About 6 months ago my loving wife was kind enough to suggest it might be time to get a better cartridge as we were listening to a lot of records. Now we all know what she really meant was that I needed a new turntable and she just got the terms confused. 😉
So I rolled the dice on a SAM Reference to bump up my analog game.
I have around 2500 LPs, primarily classic Jazz (from big band to Miles), but plenty of rock, pop and a good spattering of classical. With that size of a collection, it made a lot of sense to get a decent turntable to enjoy it with.
My system consists of a Daville DSPNexus which I used to make my GR-Research NX-Tremes and 3x12" open baffle subs fully active. The DSPNexus also serves as my DAC, pre-amp and RIAA phono stage. My current cartridge is a denon dl-103 which has a Parks Audio SUT between it and the Nexus. Finally I have Topping PA5s driving the woofers, mids and tweeters, and Rythmik servo amps on the subs.
The SAM Reference is replacing my old school Pioneer Direct drive.
First off, the customer service from SAM was beyond expectation. Totally white glove. Ivan was highly responsive to any inquiry and helpful from pre-sales through setup. And there is a bit of setup if you are doing it on your own.
The turntable was shipped as soon as they finished building the tone arm and the only delay was US customs and even then I recieved the package within around 30 days of ordering it. My expectations were well managed throughout the process and the communication from Ivan was exemplary. He was true to his word with no surprises.
The turntable finally cleared customs and made it to my door. It was extremely well packaged and protected. Ivan was readily available as I unboxed and and proceeded to setting it up. The instructions and manuals were concise, thorough enough, and better than some I have seen from other manufacturers.
The construction is solid. It is a work of beautifully crafted art. This thing is a tank and a very well thought out design. The only nit I can come up with is that the tone arm does not have a lock to hold it in place, however that is easily remedied with a rubber band if I need to transport it. As this is my first truly high end deck, I do not know if tone arm locks are even a thing in this echelon of performance.
There are plenty of adjustments available for dialing in the cartridge but like any deck, you need to take your time. If you are not comfortable with, or just dont care about, learning all the intricacies of setting it up, you local turntable set up guy can whip it together and install your cartridge, or cartridges, of choice for you. But for someone wanting to figure it out, the instructions and access to Ivan will quickly get you there.
The motor is silent, spins up quickly and the spinning platter with its hanging weights is mesmorizing to watch. This turntable is very nicely displayed.
How does it sound? With my limited experience, and very subjective opinion, I can say it sounds a hell of a lot better than my old school pioneer. It draws out the nuances of the cartridge, but I suspect at this level, it better be doing that. There is just so much more revealed in the playback, and the pioneer was not a bad deck at all.
I am now looking at adding a second tone arm for mono, and trading in the Denon for a Hana Umami Blue. I don't feel I am getting everything this table has to offer out of the denon, but I do feel like the table is getting everything the denon has to offer and ready for much much more.
With time I might start looking into different tone arms and other crazy upgrades, but I do not see a different table in my future, or my kid's future for that matter, this is an heirloom piece. The more likely upgrade to come is a dedicated Phono Stage to manage multiple cartridges and take advantage of all the SAM Reference offers.
When I was researching the usual suspects vs anything from SAM, the consensus was that the SAM turntables were end game turntables replacing many setups from well respected brands that, on the used market, are still more expensive than my new SAM. All owners I reached out to sang praises. There are not many guys out there that have sold their SAM pieces, and often when they did they were upgrading to another SAM.
The reputation, the customer service and the passion Ivan and his family have for delivering a quality product convinced me to order my Reference.
The high quality and impressive sounding product delivered has convinced me that this piece will remain in my setup for years to come and likely will appreciate in value which is relatively rare in audio.
I am truly a happy customer.
