Hello Moonglum,
I'm asking for academic reasons which was not clear from my question. I have just read the review of the Bardo in Stereophile, my friend owns the Raven 1 and I own the SME 10 with the SME V arm. From the superficial appearance they would seem to be similar with the exception of the Direct Drive of the Bardo. I mean they are suspensionless, medium mass, skeletal designs selling for $8-10K (I think), so I'm curious if they sound strikingly different from each other. I realize it would be difficult to separate the influence of the arm, cartridge, and cable and then set up each one optimally with loading etc. I guess I'm also a bit curious if a potential buyer could even find an opportunity to directly compare these tables to each other.
I'm just curious, that's all. I have no immediate plans to upgrade my TT.
I'm asking for academic reasons which was not clear from my question. I have just read the review of the Bardo in Stereophile, my friend owns the Raven 1 and I own the SME 10 with the SME V arm. From the superficial appearance they would seem to be similar with the exception of the Direct Drive of the Bardo. I mean they are suspensionless, medium mass, skeletal designs selling for $8-10K (I think), so I'm curious if they sound strikingly different from each other. I realize it would be difficult to separate the influence of the arm, cartridge, and cable and then set up each one optimally with loading etc. I guess I'm also a bit curious if a potential buyer could even find an opportunity to directly compare these tables to each other.
I'm just curious, that's all. I have no immediate plans to upgrade my TT.