Turntable Showdown

November 2009

That’s how October’s meeting was previewed. However at no time was this meant to be a turntable shootout. Instead, it was our annual vinyl meeting, a chance to hear some records played on fine turntables. And what fun it was. When spontaneous applause greeted the end of the first two tracks played, President Richard announced that it was the first time he’d heard spontaneous applause since the October 2002 meeting. Yes, that was also a vinyl meeting.

The October meeting was special for a few reasons. It was the first time we’d be using the recently purchased Whatmough Magnum 3 speakers. Jonathan Davis (from Dynavector) was bringing a Well Tempered Amadeus turntable with all its design features. It was fitted with a Dynavector DVXX II mk2 (by itself worth $2,100). Phono pre was the Dynavector P75. Larry Turnbull was bringing his ‘bog standard’ (Larry’s words) Technics SL1300 with a p mount AT33 cartridge ‘from the 80’s’. President Richard (Wong) was bringing a selection of records from his extensive collection. Richard also has a Well Tempered in his listening room, which is where I first heard one (no, not his listening room...). Adam’s battery powered pre did the preamplification, power by Elson’s EL34 push-pull monoblocs.

Expectations were modest, considering the notoriety of the room at Haberfield coupled with the relatively inexpensive speakers. Sound quality could lack mid-range cohesion and bass.  So what happened?

Before you find out, I should mention that Richard had selected records chronologically from early/mid sixties forward, initially with NO 180 or 200gm records. Later we would move on to pressings by Sheffield Labs, MFSL, Classic Records (Quiex), etc. Trevor spoke to us about some of the WT’s features. First was the golf ball floating in viscous fluid instead of arm bearings, which allows dynamic adjustment of tracking and skating. This also results in no feedback from the plinth into the arm.

According to Jonathan, this is the only real turntable advance in 40 years. The platter bearing is most simply imagined if you think of a pencil (the spindle) held vertically by 2 knife points halfway down the pencil. As the ‘pencil’ rolls, it never leaves these two points, and there is no gap. A normal spindle bearing is a sleeve, but William Firebaugh (Mr Well Tempered) has found a way to almost entirely eliminate the friction in the traditional spindle bearing. The bottom of the ‘pencil’ is supported by a v shape in the ‘pencil’ and the support (also v shaped) coated with Teflon, in an oil bath. This bearing arrangement affects wow and flutter, virtually eliminating the latter. Apparently, if the cantilever moves upwards, the arm (floating in liquid, remember) automatically balances this upward movement, with 2 results:

1) The lateral tracking movement of the stylus in the (v shaped) groove tends to push the stylus upwards out of the groove, resulting in poorer tracking of the musical information in the groove. In the Well Tempered, the arm balance means it holds the stylus further into the groove. Result? More accurate transmission of the artist’s musical intent.

2) There is less surface noise. Full stop. The belt is a knotted polyester thread, and the pulley is designed to suit. Cartridge setup? Screw it in, set the VTA and tracking force, and play, no further adjustments are needed...

This is where it got interesting, as Jonathan told us errors in tracking angle of 5 to 10° resulted in only a tiny increase of second harmonic distortion, which people like.

Tracking angle needed to approach 30° before you’d hear error. You could almost hear the long grasses whispering, as this is clearly contrary to what we’ve all been told for decades. Jonathan is of course referring to the Well Tempered. With Dynavector cartridges, if you set the arm parallel to the playing surface, VTA will be correct.

The turntables were used alternately. First track played was ‘The Rise and Fall of Flingel Blunt’ by The Shadows. As mentioned above, spontaneous applause. This was followed by ‘Waltz of the Toreadors’ conducted by Zubin Mehta at The Hollywood Bowl. More applause, etc. ‘Daniel’ by Elton John (signed copy), Amadeus soundtrack, Lennon’s ‘Imagine’ (Richard’s choice for best song of all time), Vivaldi, West Side Story, Harry James, Fanfare for the Common Man, Ivan Rebroff, Tocatta, Sinatra (‘Nice ‘n Easy’, MFSL – a highlight for me. All the early records were impressive for their detail and ‘presence’, but the Sinatra track brought the event really to life for me), Sting, Saturday Night Fever, INXS.

At this point Richard played two versions of Simon & Garfunkel’s ‘El Condor Pasa’ from Bridge Over Troubled Waters. The first was a standard original pressing, played many times at many parties by who knows how many people. The second was a recently acquired ‘audiophile’ version. There was divided opinion as to which was ‘better’, the first having more surface noise and body, the second having much better clarity, but a touch less soul. Interesting. At this point Richard invited us to come forth with our offerings. Diana Krall, Muddy Waters, Also Sprach Zarathustra and Brian Eno followed. The Muddy Waters (‘Country Boy’ – from the ‘Folk Singer’ album, Classic Records Quiex 200gm) is one of my favourites, and didn’t disappoint. I have the MFSL CD of the same album, and the LP version killed the CD version. Excellent performance, excellently recorded, in a word, ‘dynamic’.

Following are 2 reviews of the Well Tempered, followed by a Pear Audio article by William Firebaugh himself, outlining the features of the Well Tempered Amadeus.

http://www.totallywired.co.nz/welltempered.html

http://www.avguide.com/review/tested-the-well-tempered-amadeus-turntable-and-tonearm

http://www.pearaudio.com/wt_amadeus.html

Finally, the Well Tempered Amadeus can be had for approx. $4,000. Bargain.