Flatty's turntable bake off...

sq225917

sq225917

Exposer of Foo
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What a great day was had by all. Andrew, Mark, `Guy, Pete, Simon, Simon, Sharif, John, Steve, Dean, Johnathan and Paul, did i miss anyone?

We had a great time listening to each others decks, and more importantly recording them all digitally so that every one of you lucky punters on ZG can tune in and hear the differences between the decks.

I'm sure Andrew will put a full thread up with more details soon, but thanks to Andrew for organising it, it was great to go to a bake off where no one had ulterior, commercial motives or was trying to push gear on the sly. ;-)

All the decks sounded great, some in different ways to others...

Video clips of each deck in action to follow.
 
Looking forward to hearing and seeing this.

Thanks for taking to time to record it, and post the results.
 
A big thank you to those who attended today - genuinely excellent company and very interesting indeed listening to all the decks - many thanks to all for making the effort.

I will post much more when I have had a little sleep :).
 
Well looking at the posts at PFM it seems to me there could be a case put for the conclusion that the amps and speakers just weren't good enough to show the differences that were there.

I just cannot believe those turntables were all the same or musically equal, it beggers belief.
 
Hi,

A big thanks to Andrew for great day. An excellent host who can cook a fine BBQ. It was good to meet up with many off Pinkfish. Good to meet new and old faces.

The session was very interesting due to the number of decks on offer. Andrew's system is something he likes very much, based around his LP12.

The main test record was a Suzanne Vega disk that was a digital recording (I think). Each deck was compared to Andrew's LP12. Other records were played as well. Most of the decks went through the new Linn phono, a few went through a Audio Innovations P2.

The Gyro deck had an SME IV & Denon DL304 sound overall good but a bit bright. I have used this cartridge before and know it can sound good. LP12 sounded more impressive presentation in comparison but the Gyro was more even toned.

The Voyd ref with Alphason arm & Audionote IO Ltd cartridge was a huge setup. This also had a Audionote stepup transformer going into the P2 phono stage. I liked this alot as it showed. I like the subtleties in the dynamics and timbre it gave to the music.

The Lenco deck with a Syrinx arm & modded Denon Dl103 had a very solid sound in the bass. This grabbed your attention. Very listenable. The LP12 was more detailed but I preferred the flow of music on the Lenco.

Phonosophie with a Thorens arm and moving magnet cartridge, sounded LP12 like. There was a brashness to the sound that was the from the limitations of the cartridge.

The SME 10 with SME V & Linn cartridge (Trokia?) sounded stable and none flashy. Neutral sounding and consistent.

WT deck & arm with a Dynavector 20X. This was the most interesting looking deck from a visual, scientific and engineering point of view. It did sound very together in it's flow of the music. Nice.

The Garrard 401 with Nottingham analogue arm and Denon DL110 cartridge had a nice solid sound, again in the bass region. This made the music flow.

You have to bear in mind that the systems that these deck will be used in will be different to Andrew's setup. Also subjective opinions will be different. The the quality of arms and cartridges varied from deck to deck.

My overall faves were the Voyd ref and the Lenco but I did enjoyed listening to all of them.

I enjoyed the relaxed gathering of the whole event. Well done Andrew.

Dean
 
Richard Dunn said:
Well looking at the posts at PFM it seems to me there could be a case put for the conclusion that the amps and speakers just weren't good enough to show the differences that were there.

I just cannot believe those turntables were all the same or musically equal, it beggers belief.
Click to expand...

Or one could conclude that you've utterly ignored what was written on the thread and come up with your own conclusions to have a go at Andrew's system. THere are plenty of statements of difference from those who attended the event, and Dean sums up my thoughts exactly.

I believe the reason that Andrew hasn't made a hard statement of which he preferred is down to his mature approach to not pushing his own products, which he obviously prefers. It was great to have so many people, including trade, at a bakeoff, especially as none of the trade members were trying to use it as a platform for their views or upcoming products.


- yeh VLC for the videos, I can upload the AVI's if anyone would prefer, twice the filesize and resolution.
 
RobHolt said:
Probably the best IM cartridge in the universe.

Look after it!

A crying shame that Technics and the other big Japanese companies no longer participate in this market.

Welcome BTW :)
Click to expand...


You really, really need to look after the EPC 205. It can collapse. Shame, because there's nothing like it at all.
 
That one looks to have a third party stylus.
The original was Gold with 'Technics' on the front.
 
Richard Dunn said:
Well looking at the posts at PFM it seems to me there could be a case put for the conclusion that the amps and speakers just weren't good enough to show the differences that were there.

I just cannot believe those turntables were all the same or musically equal, it beggers belief.
Click to expand...

A somewhat predictable post Richard!

They were not all equal and the system was good enough to resolve the differences. You were not present so any comments about the system or sound are not valid in any way, shape or form.

Listen to the needledops, after that feel free to choose which you think is the best sound. The differences in the decks were easy to hear on the recordings as a quick test at the end proved.

Try not to always piss on everything I do, its just a bit tedious TBH.

14 blokes had a great time, nuff said!
 
How does a Phonosophie differ from the Thorens original - presumably a TD320/321?
 
I was very impressed with the suspension on the Phonosophie (Thorens). I was already aware of the leaf spring and thread arrangement that it uses, but I was still surprised how effective it actually was - inherently stable and very easy to adjust (from above)
 

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