Newsletter October 2006

NEWSLETTER

October 2006

Dear hi fi enthusiast

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In This Issue
Recent News	Graham Slee Projects CuSat interconnects
PRO-JECT RPM5 turntable review	Rothwell in-line RCA attenuators
TCM Conductor tonearm installation	Rothwell Indus passive pre-amp
	Rothwell moving coil transformer
Recent Additions to the Website	sh Linn Sondek LP12/SME 3009
Nickel plated version of VTAF	sh Luxman A522 belt drive turntable/Grace 707
The CartridgeMan’s MusicMaker Classic	sh Luxman PD290 direct drive turntable
Garrott Optim Ruby FGS	sh Pro-Ject 6.1 turntable
Audio Technica OC9MLII m/coil phono cartridge

Recent News

The popular Sonic Impact T-Amps are still out of stock with a new shipment now not expected until November. I am not sure of the reason, or if there will be any changes to its design or pricing. In the meantime there is plenty of stock of the Super T-Amp, which at $275 represents outstanding value for money.

Pete Riggle has announced a nickel plated version of his popular VTAF upgrade. It is priced at $264 incl. GST.

The Garrott Lab has released a new version of their popular Optim FGS moving magnet phono cartridge. Named the Optim Ruby FGS it features a solid ruby cantilever and sells for a very reasonable $1320. It has a nicer, less clinical sound than the normal FGS but still the excellent tracking ability and resolution retrieval. There are special prices for upgrading from Optim S2 or FGS.

The Cartridge Man has also released a new version of his MusicMaker III cartridge. Named the MusicMaker Classic it features pure silver coils. It’s just the thing to mount in his new Conductor parallel tracking air-bearing tonearm. Here’s an excerpt from the review at www.stereotimes.com . “It was sledgehammer obvious that the new MusicMaker Classic is something special and something great. The Classic can be best understood as an ultra high-resolution version of the MusicMaker III. It takes all the wonderful sonic and musical performance aspects of that cartridge, builds on them, and extends them toward their apotheosis. The Classic’s balance of natural timbre, realistic stereophony, and simply spell-binding replication of the What and How of instrumental playing leads to a musically communicative immersion into the art of the music that is unparalleled in my 34-year history with phono cartridges.”

Price in Australia is $2585 incl. GST and includes an Isolator, but it is in very limited supply.

TNT Audio has done a review of The Conductor parallel tracking air-bearing tonearm http://www.tnt-audio.com/sorgenti/conductor_e.html .

Rothwell Audio Products is a new supplier. We initially have only their In-Line RCA Attenuators in stock, but there are several other products that look very interesting – particularly the moving coil step-up transformer and passive pre-amplifier. Here’s the link to Andrew Rothwell’s website http://www.rothwellaudioproducts.co.uk/html/hifi_products.html . Musicians may also be interested in his Guitar products – we can supply anything from his range..

Boston Audio (makers of the popular Mat1) have revised their range of TuneBlocks (for vibration absorption). There are now 5 models – TuneBlock SE, Standard XT, Standard, Mini, and S for speakers. For full details take this link http://www.boston-audio.com/tuneblocks.htm . Australian pricing is still being calculated.

All types of record sleeves are now in stock. They are now sold in packs of 25, and there is a 10% discount for orders of 100 or more (can be mixed types). There is 20% discount for 500 or more. We can also do special quotes for quantities of 1000 or more.

PRO-JECT RPM5 turntable

What a great product! This will appeal to someone who wants a turntable that looks great, is complete with tonearm so you don’t have to go through the process of setting one up, is reasonably priced, and sounds great. I have tried one out over the last few weeks with a variety of cartridges and can report that the tonearm seems to match well with all that I have tried including the MusicMaker III.

Why do I think this is such a good buy? For the base price of $847 including GST this is what you get -

- The chassis is 28mm thick MDF and beautifully finished in dark grey piano gloss lacqeur.

- It stands on three height-adjustable rubber-damped aluminium cones. These can be rotated to change height so that the turntable can be set up to be exactly level.

- The quiet running synchronous AC motor has a two step metal pulley (for 33 or 45 rpm) and drives the hub and platter via a flat-ground rubber belt.

- The motor is decoupled from the plinth to reduce vibration transmission.

- The power supply is external to avoid potential electro-mechanical interference. It also means you can easily upgrade to the Pro-Ject SpeedBox, an electronic speed controller.

- The resonance-optimised platter is a sandwich construction utilizing the hub, a medium density fibre platter, a cork mat (a standard felt mat is also supplied) and a screw-down record clamp.

- The platter’s low tolerance chrome-plated stainless steel axle runs on a Teflon bearing plate in a sintered bronze bearing housing.

- A central metal block in the platter optimizes the centre of gravity and damps the main bearing.

- The tonearm is a tapered carbon-fibre tube (avoids internal reflections) – low mass, rigid, with a low mass aluminium headshell. The effective length is 9” (229 mm).

- The horizontal and vertical bearings are hardened stainless steel points in sapphire thrust pads.

- Steel rings provide very solid arm bearing housings. The outside ring is open to avoid resonances.

- The counterweight is decoupled to effectively counteract unwanted resonances.

- The counterweight supplied is suitable for cartridges weighing between 6 – 10g. Alternative counterweights are available for cartridges that a lighter or heavier.

- The counterweight shaft is lowered to the record level to reduce cantilever forces and dynamic wow when playing warped records.

- The internal wiring consists of flexible high-purity copper from the headshell right through to the gold-plated RCA sockets.

- Heavy duty RCA interconnects are provided, and can be easily substituted if you want to upgrade.

- The tonearm pillar height is easily adjusted to allow for different turntable mat thickness, and varying the vertical tracking angle, or accommodating The Cartridgeman’s Isolator.

- A single screw fixes the armtube and allows it to be rotated to set the stylus vertical orientation.

- The silicon-damped armlift can be adjusted to suit the working height of the tonearm.

So what are bad points? About the only one that is obvious is that there is no dust cover. But we’ve fixed that by providing a universal dust cover for FREE.

Being a new model there is virtually no stock in Australia, EXCEPT we have 3 available right now and have the following special offers.

1. With the base model (no cartridge) for $847 you receive a FREE dust cover and FREE spirit level.

2. With an Audio Technica AT440MLa cartridge there is a $77 discount off the price of the cartridge plus you still get the free dust cover and spirit level. The cartridge is also aligned in the headshell and the vertical tracking angle set correctly. So all you have to do when you receive it is attach the counterweight and set the tracking pressure. The special price is $990 including GST.

3. With a Garrott Optim Super II cartridge there’s a $132 discount, so the special price is $1265 and you still get the freebies. This is a combination I thoroughly recommend.

If there’s another combination you would prefer and you want to check if there is special pricing available please send an email request to enquiry@decibelhifi.com.au .

Tradeins are welcome, but there’s only 3 available until the next shipment arrives in late November.

Installing The CartridgeMan’s Conductor parallel tracking air-bearing tonearm

This is one for the real enthusiast. Why would you bother with a tonearm that has bits of wire hanging off it. You can’t use your tuntable cover. Has a WAF (wife acceptance factor) of -1. Has a blue air tube going across the room and disappearing behind the door of an adjacent room. Why? Because it sounds brilliant that’s why!

I was excited to unpack the parcel from The Cartridge Man. The tonearm itself comes in a wooden presentation box, and the manual is excellent, with plenty of photos and precise instructions. Also in the parcel was an aquarium pump, perspex pressure tank, and about 10 metres of blue plastic tubing.

I decided to mount it on my Alamo turntable as it was already drilled for a Rega tonearm and I had ordered the Conductor with a Rega mounting pillar.

Assembling the pieces of the tonearm together was straightforward although there’s a series of holes and about 8 different positions for the mounting plate on the bottom of the airbeam support rail. There doesn’t seem to be any alternative to trial and error to find the right position. Fortunately it is easy enough to change its position later.

Once the arm structure is mounted on the plinth it’s time to attach the carbon fibre arm wand to the sliding airbeam tube. The clamp which does this allows the length of the arm tube to be changed and also enables the tube to be twisted to ensure the stylus and cantilever are perfectly vertical.

The internal Incognito tonearm wires exit from the arm wand in an unconstrained manner and are terminated with two high quality RCA sockets on a mounting plate which has to be bolted to the rear of the airbeam assembly.

Next the tubing for the air supply is attached to the ends of the airbeam, and via a Y piece to the long length of tubing that goes to the smoothing tank. From there several short pieces and 3 Y pieces connect the tank to the pump. The pump makes enough noise to be annoying when listening to quiet passages of music so is best located behind a closed door.

With the pump turned on the arm tube slides across the bearing with so little friction that the slightest off horizontal setting will have it moving to the low side. The pillar mount has 4 grub screws to adjust for this although I found I did not need to use them.

At this stage I found that the position of the airbeam on the mounting pillar did not allow the arm to move across a record properly and had to change the position several times before I had it positioned so that the arm cleared the edge of an LP and also went all the way to the inner grooves.

The cartridge was installed at the end of the armtube next. The headshell is much thicker than most so longer than normal bolts were needed. Setting the stylus tracking weight requires a stylus pressure gauge – the counterweight is simple slid forward or backwards to achieve the tracking weight desired.

A template is provided to make sure the cartridge slides along a radius from the edge of an LP to the centre and the angle of the arm across the plinth plus the length of the armtube have to be adjusted to get that right. The photo shows the final positioning. The height of the pillar also has to be adjusted for the correct vertical tracking angle but this is very easy because a single Allen bolt allows it to slid upwards.

I found the RCA sockets seemed to be larger than most and was unable to get some RCA plugs into them, but Eichmann bullet plugs were OK. And finally, the sound. There was a noticeably wider sound stage and great depth of stereo image (in fact way out past the tower speakers I use, and well behind the wall they stand against). Is this the best tonearm I have ever heard? – without a doubt. In fact I suspect the rest of my system isn’t good enough to really demonstrate what it is capable of. But it’s not for everyone. Some will consider it impractical. Most won’t be prepared to pay that much ($3300) for a tonearm. But I bet that anyone who buys one despite those considerations will be absolutely delighted.

There’s a new review of The Conductor here http://www.tnt-audio.com/sorgenti/conductor_e.html . For more information there’s a great series of photos at this site http://www.soundscapehifi.com/cartridgeman-conductor.htm . I am also willing to send a scanned copy of the instruction manual to anyone who would like to see it – just send an email request to enquiry@decibelhifi.com.au .

Yours mellifluously

Brian Maddern

enquiry@decibelhifi.com.au

PO Box 536, Sunnybank, Qld 4109

Phone: 61 (0) 7 3344 5756 Fax 3344 5756

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