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In the Forum: Analog Playback
In the Thread: Ultimate Turntable
Post Subject: Owning a expensive TurntablePosted by Romy the Cat on: 5/12/2014
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 Stitch wrote:
None of these owners bought it because they can hear a difference, they are absolutely not interested in that and they have absolutely no idea about it!! They bought it as a toy and to get a position in an audiophile community as a well respected, "experienced Audiophile".
Yes, I think from many perspectives you are right: most of owner of high flying TT do not have any idea of sonic identity of own turntables. However, to be honest I need to say that it is incredibly hard to give an objective judgment about a TT sonic capacity. I have seen/herd many different installations with different turntables involved and I need to say that in many instances listening a complete installation I could with more or less high degree of probably to say what let say cartridge, amp, cable or driver is being used. I however never was able to make a guess about TT. Partially it is because I do not have an experience to personally use different turntables. I got my RX-8000 14 years back and since then I did not play home any other TT besides a few experiments with RS-5000. However the largest part of that meaning "Partially" is juts because it is very hard to extrapolate sound of TT out of sound of complete system .
 
I presume that somebody who all their life deal with setting up and playing turntables might have opportunity to talk about the "sound of turntables" credibly but the problem is that the quality of the people who do it professionally is very low. If you see a dirty homeless person on the street, laying in a pull of own urine then you would not have an interest for this man to read a lecture to your kids about hygiene, would you? The very same with the "pro" people - they are some subordinated to wrong things that it is in a way acts like brain virus. I spoke a few years ago over a phone with a guy who in order to convince that he had upper hand in debate we had informed me that he have already set up in his live 26.000 turntables (it was 26 thousands). I asked him that since he presumably sitting up 8 turntables a day then does he has time in his live to read books, go to theaters or juts to do anything other than  BS other about turntables?
 
So, I generally very much not at ease when people talk about "turntable sound". Yes, bad turntables have own sound but many turntables do not have own sound until you push them. I have a friend right here in Boston. He is mostly jazz listener and has playback based upon small Canadian monitors. He has a custom made Thorens in big wooden box. It is known contraction for all intended purpose it shall not be considered as "Ultimate Turntable" or even "reputed turntable". However, I do very much like his turntable and I feel that it would be criminally stupid for him to change it for anything "better". The performance of that turntable is very much NOT limiting factor of that installation and the whole experience of that listening room is very pleasurable. My rule #1 of audio:

http://www.goodsoundclub.com/Forums/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=432

... I never demoted and I feel that in context of my friend audio demands the performance of his TT is very very good, in fact he would need much different round of playback, music and room complexity to feel that his TT might be underperforming.

Here is we hit a very interesting point that I would like to explain. I naturally see a connection between the quality of feedback about turntables and the overall amount of affords a person  spend for own playback setup. I might not know difference between two specific turntables abut I do know, like few others, the efforts a person shall spend with his/her installation in order to accomplish this or that quantifiable result. It has not only to do with amount of purposefully used equipment but most important a depth of subjects understanding. Many thing in audio is unavoidable. You might have money/lack to accidently buy out an unreasonably smart solution for your given playback but it still will take inescapable listening time for the system owner to understand what/how to listen.

So, what it has to do with my assessment of other people comments regarding turntables? Well, it is a very direct relation. When I see an parson with let say Continuum turntable and a set of ported speakers where drivers are made from toilet paper then I have a very un-confused answer about the person relationship between sound, demands and turntables. A better turntable is an enabler in my view and it pushes the owner to explore in his/her playback expression the horizons that would not be available by other turntables. That is how I see the things. I do understand what I person pushes let say one specific aspect of sound reproduction further and further and then  release that he is impotent to push it further as his TT act as a limited factor. THAT and ONLY that I would recognize as a sensible feedback about high-flying turntables.

Rgs, Romy the Cat

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