Teres 340, anyone heard / seen one in the flesh

Cello--

You are probably going to be mobbed with requests for information, since you are (so far as I can tell) the first person anywhere on the net to even hint that they might have access to one. I'm dying to hear your impressions.

I own a Teres 340 with Graham 2.2 and Shelter 901. Simply fabulous is all that I can say.

I have been listening critially since the first of the month and I am amazed by what I have been missing.

The speed, resolution and simple clarity of everything strikes me as astonishing. The imaging is fantastic and the transparency of the sound is accentuated by the darkness of the background. In fact, I have been very impressed with how low the surface has become in general.

Of course, these impressions represent a combination of all of the components acting as a system in conjunction with an excellent phono preamp properly loading the cartridge, but I believe the Teres provides the platform for the rest to happen.

I was fortunate to be in a shoot-out between the various Teres turntable components in January, and the 300 series tables clearly exceeded the 200 series tables hands down across categories. That was a concensus opinion I believe.

In fact, it was at that time that I decided against any acrylic TT, leaded or not. This sealed my personal decision.

Cardiackid,
.
Glad to hear that you are so happy with your Teres 340. Coincidentally, I have also bought a Graham 2.2 and a Shelter 901 as well. Your post only adds to my positive anticipation.

Additionally, I bought a Basis Vector and a Koetsu Rosewood Platinum. The plan is to mix and match for the best pairing.

.
Thanks,
.

Cardiackid,
Any more details you can share about the shootout?

Cello,
Please report on your mix/match results when possible. Acquiring minds want to know! Cheers,
Spencer

Cello: I am impressed and I am also thinking about Koetsu, but only thinking at this stage.

With regard to the shoot-out, I will give you my own impressions. The arm was the top Schroeder with a 901 cartridge all mounted on the 265 plinth. (Tube amplification and horn/subwoofer speakers). All in all, very high-end. The study was performed at the home of Chris Brady, so I defer to him for the details and follow-up.

The fiirst platter was pure acrylic. I thought it sounded wonderful and better than my VPI HW-MK19 with a SME-309 arm and Grado Reference.

However, the next platter was lead filled acrylic, and it simply sounded better than the plain acrylic in all ways. Specifically, fuller or bigger sound with more resolution. I think were all surprised by the magnitude of the change.

The next platter was the leaded/cocobolo, which was a clear improvement over the leaded acrylic but not as dramatic as the first step. To me the improvement was resolution of low level details and fullness of sound. The transparency was improved and the dynamic range seemed enhanced as I recall.

Next came the switch to the 320 TT, which was a handsdown winner over the 265. It was livelier, bigger sound, more resolution of low level inputs, on and on. Just better in everyway.

The next was the 340, which was like the 320 but smoother and more silky. Now, I would say the answer is more refined than the 320. We characterized the difference between the 320 and 340 as more like the difference between Fuji color (320) and Kodak color (340).

In retrospect, I am glad to have purchased the T-340 because the short duration of my listening did not allow me to appreciate the full-breadth of the T-340 sound. It is like music, the best songs often take a little time to appreciate.

I hope this helps.