Musings Goes Analogue - Part One

Regular readers will know that the Musings home system is dominated by streaming, using a Linn Klimax DS as the main source.  Prior to streaming the main sources were a mix of CD using a Meridian 508.20 and vinyl on a Linn Sondek LP12 / Ittok / Dynavector 20HX.  Both of these primary sources were sold to fund the Linn streamer as it offered a far better musical experience than either CD or vinyl.

Linn LP12 on the left and Meridian 508.20 on the right - the peak of vinyl and CD in Musings' home system approx 3 years ago

Current main source - Linn Klimax DS streamer

I then sold the majority of vinyl to fund the purchase of the Majik 140 speakers, but retained a few albums that are either of sentimental value or are part of a small collection which took a while to build.  So a turntable was still required for those very rare occasions when I wanted to play one of those albums, or someone else brought some vinyl along to sample some music.  Besides, any decent system needs a turntable or it just doesn't seem complete to me (now, pass me the pipe and slippers please...).  So a few weeks of browsing on ebay netted a very dusty but fully functional Thorens TD280 MkII which I cleaned up and fitted with a brand new Goldring Elektra MM cartridge.  The cart cost nearly 3 times what I paid for the deck, even though its very much a budget cart!  There's a bit more information on the Thorens in this post.  So Thorens is the current state of vinyl replay in the system.  Its very much a plastic, low cost, functional piece of kit that makes a reasonable sound and nothing more.

Current state of vinyl replay - Thorens TD280 MkII and Goldring Elektra MM cartridge

The Thorens is very much plug and play - you put it on the table, hook up the belt, set up the cartridge and away you go.  It even has auto lift / stop at the end of play.  It looks respectable and descreet, so I suppose it fulfils my needs for a turntable pretty well.  And yet...

Although the streamer is an amazing piece of kit - producing the best SQ I've heard in several systems, once you've spent time (around 18 months of elapsed time in my case) ripping CDs, correcting metadata, sourcing good quality album art etc. etc., its a pretty uninteresting bit of hifi.  There's nothing to mess about with, it just gets on with the job of playing music superbly, and looking pretty (to my eyes at least).  Turntables are more interactive and involving (I mean physically, not necessarily musically).

Here's the premise then:  is there a low cost way to mess about with a "proper" turntable for a while, something that is more in keeping with the rest of the system, that doesn't break the bank and offers the opportunity to "mess about a bit" with it as a piece of kit?  And how will it compare to the super budget priced Thorens?

Some will know about the controversy that surrounds the birth of the Sondek LP12 turntable.  I think there's less doubt that Ivor Tiefenbrun really lead the "source first" campaign in the hifi World in the mid 1970s and his LP12 turntable definitely contributed to that message.  But there is more controversy about how original the LP12 design is, when it looks so conceptually and mechanically similar to the original AR turntable.  And the Thorens turntables.  And the Ariston turntables.  Now I wasn't interested in hifi at the time (I was more interested in riding my bike, playing cops and robbers and avoiding kids who wanted to play football at the time) so I wasn't there and I don't know the whole story, but it adds a bit of context.

What happened next was the availability on the market of a couple of very reasonably priced turntables that just happened to come from the same manufacturer.  Both are suspended sub-chassis designs with precision bearings, a wood plinth and a stainless steel top plate.  Both also have high mass platters and belt drive from an AC motor.  But given that the LP12 retains its value ridiculously well, neither of these turntables are from Linn.  In fact, they are from Ariston Audio.

So I now have an RD11S turntable with no arm, and an RD80SL fitted with a Linn LVX (Basik) tonearm.  I've sourced another 2 new Goldring Elektra cartridges, a Rega RB202 arm and some enthusiasm to build them up and to compare them against the Thorens.

I'll document in posts here about the builds of each turntable, then the comparisons between the 3 decks.

Part 2 here
Part 3 here
Part 4 here

Chester Show 2014 - Kudos, Naim, Bauer and Linn

 

Well, yet again, Kudos provided an excellent sounding system.  Whilst not in the league of the Classe / B&W system in terms of scale and detail retrieval, it was equally musical and very much a room you'd want to sit and spend some time in.

Sources were Bauer DPS turntable / Naim Aro arm / Dynvector XV1 or a Linn KDS/1 into a SuperNait amp and the not yet released Kudos X3 floorstanders.

We listened to Blues Company's Dark Day on the streamer and London Grammar's Hey Now on the turntable.  Both tracks were utterly compelling to listen to and fully enjoyable in all the usual hifi terms, but also on the basis of a musical performance worth paying attention to.  You may know that my local Naimist has the Kudos Super 20 speakers and they're a decent listen, and these X3s are clearly from the same stable and are effectively a baby Super 20 in the way they sound and perform.

Available from July 2014 they're just under £2200 a pair.  Note that the speaker cables feeding them (Chord Sarum Array) were about twice the price of the speakers themselves...

End of an Era

How long should you hang on to something that you aspired to, but no longer use?

Deep philosophy?  Not really, just one of the thoughts that went into a pretty significant decision for me.  The item in question is my Linn Sondek LP12.  About 7 years ago, it was a major upgrade from a Thorens TD160 MkII with a Mayware Formula IV Mk3 arm.  Full spec of the LP12 on "previously cherished" purchase was:

- Black Ash corner braced plinth
- Trampolin base
- Latest springs and gromets
- AC motor
- Valhalla power supply
- Cirkus bearing
- Linn Ittok LVII arm
- Dynavector DV20HX high output moving coil cartridge
- Clear lid
- Rega felt mat

As I said, a major upgrade from the Thorens and sounding rather good in comparison - excellent timing, super smooth sweet treble and clear, open vocals.  A bit of the well-known lower mid / upper bass muddiness too.

After about 3 years something went horribly wrong in the power supply / motor department - with the motor just juddering and not turning.  Not being sure if it was a motor or Valhalla fault I did some research and didn't really find out anything conclusive except for one thing - everyone (including some hifi mags) who had tried an Origin Live DC motor kit were raving about how much better it makes the LP12 sound, so I took the plunge.  I have to concur with the reviews I'd seen - it adds dynamics and removes much of the upper bass muddiness, so an excellent upgrade.  Some say this is better than a Lingo, but I've never done a back to back comparison, so I can't comment.

Its probably worth mentioning here that I don't have a huge collection of vinyl - probably under 200 discs (albums and 12" singles) so the LP12 has always been a bit of an indulgent luxury.  As for sound, I find that the LP12 does sweet treble smoothness and female vocals better than the Meridian 508.20 CD player, but CD does much better control of the bass lines and is far more dynamic - so each have their compromises and its difficult to say which is better, but I find myself listening to CD much more because I have a much larger collection of disks.

Which brings us to the point at which I've now got a streaming device (Logitech Squeezebox Touch and Cyrus DAC-X) that outperforms the CD and the LP12.  Given the visit to the hifi shop where we heard the lowest "proper" Linn streamer, the Majik DS outperform the Touch / Cyrus DAC-X and working out that I have played vinyl about 3 times so far in 2011, then the need to keep the LP12 became quite difficult to justify.  Its a great looking bit of kit and makes for a "proper" and complete hifi system so it took me a few weeks to work from the logical conclusion through the illogical and irrational desire to keep the deck and finally arrive at a decision.

So the LP12 went up on ebay to generate some funds to buy a high quality streamer and has found a new home with someone who has had a lower spec Sondek in the past and is going back to his vinyl collection.  Great to see that its gone to a caring and very happy new owner.  I wish it well for the future and hope that it now give someone lots of great music listening sessions rather than just collecting dust in our house.