Where can I hear Teres

You have to either find an owner, or go to Colorado, or maybe you can get Chris to send you one for trial. They are not in any dealers, and are factory direct only. This is how they keep the price down.

Ok. First the Teres is available as an assembled TT, so it is a "retail commercial product", as well as a DIY product, depending upon how you want to buy it. The Redpoint is made by some of the early Teres participants, and their intention was to "take it a step further". I have not heard the Redpoint TestaRossa, so I cannot say if they have done that, sonically. In fact, I cannot even say with certainty, that they are even on par with Teres. When the changes are as radical as the Redpoint, it can no longer be considered an "offshoot" product. It is its own design, and I'm not entirely certain that it is an improvement. I think these guys at Redpoint are good guys, and their product needs to be judged on its own merits. I am not one of the fans of their styling. On the tape-drive issue, this has been experimented with at Teres and at Walker, and both designers felt that a silk string drive was best. All I can say is that changing something does not necessarily make it better. It could be better, the same, or worse. I am disappointed that the Redpoint demonstration did not allow the sound to be related in the best fashion. I'm sure this was a disappointment for Bwhite, and for Redpoint as well. Every mfr. wants his product demonstrated in the best light, but this is not always possible.

Bryan, the bearing housing is not actually the mounting stub. The bearing housing is above the mounting stub, and the stub is just the connector that goes through the plinth. They are all one piece, but the upper part houses the bearing and the lower part is the mounting stub. Also, even though I don't want to turn my TT upside down right now, I think that the nut that holds the bearing mounting stub to the plinth is more than 1/8" on each side. It is a large nut with plenty of surface area to hold real tight. And the bearing housing shoulder that hugs the plinth on top is the 1 1/2" part that makes an excellent "clamping" arrangement for holding it to the plinth. No problems in that area.

As far as Redpoint's negative comments about the Teres, I say let the market be the judge. Also, notice that Chris was very objective in stating the reasons for his design decisions, and made no derogatory references toward Redpoint.

Bryan, thanks for the calculations. I was sure that it was more than they were stating.

Regarding the massiveness of the bearing housing, it is at the point where it is so massive already, that I really don't see why any larger is better. The Teres bearing totally dwarfs the Linn bearing that you have on your table right now. It is like a 747 next to a Cessna 150. I would say that the whole matter rests upon the sonic performance. Nothing else is really germaine to the discussion, except maybe appearance. If these "improvements" are not sonically better, than what purpose do they serve? I don't know if they are or not, but I have my suspicions. My suspicions are that Teres and Redpoint are targeted at similar markets, and that Teres has achieved better penetration of that market. Redpoint is playing "catch up". Apparently they've decided that "attacking" the competition will steer sales in their direction. I doubt it. I think that Redpoint is suffering from "styling" difficulties that will not allow it to penetrate into the high-end audiophile market, as its appearance will visually detract from many high-end systems. This is a major consideration in design, and one they have not yet mastered, in my opinion. Whether it sounds as good as a Teres, I don't know.

Dmailer, yes I agree that my styling opinion is definitely subjective to my tastes. I can also see that the Teres may not appeal to others as well. From what I have read on the Redpoint, it has all the earmarks of a fine sounding turntable, that may even be better sounding than the Teres. I can't say for sure, because as I stated earlier, I have not even heard a Redpoint, much less compare them. My comments regarding any negative statements were in response to Bwhite's comments about distinctly getting that impression. I have nothing against Redpoint or their TTs, except that I am not particularly wild about the look. If I had not come across the Teres, I may very well have ended up with a Redpoint instead, because the sonics mean more to me than the appearance. And I did consider the idea, but the Redpoint was several hundred dollars more, and I preferred the Teres styling, and from what I could gather from the sparse info available, they were both similar sonically. I think they are both very good value for dollar, compared to the usual selections out there.