Brinkmann vs TW Acustic

wrm57, I agree that it looks like TW owner are rather defensive. Unfortunately, you have to look at who is doing the bashing as well. So far Syntax said that he heard BN at a dealer in a system which he is probably not all that familiar with and somehow managed to pinpoint exactly that the fault of that system is with the turntable. I don't recall his background and his other exposure to TW but this does not give me much confidence to think that he knows what he is talking about.

He still cannot justify or explain the difference in calibration method, Timeline vs Kab strobe and how relevant that difference would be. It kinds of remind me a story of a guy who drived a Toyota everyday to work in a bumper to bumper traffic at 10 mph. One day, his rich uncle gave him a Ferrari which he drove to work in the same bumper to bumper traffic at 10 mph. At work, he proclaimed to his colleague, Ferrari is so much better, it can go 200 mph easily and he made it to work in half the time it would take him in his old Toyota.

Syntax also has the habit of jibing at products that he does not seem to have much knowledge about just because he thinks he can get away with it. Not too long ago, his comment regarding Minus-K just left me wonder if this guy is for real!

Philb7777,

As for the bearing. My Raven AC was one of the earlier units. The bearing was convex on top. Similar to the BN. So is my BN. I think the diameter might be different. Both Dead quiet. Maybe 10 years ago there was a different type of bearing. But as the Phantom had a 1,2 Supreme and upgrades within the designation of each TW has done upgrades as parts have changed availability. This is the same in any industry. I also know that as items are in the market over time feedback will lead to design changes and upgrades. Also manufacturing will evolve as demand changes. A good company will work as such.

Dev,

To answer your question about the motor controller. The Raven 1 had a different style motor controller with a flip switch. Then came the upgraded controller that many people purchased including myself. More elegant and a bit better sonically. Those are the only 2 I know of of the non battery varient. I know the buttons have changed due to changes in availability but nothing major.

As for the original battery PS mine needed to be upgraded as my batteries would no longer hold charge for more than 4 hours. I had my BN for 3-4 years. They were 6 hours originally.

Dev,

You purchased a second hand unit. And had no direct dealer support. Not from Jeff and not from TW. So your batteries were already old. Anyhow, I changed my batteries but at the same time changed the board. I heard a notable improvement and tested it on my Spectrum Analyzer. It was spot on 33.33. Sound was impressive. I decided to do a battery run down test. Next day it is still going. Finally I did it again. Same thing about 20 hours (I think). I emailed TW about all. His simple interchange is yes, batteries last much longer. Which is excellent. I then said it sounds better. He then answers, he learned a few new things. Enough said.

To Answer Your other questions and get everything in context,

I bought my table from TW directly. Been to his house. Heard his system : Amazing Cessaro Horns system that reveals everything. Wow. Saw his office, factory you name it. He has some customers with high end systems that are beyond anything that you would see on Audiogon. Massive horn systems, top of the line dynamic speakers. He knows how his turntable sounds by listening to it in multiple environments with purpose built state of the art systems.

This was several years ago, but years after I purchased the turntable. I went to the Munich Audio Show and visited TW, and did some sight seeing in Europe and visited my other halfs family in Holland which was very close to TW's office.

Dev,

As for the calibration of my custom made suspension for my turntable. One thing I want to emphasize is that once I changed from the AC to the BN I needed to make more space on my rack. I had to remove some devises I had on rack that acted as a ballast and really brought the resonant frequency very low. It involved some major changes. I was able to remove and add springs in different locations to get it correct but it took some effort.

Similar to matching a tonearm to a cartridge to get the resonant frequency in the right range.

It doesn't sound like your Minus K was optimized for your BN. Sorry. That is how I see it. No insults, I just bet your AC worked better than your BN based on your descriptions.

Dev, if I remember correctly, you mentioned once that you bought a Minus-K that was customed ordered to fit Raven AC-3. When you bought BN, Minus-K was too small and you had to add a larger platform on top to accomodate BN. I don't remember all the detail now but that's what I remembered. Raven AC-3 is 49 kg not including controller unit. BN is 60 kg not including controller unit. If you have to add a bigger shelf, overall load is going to be quite a bit higher. Standard Minus-K usually has on specific weight range of around 10-15 kg max so it may be possible that BN may not be ideal match for your specific Minus-K. I don't know if you account for the weight difference already or not.