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Russ I said:
This is by far THE BEST explanation/demonstration of turntable setup I've ever seen, and I've been trying to figure out a lot of this stuff for years. So often, the people providing these instructions make the mistake of assuming too much about what the viewer/student already knows, and they end up leaving out some of the most important stuff (like what half of the fucking acronyms actually stand for!). This guy nails it, man. I've been schooled! Best 35 minutes I've spent on my computer in a long time.

www.noteworthyaudio.com

Ortofon

1918 9th of October: the Electrical Phono Film Company is founded by Axel Petersen (1887-1971) and Arnold Poulsen (1889-1952) with the objective of developing one of the world’s first synchronized sound film system.1923 12th of October: the first sound film recorded indoors is shown at the...
www.noteworthyaudio.com
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I watched the entire thing and it is excellent indeed.

I even pulled out a test record and ended up increasing my anti skate a bit. It sounds even better.
 
Russ I said:
This is by far THE BEST explanation/demonstration of turntable setup I've ever seen, and I've been trying to figure out a lot of this stuff for years. So often, the people providing these instructions make the mistake of assuming too much about what the viewer/student already knows, and they end up leaving out some of the most important stuff (like what half of the fucking acronyms actually stand for!). This guy nails it, man. I've been schooled! Best 35 minutes I've spent on my computer in a long time.

www.noteworthyaudio.com

Ortofon

1918 9th of October: the Electrical Phono Film Company is founded by Axel Petersen (1887-1971) and Arnold Poulsen (1889-1952) with the objective of developing one of the world’s first synchronized sound film system.1923 12th of October: the first sound film recorded indoors is shown at the...
www.noteworthyaudio.com
Click to expand...
Except for anti skate everything was on point just slapping two screws in.
 
debianlinux said:
Except for anti skate everything was on point just slapping two screws in.
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Well, they already had the cartridge alignment set off camera. The SME slides forward and backwards in a special mount at the pivot point at the rear. There is no adjustment at the headshell.

The cartridge better be right as far as azimuth. It’s $7k. And if it were off, he would walk down the hall and get another. But Ortofon QC is good so I doubt that happened.

In any event, that setup is well over $50k. I’d hope it’d be pretty spot on out of the box.

It’s still an excellent video.
 
HiFi Guy said:
Well, they already had the cartridge alignment set off camera. The SME slides forward and backwards in a special mount at the pivot point at the rear. There is no adjustment at the headshell.

The cartridge better be right as far as azimuth. It’s $7k. And if it were off, he would walk down the hall and get another. But Ortofon QC is good so I doubt that happened.

In any event, that setup is well over $50k. I’d hope it’d be pretty spot on out of the box.

It’s still an excellent video.
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Agree but also I think the broader point is that assuming a decent table, arm, and cartridge the fuss is largely in the easily adjustable factors to begin with. If something sounds wrong it's good to know how to check and correct but it's not the micrometer adjustment black box some people act as is if required to suddenly go from garbage to panacea sound.

That said, I may have been convinced to score a test record.
 
debianlinux said:
Agree but also I think the broader point is that assuming a decent table, arm, and cartridge the fuss is largely in the easily adjustable factors to begin with. If something sounds wrong it's good to know how to check and correct but it's not the micrometer adjustment black box some people act as is if required to suddenly go from garbage to panacea sound.

That said, I may have been convinced to score a test record.
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A test record is a good idea.
 
Joe Mac said:
Did you go with the blueOS/Dirac card or just stick to the node with a coax digital cable into the NAD?
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SafeandSound had a non BluOS model in stock so I decided to go that route. I think all the BluOs models are on a lengthy backorder so when/if the add-on cards come in I'll take a look then.

Still waiting on a toslink optical cable for the Node. Should be here today or tomorrow.

First impressions on looks alone are this thing is indeed as good as it looks in the promotional photos. The vinyl wrap is incredibly convincing. First impressions are sound are somewhat mixed but I only had time to spin a few tracks. First thing I noticed was that I really had to crank the volume knob, but there is really no end to "the crank" so I had no idea how hard I was really pushing it (except I guess for using the vu meters and the LED scale...). This compared to the C326BEE where just a few clicks were the difference between comfortable quiet listening to rattling the windows. It felt like I was getting a bit more space between instruments and the midrange seemed more to my taste compared to the C326BEE. Low end was there but I wanted a bit more. It might still be burning in, but I do have the option to EQ a bit with the knobs.
 
folsom_lives said:
SafeandSound had a non BluOS model in stock so I decided to go that route. I think all the BluOs models are on a lengthy backorder so when/if the add-on cards come in I'll take a look then.

Still waiting on a toslink optical cable for the Node. Should be here today or tomorrow.

First impressions on looks alone are this thing is indeed as good as it looks in the promotional photos. The vinyl wrap is incredibly convincing. First impressions are sound are somewhat mixed but I only had time to spin a few tracks. First thing I noticed was that I really had to crank the volume knob, but there is really no end to "the crank" so I had no idea how hard I was really pushing it (except I guess for using the vu meters and the LED scale...). This compared to the C326BEE where just a few clicks were the difference between comfortable quiet listening to rattling the windows. It felt like I was getting a bit more space between instruments and the midrange seemed more to my taste compared to the C326BEE. Low end was there but I wanted a bit more. It might still be burning in, but I do have the option to EQ a bit with the knobs.
Click to expand...

If you are using tidal or Qobuz I’d go for a coax rather than toslink. Toslink tops out at 24/96 rather than the full 24/192 and it’s more prone to jitter and interference than coax which is shielded. Of course if using Spotify then it’s not so much of a concern in terms of the sample rate.

Nice! That’s sounds like some pretty positive initial impressions and I bet it does lose its manners as it burns in, most amps and speakers I’ve had do!
 
folsom_lives said:
SafeandSound had a non BluOS model in stock so I decided to go that route. I think all the BluOs models are on a lengthy backorder so when/if the add-on cards come in I'll take a look then.

Still waiting on a toslink optical cable for the Node. Should be here today or tomorrow.

First impressions on looks alone are this thing is indeed as good as it looks in the promotional photos. The vinyl wrap is incredibly convincing. First impressions are sound are somewhat mixed but I only had time to spin a few tracks. First thing I noticed was that I really had to crank the volume knob, but there is really no end to "the crank" so I had no idea how hard I was really pushing it (except I guess for using the vu meters and the LED scale...). This compared to the C326BEE where just a few clicks were the difference between comfortable quiet listening to rattling the windows. It felt like I was getting a bit more space between instruments and the midrange seemed more to my taste compared to the C326BEE. Low end was there but I wanted a bit more. It might still be burning in, but I do have the option to EQ a bit with the knobs.
Click to expand...
Yeah I have no idea where volume maxes out and I’ve definitely had all the little leds lit up. The knob seems like it turns forever before there is change. You definitely get more umph from the remote. I have the vu set to input so it’s useless for volume, I like to watch them dance.

Good to know the lean feeling bass is an accurate impression.

Soundstage is for sure the biggest change in my upgrade. It seems dead silent to me. More air. More detail.
 
Joe Mac said:
If you are using tidal or Qobuz I’d go for a coax rather than toslink. Toslink tops out at 24/96 rather than the full 24/192 and it’s more prone to jitter and interference than coax which is shielded. Of course if using Spotify then it’s not so much of a concern in terms of the sample rate.

Nice! That’s sounds like some pretty positive initial impressions and I bet it does lose its manners as it burns in, most amps and speakers I’ve had do!
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Yeah I can tell the bass is there it's just trying to break free. Good to know about the coax. I'm just using Spotify for now so an $8 cable is not a huge loss when I decide to dive more into high res digital.
 
HiFi Guy said:
Well, they already had the cartridge alignment set off camera. The SME slides forward and backwards in a special mount at the pivot point at the rear. There is no adjustment at the headshell.

The cartridge better be right as far as azimuth. It’s $7k. And if it were off, he would walk down the hall and get another. But Ortofon QC is good so I doubt that happened.

In any event, that setup is well over $50k. I’d hope it’d be pretty spot on out of the box.

It’s still an excellent video.
Click to expand...
Yeah, he explained how that was sorted when the arm was installed, which required and relied upon the measurements that go into that alignment. Having puzzled over and finally understood (I think!) how the Feikert protractor works, this part of the video made perfect sense to me. What I appreciated most was how he explained each step in the process, and even when he found his cart to be as it should, he discussed how to make the necessary adjustments if it weren’t.

Re: a test record, anything in particular to look for? I have an old Shure “Audio Obstacle Course” record and I don’t think it fits the bill very well.
 
Russ I said:
Yeah, he explained how that was sorted when the arm was installed, which required and relied upon the measurements that go into that alignment. Having puzzled over and finally understood (I think!) how the Feikert protractor works, this part of the video made perfect sense to me. What I appreciated most was how he explained each step in the process, and even when he found his cart to be as it should, he discussed how to make the necessary adjustments if it weren’t.

Re: a test record, anything in particular to look for? I have an old Shure “Audio Obstacle Course” record and I don’t think it fits the bill very well.
Click to expand...
I like the old Hi Fi News and Record Review test record- the one with the blue jacket. I also have the Analogue Productions test record that I use in conjunction with the Fozgometer, but if I didn’t have the Foz, I’d be good with the HFNRR test record.

IMG_2369.jpeg
 
HiFi Guy said:
I like the old Hi Fi News and Record Review test record- the one with the blue jacket. I also have the Analogue Productions test record that I use in conjunction with the Fozgometer, but if I didn’t have the Foz, I’d be good with the HFNRR test record.

View attachment 178077
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I need to pick this up eventually. I have the Ortofon Test Record, but I can't help but feel it's tuned to Ortofon carts, lol.
 
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