MIyajima is a very differerent sounding cartridge from Kai. It won't have the same kind of smoothness of Ikeda but it is a very exciting sounding cartridge, big bold sound but not edgy or aggressive. I heard the Kansui several times with Reed and Thales arm. I have the Zero on my VPI arm currently.

Yes, listening to Q7 was incredible. Wish I did not listen to it. Not only the price is prohibitive at this time, its weight would push my apartment's floor to the limit as far as weight consideration as well. I would hate to wake up one day and find Q7 in my downstair neighbor's living room :)

My Magico dealer also prefer Q3 over Q5 for what its worth. Nowadays, I prefer 90+ dB sensitivity speakers. I love the way those speakers going from ppp to fff so effortlessly and naturally. Listening to Q7 with the trade mark magico sound doing something likely that is amazing. I am not sure if you can ever get that with Q5 regardless of amplifiers. Q3 also does not quite do that but Eventus gives me a little glimpse of that for now :)

suteetat April 18, 2014 00:36

Hi Number_95, I really like the Kai. The midrange reminds me somewhat of Koetsu but with extended top and bottom and better speed. It may lack a little of the Koetsu's full, rich midrange. With certain kind of music, Kai still is not quite up to Koetsu's standard but I think it is a better all around cartridge for variety of music. I used it mainly with FR 66s, alternating with Koetsu.

Q3 is a lot easier to drive than Q5. As a whole, I really like Magico with tube but Q5 is rather difficult to drive. I heard it with the big VTL and was not impress. However, Q3 can get by even with Air Tight ATM-3 which is 110 watts in ultralinear mode. Conrad Johnson ART or Ayon Orthos XS certainly had no problem driving Q3. You give up a bit of bottom end for Q3 in comparison to Q5 but Q3 is a bit warmer, may be a touch darker while Q5 is more neutral. Personally I find Q3 more pleasing and easier to listen to in a long run.

Actually, I don't have Q3 now but have not updated my system in a while. I did not think that Q5 was a huge upgrade from Q3 as I prefer Q3 tonal balance plus I don't think that my amps would be up to driving Q5 sufficiently. If I have the money, Q7 would be on my very short list of speakers to consider. As of right now, I have Eventus Nebula which I find to be a good upgrade from Q3. I think the Nebula is priced in the same ballpark as Q5 in the US.

suteetat April 15, 2014 15:20

Oppps, sorry for misspell your name, Peterayer, my mouse hand was a bit faster than my eyes :)

Pradeep, personally I like Amperex variety of 6922 the best in comparison to Mullard, Tele, Mazda, Siemens that I tried. Although I never had a chance to listen to Tele Cca.

I think Amperex is the best compromise of them all. May be midrange is not quite a rich, lush as Mullard but it has much better extension at both end than Mullard. Siemens Cca is too lean for my taste. Tele has excellent detail, focus and extension, more so than Amperex but just a bit on the sterile side for me. At least, this is what I find on CJ GAT and input stage of Lamm M2.2. Amperex PQ is pretty good, may be just a tad less than the pinch waist but not by much and you will still get pretty much all the characteristic that I like in the pinch waist.
However, I imagine that depending on the rest of your system, Siemens Cca or Tele may also work well.
Brent Jesse described Mazda as halfway between Tele and Mullard (if I remember correctly) which is kind of right but it just did not sound musical to me. Very quiet tube though.

suteetat February 19, 2014 23:51

Peteray, I tried both Atlas and Supreme on Reed 3Q in the same system but have not tried both cartridges with other arms. Atlas throw a bigger stage, a bit more detail but Air Tight is a bit better focus. Air Tight is a bit unusual, very generous bass, tight, deep, powerful (but not quite as big as Atlas) but the mid/high is very delicate, a bit cooler/leaner as in not as warm or full body but somehow also sound a bit on the sweet side. Some of Air Tight characteristic may be contributed to Reed though. On Graham, it has powerful bass but too sterile for me and I did not like the combination at all. However, I think I am in a very small minority of people who don't like Graham at all. On Reed, I give a slight edge to Lyra but I certainly could live happily with either one. Air Tight is currently in a box but I am waiting for VPI 3D arm and want to try that with Air Tight and see what happen.

suteetat February 19, 2014 23:41

Zermatt, thanks for the update. I will look into BN feet as well. I think with BN feet, now it is really only the plinth that is still the original Raven AC part :)

suteetat February 15, 2014 17:21

Knghifi, it has been quite a few years since I had my Jadis. I bought them used but I don't remember the years though but my guess the unit was probably brand new in early 2000-2002 perhaps.

suteetat February 03, 2014 23:57

JFrech, I would say that Thoeress is more similar to Lamm LP2 Very quiet although there it is an all active gain stage unit.
Big sound, a little dark in comparison to Aesthetix but not quite as much as Lamm. Excellent bass. It matches very well with Lamm amplifier and while I had Lamm electronics, I felt that over all it competes very well with Aesthetix, I might had a slight preference over Aesthetix even. Aesthetix is more delicate, very natural sounding, uncolored in comparison. However, with Ayon amp, I felt Aesthetix has better synergy and its performance is a notch above Thoeress.
EQ option on Thoeress is a lot of fun and it works well on many of my LP but for most part, the RIAA option works very well already. With 6 inputs to boot, it really makes life a lot easier as I have 4 arms on my turntables for now.

suteetat January 26, 2014 00:09

Chris, Lamm is very quiet. The sound quality is excellent, a little dark but very musical, pretty much the usual Lamm house sound but it lacks flexibility as it has only 1 mm input and 1 mc input which is basically a built in SUT. You cannot adjust loading at all so you have to make sure that your cartridge will be compatible. Standard Lamm phono comes with 1:10 SUT, (about 58 dB gain total) but if you order a new unit, Lamm can install 1:32 SUT instead if you like but for somereason, no 1:20 SUT. However, Lamm just release LP2.1 which uses different tubes and I have not heard it. If you have appropriate cartridge, Lamm is an excellent value.

For Aesthetix IO, I can hear a little something if my ears are close enough to the tweeters but I don't hear any extra noise from listening position. I think it does wear out the tubes, especially new Chinese/Russian tubes quite quickly but NOS tubes seems to last longer. I ended replacing all 3 gain stages with NOS tubes. The most important one as far as noise is concerned is the first gain stage. I ordered some tubes from Brent Jesse and told him that they would go into first stage of the IO and asked him to check to make sure that they are low microphonic tubes. That seems to work very well.Overall, I do think that Io Eclipse is a better phono unit than Lamm LP2 (it should as almost twice the price), much more flexible but need a little work on tube selection.

suteetat January 23, 2014 23:06

Peterayer, the switch to Eventus Nebula was actually unplanned :)
I heard Eventus the last few years at Hong Kong show with Soulution electronics and was very impressed. Much better match than Soulution/Magico that I heard (I never was a big fan to Magico/Soulution combination and really like Magico with tubes more). Anyhow, recently a dealer started a line of Eventus in Thailand and offered me a very good deal so I was interested. At the time, I really was already very happy with Q3 and never thought that I would want to upgrade my speakers actually. After living with Q3 for awhile, one of my main requirement is that I want something that has as little as possible or no coloration from the enclosure.I found Magico to be excellent in this point. Some friends think that may be it is the aluminium enclosure sound that I like, rather than absence of enclosure sound.However, having own Magnepan and Martin Logan in the past, I think I know what I am hearing. In this respect, Eventus also excel. It uses resin enclosure but I think it shares more similar characteristic to Q3 than Wilson which also uses resin for some reason, considering that Eventus is also ported like Wilson. The main difference though is that Eventus is faster, deeper, more control, more detail bass but may be a touch leaner balance than Q3. Q3 is darker through the midrange but more open and extended at the top. YOu get a bit more sparkle and shimmering on cymbal and upper string with Q3. Q3 can be a little bit forward and a bit on the agressive side where as Eventus is more laid back, relax but never too polite. With Lamm power amp/CJ pre, Q3 throws a bit bigger sound but not as well defined as Eventus. However, with Soulution, Eventus throw a big hugh full body sound where as it sounded lean, clear and a bit sterile on Magico when I heard it so go figure. Eventus also is quite a bit easier to drive although Q3 is supposed to be 90 dB 5 ohms, Nebula is 91db, 8 ohms, Eventus sounds quite a bit more effortless but not to the same degree as Q7.
Over here, I did not have to spend that much more to switch to Nebula so it was easy decision. In the US, I think Nebula is priced similarly to Q5. I am never a big fan of Q5 though as it is much more difficult to drive and I like the warmer sound of Q3 than Q5. I really want to hear how SET amp would match with Nebula.

suteetat January 19, 2014 01:38

Chris,
I have not heard Hansen speakers. The speakers in my pictures were Magico Q3. I have not changed my system pictures yet but actually Q3 was replaced by Eventus Nebula a couple of months ago. I have Ayon Orthos XS KT150 right now. It delivers 300 watts in triode mode and 400 watts in pentode mode.
Eventus is 8 ohm, 91dB. When I had Jadis JA200, the speakers were Usher Be20 at that time. I would think that either amps should be up to driving your speakers very well. Jadis is lusher, a bit more bass heavy, fatter, slower bass. Ayon bass is tighter, lots more detail. Took quite a bit of burning before the bass starts to give full impact. For what its worth, I think Aesthetix works really well with Ayon. I have Aesthetix Io Eclipse, with Lamm electronic, the Aesthetix was nice but did not outshine my old Lamm LP2 phono or Thoeress phono much. With Ayon, there is more synergy for sure. I am not 100% settled on Orthos yet as my local dealer should be getting in the Ayon Titan soon so I want to hear that. However, Titan is only 75 watts. Mr Gerhard Hirt of Ayon though told me that Titan should be able to drive just about any speakers but does not recommend it with electrostatic or speakers with sensitivity of low 80's dB or lower.
I generally prefer tube or tube hybrid amps but Burmester would be one of the few solid state amps, I would consider if I have to get solid state amps.

suteetat January 18, 2014 22:38

Hi Chris, JA200 are quite fine, especially if you can get them at reasonable price. Unfortunately I had significant problem with humming and RFI problem with Jadis in my apartment that I could not fix. Sonic wise, the newer push pull amp like Ayon has more detail, more open, bass is tighter but Jadis has really nice, rich tubey sound. I heard Siegfried in my friend's system briefly when he was auditioning it and heard a few other VTL in various but not familiar systems. Honestly I am not a big fan of what I heard so far but to be fair, I have not done extensive listening in familiar system to give a proper opinion. On the other hand, what I heard did not make me interested enough to want to audition it properly.

suteetat January 14, 2014 23:08

It was a lot of fun meeting you, Pradeep. I really had a good time and wish we had more time together. I will update the system pictures again once everything is settled. Still waiting to hear Ayon SET amps first before deciding on Orthos vs SET.

I am by no mean an expert on classical music but enjoy listening to it very much. Audiophile classical LP is tough.
I tend to go by music that I like first then performance second and sound quality last. There are many famous Decca/Living Stereo Lp that are well known sonic wise but I don't really care much about the music itself.
I guess a good place to start is the Royal Ballet Gala, Classic Recording 45rpm boxset is excellent if you can find it. Easy one to find now would be Sony Lang Lang's Prokofiev piano concerto No3 with Berlin Philharmonic/Sir Simon Rattle. I have not heard the accompanying Bartok's disc LP yet but Prokofiev is Lang Lang's strong suit and you don't have to put up with his visual aspect listening to the LP :) David Oistrakh Beethoven violin concerto is really good. The reissue is excellent, may be not quite as good as the first pressing that will cost an arm and a leg but I found the reissue quite satisfying. Beethoven's symphonies cycle by Paavo Jarvi ( I played for you a bit of No 9th 2nd movement) is really good. Ivan Moravec's Chopins LP, espeically his Ballades and Nocturnes on Connoisseur Society label is well worth looking out for. A clean copy usually will show up on Ebay regularly.Testament reissue of Maria Callas' Puccini's Tosca is excellent. I don't have the original Columbia pressing to compare but if other Callas' first Columbia pressing are similar in quality, I would say the Testament is better. If you play it on mono cartridge, it is quite incredible sonically.
Tacet has many of the more accessible and familiar classical work in their catalogue. The sound is always excellent but kind of average as far as performance is concerned, very warm, mellow sounding LP, very easy to listen to. I heard a bit of Stockfisch label recording of Chopin Nocturens by Gergely Boganyi, Really like what I heard, excellent sound and pretty respectable intepretation on a couple of numbers that I heard. My local store has not brought in this particular recording yet but I will definitely order the LP when I next order from Stockfisch.

suteetat January 14, 2014 12:39

Yes, a friend of mine brought his motor over to my place one day. It was really difficult to return the motor to my friend and waited until my motor arrived.

suteetat November 28, 2013 01:52

Zermatt, would love to hear your impression of the BN feet. BN motor makes quite a significant improvement in my system. I am sure you will like it.

suteetat November 26, 2013 22:27

Zermatt, I have not experimented with other feet on TW so far beside trying Magico Q-Pod which does not seems to work well with TW (but work wonders on my Playback MPS-5).
I used Symposium Ultra platform in the past with pretty good result but now have Minus-K under TW which is a major upgrade. I am not sure if other feet would add much more at this point.

suteetat November 26, 2013 01:46

Pradeep, I was told about 4-6 weeks according to my local dealer. It supposes to arrive at the same time with my friend's Raven AC also with upgrade platter, 3 motors, BN controller. So I shall keep my fingers' cross and let know if everything will arrive in time before your arrival here.
I will be busy the weekend of Dec 7-8 and 14-15 but otherwise I should be quite free.

Suteetat

suteetat November 14, 2013 08:48

Hi Pradeep,
The cost is roughly about the same as the 3 motors unit upgrade over here. I will update the picture once I get the platter here as well.

suteetat November 11, 2013 22:59

Downunder, it is a bit difficult to compare the two since I never tried mounting FR64s and Koetsu Coralstone on my TW so it is hard to compare. I used to have FR/Koetsu on BL-111 and SX-777 is a major upgrade. But basically my TW/Reed/Lyra is a better all around performer than SX-777/FR/Koetsu. The Micro Seiki setup really excels at vocal reproduction and that's what I used it mainly for. May be that is more because of Koetsu though.

suteetat April 14, 2013 14:07

Sam, thanks for the compliment. Now everything is pretty much settled and I don't have much urge to make any major changes to my system, except for adding a mono cartridge for some of my mono LPs.

suteetat January 05, 2013 09:13

Musicpdx, I first heard Lamm when I was still a student. If I am not mistaken, the first time Chicago Summer CES opened its door to public as well, most of the high end show was at Chicago Hilton. I remembered walking into a room that had a Wilson Watt/Puppy and an amp that was unknown to me and it made such an impression. I think that was also the year that Lamm made its debut. Since then, I hope one day I would own one and it took about 20 years before I finally could afford one :)

suteetat November 06, 2012 00:24

Aesthetix is definitely more neutral, more detail, very natural presentation. Lamm is darker, more full body, lusher presentation with excellent bass extension and slamm. The sound is a bit more forward than Aesthetix but never aggressive. I am still experimenting with various tubes for Aesthetix right now. If I can maintain its natural presentation and detail while gaining a bit more body, a bit more meat in the midrange, it would be perfect.

suteetat October 29, 2012 00:00

I am very impressed with Micro Seiki. However, I have not heard the 5000 or 8000 series. A friend has BL-777 that is also very nice. Considering the price of BL-111/FR64s, it certainly competes well and often better new turntables at the same price point for sure. Hope you enjoy your Q3, personally I don't think I could find anything that I like better unless I really have to spend much much more than what I did for Q3.

suteetat October 25, 2012 08:11

Atlas is an incredible match with Reed. I just sat down to listen to it for awhile after mounting it on my Reed 3Q. The bass is powerful and quite generous. Definitely exceed what Air Tight/Reed can do although the sound is a bit hard, less sweet and not quite as warm as Air Tight (although I would not call Air Tight/Graham sweet either). I imagine that the hardness and slight edge should disappear after awhile.

I run Atlas into Lyra Arion (Finewire C37 from Reed to Arion) and Stealth phono from Arion to Lamm LP2 currently. Arion also seems to complement Atlas well. It was rather dull and underwhelmed with Dynavector and Air Tight when I tried earlier.

suteetat August 07, 2012 12:23

I think my initial comment is still valid to a certain extent although in the past, I would give preference to Reed but now it is much harder call and it would really depends on what kind of music you listen to the most and what you want to add to the system. The big complains about having less decay and harmonic is pretty much gone after changing out Graham phono cable. With the Graham dialing in more properly, I don't feel there is any deficiency in that area and the voice has more body and fullness to it although Reed is stilll the richer, warmer sounding arm. Graham throws a wider, more precised soundstage. The amount of really tight bass, snap, transient attack is quite incredible. I have not heard what my system is capable of in this area until I got the Graham dialed in better over the past few days. I still personally prefer Reed for vocal music, piano, chamber piece as it is sweeter, softer, more mellow sounding. Reed bass is a bit heavier, fatter, giving a very nice growl to the lower piano register and a bit more weight although a less defined than Graham. Personally I am glad I don't have to choose which arm to keep. Hopefully next week, I should get in Lyra Atlas, it will tough to decide which arm will get Lyra and which will get Air Tight. If I really have to choose one arm, logically, Graham is probably the better all around arm for a variety of music but somehow, I still think Reed is a slightly more musical and more beautiful sounding arm. Hmmm.... I can't really choose but would be very happy to live with either, I suppose.

suteetat August 05, 2012 09:28

My Reed 3Q came equipped with Finewire C37, WBT Nextgen, with 4N silver. There is no way to change that but it seems to work very well. It runs into Dyna SUT and I use Stealth Hyperphono RCA cables between SUT to Lamm LP2.
I probably will end up getting another Stealth Hyperphono cable eventually for Graham as I use all Stealth IC, AC power cable.

suteetat July 21, 2012 23:52

Hmmm... slight update on Graham. I replaced Graham IC-70 with SAEC silver phono cable as a friend of mine who got Graham a bit before me told me that he really disliked IC-70. I have to agree with him. The dryness and leaness, lack of decay was substantially reduced. Female voice now is bigger, fuller, a bit more lush and smoother. Not quite to Reed's extent but quite a bit better for sure. Granted that IC-70 only had may be 20-30 hours on them but I don't know how much better it would get. Unfortunately, I don't have any other DIN cable to try beside this two and look like I will have to find one more DIN cable to use as I took SAEC cable out of my Micro Seiki table.

I thought I read sometimes ago that Graham bought copyright from Hovland when it went under. Is the current IC-70 the rebranded Hovland? The price is the same $800 as the old Hovland.

suteetat July 21, 2012 12:59

Peterayer, very interesting comment about SME V-12. I had SME 3010R in my system for a little while. Unfortunately I did not try it with TW/Air Tight at that time as I was looking for an arm to go on my Micro Seiki B-111 table to use with my Koetsu. In the end, I went with FR 64s instead. Now I wish I tried the 3010R on TW with Air Tight and see what happened!

To be fair, I think some of the deficiency that I find with both arms, as I said, were relative to each other and I think that the deficiency was more obvious when comparing the two just because each arm was so good in their strong suit that it shows what the other is missing. However, if SME V-12 really combines the virtue of both arms, I would be in heaven. Now, I just have to figure out how can I find a V-12 to try!

suteetat July 20, 2012 23:50

I only have Graham in my system for a couple of weeks so this is probably not Graham at its best yet and I only try it with Air Tight PC-1 Supreme so far. However, I had Air Tight mounted on Reed for well over a year so I am quite familiar with Air Tight/Reed 3Q combination. Also I use Graham with its top of the line cable which is probably not even close to burned in unlike Reed with its own cable that has been on regular duty for more than a year.

The two has very different sound. Graham is more clear, a bit more detail and sound a bit drier. Reed is warmer, sweeter tone, bigger image, a bit softer and more mellow. Graham has more tightly focus sound, each instrument is more well defined. Graham has a tighter, faster bass, more transient attack than Reed. Reed is more mellow, bigger, fatter and bit less detail bass.

If you listen to a person plucking string instrument, you will hear more fundamental, more fingering detail with Graham. However, with Reed, you hear more decay. Graham seems to have very little decay or harmonics. This is the part that bother me the most about Graham/Air Tight combination. The difference is more relative rather than definitive. Reed certainly does not lack in detail or bass slam but certainly not to the extent of Graham.

On chamber music, vocal, piano, solo instrument, I find Reed smoother, rounder and has more pleasing tone and more musical. Perhaps a bit more colored than Graham. Graham is more fun with rock/pop and large scale symphonic work as far as rhythmic drive is concerned but I prefer midrange and higher frequency tonal balance of Reed.

Probably a bit too simplistically put but I think of Graham as a very good solid state gear and Reed like a very good tube gear. So depending on the rest of the system and your preference, the type of music you listen to, I can see someone prefer Graham over Reed or vice versa.

For me, I give an edge to Reed, another friend with Reed 2P/Graham 10 inch arm actually prefer Graham a bit more.

suteetat July 20, 2012 15:00

Peter, Coralstone did not sound that impressive with TW/Reed combination. It was ok but nowhere nearly as nice as Air Tight/Reed/TW. However, I have much better luck with Coralstone on my FR64s/Micro Seiki BL-111. One of these days, I will have to try mounting FR64s on TW with Coralstone and see how that goes. When I first bought TW, I talked via my local dealer to TW quite a bit about arm and cartridge and they strongly discourage using Koetsu with their arm/table.
However, I would say that Micro Seiki/FR/Coralstone certainly rival Air Tight/TW/Reed but with quite a different presentation so it is really depends on my mood which table I want to listen to.

suteetat June 08, 2012 00:57

Pradeep, thanks for the information. I am not sure if the wall in my apartment can handle this kind of weight as it is not weight bearing wall, as far as I know. However, my local TW dealer is using one of those magnetic lift footer under a platform that TW is sitting on and seems to work quite well.
I tried those magnetic footers under amplifier platform and CD player but did not like the effect very much but never tried it under turntable myself though.

suteetat May 17, 2012 13:28

oppps, I meant, I already have BN battery power supply but contemplating upgrading to either 3 AC motors as in AC-3 or
use BN 3 motors unit.

suteetat May 16, 2012 14:15

Pradeep, is there a wall mount bracket that would be strong enough for TW?
I was going to upgrade the PSU and TW also mentioned that BN 3 motors would be better than AC-3 route. Unfortunately, I have some unexpected expense so PSU will have to wait a little bit longer :(

suteetat May 16, 2012 14:06

Peterayer, sorry for the late reply, haven't been to this page in awhile. Air Tight supreme is well extended from top to bottom. The bass is not as warm or big as Dyna XV-1s but is better defined and focus. The bass is deep and tight. The high is well extended, very smooth with plenty of detail. Some of my friends think that the extension is a bit artificially enhanced, or digital like, whatever that means but I found it very pleasing and very smooth. As much as I like XV-1s, Air Tight better it in just about every way. Other cartridges I have in my system right now is a Kiseki Blue and I am in a process of burning in Koetsu Coralstone. A bit too early to tell how it would compare to Air Tight at this stage.

Khun Suchart, yes, I base in Bangkok. Let me know if you would like meet up sometimes.

suteetat March 01, 2012 06:55

Dev, thanks for the info on BM-8, yes, that definitely will fit with my budget. I do have Black Night battery controller already. I have talked with EBM quite a bit about all sorts of things including TW in the past. I think I will have to wait to hear back from TW about what they think regarding 3 AC motors vs Black Night Motors. My dealer mentioned that it may be possible to get Black Night motors. Once I know what size platform I might need then it is time to figure out the payload.

I already have some pictures of your set up when we corresponded about Reed arms many moon ago. I completely forgotten that you used Minus K platform so I went back to see the pictures and see how you set your table up :)

suteetat November 07, 2011 16:03

Dev, it is a bit confusing right now about what I should get.
Certainly using additional platform would work but weight is certainly a problem.
I think the standard Minus K BM-6 can take up to 100 Lb which
does not give much room for an extra platform. I think Raven AC by itself is already a good 80 odd lbs by my guess.
Look like I would have to go to BM-1 if I want something that can handle 150 lbs or more which would double the price!
Also now I am using AC-1 but definitely want to eventually upgrade to either AC-3 or perhaps to Black Night motor so I will need to leave enough room for either option which would mean bigger, heavier platform.
I wonder if anyone has any idea about the advantage/disadvantage of 3 motors in separate enclosure vs 3 motors in one enclosure? I talked to my local dealer and he is trying to get some information from TW about this.

suteetat November 07, 2011 07:55

Dev, thanks for the advise on using another platform on top of Minus K. That certainly will make life a bit easier (and cheaper :) ). I wonder what would be an ideal platform on top of Minus K. Aluminium, granite, maple, slate? I have some slate and granite slabs that I experimented with in the past but there are so many different kinds. Unfortunately the kind of slate I could get that could be polished did not sound as good as granite at least when I tried it on my amps.

Peter, my controller is on a separate shelf from my turntable but I have not really tried anything much as far as vibration control but I will experiment on that and see what happen.

suteetat November 07, 2011 00:01

Audioblazer, thanks for the information. I was looking into slate initially as well but locally that seems quite difficult to get a thick piece of slate and not many places can polish them until they are smooth and flat.
My local TW Acustic also suggest Minus K Platform or AudiAV which makes platform especially for TW Acustic.

Dev, you mentioned a custom made Minus K platform, is it much more expensive than the standard 18x20 size? 18x20 is certainly too small Black Night or AC-3 and a bit too small for AC-1.

Before Sakra, I was using Synergistic Research Apex. I did try Indra in my system after I got some Sakra. I think Indra is a little more forward. Sakra is a bit more full bodied, better extension especially in the bass. Since I am using mostly single ended cable (only had one pair of Sakra XLR from my old ASR day before switching to Lamm), it was a bit more affordable. Power cords are also now all Stealth Dream. Before that it was Synergistic Research Halogram A/D.
Speaker cables however are still Synergistic Research Apex as I found Stealth V10 not that much better than SR Apex speaker cables and felt it was more of a lateral move.

suteetat November 06, 2011 00:35

Peter, my TW Acustic is sitting on 10cm granite slap on steel leg. I got the granite top bench from a factory that make benches for equipment in factory. The whole thing weight a bit over 100 kg and they come to install it and level it with micron bubble level. I have not experimented with other platform yet. I think I read somewhere in the past that TW recommended using its table on a thick piece of granite.

LP is cleaned either with steam, ultrasonic bath or a Clearaudio matrix machine (or usually 2 or all 3 of the above).

suteetat October 06, 2011 02:25

Opps,forgot to mention my phono. I have 2, Lamm LP2 and Aesthetix Io Eclipse. I plan to eventually run 2 turntables, may be 2 or possibly 3 arms. However, I am waiting for another pair of Stealth Sakra to come in so I can hook up both phonos. The other turntable I have is a VPI Classic with Dyna XV-1s.

suteetat September 25, 2011 13:20

Thanks for all the compliments. NOt sure how much the elevated TV helps but since my listening is also my living room and I am a bit limited in where I can place everything so I figure out that it would not hurt. Having TV right between the speakers at the same level certainly does not help. I was also experimenting with tube trap placement behind speakers so it was a bit more convenient to have the monitor out of the way so I can place tube trap in the center as well.

suteetat September 23, 2011 04:08