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Trans Fi Salvation direct rim drive turntable

Hi A'goners, I've just bought this turntable, confident it'll be my last upgrade. The rest of my system is a Tom Evans Groove Plus SRX phono stage, EMM Labs CDSA SE cd player, Hovland HP200 pre/Radia power amps, Zu Definitions Mk 4 loudspeakers, so a pretty good way to listen to vinyl.

Over the years, since 1995 I've progressed from a Roksan Xerxes/Artemiz/Shiraz, via a Michell Orbe/SME V/Transfiguration Orpheus, finally ending up last week with my new Trans Fi Salvation/Trans Fi T3Pro Terminator/Zu modded Denon 103.

This turntable (£2500 UK price, approx $4000-$5000 US) is the brainchild of Vic, a retired dentist, who, fed up with the shortcomings of belt drive and traditionally-pivoted tone arms, literally from the ground up devised first the Terminator air bearing linear tracking tone arm (now in T3Pro guise as on my system), and now the direct rim drive Salvation turntable, a technology in direct opposition to the hegemony of belt drive we've come to accept from the '70s.

In summary, he has developed a motor that directly rim drives an oversize platter. The magic is that vibrations are drained away from the platter and hence stylus. So minimal rumble is transmitted, the weakness of Garrards/Lencos in the past. This is mated to a substantial slate plinth which does a great job of isolating the whole rig from external vibrations.

Where this differs from direct drive is that the torque applied is high enough to counteract stylus drag, but it is strictly analogue controlled ie no digital feedback applying constant micro speed control. Speed is set correctly, torque is sufficient, and speed stability is like a rock.

This is combined with his air bearing linear tracking arm, discussed on other threads.

So technical description over, how about how it sounds? Well, years ago I always assumed the overhang in bass when playing lps on my previous belt drive/pivoted arm tts, apparent as a benign artifact, was all part of the 'romance' of vinyl, esp. when compared to the dry, clinical sound of early cd. But in 2007 I acquired the EMM cd, which had a natural analogue sound playing silver discs, but none of this bass colouration. On studying the growing reemergence of idler/direct drive, and their superiority in maintaining speed stability, I agreed that the belt speed instability might be introducing this.

Two years ago I came across Vic, and now I can report that eliminating the belt for high torque rim drive has taken this whole artifact out of the equation. Whole layers of previously masked information like rhythm guitars are now present, treble information has abundant naturalness and decay, and bass, which appears to be less in quantity compared to belt, is actually more accurate with a real start-stop quality, much more like digital, and the real thing. The other positives are more linked to the arm, including uncanny tracking across the whole record side; I'm really not exaggerating in saying that the last few grooves at the end of an lp side are as solidly reproduced as the first. Music with strong dynamic contrasts are really served well by the Salvation, and I am shocked at how good this all is after trepidation that the sound might be hyperdetailed but too assertive etc. In fact music is reproduced with a relaxed incision, and a welcoming detailed transparency.

The amazing thing is that all of this is not in anyway at the expense of the natural warmth and tonal dimensionality that still puts vinyl way ahead of any digital (imho).

The only thing, and Vic would like this to be known, is that his creation is a cottage industry, and he can only produce limited numbers to order.

I'm happy to answer qs on it, as I really want our community to know about a possible world beating product at real world prices. My tech knowledge will be limited, but no problem discussing sound quality issues.

I'm not affiliated in anyway to the product, just sold my Orbe on ebay and bought this. Regards to all
spiritofmusic
spiritofmusic OP
828 posts
 
Hi Peter, I did the rounds listening to the top SMEs and TW Acustic AC3. There is a real tendency for these threads to become a sort of one-upmanship, which is REALLY not my intention. I absolutely was impressed by what I heard when listening to both the 20, and 30 with the V12 arm. The TW sounded great too with Graham and Triplanar. I had been taking a deep breath in ahead of planning possible purchase of one of these, and by luck more than anything went down the route I'm now on, leaving spare funds for my final phono stage upgrade.
So, just for the record, I'm so impressed with the engineering approaches of both the SME and TW alternatives (who couldn't fail to be?), but the Salvation/Terminator has given me a different perspective on music I don't feel I'd have gotten from these two.
So, I'm going to desist from rankings etc. TBH, I was expecting a few more people interested in the Trans Fi approach, or even fellow owners, but this hasn't transpired, and short of requests for info/opinions, I'm winding down my input.
Peter, and Lewm, I'm sure we agree on a lot more than we disagree. If you're ever in London, I'd be very happy to have you over to reveal what I'll still claim is the biggest bang per buck in analogue. And a drink or two! Best regards, Marc.
lewm
13,162 posts
 
All I can say is that I will surely have a listen to the Salvation, if the opportunity arises. I would guess that leveling is an issue related to the Terminator, rather than to the Salvation per se. So far as I can tell, there is nothing about the Salvation that would make it more fussy than other turntables in that regard. Isolating it from footfalls would likewise be similar to isolating any suspension-less turntable. Yes?
dgarretson
2,599 posts
 
Spirit, I am not so surprised by the general lack of interest expressed in the "Trans-Fi approach." The marketing for Salvation, limited as it is to word-of-mouth, is co-joined with marketing of Terminator arm. I'm hoping that the appeal of Salvation will someday be broadened with an offering of multiple arm mounting points. This would encourage owners of pivot arms to give Salvation a try and to compare their darlings of the pivot world to Terminator. The linear Terminator is a tiny sliver of a small subset of the total market for tonearms. Modern linear tonearms are largely unappreciated and misunderstood, Terminator particularly so. When I think about this design, the only disadvantage I can think of(based entirely on conjecture, not on practice IME with Terminator)is the possibility that the sled bearing may become unstable and rock front to back with forces operating on stylus. To this point I recently learned of an experiment with a laser pointer that refutes this criticism. A mirror was afixed along the sled's 90D perimeter to reflect the laser beam from the horizontal onto a high ceiling. The laser dot stayed motionless on the ceiling throughout play. The geometry and resolution of the experiment suggests rocking of 2um or less. Terminator appears to be the only linear tonearm with good bearing stability that operates at very low air pressure. High pressure may cause bearing chatter and vibration at stylus. Once you get over the hump of good bearing design, most of the caveats about a linear design are minimized.

spiritofmusic OP
828 posts
 
Lewm, yes, the Salvation is not more fussy re levelling than any other tt. It is indeed the arm that's most sensitive to this, as well as vibration. Was considering the tt/arm as a single entity. Careful setup really provides dividends. have been matching it with an ESCCo modded Zu 103 cart, another underpriced overperformer. Neutrality, transparency and tonality in spades.
spiritofmusic OP
828 posts
 
Just installed the Soundsmith Straingauge cart on my rig. Really taking analog to interesting new territory.
The Salvation tt is minimising speed/torque issues, the Terminator arm is minimising tangency issues, and now the SG cart is minimising tracking issues.
The end result is a bit radical, and would probably sound a little alien to those devoted to the typical euphonic warmth of most analog. It's bringing to the table some of the best attributes of digital presentation esp notes arising out of silence, from a lower noise floor, but combing them with the best that analog has to offer which digital can't match ie fantastic tone, dynamics and transparency.
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