Ultimate Turntable search...OMA K5 or ?

@peterayer A friend heard the AS 2000 a while back, reported to me that he was quite underwhelmed. He believed that the speed control was marginal and that the string contributed to wow and flutter. My experience with the old war horse SME 3012 tonearm ( this is typically mounted on the AS 2000) is that one can easily hear the knife edge chatter of the bearing. Assuming of course, that one has a resolving enough system.

The Link offers further insight to £100K+ TT’s, the content is sort of Hedge Fund-On Topic .

The Lists No5 Rossner and Sohn TT has a lot of resemblance as a finished aesthetic to the Contactless Platter Driven Prototype TT I have been referencing.

 

I'm quite content with my Denon DP-59L with Audiomusikraft Lithium headshell with Denon 103R guts.  Less than $2K all in.  Good enough.

I own the Esoteric.  The best way to understand it is to watch the excellent installation videos.  It explains how everything works.

 

 

Dear @mikelavigne : "

the most significant part of a turntable is the steady powerful drive and energy of the music that the turntable projects. that is the main separator of good, better and great.

cool looking turntables are a dime a dozen. exceptionally musical and transformative sounding turntables are rare.. "

 

I already posted that a TT most does not have a " sound " by it self but the reality is that that can’t be fixed yet. Each TT develops different kind and levels of colorations/distortions, there is no noise-less TT.

 

You said " energy of the MUSIC that the TT projects ". Maybe a new TT characteristic that I have not a knowledge about. MUSIC " energy " exist in the LP recorded grooves and for me it’s the cartridge/tonearm combination who can projects that " energy " where the TT main target is to spin at precise speed with continuous stability. Yes suspension, TT bearing vibrations all other TT characteristicas are important too, everything is important in any room/syatem.

 

Now you own 4 different TTs and reading in this and other threads each one of them " sounds " different and that means that each one has a SOUND by it self and you have a favorite that’s the one that like you more ( in the past was the Saskia and seems that today the Esoteric. ) and this " like " is the same with all of us that could be of different " like " kind according our priorities but in all cases that " signature " in TTs is only the TT self colorations/distortions. There is no noise developed TT. In general with analog we all are accustomed to listen different kind and levels of distortions that are distortions/colorations that we like. It does not exist the truly NEUTRAL sound and when what we are listening goes out of the distortions we like or a "boring " item maybe is boring because it’s with not only different distortion levels but probably because is near to be neutral with lower distortion levels.

 

" musical y transformative " is only part of those distortion levels we like. Through analog we are accustommed to high distortion levls and our ears are way " relaxed " with those kind of colorations/distortion in reality are a poor tool to tell us the true.

Even that two of your TTs have no top speed stability your ears are not compliant about ( the other 2 TTs do not exist specs. ) as many of us including me however we speak of " top quality level performance " and we are so " flexible " to that quality levels but if we think a little about maybe that " top quality level performance " does not exist but a different kind of quality and even that all of us like the MUSIC our ears and pruiorities function in different way too.

I think that with TTs the look of the unit maybe has 50% or even higher " weigth " in our final choice. My choice ( example ) between the K3 or K5 belongs to the K5 only by its looks against the K3 .

 

That’s why today are dozens of " shine " and heavy TTs as more heavy the better and I think that Japánese vbintage TT designers almost started that trend with Micro Seiki ( TechDas. ) that introduced too the multiple arm boards and yes the the 8000 SA2 is a beauty and for those time came the TT air suspension, air bearing, air TT platter and the like.

American sound was in those times a copy of MS but with more all around metal weigth. In thoase times the AS 1000X weigth was 170kg and around 60kg. by the platter alone and the unit came as the MS with pivoted/cantilever 4 arm boards.

Those designers think that more heavy metal contribute to lower develped distortions/colorations but it’s not that way because any mass ( TT platter ) in movement develops internal vibrations/resonances and other problem is that such heavy platter mass even its high inertia moment is in true imposible to control continuous stability, please think in speed changes from 33.33 to 33.31rpm. We don’t even discern about that kind of speed unstability.

@peterayer  , you own the today version of that vintage TT AS20000 and you are way satisfied with: do you own the unit measured specs special on speed and w/f?. I think that for only 14 manufactured units at least we have to know those 2 specs: at least. Is important to know it not only in your unit but in any other TT.

With those very heavy metal weigth TTs we need to know not only ( that we already know ) the price of each metal kg. we paid that seems that’s the market strategy with those units but if gives the speed stabilituy for that critical MUSIC/notes transient response. Btw, I know almost for sure that you have not those specs and that were your ears and the seller who convince you to own that shiny vintage TT.

@whart  said: " dollar range for the TT, how do you effectively compare and evaluate? " other that " I like ".

 

R.