Audiophilepure

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“I checked out this album during the holidays and found it to be very fun and engaging. Of course the No515 deck brought out the best in it. When we had my wife’s family over on Christmas afternoon, this was one of the albums I played during their visit. Everybody took note of the excellent sonics. It became more than just background music and soon enough there was a small group gathered around enjoying the funky arrangements. The next thing I knew, my mother in law said she could “listen to this all day”. That was another first!”

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The vaunted ‘speed regulation’, was a curious note for me initially in that the RT85 seemed to spin fast when the tone arm was lifted only to settle down after a few seconds later before properly regulating the speed. The only way to mitigate this was to lift the tonearm and remember to wait a few seconds for the speed to regulate and then place the needle down. It’s not a deal breaker but it is noticeable and mildly irritating.

I had to fight the urge to touch the vinyl as I normally do and kept the dust cover on for most of my listening, so I wouldn’t give it a shot.

While the RT85 is quite substantial in appearance, I did find that having only three isolation feet rather than four made the deck susceptible to wobbling or tipping over if nudged by accident. Again, unfairly compared to the Technics which is much heavier and planted on four feet, I realized I couldn’t be as hard on this turntable as I am with my DJ gear, as sometimes the needle would jump or even worse, I would fear flipping the turntable deck itself! So, I backed off.”

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“Earlier in the week, I had matched levels between The Clearaudio + TRACER + Hana ML + D’Agostino Momentum Phono vs. my dCS Vivaldi Digital stack. So I decided to have some fun and listen to Mercy Street on a Vinyl LP vs. Mercy Street in DSD.

I started the track on both devices simultaneously and switched back and forth. Sure there were differences (some LP noise for example), but in general I didn’t prefer one over the other. YES, I usually prefer the AMG Viella V12 over the dCS for a lot of content, but in this case the Clearaudio + D’Agostino Momentum was just as enjoyable as listening to that track on the gold standard dCS Vivaldi.”

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“A few days later, I had my aha moment! I took delivery of a pair of Fluance’s new Ai60 Powered 6.5” Bookshelf Speakers (review coming soon). With powered speakers I was able to remove the amplifier from the equation and listen to a full Fluance system. This configuration was just great. Like all around great. Listening back to Can’t You Hear Me Knocking, the warmth all but disappeared and the overall sound was bright and crisp while retaining its low-end grunt. This proves that system matching is key. Potential buyers should look to audition Fluance RT85 with a few different systems first to achieve the sort of sound that they prefer.”

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The sound—oh,the sound—that the Zero produced in this setup was truly captivating. The noise floor depths were subterranean and the octave-to-octave balance seamless. It was immediately apparent to me that the TechDAS Zero was delivering a fundamentally different approach to vinyl playback. Never have I heard such 3-D presentation of musical notes. Never have I heard voices conveyed through a loudspeaker so convincingly—not only were they accurate in dynamic detail but also in their placement within the soundstage. Listening to a passage from Tosca I almost believed I was sitting ten feet away from the tenor, so realistic were the system’s sense of fidelity and lack of dynamic constraint. Chimes rang out with supreme delicacy and endlessly lingering decays.”

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“My main goal was to introduce a new model that would add to the strengths of the Eclipse and Encore, improving on their existing characteristics, not changing them. I am very proud of the aesthetics of our turntables, but as beautiful as they are I will only add or change components if they improve the sound.

Adding the solid 18 lb isolation base has improved what was already a very quiet turntable. It is a unique design. The table’s feet sit inside the machined pockets of the platform giving superb isolation due to its weight and an additional set of feet.”

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“Its hard to tell if my enjoyment was due to the Clearaudio table, the new TRACER or the Hana ML cartridge. But I do know that the combination of the three seemed to offer a level of synergy that left an impression on me.

Over the past few years I have come to appreciate wood body cartridges like the Miyajima Zero Mono or Miyajima Madake Snakewood that create a hypnotic sound with soul…. The Hana ML isn’t a Snakewood, but it had the ability to create a similar experience on a smaller scale, and I think that is what attracted me to it.”

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“That definitely describes the LP7, but it’s not a bad thing. This basic design is more or less universal at this price point for a reason: It’s simple and it’s effective. It allows people who maybe aren’t too into the fiddly-ness that naturally comes with vinyl playback to experience a more advanced turntable. The LP7 even has a built-in phonostage (that can be bypassed) for those who don’t have electronics with a phono preamp. It’s a compromise between form, function, and user ability. The LP7 is a step up from your entry-level turntables, both in cost and in functionality, and I was really interested to find out how it sounded.”