Sirius and Walker




Hi Folks:

I have first hand experience with the Walker turntable and, to this day, it's the finest I have ever heard. Can anyone compare the sound of the Walker with the Rockport with the same material? I'm very interested.

Thanks as always.

D.H.
CT Audio Society
www.ctaudio.org
danhirsh
Dear Vicks and Hiho,
I have to admit I find this thread entertaining in a perverse sort of way. What would be the motive to denigrate the Sirius? It's not even any longer in production and is so lofty in cost as to be more of a theory to most of us than a reality. And to tout the Micro Seiki 8000 at the expense of the Sirius is equally pointless. Talk about a "fangroup". There is no snootier a fangroup than the ultra-exclusive MS8000 fangroup.

Yet, good detective work by Mr. Belchev, which reveals that Unoear has been publicly on both sides of the Sirius fence, does suggest that there is some skullduggery afoot. I say the butler did it in the kitchen with a spaghetti noodle.
Lewm, agree somethings afoot, big communication breakdown here. Nobody wins.
Yes, the Olympos shootout never came to pass...wonderful cartridge, just not a good fit with the RP tonearm. It came to light that this other fellow crashed his Olympos on his Rockport and it required sending the cartridge back to Lyra for a rebuild.
My intentions in this thread are sincere and admiring of both Walker and Sirius' contribution to analog. The reason why you do not see anything analog in my current system is that I made a decision years ago that I wanted to get digtal right (for me) first; then turn my attention to analog. My goals for analog are very clear. I work with pro gear all the time and have archival knowledge and I want my own personal system to have resolving and EQ capabilities as good as professional studio's, especially for 78's which I adore. I have the knowledge but not the funds and compromise is always inevitable. I have done so already with digital although I am very happy with what I am working with now. Analog I am less willing to compromise. I would rather wait to do it right the "first time" then go through multiple tables and multiple phono stages to reach an end result that is crystal clear in my mind.

Thanks.

D.H.
Danhirsh...doing it right the first time and getting it right the first time is easier said than done.
Dear Dan, That is an admirable goal, but I am afraid it just does not work that way. Your only path to finding out what is "right" for you is to sample some good equipment in your own home, in your own system, and for a prolonged period of audition. That way, you can first find out what you don't like so much, and it seems like you are experienced enough to make good choices based on your own dataset. Such experiences are the best pathway to your own Nirvana. Whatever you do, don't blindly follow the advice or the unsupported opinion of anyone who posts on the internet. Anyway, IMO you cannot go wrong with a Walker OR a Sirius III, but there may be others in the same category for less money that might please you more.

Dear Unoear, You were right on cue with your latest pot-shot at Rockport. It doesn't help any of us neutral parties to figure out what happened between you and your Sirius, seriously speaking. So what do you want your readers to think?
Hi Danhirsh,

IMO, BRF is a philosopher with a very, very, firm grounding...Dover has real words of wisdom...along with Syntax and Lewm having very valuable experience that has an open transparency to their learning curves on their system pages...the Walker comes with Lloyd, the cool resident mad-hatter of the audio manufacture's guild...the Sirius lll has the genius of Andy and the daily consulting rate of Tim :)...as you can see on my page, I have happily fallen into the string-driven big Micro Seiki camp; with the kind encouragement and guidance of Syntax; however, he thinks that I am mad with this ringing SX-8000 platter :).

IMHO, if I was personally looking for a modern direct drive solution, I
would Siriusly checkout this new Grand Prix Audio Monaco 1.5 solution. It is a well-thought out approach by a company that has a history of good solution sets and a broad dealer network.

So, IMHO, there is no perfect solution only a commitment to a process orientation when it comes to this audio virus.

Best,
Alan
Hi Lewm,

IMHO, the Rockport is really an integrated engineering marvel.

As you know, with all tonearms there are some cartridges that are just a better fit than others; otherwise, just as Syntax mentioned above, it can be a very risky endeavor when running a light VTF Olympos with the Rockport tonearm. The previous owner from whom I purchased the Sirius lll, did crash his Olympos and the cartridge required a roundtrip air-lift flight from the Seattle area to Lyra for rehabilitation...no, no, no...

...now, there is this wonderful audio chap that I know that is just really MAD about the Rockport turntables. He is building an audiophile's basketball team and needed to finish out his starting lineup...a Tex Winter Triangle Offense.

...so he now has 3 lll's, and 2 ll's...a glorious starting 5 for Team Sirius! Well, there is also the rumor of a possible one-off V.

He prefers the Koetsu Stonebodies and Goldfinger cartridges interfacing the groves with his Rockports; he tells me there is no latent hop, skip, and/or jump problems with these hold-me down babies.

Lewm, I hope this helped!

Best,
Alan
Unoear has twice in the last 10 days referred to the Olympos cartridge he purchased from me with the Rockport and made a point that i crashed it on the Rockport.

01-24-12: Unoear
Yes, the Olympos shootout never came to pass...wonderful cartridge, just not a good fit with the RP tonearm. It came to light that this other fellow crashed his Olympos on his Rockport and it required sending the cartridge back to Lyra for a rebuild.

02-01-12: Unoear
........The previous owner from whom I purchased the Sirius lll, did crash his Olympos and the cartridge required a roundtrip air-lift flight from the Seattle area to Lyra for rehabilitation...no, no, no...

i'm sure his motives for mentioning this are only the most pure and honorable....as that is the sort of guy he is.

i just wanted to clarify that the reason for the factory rebuild of the Olympos had nothing to do with the Rockport as Unoear continually points out; i made the mistake of improperly installing the stylus guard (without my glasses on) and smartly sheared off the canteliver.....a bad day for sure, and expensive too.

now Unoear has another nice thing to add to his list of nice things to say. :)
Dear Unoear: +++++ " I have happily fallen into the string-driven big Micro Seiki camp; " +++++

like you I was " there " for some years till I learned more about distortions and ditortions coming from big/weigthy TT platters MS or not with the acriklyc tweak or not and from any weigthy TT.

Obviously that you as other persons are in the learning curve about and sooner or latter you will learn too, not only from the MSs but from weigthy platters on TTs and how this " damage " the cartridge signal.

Regards and enjoy the music,
R.
Mike L. and myself smoked the peace-pipe late last night.

Raul, I guess some distortions are more preferred than others; that may explain the many camps of TT fanatics. As it has been pointed out by others much smarter than myself, sometimes the feeling of "better" is just synonymous with "different-in-kind."

Cheers!
Dear Unoear: Yes, some one prefer some kind of distortions but I'm not talking of what we prefer or what we like but about what is good or what is wrong and IMHO those weighty platters on TTs are way wrong.

I know too what better means and I'm talking of better and not only " different kind ".

As I posted sooner or latter you will learn/discern about. Our hobby is a day by day learning excercise.

Good that you are moving your face to the DD's direction, BD (any ) can't touch DD TT designs ( everything the same:good design and good execution design. ).

With BD TT all of us what we are buying is only the higgest $$$ per metal's kilos and nothing more than that. The BD designs permit to charge big dollars to the customers only because its weight and as more weight as more $$$$ for " simple " peaces of metal : nothing more.

In a DD designs there is no " floor " to charge fro that metal's peaces.

IMHO BD TT are no more than a dinosaur a pre-historic item that the AHEE refuse to " kill " once and for ever.

That's why I think that your " feel " about the Monaco is a promise one new experience.

Regards and enjoy the music,
R.