Audiophilepure

https://www.soundstageultra.com/index.php/equipment-menu/1229-musical-fidelity-m8xtt-turntable

Supertramp’s Even in the Quietest Moments . . . is so heavily biased toward the midrange that it tends to dissolve into a gelatinous mess, given half a chance. Even the cymbals seem to descend into the midrange. I have a half-speed-mastered version (A&M Records SPJ 4634), but even that has generally left me cold. But the music is magnificent! “From Now On” has a regal sense of majesty that’s musical genius. The M8xTT actively decoded this mess. I could hear the rhythm guitar as a discrete instrument, whereas it’s normally buried beneath heaping dollops of piano.

Flipping over to side 1, “Give a Little Bit” starts off with an emo-style 12-string guitar that threads right through the whole track. It’s finely detailed in the opening, and it gets progressively harder to keep it distinct once the other instruments start to crowd it out. The M8xTT did right by that guitar.

No record in my collection showcased the M8xTT’s grip on the bass and its transition to a clear, open midrange better than St. Vincent’s MassEducation (Loma Vista LVR00448). SoundStage! founder and publisher Doug Schneider turned me on to this album. It’s entirely acoustic, mostly with an enormous piano riding under St. Vincent’s rich, evocative voice. With both the piano and voice sharing the same acoustic plane, the M8xTT concocted a vast soundstage; one that benefited hugely from a lack of noise, combined with a feeling of latent power in the lower registers.

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