I could not be more satisfied with the service and technical expertise of Robert at Audiotelier.
I consider myself a novice audiophile, nevertheless I have rarely heard a system that outperforms my Jadis Orchestra amp with Cabasse speakers.
I brought my amp to Audiotelier for a standard tube change and was rewarded with so much more. Robert informed me that I had been overpaying for an inferior tube all these years, and that by also changing capacitors, my amp would produce more power and deeper bass tones. It was well worth the extra couple of weeks for the Eastern European components he recommended.
I never imagined it possible, but now my Jadis Orchestra sounds more powerful, with crisp clear highs and deeper punch in the bass, than ever before. It sounds like the Dave Mathews band is playing live, to a private audience, in my own living room!
Thanks again Robert!
Michael Schweitz
In a few words: Based on my two rather limited listening sessions this week, the new turntable/cartridge set up has opened up a whole new world of listening opportunities for me. What is old is all new. Every single LP that I played offered new sonic secrets and nuances. It’s been a joy to pull out albums that I have not heard in (seriously) 30+ years—and is some cases, forgot that I even had.
Functionally, with the addition of the pad and the weight, the table is rock solid. The motor grunts a little bit upon start up but this makes sense based on the increase in mass that it is pushing from standstill.
I’ve listened to a number of genres to try to get as much input as possible. While I’m certainly no music critic, at the very first, the overall sound seemed disappointingly flat and two dimensional, but things opened up considerably on/about the third disk—I believe you mentioned that the cartridge had to “break in.” Or maybe I had to dial in. Probably of no surprise to you, but most apparent to me: the appearance of a vertical soundstage as well as more expected breadth of the horizontal sound stage, stable image placement within that soundstage, the solid and really firm low end and the articulation of percussion instruments, especially hand percussion. These are all tired cliches, perhaps, but all of the acoustic instruments now seem to include a deep level of harmonic content, including bite and attack on stringed instruments—it’s as if you can “hear" the wood, an airiness from wind instruments and a gratifying completeness from drums—beyond the thud of the initial snare or bass drum hit. I have yet to listen to any solo piano, but a small ensemble Bach harpsichord and cello recording—a British Phillips pressing—reminded me of my experiences with an old McIntosh tube amp (an MC240—wish I still had that based on used prices I saw online!) and a highly modified Dynaco preamp through a set of early Magnaplaner speakers. I’ve also been surprised at how quiet things are between tracks, etc.
On a more than a couple of discs, based on the mix, of course, the front-to-back depth was really noticeable, with the sound projecting well off of the plane of the speakers. At one point, the instruments were literally floating in front of the speakers in a delicate cloud of sonic joy. It was transformative.
So, as you can glean from all of this, I’m one happy camper here in Bayfield...
Question: how often do you recommend stylus cleaning? I have yet to invest in the Onzow Zerodust system but will do so shortly.
Response: Re stylus cleaning, since it takes about five seconds to clean the stylus with the Zerodust puck, and since any dust on the stylus degrades sound a lot and damages record grooves, I recommend that the stylus be dipped into the puck between every record side when reasonably possible.
Once again, a sincere thank you for your expertise, counsel and attention to detail with this project. Looking forward here to many years of rediscovering a whole lot of music.
Frank Lampe
