Is the Teres a

John...excellent!

Hi Jean,
Thanks for the thoughts and examples. Like you, I would find any pitch wavering in piano decays, bell decays, etc. to be quite disturbing. OTOH, I would not necessarily assume that pitch-perfect decays indicate full resistance to stylus drag in all circumstances. Decays are, pretty much by definition, non-dynamic. Stylus drag during a decay is decreasing. A momentary speed loss caused by the leading transient *could* be recovered on some rigs by the time the decay begins. My old silk thread could cope with piano decays fairly well. It's susceptibility to stylus drag was most noticeable at the biggest transients.

Good insights on the Roksan, Linn and thread drives. Thank you. The silk thread previously used on the Teres was capable of some tiny amount of stretch over time (far less than rubber though) but I believe its major problem was inadequate friction aganst platter and motor pulley at moments of maximum drag, as you stated. Mylar is less slippery, and 1/2" wide tape provides many times more surface area than thread. I know from my work in graphic arts reproduction that mylar is dimensionally at normal room temperatures. No stretch. Provided that motor and plinth do not move relative to each other, it seems like this motor-platter linkage "should" be as stable as my ears - and the more sensitive ears of my partner - indicate.

Sorry to hear about your detail-freaked friend. That's a dangerous and expensive trap to fall into, since there's potentially no end to it. FWIW and as I'm sure you know, a front-row or even podium level of detail is possible without sacrificing musicality, or even PRaT. But chasing detail for detail's sake seems a sterile endeavour.

We have reached a state of intense musical satisfaction with our rig. You and Psychicanimal can be assured that our toes tap themselves, our heads involuntarily bob, on every record. When you find yourself caught up in the *rhythms* of 'a capella' medieval chants or a solo lute, you've attained real PRaT. Most rigs can deliver PRaT with Sousa or Strauss (any Strauss, take your pick!).

Thanks to the help of my good friend 'Cello' we've been allowed to hear enough different things to develop a good idea of what directions we needed to go. Our recent arm and cartridge upgrades provided everything we were looking for and more. Judging by the astonishing length of your Lenco/Home Depot thread, it seems others are finding much the same on that path. Bon chance with its continued progress and thank you for helping to lead the revival!
Doug

Complex, full blast orchestral passages are the toughest in the stylus drag department, for sure. That's what I use to check improvement in *instantaneous* power delivery in my modded 1200. In the case of a bidirectional, quartz locked DD motor that's the singlemost important criterium. Nightdoggy taught me that, as his approach to modding his 1200's was specifically targeting the quartz lock circuitry & instant power delivery *within* the unit. He does not use an external power supply, claiming it will adversely affect instant power response. All I know is that I replaced the stock 24 ga external power supply DC wiring for 18 ga and the improvement was phenomenal! The same went for the stock AC power cord being replaced for an 11ga, cryo'ed Tice PC3. Everything I do to improve instantaneous power delivery is audible by no small measure.

It's hard for me to visuallize something like a belt drive with a massive platter dealing with this stylus drag issue successfully--no offense meant to anyone.

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Thanks, Psychic, and thanks Doug: I may try Mylar tape on my Ariston RD11S, which like the Linn majors on PRaT while sacrifing information. But with excellent PRaT and a gorgeous sound (Grado-esque midrange), and let's face it, quite good detail retrieval when not compared directly to the rising stars, I could easily live with it as my sole choice. I keep it because when it plays, I forget about audio (blessed relief!). I may even retire to it when I tire of the astonishing information-retrieval and dynamics and bass of my Lencos ;-) Then, I will try that mylar...

Again, sweet music to my ears to read so much about the importance of PRaT, which is what drew me into this discussion. Long life to Art Dudley to keep focussing our attention on it, sloppy set-up or no!

Happy listening!

Hi Doug,

I mounted the Triplanar this evening, but it was getting too late to fit a cartridge. Tomorrow night, I wear my shipping department hat, but may well fit a cartridge and take her for a spin.

I need to comment about the much overused (and overrated) PRaT. I think one needs to consider it in the same manner as one does soundstaging. By this I mean as an incidental result and not as a goal. If you do everything correctly, you'll get PRaT and soundstaging. There's nothing wrong with this. If you design for it, you're headed down a path of ruin. Similarly, if you buy with either of these sonic attributes at the top of your checklist, you'll soon grow dissatisfied and become a regular seller in the 'gon.

Go for tone, go for low noise floor, go for dynamics, but please ... for your own psychological well being, let the PRaT and soundstaging just "happen"

PRaT is one of those characteristics that can be faked by having a hot upper midrange (can you spell Linn?) which emphasizes the leading edge or instrumental attacks. Certainly, you can kill PRaT with excessive resonance, and I'm not suggesting that all components with a "hot" tonal balance will have PRaT. You can certainly can enhance it with frequency response anomalies however.

Soundstaging is similar in this respect - a big bass and boosted upper frequencies can give you an exaggerated impression of space. True soundstaging comes from components with a low noise floor which are phase correct - to the extent this is possible.

Cheers,
Thom @ Galibier