Teres still the way to go?

Hi Nrenter,

What's going on with the Serac? I see the pricing has increased by about $1k. Any updates?

I just caught your question from November 10th. You might have noticed the diminished frequency of my posts over here, due to several factors:

(a) I've been on the road 4 days/week on average since this past July
(b) The normal catch-up process after the Audiofest (audio shows eat up some 5 weeks in a small manufacturer's year)
(c) I started up my own support forum to build a knowledge repository for Galibier owners

In early December, I'll begin fulfilling the first round of Seracs orders. I'm most appreciative of those who have patiently waited on this project, and your patience will be mightily rewarded.

My apologies if the following sounds like a sales pitch, because it's the polar opposite of what I'm trying to do, which is to reduce demand. I think it's important however that I give you some insight into what's going on, in no small part because of how long the Serac project has taken to clear the trees.

The Serac we took to the RMAF (http://www.avguide.com:80/news/2007/10/19/rocky-mt-2007-galibier-design’s-affordable-serac-turntable/) was the pre-production base. This is the one with paint that was a bit too fragile for my tastes. The first day of the show, my painter delivered the bases for the first production run, BTW.

Shortly after the show, we selected Discovery Cable Plus-4 tonearm cable for the Artisan tonearm. What you heard at the show will be tonally very similar to the Discovery, something I didn't think would be possible with the price target I set for the Artisan. I won't bore you with the details, but if you're interested, you can read more about this decision process at the bottom of this thread: http://www.galibierdesign.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=6.

This first round of Seracs is accounted for, and I'm now going through a self-evaluation of how best to handle the Serac moving forward. I'm coming to understand how difficult it is to build and support a more affordable 'table.

This is the first time (apart from Schröder tonearms) that I've felt unable to appropriately set expectations and deliver on them in what I consider to be a timely fashion. Moving forward, I have a much better idea (and hopefully control) of production lead times, but I still have to get smarter with the manufacturing and personal support side of the equation.

It's unrealistic for a Serac owner to expect the same level of hand-holding that a Gavia or Stelvio owner receives. At the same time, a Serac owner needs to have a real opportunity to get the best out of his turntable. This support issue played a large part in my decision to set up the Galibier Forum, and the expanding community of Galibier owners will certainly help to a certain degree.

Unfortunately, the forum will accomplish only so much, and my current focus is on the remaining time constraints.

The labor involved in building and testing a Serac is the same as that of a Gavia. The Serac benefits from the same QC standards as every other Galibier leaving my shop does (receiving a thorough, multi-day break-in and audition). The manufacturing time, support requirements, and price increases in the PVC required for the Serac platter have all combined with the expiration of the introductory pricing to the price increase.

As I consider setting realistic of delivery expectations, I may well suspend taking orders for all turntables for a short period of time later this Winter. I'd much rather catch up, sell fewer 'tables and know that I can deliver support them.

Cheers,
Thom @ Galibier

Final drawings are complete and being delivered to the machinist in the morning. That pesky income tax season put a slight damper on my plans.

If this fellow holds true to past form, we'll be seeing bases ready for priming and painting in two weeks.

Cheers,
Thom @ Galibier

Hi guys,

I've been a bit of a "tease" over the past months with the Serac, and for this I apologize.

The seemingly trivial act of finishing the base has taken me down more than one path. I've met some interesting folks along the way - including the fellow who does the clear coat finishing on Avalon speakers - someone whom I lovingly refer to as "Dr. Paint".

The past six months have presented me with more than one distraction - not related to things "Galibier", and hence my mis-estimation of progress in taking the Serac project over the finish line.

I'm in sunny Phoenix, Arizona this weekend, taking care of some family business - to return to the Front Range of Colorado on Tuesday.

Before leaving for Phoenix, I finalized the Serac's finishing concept which will allow me to complete the base drawings and submit them to my machinist.

After going round and round, my first idea will be implemented - a 7 layer affair with the same shape as the Gavia and Stelvio, with the even numbered layers being 1/8" (about 3mm) narrower - so that the base gives the appearance of having 3 channels routed around it.

It's a nice architectural feature and neatly sidesteps the problem of what to do with the MDF seams. Sealing and hiding MDF seams on a flush surface is quite the challenge - having caused the folks at Avalon Acoustics no end of grief as they worked to finish their 4" thick speaker baffles.

Getting to the point where the ledges formed by these channels could take paint properly was the main challenge, but now that we've resolved this, we're good to go.

I'll update the Serac product page until we actually have the bases in progress - perhaps 10 days from now.

Thanks for your patience. It wasn't my intent to drag this project on for so long.

I have some fascinating prototyping whirling through my head, and bringing the Serac to physical reality has been the necessary pre-condition for this work.

Cheers,
Thom

Hi Aronsss,

I don't want to hijack this thread, and I promise to update the Serac status in the coming week.

Having just returned from family business in Phoenix, my first task is to submit the final Serac drawings to my CNC woodworker. He is one of my few dependable suppliers (in terms of delivering on time), so I should have some reliable estimates to publish in the next 7 days.

It has not been my intention to be such a "tease" about this project, and I truly appreciate your patience.

Cheers,
Thom @ Galibier

All,

I'm still waiting to pick up the bases. As soon as they land, I'll snap some quick photos (saving better ones for later) and will update the Serac page with them.

I'm still working on some additional packages for the Serac and will post those on the Serac page. Thanks for hanging in there ...

As a means of clarification to some observations made above, I just received a price quote for shipping a Gavia to Singapore.

All crated up, it tips the scales at 225 pounds. The shipping estimate for door to door delivery is $650. Landing at the Singapore airport is about $100 less. Of course, customs duties are extra.

I'm pleasantly surprised by this number, as it exceeds the cost of landing one in the UK by only $175 ... this after a round of fuel surcharges by the major shippers.

Cheers,
Thom @ Galibier

Greetings Nrenter,

At one time, platters were nominally interchangeable between Teres and Redpoint (my past life with Peter Clark),

By this, I mean that the bearing section which plugs into the platter had the same specification of 1.000" diameter. The support flange on the bearing was 1.5" in diameter.

Early on, Peter and I took to producing a wider support flange (2.5" diameter) along with a counterbore of 2.7" diameter on the underside of the platter to accommodate the flange.

I seriously doubt that as Teres, Redpoint and Galibier have evolved in our thinking over the past 6 years, that swapping platters is an easy thing to do anymore. Perhaps I'm wrong about this.

Cheers,
Thom @ Galibier