congrats man!!

good to hear you reach the top of your audio mountain.  I admit having listen to your other tables I am curious what your audio nirvana sounds like....

and whether it smells like teen spirit. 


couldn't resit a bad joke.

Hey bud!  Not the top of the audio mountain, but definitely its a big deal for me.  I've been trying to get this turntable for far too many years....it's that elusive white elephant

Frankly, I will probably end up with Kuzma Stabi XL4 (or with the new DC motor) as a final hurrah / destination table.  There is one on the way that I bought on behalf of my buddy.  I will listen to it and decide if I want one for myself as well at some point.  THAT would be the top of my analog audio mountain.

About the two files posted. DEFINITELY File B for me...File A starts getting fatiguing really quick!

So for fun and education (I'm slowly teaching myself how to (re)master old music) I pulled those phono amp samples into iZotope RX and started playing around.

First thing is that they aren't even close to level matched.  B was about 2LUFS louder using the ITU BS.1770 standard which in this case is equal to about 2dB RMS.  I think Fremer went back and mostly fixed this.  I haven't looked at the new samples he uploaded but for sure he stopped using peak normalization and used something RMS based.

Second thing is that one of the samples has a major (1.5dB) channel imbalance which is pulling the image out.  Pretty sure it's A since I doubt a modern recording like this would have the singers not in the middle of the image.

Anyhow, once you fix these two problems they become a LOT closer.  I don't have a reference for this recording but A has quite a lot more low end punch and a bit of sizzle in the treble.  B is more even handed.  The Shure cart is certainly having an effect too; lots of variables!

I'm still going with B since I'm pretty confident A is the one with technical issues.  Hopefully Fremer will toss up a reference version using his own equipment to show "how it could be".

Very nice

What kind of maple block is that below the table?  Been meaning to pick one up for myself for a while now.

For those curious what a 6 figure analog front end sounds like Fremer put up 24/96 needledrops of two full tracks from original "RL" pressings of Zeppelin and The Band.  Will only be there for the weekend; I assume he doesn't want to incur the wrath of the copyright police.

http://www.analogplanet.com/content/you-asked-it-weekend-only

Go grab them and add em to your "gear evaluation" folder