was inspired by Frank Schroder to produce a low output moving iron cartridge. This appealed to me on many levels. One of the reasons was that I could use my low output moving coil phonostage which I really like. In the Soundsmith room, the cartridge was setup on two tables (A VPI and a Teres 440). I first listened to the Sussurro on the Teres 440. The 440 was a pre-production prototype. I did notice some horizontal and vertical eccentricity on the platter. The horizontal isnt as important since the table is direct drive but the vertical eccentricity would be a problem. However as stated above, this was a preproduction prototype. The Sussuro, on the Teres 440 sounded pretty good. The phonostage was a tube based unit that was somewhat polite sounding with a bit of restraint on both macro and micro dynamics. Right after listening on the Teres, we asked Peter to play the same LP on the VPI. The Sussurro on the VPI was using one of the soundsmith (MCP2?) phonostages. Given the choice between the two phonostages, I would take the Soundsmith unit although neither phonostage would be my choice if I had the cartridge. Overall, there were no indications or sins of commission that I could tell on either setups. The Soundsmith room always has small bookshelf speakers so getting an idea of the large-scale weight and body of music is difficult but what could be heard is worth further review. I would love to listen to this cartridge in a well setup full range system or my own modest setup.
High Water sound was showing the TW Acustic turntables. Jeff Catalono, like Thom Mackris, is a pleasure to talk with. The two new models were the Raven .5 and the Black Night. The .5 is similar to the Raven One except it has a smaller base and platter. The arm pod is also different. The Black Knight turntable was being shown in the adjacent room. I thought the Black Knight would have taken up a larger footprint than the Raven AC3. I told Thomas that I was surprised at the clean look and size of the table in comparison to the AC3. Some of the features of this table are the three co-located motors, an AC charged DC battery powered motor controller, new platter construction, custom feet, and a new on-the-fly adjustable VTA arm pod for the tonearm with 0.05mm markings. I brought several LPs to play and ended up listening to about 3 or 4 of them in one sitting. The sound was enjoyable and easy to listen to while maintaining delicacy and dynamics (both micro and macro). As a joke, a friend asked Thomas to play a CD for us. The look on his face was priceless. The even funnier thing was the person that came into the room after I was finished playing my LPs actually wanted to play a CD!
The Bergmann Sindre airbearing turntable and Arm is an elegant design that is very appealing to the eye. Its very much a form fits function look. The table and arm combination has great potential. Id like to spend more time with this table to explore its capabilities.
The Artemis Labs room had two Schroder designed turntables on display. One of the turntables had the new Schroder designed tonearm to be produced by Artemis Labs along with the Schroder/Ledermann moving iron cartridge designed exclusively for the Artemis Labs turntable/arm/cartridge combo. Although the same (or similar) motor assembly, the body is different. Upon entering the room, I was graced with a Django tribute being played. The violinist sounded extremely familiar to me. After about a minute, I could restrain myself and blurted out (softly) Stephane Grappelli. After the song had ended, I went to check the album cover and sure enough it was he. Although the sound was less than full range what bandwidth it did capture was textural enough for me to pick out the playing of one of my favorite fiddlers on an unfamiliar system playing an unfamiliar song. Id love to know what the name of that Django tribute album was. Frank?
I think I have more but dont have my notes in from of me. Stay tuned
Dre
