i would characterize and quantify the change caused by the Durand Record Weight as a small (not tiny) effect with large consequences. when you are already at high resolution something that makes peaks more natural, or focuses vocals better, or defines bass notes better, or simply gives you more a sense of musical flow, has lots of value even though it is subtle in degree of change.

Durand Record Weight

picture 1

picture 2

picture 3

mikelavigne April 28, 2013 12:45

over the last year Joel Durand has brought over prototypes of a record weight he has been working on a few times, trying various designs and various materials. as i understanded it; his intentions were to make sure that this record weight would 'subtract nothing' from the performance and 'to guarantee that the record is in the best contact with the platter'.

i think he has succeeded in his efforts to build a record weight that only helped. and yesterday he delivered my new Durand Record Weight.

up till now i have had three choices for playing records on my NVS turntable; nude, with the NVS clamp and spacer, and with an Extremephono mat. all three approaches are good, but of the three i have preferred the Extremephono mat, which is 2 part.....a carbon fibre upper and foam pad lower. and i have been quite happy with the mat. it was the most lively and focused of the three approaches.

i own one other tt weight (Thorens Stabilizer--really sucks!) and have tried many over the years and never have liked any of them. 'nude' has always sounded best to my ears...until now.

the Durand Record Weight adds focus, energy and naturalness. i love the textural detail, the added snap and leading edge definition, while adding naturalness and never sounding brighter or edgy. it adds body and harmonic richness to all the tiny details, fleshing them out. i think it does this by removing resonance from the record. Joel left yesterday at 4pm and i continued to listen until 1am, then was listening again this morning. i love it when every record is newly better in a good way.

i can only comment on how it works with my Durand Telos tonearm with the Ortofon Anna cartridge on my NVS turntable; i've not tried it on other set-ups.

mikelavigne April 28, 2013 11:53

Congrats, Pradeep! Look forward to reading all about them!

lloydelee21 April 22, 2013 13:42

Mike
Would love to visit ....someday, hopefully. Teck is a dear friend.
Lloyd
Yup the Wavacs....sometime in early May
All the best
Pradeep

sunnyboy1956 April 22, 2013 08:30

Pradeep,

yes; Teck is a frequent visitor and friend....and he has assisted me in tweaking the new MM7 speakers. he mentioned that you will not be able to resist the Telos. i think he is right. :)

maybe sometime you could visit us up here in the Northwest.

the CJ GAT sounds like a wonderful preamp; congrats. recently i did have the CJ LP140M monoblocks in my room for a few months.....but i don't see any current product CJ 150 watt monoblocks. i know CJ does have it's own synergy between amps and pre's.

mikelavigne April 22, 2013 06:22

wow...big news Sunnyboy. Congrats on CJ GAT! What is the 150 watt SET...Wavac?

lloydelee21 April 22, 2013 00:56

Mike
Many thanks. Really appreciate your response. I hope to audition the ADS soon.
The Aviors are superb speakers. Many changes on my audio horizon : a CJ GAT followed by a pair of 150 wpc SET mono blocs.
Do you recall Teck, my Singapore friend, who spends time in Seattle?
Cheers and all the best
Pradeep

sunnyboy1956 April 21, 2013 20:24

hello Pradeep,

thanks for the kind comments.

the Talea 2 tonearm you are enjoying is amazing in it's own right, and really digs so much musical nuance and listening pleasure from the grooves. then the Telos takes you to another place beyond. when you do it you will not regret the decision, but you are already in a very very good place.

as far as the Audio Desk compared to the Loricraft PRC4 Dlx; i strongly recommend both if one can afford and have room for both. the Audio Desk does a great job for everyday cleaning and is ridiculously easy to use. one button, come back in 5-8 minutes and the Lp is clean and dry. the PRC4 Dlx is perfect for the use of multi-step chemical treatments and intense scrubbing for specific problem discs. but it takes lots of time, and takes you away from the music. to me the Loricraft is more the support machine for the 1%-2%-5% of discs that need extordinary attention.

this is not to say that the PRC4 Dlx gets a record cleaner than the Audio Desk becuase i've not had that experience. it's simply that the PRC4 does allow for more agressive approaches. with the Audio Desk you can extend the cleaning/scrubbing cycle from a couple of minutes to 6-7 minutes buy pressing the button multiple times. i've done as many as 7 'beeps' to extend the cleaning time. or you can run the record thru multiple times.

the Audio Deck is much more complimentary to assisting the enjoyment of our wonderful hobby. even though early examples of the Audio Desk had issues, that is no longer the case. if i had to choose one; it's not close.....it would be the Audio Desk in a runaway.

bottom line; i've not used the Loricraft in almost 3 months.....i use the Audio Desk almost every day.

btw; congrats on the Rockport Avior speakers, i heard them at the Newport show (i think that was the model) last year and really enjoyed them. and Andy's products are always so beautifully built.

mikelavigne April 21, 2013 09:16

Mike
Congratulations on an awesome system and room. This is the pinnacle of every audiophile dream. Wow you have a 2nd Telos. Someday hopefully I might venture to a Telos.
How do you compare the Loricraft to the Audio Desk Systeme cleaner ? If you had to choose one, which would it be ? I have a PRC 4 Dlx and am seriously considering the Audio Desk. Any advice/comments will be appreciated.
Have a great weekend
Pradeep

sunnyboy1956 April 21, 2013 04:48

Funny thread about Fremer's review of the Anna. Boy, it is like a lynch mob over there. It is a shame that no one over there has even heard it. Boy would they be acting differently.

jtinn April 17, 2013 22:24

just got the May/June issue of Absolute Sound, which has a Jonathan Valin review of the Ortofon MC Anna cartridge.

it seems he thought it did not suck.

enjoyable read; and the MC Anna was set-up by Andre Jennings, a recent (last summer) visitor to my room.

mikelavigne April 08, 2013 19:12

Sure Mike, understood. What I'm finding is that the role of noise, or rather lack of, can really define a system. I live in a semi industrial area of East London, in a work-live loft apartment block. There is broadband internet going on all day in most every apartment, internet booster stations and sattelite/cable relay masts nearby, and light industrial units adjacent. In other words, a lot of noise, hash and grunge in the mains.
When I ran my Burmester conditioner, the unit had an led display showing moment to moment voltage. Nominal 230V was never achieved. No, it varied from 210V to 250V ie a +/-10% variation, much too much for most audio transformers/power supplies to cope with. On moving to balanced power, the variation shrank to +/-1%. And the sound quality of the system took a major step up.
I believe the earthing improvements have taken the effects of balanced power, and moved that improvement further to the positive - not only has voltage loading on delicate audio equipment been stabilised, but the hash and noise swilling around the system has been drained right out of the system to an earth isolated from the polluted domestic supply.
What I love about this is that the inherent nature of the sound remains unchanged, with a wholesale lift in quality equivalent to a system overhaul. And all at a fraction of the cost.
I really would recommend that anyone hitting a logjam in their system enjoyment, improve the power/earthing before ditching current equipment and upgrading.

spiritofmusic April 08, 2013 16:40

hi Marc (Spiritofmusic),

thanks for the info on the Entreq/Tellis earthing system. no doubt that it has the potential to bring sonic benefits depending on the system, and it certainly is more reasonably priced than the full blown Tripoint system.

i must admit to no longer being 'hungry' to agressively pursue performance increases. my system is simply sounding so good that i'm only putting effort into finding and enjoying new music these days. not that my system can't get better, only that whether it does or not is just not that important to me. it's 'good enough'. i'm satisfied.

which does not mean i'm not open to someone doing the work to expose me to new things. and if i hear something that pushes things further who knows, i might go for it. i'm not smug that things are perfect, i'm just happy with what i have.

right now the only thing i have on my agenda is a visit from the speaker designer to do a final set-up on the speakers, as my speakers and amps are now quite a ways down the break-in road.

i'm not in any way questioning your feelings about the Entreq/Tellis earthing system, i'm happy for you that it improves performance in your system.

mikelavigne April 08, 2013 09:26

Geoff,

thanks for the catch. i'm not the best I.E. navigator. when i went to post that, mother Audiogon 'said' i had to log back in, so i cut and pasted my post. somehow when i did that it switched links.

here is the correct one (i hope);

Jeffrey Jackson designed the huge time-aligned horn system while Ming Su was on hand as importer of the Goto Unit compression drivers used by Jeffrey.

mikelavigne April 08, 2013 05:34

Sorry, the word I tried to type is "regarding". What's wrong with this coffee? ;-)

Regards,

metralla April 08, 2013 03:27

mikel writes:

have heard the big Goto Horns. back in 2008 at VSAC (Vacuum Tube State of the Art Conference) in Vancouver, Washington State. scroll down a little on this link

That link is wrong. It's the one you posted on AA rearding eBay sales to Italy.

Regards,

metralla April 08, 2013 03:25

Hi Mike, I've just had a really interesting experience with the Entreq/Tellus earthing system. It's a passive non powered box full of minerals and an earth plate which provides a clean earth independent of mains borne hash etc, with an interconnect in my case to an unused input jack on the preamp, total price US equivalent $2500-3000. It's aim is to eliminate, or drain away, RF/EMI/other mains noise, and in this respect is a complement to my balanced power transformer which does such a good job already at minimising noise.
Amazing improvement after bedding in - soundstage deepened dramatically, and intriguingly, vinyl surface noise is really supressed. I would say the level of the change is on a par with the positives achieved by going from a conditioner to balanced power, which was an eye (ear) opener in my system.
This area gets v. little, if any, discussion, and at a fraction of the cost of similar approaches (ie Tripoint), is a really cost effective system wide upgrade.
Would love to know if an uber system with OTT balanced power like yours would still show scope for improvement with improved earthing. I think it could well do.

spiritofmusic April 08, 2013 02:34

hi Chris,

nice to hear from you.

i'm doing great. my new speakers and new amps have mostly broken in and i have dialed them in to a degree, my vinyl set-up is 'out of this world' good, i'm enjoying lots of dsd and hirez PCM files from my server and dac, and things are really sounding wonderful.

and yes; i have heard the big Goto Horns. back in 2008 at VSAC (Vacuum Tube State of the Art Conference) in Vancouver, Washington State. scroll down a little on this link.

Jeffrey Jackson designed the huge time-aligned horn system while Ming Su was on hand as importer of the Goto Unit compression drivers used by Jeffrey

i was impressed by what i heard in many ways; it was very dynamic and lively. it was 5 years ago now so other than 'i liked it' i can't remember the details of that expereince. i don't recall that it was enough to cause me to want to go that way.....but i did enjoy it.

mikelavigne April 07, 2013 08:34

Hi Mike, how are you doing? I would like to ask you about the following.
A few months ago I got the change to listen to a G.I.K. Western Electric/Goto horn system in The Netherlands (where I live).
I must say it was definitively an impressive experience. The impact of such a system is immense. Although the sound was loud, there was also a feeling of genuineness, something which is almost real.
Have you ever considered such a system? Have you heard a G.I.K. or vintage Western Electric set up?

Best Regards,
Chris Hie (Netherlands)
[email protected]

dazzdax April 06, 2013 17:29

System edited: added picture and a listing for the second Durand Telos tonearm (replacing the Durand Talea 2) and added a picture for the Sapphire cartridge plate for my original Telos.

mikelavigne April 06, 2013 08:25

Madness, well lock me up in Mike's room and throw away the key!

i call that a 'fine madness'.....where the world only exists in the music in the room. you get lost in it.

unfortunately....typically then the phone vibrates.

yes Honey??? trust me, after 40 years of marriage i have my prioties correct.

:-)

mikelavigne March 24, 2013 16:24

hi Peter,

it was a pleasure to meet David last week, we had a fun session. great music and a very fun and knowledgable guy to spend time with. too bad you were not here too.....maybe another time. i hope so. i was also disappointed that my Telos was not in-house that night so David could hear it as i think my vinyl gets most into the soul of the music and the real heart of my system. we were stuck with only mono vinyl, hirez digital, and that crummy 15ips 1/4" tape. we muddled through anyway.

best regards and enjoy the music!

mikelavigne March 24, 2013 16:16

Madness, well lock me up in Mike's room and throw away the key!

philb7777 March 24, 2013 15:24

Well Mike, it's a good thing that for those who have been lucky enough to hear your system, you do indeed take the system, room and set up seriously. I know you enjoy too.

peterayer March 24, 2013 14:48

You must have gone MAD to have such a systems.

i suppose one man's "bliss" is another man's "gone MAD". i'm just trying to have fun, enjoy the music, and not take myself too seriously.

cheers.

mikelavigne March 24, 2013 12:40