Schroder sq and the new talea

It's not the tonearm, that's limiting your choice of your record collection, Cousinbilly.

An upgrade can be a cruel mistress until you sort everything out, but when you do, your record collection will be returned to you.

Of course, you'll hear further into the mix with any good arm/cartridge, but assuming you've set it up well, I'd revisit both my turntable and phono stage.

A recent example: in the course of the past two weeks, I've been listening to various equipment combinations to flesh out a new drive system design.

I'm hearing 10-15 dB further into the noise floor with this drive system, and it's exposing the flaws in one step-up transformer - flaws that were somewhat noticable before are now laid bare in bold relief.

Keep the faith ...

Cheers,
Thom @ Galibier

We are now at ~100 hours.

The Talea ll / Allnic Puritas combo have come into their own. I will add that the Atma-Sphere MP-1mklll pre / MA-1mklll amps help things. The TTWeights mass loaded Black Onyx turntable gives a foundation to the base that is awe inspiring.

The Allnic has an ease from top to bottom that is as articulate as anything I have ever heard. There is such delineation between instruments that one forgets it is a recording. You can almost see fingers on guitar strings, and piano keys, a pianist could probably tell you the type of piano used. This is the best I have ever heard.

Joel has done a superb job. I had no idea how important azimuth was. I do not own a mono recording of a female voice, so can not say I have it bang on, but it is close enough for now.

I thank all of you. The journey is fantastic.

Thom, Back in November of 2010, did you really mean to say that one would lose a lot of hair, needlessly, or that hair is not needed? As a hair-impaired person, I would tend to disagree with the latter proposition; I really miss my hair and do feel I need(ed) it.

I havent visited my thread for a while. And when i posted this i never imagined that it would have gone to 5 pages.

It seems the initial comparisons at the show could not provide any meaningful conclusions because the arms were compared with more than only one variable and the integrity of the test was compromised.

It must be a daunting task to do a quality controlled comparison when you've invested so much time and love into your baby. I know i would be scared to be dethroned if i was considered up their with the best.

Maybe this way it does more justice to two great arms that we dont have a definitive answer to which arm appeared to sound better.

It would be fascinating to me to have another go at a "friendly audio enthusiast comparison" between the two arms.

This would be the "boxing ring" where the two heavyweights could meet for the "title match"...

1. Shoot out is done on no earlier than the second day of the show so that each designer feels they have dialed in the table arm cart combo and are satisfied they have set up their arm so that it is operating optimally.

2. Use either A) 2 saskia's or b) One acustic raven with each of the competing arms mounted on it.

3. Both desingers understand 1 and 2 and based upon that agree on a single cart they feel is a satisfying match for their arm and for the system they will be compared in but both must agree to the same cart.

4. All other parameters are identical, ie phonostage , speakers, cables, room etc, etc, even to the point of matching decibal output levels via a test tone and decibal meter prior to playing back a track. A person is assigned to track and set the decibal level.

5. Several generes of music are used in the comparison.

6. People vote on a blank sheet of paper , cast anonymous ballots but cant give head nods or comment verbally until all the votes have been cast.

I think the above would truly be a quality test and i think the arms might be alot closer in terms of their tone then people might think. Its all the other parameters we expect an arm to be able to perform that will probably decide who wins and i figure only by a ...technical knockout. Somehow i doubt that either of these two arms will have the other "reeling on the ropes from a blow!"

It would settle the claim for or against as to whether the talea really is a "game changer or not!" [good marketing hype or?] and maybe schroder
can put the new kid on the block in his place! [ i only jest!]

Wouldn't a schroder talea on a saskia shoot out be wild!?

In the left corner weighing in at 500g the heavy weight champion of the world.....the schroder sq!!!!!!

and in the other corner.....!

Ding! Ding!

*

[smile]

Congratulations to both designs....

*

Umm dear Vertigo, You are a true optimist. Here are problems with your proposal:
(1) It closely matches the original plan for the 2010 shoot-out, which did not happen as planned BECAUSE the two tonearm makers could not agree on cartridges, or more correctly, one tonearm maker would not agree to use the Ortofon A90 (I think that was the plan) and at the last minute he also demanded to use a different phono stage.
(2) See #1. What would make you think that the situation next year will be any different?
(3) One thing I came away with for sure: The two tonearms do sound different in and of themselves, so in the end it will be a matter of taste.
(4) Do you think poor Win Tinnon has two 200-lb Saskias that he wants to schlep to Denver from North Carolina, just so two prima donna tonearm makers can argue over cartridges and phono stages?

No offense intended to Messeurs Schroeder and Durand. They have good reason to protect their small bit of turf.