Updated and Upgraded. Custom made plinth of Phenolic and aluminum. This is probably one of the best turntables in the world now! I have heard a lot, but I have heard few better!
TriPlanar VII
black and silver. I've never seen an arm so versatile and easy to setup.
Soundsmith Strain Gauge
Not moving magnet or moving coil. The best I have ever heard regardless of price.
Sony SC-D777es
sacd, 1 bit. Modded by Richard Kern in Dec 2005. added new superclock and replaced all caps with Black Gates. The sound is much less 'digital.'
Pursit Audio Design Venustus
1.5 meter interconnect.
Soundsmith (custom made) SG - 400
Phono section with line stage single input. Custom Cocabolo cabinet.
Purist Dominus, 4 meter
4 meter pair of the liquid filled Dominus between the pre-amp and amp. The best cable I have ever heard.
Atma-Sphere M 60 mk III
60 wpc class A OTL mono blocks with V-Cap Teflon caps, power supply boost, Caddock resistor package, and stainless steel front panels.
Purist Dominus PC - 2
Using two Dominus PCs on the Classe amplifier
Purist Venustus
1.5 meter pair
Harmonic Precision Caravelle
Smallish two way with the original stand.
Sistrum SP-1 (?)
I bought five shelves with the solid top for the Sota Cosmos table. This is a great rack. If a person spent twice the money they might be able to get something better, but is it twice as good? The picture is just the top shelf. [url]http://starsound.biz/multiplatforms.HTML[/url] gives more info.
Purist Venustus PCs (2)
On the Sota power supply and the Klyne power supply.
Exact Power EP15A
I don't know what this thing is doing, but it sure does it better than the Tice Power Block...
System edited: I will do a review of the new Cosmos when time allows, but anyone with a series II or III needs to seriously consider this upgrade. It makes the Cosmos on of the best tables money can buy, at a reasonable (comparitively) price.
Vetterone and I has talked about doing that trip again. I think it's hard for Cello to get away, and mostly (or totally) made the previous trip for our friend Lugnut! I'd do it, but we have to hit that record shop in FW!
When are you gonna come up here and help me set up this turntable???
Well,the turntable is back! Sota has made several substantial upgrades (more to follow) over the Cosmos series III. I have the only series V in existance! All of the complaints people have had in the past have been adressed, and compatibility issues are no longer an issue.
Unfortuantely I don't have speakers. The Caravelles are not back yet (it's my fault), but I hope they don't take as long as the Sota...
Since the only speakers I had lying around have huge chunks of surround foam missing, I am unable to finish setting up the Cosmos. The general setup is done, but tuning by ear is impossible...
Okay, now I don't have any system. The turntable is coming this week, but the speakers are going back to Harmnic Precision. Something doesn't sound quite right. I talked to Robert at RMAF and he suggested sending them back. I'll get whatever upgrades have been implimented since I bought them too.
Favorite room at RMAF? That's a good question. There were more extremes this year than I remember from last year. I don't recall having to leave any rooms last year because the sound literally hurt my ears, but this year there were three or four of them that drove me out... The Boulder/Wilson room was awful, but it was better than the Boulder/Avalon room last year, but for different reasons. After a few minutes I told Steve I had to leave...
The best rooms IME were AW Akoustik, MBL, the room with the Berning amp, and Lloyd Walkers room. The Tron gear in the first room has me seriously considering a phono stage change, along with a TT change, but again for different reasons. I won't get into that now. The new Teres table are a real improvement IMO, it'll be fun to see how they are received.
How was Italia? My wife and son are in Paris right now.
Gregadd most of the changes from stock, I did myself. The alterations to come will require a professional hand.
Well, I can see where you have been spending your time and money since you lost your SOTA. Good lookn' ride Nate! So which hobby costs more...playing dirty biker or wannabe audiophile?
System edited: The only update is a new picture of my bike. i've been spending more time with it than my system since I still don't have a turntable...
Wow Doug, Paul must be pretty handy! Can't those super powers be used for good??? It seems like you need to do something with the mass of knowledge you have aquired.
Sorry. I'm a cad. A frustrated cad, but a still a cad.
It took us from November to May to isolate our speed problem. Paul finally decided to make a diagnostic strobe disc. He spent 3-4 hours in a CAD program and came out with a disc that measures not only the normal 33.33 rpm, but also 33.03 and 33.64 rpm (1% slow, 1% fast). We then spent several evenings recording results in various operating modes to give CB some hard data. He then used Paul's disc and reproduced our results, so now it's down to trouble-shooting.
The only non-Nordost wires we've tried were Rives Audio (terrible in our system) and another brand I've forgotten (leant to us by Cello). That one closely matched our Blue Heavens but it sold for 8x the price. That convinced us to stay with the Nordost line. We do have a special problem in that our speaker positions require a flat cable than can be run across a doorway beneath the carpet. Limits our choices, but maybe that's a good thing!
My feet are still in mid-air. They're loping madly in a forward direction, but the shoes aren't making much traction yet. 1 interview per 50 applications seems to be the rule. :-(
I wonder how Purist would sound in your system. I've noticed some interesting things with the addition of the Caravelle speakers, and I'm sure the Purist has a lot to do with it. I can't wait to hear what things sound like with a TT in place. Soon, right!?!
Our Reference 2 motor began having speed consistency issues. Nothing huge, but intermittent spells of running 1% slow was not acceptable, to us or to Chris.
CB put a Signature motor (the smaller one normally supplied with 100/200 series tables) into a taller Reference case and added a ton of lead shot. It's operating perfectly while he works on the problem.
I "know" our Reference 2 is quieter than a Signature because I A/B'd them when we upgraded from a 265 to a 320. But we've made so many other upgrades since shipping off our Ref that things sound glorious even with a lesser motor. I haven't heard Purist, but we are mightily impressed by Nordost's micro-filament "air dialectric" technology. The reduction in HF smear and glare is remarkable.
From your comment on my sytem page I gather you're still table-less. Isn't it time for some of your motorcycle buds to bust a few heads in Chicago? ;-)
Ride on over and bring a record or two. We're using a motor that CB leant us while he troubleshoots ours, but at least we're spinning. Sorry to hear you're not. :-(
I had a little time yesterday so I played a CD. One of the Proto-Kaw releases.
The speakers must be breaking in because I heard this hint of the voice breaking out from the wash of music. It seemed to be seperating itself. Sounds like progress to me.
