Brinkmann vs TW Acustic

Have not heard the Brinkman. The Kuzma XL is better than the TW also mentioned in the Syntax link.

I am just plain curious...why does any thread related to TW draw such passion ? I know it's a good TT and I am glad I bought it, but heck it's not that great a deal...
Cheers

I would like to highlight two things:

1. Even though in a TT setup the TT-Tonearm-Cartridge is considered as one system, I am sure there are ways to pin down the sound of at least the TT and the cartridge to a certain extent if one has a decent exposure to the components. For example I have heard the TW in 3 different setups and the Cadenza Bronze on two setups and the Lyra Delos in 3 setups. It is like when you listen to a system you more or less can form an opinion on how the speaker sounds and how good is the CD player.

2. Secondly we seem to use the word "neutral" far too liberally. If a component is able to show the difference between two cables it is immediately termed as neutral. Whereas if we look at how neutral the component itself is, meaning how little it alters the source, most multi-thousand dollar equipments discussed here and on other forums would not even get through the qualifying rounds, but they are still termed neutral with various justifications.

Iaxelrod, good luck with your decision. After getting back in to vinyl very few CD are played around here any more.

And for over four years the Raven AC has worked great for me. No, its not for sale.

Sunnyboy, what do you think? Hasn't high end audio always been contentious?

In this case it seem like there is a high level of narcissism in play. There is the self proclaimed expert who has some history with a product (a consumer product) where some expectation was not met, couldn't figure it out, had a bad system match, just had a bad day - who knows. There could have been an interaction with the manufacturer, a distributor ect. that this person did not like. He seem miffed. And thus if anyone else finds redeeming qualities with this product we get these posts with narcissistic rage. Why, because he (the narcissist) can't be wrong.

Just saying...