Well, the Ultimate Turntable. I had the chance to listen to some personally. Most have one in common:
Overrated and hyped from deaf "reviewers"
And .... price tag has no direct comparison to sonic excellence ... or a lot of technical features which are good .... for nothing
It's time for the Naked Truth
....the kiss of death....
In Analog we will find everything but in my opinion, lots of those units became a Boutique Character (expensive bottle, cheap fluid inside). All those expensive units have one in common (when we look back):
GREAT Reviews, lots of Hype and at the end of Day it was more or less nothing to write home about (sonically). Some examples?
Goldmund Reference
The Mother of Hype, but the moving Arm changes Azimuth in every groove, the table itself has a good soundstage, but details are all smeared AND it destroys every cantilever after some time.
Rockport Sirius III
The American Altar, but the Arm wire inside is so stiff that the Arm can not track the inner 3 tracks properly, it skips, the only way out is to use a very heavy cartridge, but the cantilever will be destroyed very soon. And the sound is ultra thin, completely lifeless without any body. Great engineering, missing the sonic target by a mile.
Montegiro
A super expensive German Turntable 30k+, endless rave and hype and during its demo at the High End Show the bearing broke. A typical example for Boutique. Now they are available for 1/5th price, company is out of business.
Continuum
Framers Finest. I listened to it 3 times, professionally set up from the Importer.
2x it was defect and the 3 time the connected Phonostage had a problem (or the Arm wire, Phonamp, Cartridge). I always said "Mono IS interesting"
Anyway, that Company is also more or less out of Business what Australians wrote me. Buy replacement Parts NOW.
Airtangent
The Mother of of all Airliners. Super, super expensive at that time, Hype endless, bloody knees from Audiophiles - from kneeling in front of it - was normal, even more expensive with optional remote VTA....but it never worked properly. The Airflow in some areas was not constant, so..well, you can imagine...
NVS
The Mother of a "Game-Changer" Product, defect bearing while RMAF but some wrote, even with that defect bearing it sounded fantastic (great or?) and in some discussions in Seattle area some buyers wrote how happy they are now "being a member of the Club."
A pity that the thread about was deleted (the distributor did demand that)
No knowledge (from the whole Chain Manufacturer-Distributor-User) about shipping, no knowledge about platter mechanism, no damping was a result of that damage and honestly, buying a product from "Engineers" who have absolutely no idea about technical connections ...well, good luck.
Thorens Reference
The Audiophile Answer from Germany to Arnold Schwarzenegger. Heavy and it will show every visitor "Hey, I am something serious"
In real life you can get the identical sonic quality from every 2-3k$ turntable today. But the motor management is good.
Wood Arms
Well, let's face the truth, a piece of wood at a string or 'in long' for 16K$ has to be touched from God AND made from some ultra secret, mystic material, stolen
from the NASA...Energy transfer? What is THAT, we want Emotion... well, Boutique,...Geometry? Pardon, WHAT? The best bearing is no bearing... blubber...
Of course you need a 12k+++ Cartridge to get the full sonic impact the Arm is able to deliver
Linn
Well, even after 30 years they find revolutionary 'improvements'...in a way the ARC Company in analog. To catch the same customer again and again, that's brilliant. Sonically? When you want a different sound, all you have to do is to open the window... ultra BS
Of course, all owners, no matter from what expensive product, will write that their unit is an exception and is working like a charm etc. But let's face the
facts: It is the money what counts.
The wealthy Audiophile likes to show others how clever he is and what expensive units he owns, he wants the Respect to be accepted as an "Experienced Audiophile" but at the end of day, he also wants money when he sells that Sonic Wonder.
Who writes "Yes, I have that T3F, Rockport, ...and it is really inferior, but I like it?"
No one.
Kind Regards
Stitch
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