TechDAS lll experience

You must have a vast vinyl library to support such a beautifully well made reference turntable.  Mister Fremer gave it a very enthusiastic review and doubtful you can go wrong.  If you do purchase it, please let us know the details. Best of luck, that will probably be a lifetime purchase. 

You may get a better response in this forum
https://www.audioaficionado.org/

There seems to be more members of higher end  equipment there. Likely owners of Tech Das who can share experience.

If I were in that position, I'd just get the Premium, just because it's the Premium. Good luck.

Thank you both for your input.  I was, well still am hoping to hear from people like me home audio enthusiasts about their experiences with either version of the TechDAS lll.  I have read Michael Fremer’s review several times and every other review I could find on both TT’s.  But these are reviewers and I would like to hear what non reviewers guys like us with first hand experience think.

Here you go (or so I hope).
https://www.whatsbestforum.com/threads/af3-premium-arrived.26477/

Reading the posts about the AF3P on what’s best forum kind of reminds me of being eight years old, in the 50s, when one could take the box top off a package of cold cereal and order a Lone Ranger Marshall’s  badge which had a built-in whistle on the back side. I and all my friends had to have it and then we talked about it extensively. The difference is that the badge only cost a quarter.

@lewm 
I agree wholeheartedly. 
I tried to participate over there and I discovered that the group is made up of about 20 regulars and the moderator is the "owner" of the site and seems to occupy some alternative version of the universe. The fact that his avatar resembles the male version of a glamor shot with much plastic surgery and make up is telling 

Not the AF III, but I have the V. It’s extraordinary. I feel once you go air bearing and vacuum hold down it’s impossible to go back. Very quiet table. The engineering and build quality is really something to behold. It also doesn’t get any easier to setup, operate, maintain. The whole package is just so well thought out. As an example, Honda makes the wiring harness between the motor unit and the power supply. 

BTW there is a AF V Premium being released soon.

I am not intimately familiar with the Techdas Airforce line of turntables, but I have seen a few photos of the AF3.  My only criticism from 30,000 feet is that it hangs the tonearm off a peg, like the old M-S designs. Indeed, one of the owners who posted on What's Best said he tried to mount a tonearm using an old M-S mount he had on hand, and it worked.  Raul has pointed out the flaw in this design, and I tend to agree with the theory; the tonearm is then subjected to any energy traveling up the footer.  The AF One is a massive thing that does not use that method to mount tonearms, IIRC.  But take what I say with a grain of salt; I've never seen or heard one.
I was surprised to learn that the Premium version of the AF3 has a platter that is 20kg(!) heavier than that of a plain AF3. That's a whole different world and must require a heftier motor, belt, etc.

I think they are a technical achievement and very cool but i would never buy one. Way too complicated for such a small company. If the company goes belly up you could be stuck with a very expensive turntable you can't maintain and you can not sell. In that price range you have tables like the Basis 2800, SME 30/12 , Avid Acutus and the one I really want to hear is the Grand Prix Audio Monaco. It is a sensational design with a top notch record clamping system. It is also handily the most accurate turntable out there with speed variation on the order of 0.0001% which is totally nuts. It is a direct drive table and everyone here knows I do not like any of the direct drives I have heard. I'm hoping this one might be the exception. Put a Reed 5T on it and you have a technological tour de force. It is also elegant being devoid of unnecessary complexity.   

@fsonicsmith   +1000
I just had to laugh at your post. I was a member at WBF until the owner  ( not the one you reference, there are two, although I think your description of that one is spot on, LOL) decided he was going to be ultra supercilious and banned me. The place is nothing but a boring and worthless horn lovers forum now...with, as you say, just a very few regulars who have to stand on their soap box and preach. That, plus one guru who they all bow down to...quite pathetic.

@lewm I was questioning the tonearm mounting scheme myself on the AF3. Hanging a tonearm on a peg would seem to me to be a 'kludge' at best. 
@mijostyn  Agree. The Basis models or the Grand Prix Monaco are IMO far superior sounding to the AF3. I have heard all three models....and like you I am no real fan of Direct Drive. The Grand Prix just about changed my mind.

YOU HEARD THE GRAND PRIX! So, Daveyf what did you think??? These guys design and make stuff for formula 1 and cart race cars. They are very serious engineers working at the tip of the spear. It would not surprise me if they killed it.

The Grand Prix Monaco has been around for quite a while, maybe a whole decade.  It has not made a big splash in the turntable world. What I don't love about it is the rather small plinth and the carbon fiber. I have a bias that CF causes a kind of muffling coloration that I have not liked in speakers or tonearms.  The small and ergo maybe light weight plinth puts me off because I favor high mass plinths for DD on the premise that Newton's Third Law of Motion applies, the motor wants to rotate either the plinth or the platter, and it doesn't know the difference.  Thus, the plinth must be massive to channel all the rotational energy into the platter. But my theoretical questions mean nothing; one would have to hear it.

It should be no surprise that the AF 3 and 5 look like MS, since the head of TechDAS is from MS. 

Stella has been around since 1989. I don’t think you need to fear them disappearing. 

@mijostyn  I heard the Grand Prix Monaco 2.0. It was matched with a carbon fibre Triplanar Arm and a Lyra Etna. One of the best sounding analog front ends that I have heard. Extremely quiet in the groove and very resolving, plus the speed control was obvious, as it was exemplary.

Vortex,  Thanks for your posts.  This is the kind of input I was hoping to read based upon actual experience by home audio enthusiasts like myself.  

I wanted to let anyone who is interested that I did purchase the TechDas Air Force lll Premium and could not be any happier.  Since I do not have a dealer within 2,500 miles of me I did my own setup which was made very easy due to the excellent design and pretty good manual.  The 65 pound platter is a load but using the two supplied handles made it fairly easy to install.  I just found that a small step ladder helped me get over the top of the turntable making it easy to look down through the spindle hole of the platter to align it with the spindle.  Of course my wife assisted in this process looking from the side and guiding me.  Every other aspect of the set is simple and straightforward.  The belt tensioning process took a few tries but using the Fieckert method I was finally able to achieve a frequency of 3150.5 for 33 1/3 rpms and dead nuts on for 45 rpms.  The armboard they made for my Kuzma 4Point worked perfectly, is very thick and the method for locking the armboard to the turntable is simple, tight, and truly quite ingenious.  Air bearing and vacuum system is outstanding and extremely quiet.  When you press stop the vacuum hold down reverses and lightly pushes the record up making it very easy to remove the record.  The fit and finish is excellent and what you should expect for a $40,000 TT.  It operates like a dream and very smooth.  It is also dead quiet.  Tap the side of the plinth while a record is playing and you hear or rather not hear anything.  
I have saved the best for last...the sound.  Let me just say that my wife who is a non audiophile but enjoys listening to the music from her sewing room.  When the  AF lll was first set up she said, “I never thought a turntable could make so much difference.”  Her comment was music to my ears.  Another time she said, “I really like this put on Talking Heads.”  Then she did something she rarely ever does she sat down in my chair and listened to the entire album.  She left the room saying, “Wow, that was really good.”  I could talk about the sound for pages but for me the sound seems ideal in all sonic aspects especially musicality.  I cannot imagine anyone one not enjoying using and listening to the AF lll Premium.  Money well spent.

Congratulations on such a fine purchase.  I am positive you will get many years of musical bliss. 

Safe to say the  TD AF purchase is a "I'm done" acquisition?

 I guessing...yes.! Enjoy.

Sounds like a winner!

I'd like to be adopted. Clearly you could use a pool boy or deck sweeper at one of your properties (Bora Bora maybe?)

Great post. Congrats on your investment. I had to smile about your wife's endorsement. Funny how that means so much. 

@lewm I also have a bias against carbon fiber for the same reason.

First, thanks to everyone for the positive comments.  Hope to met you all in Chicago for Axpona this October.

To lewm and daveyt,

I have listened to the Grand Prix Monaco a few different times on Calcrazyfornia.  It truly is a marvelous sounding turntable and one of my considerations for a new TT.  Since owning the TechDas 3 Premium I think there is less mechanical artifacts and a greater sense of musical flow then what I heard through the Monaco.  Both TTs are very quite and capable of producing very deep and powerful bass.  Finally, both are examples of excellent engineering and manufacturing.  You cannot go wrong with the Monaco but I think the TechDas 3 Premium is more musical…at least to my ears.

To tablejockey,

I read your post to my wife and she laughed and said, “That will be the day.”  She has heard me say, I am done or this will be the last (whatever) to many times.  Even at 69 I cannot imagine being done since I plan to purchase a new dac and I would like new speaker cables.  Also, I plan to have my D’Agostino Momentum amp updated and maybe in 4 to 5 years a new tonearm the SAT 9 inch.  See what I mean?

randypeck-

I'm sure you're enjoying the TD. Is it resting on a MinusK  or something similar? Certainly deserves  the best isolation possible.

The future SAT will have a nice home. I guess fine audio as a hobby is an ongoing quest. What phono stage and cart are you using for the Kuzma?

Talking Heads- I can imagine hearing their version of "Take me to the River"  from the More Songs about Building and Food" album sound amazing. The intro drum/bass line followed the organ must be an event in your room! Happy listening.