2013 TAS EDITORS' CHOICE AWARDS: TURNTABLES $2000-$5000
Equipment report
by TAS Staff | Apr 05th, 2013
Categories: Turntables
2013 TAS Editors' Choice Awards: Turntables $2000-$5000
Kuzma Stabi S
$2075
eliteavdist.com
The Stabi S is Kuzma’s least expensive turntable, but you wouldn’t know it to listen to the thing. Blessed with deep background silences, the Stabi S makes a great complement to the Stogi S tonearm. Not a good choice for rooms where footfalls will be a problem (because it is unsuspended), it is otherwise a fine mid-priced ’table.


Kuzma Stabi S

SOTA Sapphire Series V Turntable
$2700
sotaturntables.com
The Series V upgrade of this 30-year-old classic boasts improvements in parts, engineering, machining, fit and finish, and performance—all retrofittable to earlier versions. Its timeproven, four‑point hanging suspension is still the ultimate in isolating the arm/pickup. For PS, the Sapphire is the least expensive turntable that suggests what “super”-turntables are all about, sacrificing only a bit of resolution and control by comparison. Recommended without serious qualification.


SOTA Sapphire Series V Turntable

Clearaudio Performance SEP
$2800 (with Verify tonearm)
musicalsurroundings.com
The Performance’s precision ceramic/magnetic bearing allows its platter to float on a cushion of air, contributing to this turntable system’s startling transparency, openness, and clarity, very good native speed stability, and low noise floor. Its improved Verify arm is equally at home with highperformance moving coils or modest moving magnets. As with most mass-loaded designs, a rigid stand is required.


Clearaudio Performance SEP

Well Tempered Amadeus
$2800
welltemperedlab.net
This latest version of William Firebaugh’s inventive turntable and arm design has ultra-quiet background, superbly non-resonant, neutral sound, complete speed stability, surprising bass extension, easy setup and operation, and compatibility with a wide range of cartridges. Add-on isolation devices may be needed. Overall, the high end at a budget price.


Well Tempered Amadeus

Pro-Ject RM-10.1
$2999 ($3,599 with Sumiko Blackbird & Connect-it Tonearm Cable)
sumikoaudio.net
The RM-10.1 improves upon the fine performance of the RM-9.1 by adding a longer arm, a more massive plinth and platter, an isolation base, and magnetic repulsion. These enhancements produce blacker backgrounds, more solidity in the bass, and a cleaner window on the soundstage.


Pro-Ject RM-10.1

Linn Sondek LP12
$3200 (turntable only)
linn.co.uk
The original high-end turntable, Linn’s LP12 conveys the rhythm and pace that are the very foundations of music, and it gets better with age—owners of any vintage LP12 can upgrade to the current model.


Linn Sondek LP12

Basis Audio 1400 Signature
$3400
basisaudio.com
Clean, lively, and nimble, the Basis 1400 lacks the authority, deep black backgrounds, and projection of size and scale of the really great turntables. But this combination doesn’t leave you hankering for something else.


Basis Audio 1400 Signature

Nottingham Analogue Studio-Space 294
$3999 with Ace-Space 294 arm
www.nottinghamanaloguestudio.com/
Nottingham’s beautiful Space 294 belt-drive turntable offers very good speed stability and nearly noise-free operation. Driven by an ultra-low-torque motor, the 294’s massive platter must be push-started by hand (you’ll get used to it). Completing the picture is the 12-inch, unipivot, Ace-Space 294 carbon-fiber tonearm. The system strikes a fine balance between resolution and musicality.


Nottingham Analogue Studio-Space 294

Acoustic Signature Challenger II
$4500 in silver; special order $4950
proaudio.com
The German-made Acoustic Signature Challenger II is a beautifully built, excellentsounding turntable that vies for “best-of ” status in the mid-price category. It shares the same special bearing as the company’s top-line Ascona, and the 50mm-thick, 20-pound aluminum platter is machined—as are all tooled parts—in-house on a 20x precision CNC device. The Challenger is very low in mechanical noise, has excellent detail and dynamic range, and can accept up to two tonearms. Setup is a snap. Value is high.

Wow - turntables and phono stages - who would have thought! (My spell check doesn't even recognize phono!)

My two cents for high-end table brands:

1) SOTA
2) VPI
3) LINN
4) BASIS

Phono stages (and I am amazed how many are out there now):

1) Expensive: Parasound Halo JC3
2) Affordable: Project Phono Box (they make several at a variety of price points and gain levels)

Just wait until you start looking at cartridges

That Bro Anthem is a COMPENDIUM of knowledge!!!!!

Man, great resources there Bro!

I've been leaning towards the Pro-ject Carbon, but I didn't really like how it "looked".

You know, I've been really impressed (thus far) with my Onkyo 838... it wasn't a recommended model to be sure, but the sound out of it was less "bright" than the Marantz (could be room accoustics or the auto set-up my buddy favors).

The CP-1050 by Onkyo is brand-new and nothing really is out on it yet. I am very tempted to "try it out" as they dropped the price already on some sites to 499.00... this could be due to product defects though, so I'd like to see where it goes. I'm in no super hurry on this one.

Moderator, I haven't seen those models yet so I will take a good look!

Vinyl Lives:

Salina’s Acoustic Sounds to rev up vinyl record production
BY DAN VOORHISTHE WICHITA EAGLE
03/04/2015 8:24 AM 03/04/2015 10:03 AM

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Acoustic Sounds, located in Salina, Kansa and its several subsidiaries employ 90 people and now plans to grow more as it adds machinery.


Acoustic Sounds, a Salina company that produces a million vinyl records a year, has purchased rare 13 record presses held in storage in a Chicago warehouse for 20 years.

The vinyl records business is hot, and Acoustic Sounds’ record pressing unit, Quality Record Pressings, just went to a third shift and is still looking at a backlog of three to four months.

The company presses new records, such as the new Madonna album, as well as reissues, such as the Beach Boys.

But the company, like everybody else in the industry, has far more demand than it can supply. The number of record-pressing machines is a key bottleneck because record-pressing machines are complex, expensive — and no longer manufactured. Companies making vinyl records are all using decades-old machines with updated computer controls.


But Acoustic Sounds owner Chad Kassem had heard stories about some record presses that might be available. They had reportedly been used in the mid-1990s for bootleg 78 RPM albums for export to India, before the operation was shut down by law enforcement. Then the machines were bought in 2003 by a man who wanted to start a pressing plant, but couldn’t put the financing together. Over the years, he had turned down a number of offers for the machines.

“Rumors of these presses had been floating around for years,” said David Clouston, communications associate for Acoustic Sounds.

Kassem finally tracked him down and persuaded him to sell. They closed the sale Feb. 23, and a day later the machines were loaded onto trucks.

“Finding these presses is like opening Al Capone’s vault and actually finding something,” Kassem said in a statement, in reference to an old Geraldo Rivera TV special about opening a cellar in Chicago that was rumored to belong to gangster Al Capone. Rivera found nothing.

Clouston said it would take at least a year to repair the presses and reconfigure the plant to add in a new production line. The factory will be able to produce more than 2 million records a year after they are operating, making the company either the second or third largest vinyl record maker in the country. He expects they will hire a significant number of new workers when the time comes.


Clouston said they don’t expect the demand for vinyl to wane between now and then.

“What we hear from our partners at the major labels is that it’s not a fashion statement,” he said. “It’s a niche. They want the music on vinyl, they want the art, they want to own the whole package.”