For me its the first or very early LP's of: Allman Brothers - "Allman Joys" "Idyllwild South" Santana - "Santana" 200 g reissue Emerson Lake and Palmer - "Emerson Lake and Palmer" and, Beethoven - "Piano Concerto No. 4 in G Major" Rudolph Serkin/Ozawa/BSO
Boulez conducts Ravel - Daphnis & Chloé Suite #2 / Rapsodie Espagnole / Pavane For A Dead Princess / Alborada Del Gracioso. The Cleveland Orchestra & Choir. Columbia Masterworks 1971
Szell conducts Hindemith - Symphonic Metamorphosis Of Themes By Carl Maria Von Weber & Janacek - Sinfonietta. The Cleveland Orchestra. Columbia Masterworks, reissue, probably early 70’s.
George Benson-In Your Eyes Side 2 Heart-Dog & Butterfly Side 2(Butterfly) Mozart-Four Sonatas For Piano And Violin(Szell/Druian/MS 7064)Side 1 Blue Rodeo-Diamond Mine Side 1 Lew Tabackin-Trackin’(45rpm)Side 1 & 2 Lou Rawls-All Things In Time Side 1 Elton John-Madman Across The Water Side 1
The real question is would you really ( as in fing really ) form an educated opinion on a component based on ...... drumroll..... a Utube video ? Shear insanity
Szell conducts Mozart - Serenade No. 9 "Posthorn", K. 320 / Exsultate, Jubilate, K. 165. CBS Masterworks, 1985.
Stuck in my Szell section of LP’s it seems 😁
This album is truly mint-. Sounds superb.
Trying spinning these last couple without a clamp per @slaw ‘s recommendation. You know, there does seem to be ‘more air’ around the instruments without using a clamp. Interesting.
Absolutely worth trying out, who am I to question David Fletcher or Helmut Brinkmann? But there might be certain TT arm cart mat combination that ignore Newton
Michael Ponti plays Scriabin - 12 piano sonatas; 3 LP box set. Playing sides 5&6 : Sonata #8, Sonata in E Flat, Sonata #9, and Sonata #10. VOX Box 1972
Pretty well recorded piano in this set. Hard to accomplish.
Yep, my initial reaction too. More lively, less ‘dead’. Slightly different soundstage and depth....more separation and definition. At least that’s my perception.
It’s hard to break from the ‘norm’, but may try this for a while.
I know one thing, the SOTA clamp seems to really ‘deaden’ the play more than my much less expensive Record Dr clamp, which I’ve been using for the last few days, which seems in between the SOTA and none.
I only use a clamp when the LP is significantly less than flat. That seems to help matters. Otherwise, I find that no clamp does sound the most "open". I chose the Record Doctor clamp because it is light and places no real downward force (via mass/weight and gravity) on the bearing system. Clamp verses heavy weight makes the most sense to me.
@bkeske What mat are you using now? What’s your platter made from?
The Sapphire's platter is 12 lb. cast alloy (of its overall 44 lb. weight). It is a large part of the overall SOTA design in becoming both a ’flywheel’ and also a major component of the suspended sub assembaly.
What mat? I was gifted one of @slaw ’s mats (MyMat) from Jim. A very nice gesture and gift. Right now, I have slaw’s MyMatt over a cork mat. I’ve been thinking, or believing, or perhaps totally misunderstanding, that my SOTA did not come with the SOTA mat, but instead, now have a feeling that the ’covering’ on the alloy platter actually *is* a/the SOTA built-in acrylic mat, and I probably don’t need the cork mat at all. Jim could probably confirm my misunderstanding here.
Thus, I am going to take the cork mat off, and simply put slaw’s MYMat over the ’built-in’ moulded integral ’mat’/integral platter covering. So, I have a feeling that cork mat may be deadening the sound as well.
The SOTA mat that Brian has is bonded to the metal platter. It is impedence matched to the record and the SOTA reflex clamp is very light. I would suggest starting w only the SOTA mat adjust VTA listen to a well made recording with “ air “ so IF I had to use one disc from recent memory Show Biz Kids or 3 Cowboy Songs - Grusin w harmonics, tone color cymbals to die for...
Got these in this week, so far. Both were sealed pp.
Billy Preston "Music is My Life" Kenny Rogers & The First Edition "The Ballad of Calico" dbl lp/ sides 1,3 & 4 are (1A). Side 2 is (1B). So I almost got a first edition of First Edition.
Thanks for verifying that my SOTA ‘mat’ is actually built into the platter. I was confused thinking mine arrived without one, until I investigated further.
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