Busy week. It was good catching up briefly with Marty on Tuesday (and no, he did not tell me which speaker), when my gf, I, and Marty attended the Verdi Requiem at Barbican. Marty had a ticket for the dress circle and for stalls, to check for the difference in sound. Verdi Requiem is unique that it goes straight through for 90 mins, with some pauses in between. Marty left the dress circle after the first pause, pretending to go to the Men's, and tried entering the stalls at the next pause. However, the gatekeepers did not let him enter, and therefore he had to leave half way!
Anyway, Thursday at Barbican I attended Debussy La Mer/Haydn Trumpet Concerto/Shostakovich 5th, all of which were brilliantly performed. The Verdi Requiem had overloaded the Barbican, but this one was awesome. Tomorrow I have Sibelius Violin Concert and Mahler 4 at the Barbican, but before that in the afternoon my gf and I go to King's Place for Prokofiev 1 and Mozart's Oboe concerto
Today, I went to an audiophile buddy outside London who is also a classical aficionado, has been through Brinkmann Lagrange, all of the SMEs, and mentioned he had got bored off vinyl and wanted to sell of his record collection till he heard the Garrard. He then bought the Shindo 301, followed by the Audiograil modded 301 with the Bob C plinth (pretty famous in the UK), realized there was not much difference, and sold the Shindo to keep the Audiograil.
He later bought the Schopper modded Thorens 124, which I now realize is quite well respected on the web.
The Thorens had the FR 64s arm and was playing through the Shindo Giscours phono. The Garrard had the EAT arm, a copy of the vintage ortofon arm but played through a different vintage japanese SS phono (forget the name now).
I initially played a Bach cantata and Scheherazade through his Esoteric K01 to get a feel of the system. The Shindo pre connected to the top of the line shindo amps and Tannoy GRF corner speakers.
I then played Scheherazade, same peformance, via the Thorens. I was gobsmacked, it killed the Esoteric. For a complex symphony, it had much more resolution, bass, dynamics, air, and tone of course, then a supposed modern day digital.
I then moved the LP over to the Garrard, and immediately realized I preferred the Thorens. The Garrard was excellent, just something about the 124 drew me to it. I kept playing an LP on one followed by the other - and realized I was preferring the Thorens.
At this time, the Thorens had the Zyx Uni II on the FR 64, while the Garrard had the Miyajima Madake. So I swapped the mIyajima to the Thorens. My conclusion is that Zyx has better dynamics, more frequency extension, more bass, and better resolution.
I was surprised though that the Thorens had better bass, because Garrard is reputed for bass. My host explained that the FR 64 does have more bass and dynamics as well, which could be accounting for part of that effect, and I later read on the web that the Schopper mods do increase the bass and resolution of the Thorens.
After that, we changed the cartridge on the Thorens to the Audionote IO Gold. I did not think there was anything to choose between the AN IO and the Zyx, slightly different presentations. The Zyx had more bottom end on piano, easily audible on Richter playing Liszt concertos. But then AN gave a slight more top end, but don't think it would compare to an Ortofon, Lyra, or Vdh on that front.
Overall, I was really, really impressed by the Thorens Schopper 124 with the FR 64.
One of the vinyl veterans here had told me that I would prefer the Lenco (which I have not yet heard), and then would have to check if my preference was for the Thorens 124 or the Garrard 301. I now need to listen to the PTP 12 Lenco at some stage.
Anyway, Thursday at Barbican I attended Debussy La Mer/Haydn Trumpet Concerto/Shostakovich 5th, all of which were brilliantly performed. The Verdi Requiem had overloaded the Barbican, but this one was awesome. Tomorrow I have Sibelius Violin Concert and Mahler 4 at the Barbican, but before that in the afternoon my gf and I go to King's Place for Prokofiev 1 and Mozart's Oboe concerto
Today, I went to an audiophile buddy outside London who is also a classical aficionado, has been through Brinkmann Lagrange, all of the SMEs, and mentioned he had got bored off vinyl and wanted to sell of his record collection till he heard the Garrard. He then bought the Shindo 301, followed by the Audiograil modded 301 with the Bob C plinth (pretty famous in the UK), realized there was not much difference, and sold the Shindo to keep the Audiograil.
He later bought the Schopper modded Thorens 124, which I now realize is quite well respected on the web.
The Thorens had the FR 64s arm and was playing through the Shindo Giscours phono. The Garrard had the EAT arm, a copy of the vintage ortofon arm but played through a different vintage japanese SS phono (forget the name now).
I initially played a Bach cantata and Scheherazade through his Esoteric K01 to get a feel of the system. The Shindo pre connected to the top of the line shindo amps and Tannoy GRF corner speakers.
I then played Scheherazade, same peformance, via the Thorens. I was gobsmacked, it killed the Esoteric. For a complex symphony, it had much more resolution, bass, dynamics, air, and tone of course, then a supposed modern day digital.
I then moved the LP over to the Garrard, and immediately realized I preferred the Thorens. The Garrard was excellent, just something about the 124 drew me to it. I kept playing an LP on one followed by the other - and realized I was preferring the Thorens.
At this time, the Thorens had the Zyx Uni II on the FR 64, while the Garrard had the Miyajima Madake. So I swapped the mIyajima to the Thorens. My conclusion is that Zyx has better dynamics, more frequency extension, more bass, and better resolution.
I was surprised though that the Thorens had better bass, because Garrard is reputed for bass. My host explained that the FR 64 does have more bass and dynamics as well, which could be accounting for part of that effect, and I later read on the web that the Schopper mods do increase the bass and resolution of the Thorens.
After that, we changed the cartridge on the Thorens to the Audionote IO Gold. I did not think there was anything to choose between the AN IO and the Zyx, slightly different presentations. The Zyx had more bottom end on piano, easily audible on Richter playing Liszt concertos. But then AN gave a slight more top end, but don't think it would compare to an Ortofon, Lyra, or Vdh on that front.
Overall, I was really, really impressed by the Thorens Schopper 124 with the FR 64.
One of the vinyl veterans here had told me that I would prefer the Lenco (which I have not yet heard), and then would have to check if my preference was for the Thorens 124 or the Garrard 301. I now need to listen to the PTP 12 Lenco at some stage.
