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3 New UBER Decks - Is this Turntable's SwanSong? 🦢

Michael Fremer has recently reviewed three new turntables designed to be the 'Last Word', 'Cost no Object' STATEMENTS!!!!........Do I recall hearing this claim before??
I love Mikey and have followed (and trusted) him for decades.
He has been the longest and foremost published 'champion' of the superiority of vinyl (uber alles) in the world.
I am thus ecstatic that he has been able to listen and compare these decks in his own room, with his own equipment virtually side-by-side
It's almost a 'given' that he will be the ONLY person on earth given that privilege....

So what Mikey HEARS.....is indisputable

Given his 'character' and desire for accuracy and honesty.....years ago, Mikey started including some 'objective' measurements in his turntable reviews.
These measurements were done utilising the Dr Feikert PlatterSpeed App which has since been discontinued.
As the App only worked with the Mac iOS of many variations ago.....Mikey has kept an old iPhone which can still operate the App.
The PlatterSpeed App had a few technical limitations.....
Foremost amongst these, was its dependence on a 7" record with an embedded 3150 Hz Frequency track to produce a test-tone which the App could process through its algorithm to produce the graphs and all the corresponding numbers.
To stamp hundreds of 7" discs with perfectly 'centred' HOLES is a nigh impossibility.
It's almost impossible to do it with a 12" disc!!!

This means that ALL the figures produced in their Chart Info are dubious and mostly UNREPEATABLE!!!!
I have Chart Infos for the same turntable/arm combination but with the 7" disc moved slightly producing different figures.
I even have Chart Infos produced with the same turntable but different arms ALL with different figures (the arms are in different positions surrounding my TURNTABLE).

So what is my point......?
The GRAPH produced with the PlatterSpeed App is accurate and USEABLE when looking at the 'Green' Lowpass-Filtered Frequency.
If the hole was PERFECTLY centred.....this 'Green' line would be perfectly STRAIGHT......but only if the turntable was maintaining its speed PERFECTLY.
The wobbles in the 'Green' line are due to the hole's eccentricity as well as any speed aberrations.
So the best performing turntables are those with the most constant and even wobbles approaching as closely as possible a STRAIGHT LINE.

Now the SAT Direct Drive Motor is actually the same as Technics developed for their latest SL-1000R except with some bespoke modifications.
It appears that SAT have corrupted what is a very good DD Motor unit....🥴

Mikey says that the OMA-K3 produced the best PlatterApp figures of any turntable he has tested đź‘Ź
Does this mean that the OMA-K3 is the most accurate turntable of these three decks.....or maybe of ALL turntables?

Mikey can't (and won't) test and review products from the past which are no longer produced because that's not his job!
But wouldn't it be great if someone WOULD review products from the past against the modern equivalent?
Classic turntables with reputations....gravitas...like the legendary EMT 927 and Micro Seiki SX-5000 and SX-8000.
And what about the NOW lauded Japanese DD Turntables from the '80s...the 'Golden Age' of Analogue?
  • Technics SP-10Mk3
  • Kenwood L-07D
  • Pioneer P3
  • Victor TT-101
  • Yamaha GT-2000
Because we know that Direct Drive is now 'Flavour of the Month' for the new Uber Decks due to their superior speed accuracy....a 'Flavour' that started with the legendary Rockport Sirius III.
But what about Belt-Drive units like my 20 year-old Raven?
So much for science and technology.......

We can do things today that were only dreamt of even 10 years ago
Except learn from history, harvest experience, expertise and craftsmanship......

Here endeth the Sermon for today 🤗


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jallan
255 posts
 
Back in the day when I was selling stereo equipment putting myself through school, we had both a Revox A700 and B77 in the store. Also sold B&O. I slummed with an Ariston RD11S at home with a Grace arm.

the Revox decks had substantially more “slam” and sense of dynamic realism than vinyl did. I think of how much better sounding those decks were with the few recordings we had in the shop, and wonder to this day why folks spend hundreds of thousands on elaborate mechanical devices to play such a seriously flawed media as records. Tape is better…

And I throw my hat in with the digital streaming folks for bang for the buck and most realism. It’s a far cry from 10 years ago…
freediver
1,014 posts
 
@
jallan"to this day why folks spend hundreds of thousands on elaborate mechanical devices to play such a seriously flawed media as records. Tape is better"…hahahaha,I remember in about 1981 being thrown out of a Linn dealer in Larkspur Landing,Cali.for commenting on how bad the snap crackle pop was on some god awfully expensive tt set up compared to the then new Marantz CD63..
"And I throw my hat in with the digital streaming folks for bang for the buck and most realism. It’s a far cry from 10 years ago…"100% agreed!It has taken some 20+ years but pure Class A solid state & digital media have replaced tubes for me & never did like vinyl..
Oh regarding my comment on guru Fremmer I’m talking late 1980 early ’81 when he first came on with Stereophile.He was new,digital was new,Marantz was making a cd player that actually made music & he was emphatic about digitals supremacy..Dig around in the Stereophile archives,I bet it’s still in there somewhere..
pcosta
240 posts
 
Michael Fremer did not start writing for Sterophile until the 90's.
noromance's avatar
noromance
9,484 posts
 
@halcro There's a number of times he mentioned a bias to the lower end. And others where finger clicks were muted and brass wasn't bright. Read it again. One thing I have found over the years is that when a reviewer mentions something, you can multiple the effect. 
chakster's avatar
chakster
6,144 posts
 
But wouldn’t it be great if someone WOULD review products from the past against the modern equivalent?

They will never do that in high-end press, it will destroy the strategy of constant price increasing for new stuff. They want to live today without anything from the past (except maybe for old records), “new is always better” in their world. They can’t tell that an old high-end DDs are better (and 100 times cheaper) than some new high-end DDs. Same about cartridges. 
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