Ultimate Idler Drive

do yourself a favor get the Triplanar wired with another kind of wire. The stock wire they use (Cardas?) is very soft sounding (Cardas?) the arm is great the wireing NOT!

I actually like the Gold better than all but the Reference. They fit great in the RS-but BIG experimentation, to stop gound hum! The Reference is an exact fit for the RS back holes, butslightly thiner bolts than normal are needed.

Phono stage -ASR Exclusive Basic two chassis, and a custom made unit by a Danish scientist friend. I also have used it with my Tektron MM tube(12AT7) phono stage and the new Ortofon Verto tranny-very nice!!

see you already know slate is the way to go! Panzerholz made a great Graham arm board for me and allowed me to never look at MDF again. However the deadnest of it robs some dynamics! The slate I find allows perfect energy flow- not dead,but no colorations. As I said before the true sound nature of the table it supports is laid bare. Then chose the best idler,DD,belt(?), mechanism you can afford.

first the Louis Armstrong was the re- issue! I know my Garrard 501 out performs all my other tables. However direct comparison
With the Grand Pric Monaco revealed a slight coloration in the vocals. Having heard what slate can do on Saskia I have ordered a custom slate plinth from OMA for the 501. Then we can do direct comparison with my SP10 MkII in an OMA slate double plinth, the Saskia and the 501!
The mounting of any great turntable I am convinced to realize it's true potential must be mounted in slate!! Ply, glass, steel and Panzerholz all have tonal colorations I have found. The slate just allows the idler or DD to do it's best.
FYI I will use an RS Labs Tonearm with the Ortofon Per Winfield on all the tables. After trying all the well know highend arms I have found this quirky arm to outperform them all. As for the PW there is no competition.
I have high hopes for the 501/Slate/RS/PW, but if the Saskia is better as I suspect it will be, I will put my name down for one.

When I first got my Garrard 501 Stainless Steel Inspiration I had a whole bunch of custom arm boards made to try different arms. I tried: SME V, Graham B44, Triplanar, Wilson Benesch ACT 2.0, Dynavector DV 505,507MkI, Clearaudio T1, SME 3012, and the RS A1. The speed neutrality and detail of the RS Labs consistently eclipsed all the other arms. I even tried the RS Labs Headshell, which handily outperforms all headshells and elevated the performance of the 3012, and Dynavector arms. How ever the A1 and its UNIQUE design is the way I have gone. I have an Ortofon Per Windfield in one, the best MC, and a (Decca) London Reference in the other, the best MM, IMHO!!
When my 501 is in its new OMA slate plinth we can directly compare the Saskia and the 501, by just picking up and moving the A1 arm and cartridge. Great for A/B listening.

I have tried many MC's including the Stupid(!) expensive ones, none had the speed emotion and musicality of my (Decca)London Reference...until the PW. It is not as romantic as the London, but OH so neutral everything else sounds wrong! In terms of extracting what is in the groove with the most musicality and even handness the PW eclipses them all. That observation, is in any arm I try it. actually I recently tried a Kuzma Stogi/Stabi S table. I mounted a denon 103-very nice budget table. For fun I mounted the PW in the Stogi S. That took the table into a completly different league. It made me re-think: cheaper table, and a PW, will outperform a more expensive table with any other cartridge!
I am evaluating another MC at the moment that holds great promise. The Otono-Edison,Shilabe. I do know the Otono-Edison Premium Mono is the best I have heard. In fact it is so good I didn't listen to a stereo LP for a week, while I listened to my whole mono LP collection!

http://www.needledoctor.com/Ortofon-Ortofon-MC-Windfeld-Low-Output-Moving-Coil-Cartridge?sc=2&category=378

You are right to each his own, but I found a Stealth rewired Triplanar far superior in all areas to my stock Triplanar.

I have all Stealth Indra in my system. I know cable makeing is a..."black art", and some say the biggest area in audio, of shall we say,"profit". But Serguei uses extreme techniques, using technology no one else has, to produce the best cable I have ever heard! It is STUPID expensive, is it worth the premium over other real world cables? You decide. See Stealth website for full details.I have no business affiliation with Stealth, BTW.

Hey the Saskia will be at RMAF!!! Now that's worth the visit.