A Terrific Tube Preamplifier From Korea, And A - Ultra High Fidelity ...

I may have mentioned that there is
no sign of the death of the turntable,
not going by their presence at CES and
other shows. Indeed, it is the CD player
which seems like an endangered species,
squeezed between hard drives and
vinyl.
The most unusual table was probably
the EAR Disc Master, at right, from
celebrated maverick designer Tim de
Paravicini. You’ve probably noticed it
has two tone arms, which would seem to
make it a cartridge reviewer’s dream, but
there’s more, much more. Particularly
unusual is the drive system. The subplatter
is driven by a geared belt, which by its
very nature cannot slip. The platter and
subplatter are then coupled magnetically,
without contact.
It was playing through a pair of
Tim’s monoblock amplifiers (EAR is
not a company that does anything on
the cheap, before you ask), driving
Martens speakers. Yes,
the combination sounded
outstanding.
The turntable below
left is a VPI Classic,
which I’ve seen (and
heard) before. The
man in the checked
s h i r t i s K e i t h
Herron, designer
of the $6550 Herron
VTSP-3A preamplifier,
which is on the top shelf.
The violin tone on a Paganini
recording was rich but delightfully
smooth. Say, one could get used to this
newfangled vinyl thing!
One much anticipated table was the
Oracle MkVI, still built in the Eastern
Townships of Quebec, in the photo at
bottom left (with Stéphane Nadeau and
Why a free version?
Jacques Riendeau). It looks just like the
MkV, and that’s a good thing. Its major
For years now, we have been publishing, on our Web site, a free PDF
innovation is a set of three stabilizers,
version of our magazine.
one of which you can see in closeup at
The reason is simple. We know you’re looking for information, and
bottom right (it’s just to the left of the
that is almost certainly why you’ve come to visit our site. And that’s why
turntable pillar).
we give away what some competitors consider to be a startlingly large
What does it do? Sonically quite a lot.
amount of information…for free.
Turntable innovations don’t lend them-
We would give it all away for free, if we could still stay in business.
selves well to comparisons, because it’s
Recent figures indicate that each issue is getting downloaded as many
so difficult to make two turntables sound
as 100,000 times, and that figure keeps growing.
alike anyway, but the MkVI stabilizers
Yes, we know, if we had a nickel for each download…
have a “MkV” setting, so you can dial
Truth is, we’re in the business of helping you enjoy music at home
them out. The difference is pretty much
under the best possible conditions. And movies too. We’ll do what we need
evident. Dial them out and you can hear
to do in order to get the information to you.
a veil of brightness settle over the music.
Of course, we also want you to read our published editions too. We
Surface noise soars. Did the MkV really
hope that, having read this far, you’ll want to read on.
sound like that?
Oracles have never been in lowpriced
territory, of course. The table
costs $7700, or $9000 with the (highly
recommended) Turbo power supply. Add
the arm shown, and you’re at $16K.
But if you own a MkV you’ll want to
know whether you can upgrade. Indeed
you can, for $1700 plus a $100 installation
fee.
Say, you figure we can get our hands
on one for a review?
ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine 23
Feedback Feature