The Audiophoolery Thread.

[Welsh Anorak]

I think were're confusing audiophoolery with top-end gear. Look at this reel-to-reel for example. http://www.metaxas.com/. All right, some rather over the top subjective responses, but I'm sure it's an extremely well made machine as is the turntable (and Craig's watch!)

One thing that does surprise me about this turntable is the TEAC name. Yes, they used to produce some nice domestic gear years ago but they recently sold some very shoddy stuff in posh frocks - bluetooth speakers, 'vintage' record players and the like.

[joebog1]

One of my pet tricks when lek churing is to leap around like a loony (I find this rather easy) and cup my hands together.

I wanna be at one of yer lek chures!!! must be a whole concert in itself!!.
I hope and pray thet there are LOTS of free Lek trons about.

Joe

[stevehertz]

Originally Posted by joebog1

One of my pet tricks when lek churing is to leap around like a loony (I find this rather easy) and cup my hands together.

I wanna be at one of yer lek chures!!! must be a whole concert in itself!!.
I hope and pray thet there are LOTS of free Lek trons about.

Joe

What's that stuff you eat in oz called?

[G4YVM David]

I found this. Instantl thought of you lot...be a nice drink whilst waiting for those fuses and wires to be burnt in...

D

[Craig Sawyers]

Ha ha ha! Snake oil mineral water no less!

Craig

[stevehertz]

It's edging back to Victorian times when ads claimed all manner of crazy things and got away with it. Most of the advertised potions were claimed to cure almost anything.

[paul000]

Originally Posted by stevehertz

What's that stuff you eat in oz called?

It's a liquid called Foster's

[joebog1]

Fosters is mostly used for cleaning mag wheels.
The mineral water is made close to Brisbane and I have never seen it. Its just a wee 2000 kliks by road from there to here.

But I like the humour.

Joe

[paul000]

I know Bris really well too. Never tried cleaning wheels with Fosters though - scared of rotting the tyres.

[Cobaltblue]

Although its hard to know what is on topic for this thread but cleaning wheels and beer is not on topic.

Please stay on Topic.

Cheers

Mike T

[knobtwiddler]

Originally Posted by Nuvistor

Something for your Christmas stocking
https://www.theregister.com/2022/10/11/esoteric-grandioso-turntable/

And and that price, it comes with a Chinese-made 9" arm...

How would you fit a 12" arm to it? If you can't, then it strikes me as totally ridiculous at that price. At $75K I'd want a tangential arm TBH, not a Jelco copy made in PRC...

[Craig Sawyers]

Tangential is the way to go if it is done well. Nothing new of course - B&O had a tangential arm on one of their turntables in the early 70's. But the history goes much further back http://www.soundfountain.com/amb/ttrabco.html#:~:text=The%20...0Triumph%20Phonograph%20from%201877.

If you are determined there are plenty of designs out there for DIY tangential arms out there.

Or you can pay loadsamoney https://www.analogueseduction.net/tonearms/clearaudio-statement-tt1-parallel-tracking-tonearm.html .

But we're in watchmaker territory there, not audiophoolery.

Craig

[Beobloke]

Originally Posted by knobtwiddler

And and that price, it comes with a Chinese-made 9" arm...

How would you fit a 12" arm to it? If you can't, then it strikes me as totally ridiculous at that price. At $75K I'd want a tangential arm TBH, not a Jelco copy made in PRC...

I know we like a good bit of mickey-taking on this thread, but it might be worth you doing a little bit of research before posting.

The arm on the TEAC turntable is an Ikeda IT-345. Hand made in Japan by Ikeda Sound Labs and widely regarded as one of the finest arms ever designed.

https://www.brookaudio.co.uk/product/ikeda-it-407-precision-tonearm/

I am sure Ikeda-san would be somewhat insulted to hear it described as "a Jelco copy made in PRC".

[knobtwiddler]

Aargh! I apologise unreservedly. When I Googled the arm I got a Chinese arm as the top hit (I believe this is known as 'cloaking', where sites put tags in their metadata, so they come up when other items are searched).

I got the arm info from this link, which claims it has a 'TA-9D' arm: https://www.hifipig.com/esoteric-grandioso-t1-turntable/

If you Google 'TA-9D dynamic balance tonearm', the top links are for a Chinese Jelco clone (well, they were for me)

For that price, I do hope the TT can take 12" arms, though.

[terrybull]

Originally Posted by Beobloke

I heard it at Munich this year - it’s very, very good!

Well to slightly re-word a famous Christine Keeler quote, “it should do, shouldn’t it” £££££££££££

[Station X]

You mean Mandy Rice-Davies, but let's stay on topic and not have a discussion about The Profumo Scandal.

[Beobloke]

Originally Posted by knobtwiddler

Aargh! I apologise unreservedly. When I Googled the arm I got a Chinese arm as the top hit (I believe this is known as 'cloaking', where sites put tags in their metadata, so they come up when other items are searched).

I got the arm info from this link, which claims it has a 'TA-9D' arm: https://www.hifipig.com/esoteric-grandioso-t1-turntable/

If you Google 'TA-9D dynamic balance tonearm', the top links are for a Chinese Jelco clone (well, they were for me)

For that price, I do hope the TT can take 12" arms, though.

Ah, I see how you ended up there! I expect all TEAC have done is append their own name and model number to the Ikeda - it’s a fairly common activity to try and ‘disguise’ the item’s origin.

As an example, here’s the new Linn Krane tonearm:
https://www.linn.co.uk/uk/turntables/components/krane

And here’s a Clearaudio Satisfy:
https://clearaudio.de/en/products/tonearms-satisfy_kardan.php

As to 12” arms, I must confess, I’ve never quite understood the appeal. I appreciate the ‘numbers’ and the reduction in tracking error but whenever I’ve directly compared a 9” arm to its direct 12” equivalent, I’ve consistently preferred the sound of the 9”.

[The Philpott]

Stan Freberg - ahead of his time with satire:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xxz6_utUsZo

Not his best work, St George and the Dragonet, Little Blue Riding Hood and The Banana Boat song are better. Last heard them on 45rpm in the mid '70's, trawled the family grey matter archive at the weekend and then managed to locate them on youtube.

Dave

[RichardGM]

Not altogether convinced about that Ikeda arm. It looks pretty massive. The counterweight can obviously be adjusted to give whatever tracking force you like, but the inertia is surely a problem if the record isn't perfectly flat.

[Craig Sawyers]

The Ikeda headshell weight is 17.2g. But the specification does not mention the effective mass, taking into the tube and counterbalance (over the range of counterbalance positions). That makes it difficult to impossible to match a suitable cartridge.

Compare that to SME arm specs. The IV and V are specified as an effective mass of 10-11g. They keep the range small by using tungsten plates in the counterbalance, being much higher density than lead (19.3g/cc cf 11.3g/cc). That means that it can be very close to the pivot, and since effective mass is an r^2 thing, the closer to the pivot the better.

Tungsten's density is not far off the highest density material (Osmium) at 22.5g/cc.

Craig