Any Bergmann "Galder" owners here ?

[Mobiusman]

BTW, Phillip, i just realized that you are the importer for Bergmann and want to congratulate you. It is a wonderful product and for my system and budget sounds wonderful. Also I want to say that both Alex and Fabio of Alma provide amazing service. I live on the left coast and Fabio came and installed the Bergman, and Alex came in set up my MSB DAC. Pretty amazing service IMHO!

 

[CC61231]

View attachment 74382

My only criticism of the DE-E1 was when we listened to solo piano. My mother was a piano teacher in Cork city, Ireland who retired from the Cork School of Music at the ages of 65, 75 & finally 85. As you can imagine, during my youth, I spent countless hours listening to solo piano, played at various levels of musicianship. As a result, my go-to instrument for identifying tonal colour is the piano.
We listened to the stunning Jackson Berkey play Debussy's Sunken Cathedral. Bear in mind that the cartridge was brand new & the phono stage was also new and was not at operating temperature, did not have 48 hours to truly warm up. Neither unit was broken-in. But the audible difference between a traditional cartridge & phono stage was while the optical system was dramatically quieter, it lacked a huge amount of tonal colour. Be interesting to hear the W-2, optical cartridge with the EMM Labs DS-EQ1 optical phono stage, and see if they redress the tonal color shortfall. Very promising technology.
Meanwhile, I am v happy with the Dynavector XV1S.
Expect an update later this week. Happy listening, Philip

Well - a small change of plans...

Having put roughly 60 h on my DS E1 I sold it. Especially the tonality of "more of everything" became too much in my system.

Now I have ordered 2 new cartridges instead. Dynavector TE-K and Hana ML.

Then I can go back to the Dynavector sound I find pleasing and try a new contender in the very wide / competitive mid segment of 1.500$

// Chris

 

[HughP3]

add another galder owner to the list. Joe and Ron’s enthusiasm for vinyl finally won me over. Placed an order with Joe for a Galder with vacuum hold down and Odin tonearm with sound smith hyperion cartridge. I decided not to skimp because I really want a firm foundation and i want a System to equal or better my MSB set up. Hera ya go @Philip O Hanlon

 

[Ron Resnick]

Congratulations, Hugh! I think you made wonderful decisions there! (I am not personally familiar with the cartridge, but if Joe Cali loves it that is way more than good enough for me.)

I am extremely confident you will be happy with this set-up!

 

[Mobiusman]

Ron,

As you know I have a Galder/Odin with a ZYX ULTimate Optimum cartridge. It sits on a vibraplane which sits on a 600 pound marble stability table. i totally agree that the Bergmann is just not there, although, when you start getting really tweaky with the arm, you can so clearly hear every change.

just this morning i was speaking with Fabio at ALMA who sold and set up my Bergmann (in NJ) about adjusting VTA, which I had not done before. I am so impressed with the design and how audible tiny changes are. It is hard to imagine what it will sound like mounted on a
AS-2000. It should be amazing.

Some day Johnny will come up with an auto-lift at the end of the record and maybe a slighly different cuing system to reduce quick drops, which by the way i learned to compensate for after several tries.

It is a superb design and wonderfully made.

Ron,

I wanted to amend my prior Bergman post because today I changed my cartridge from a ZYX Optimum to a My Sonic Labs Signature Platinum, which after only 2 hours has increased my impression of the Bergmann. I will write more when I have 100+ hours on it, but it already sounds incredible, especially the sound stage, bass and its ability to keep each component of the sound distinct.

 

[Ron Resnick]

Thank you very much for this report, Russ!

 

[MrC.]

That's one of the best looking turntables out there, just gorgeous!
Bergmann also offers a 40kg (that's 90 pounds!) copper platter upgrade (3400€), which IMO looks even better than the aluminum one

That seems well worth the cash. Would love to hear that. Does the Bergman use a rubber band or is it a woven silk, kevlar or some other non-stretchable band?

 

[MrC.]

When I mentioned that the primary fault of LT arms is their lack of mechanical grounding I did not intend to say that great bass cannot be obtained from them. Sometimes that's a result but certainly not always nor even most of the time. The better tight-tolerance pivoted arms have a planted spatial and transient character that LTs struggle to match. On the other hand LTs don't introduce the tangential tracking error. It's a trade-off. Though an insufficiently-squared / aligned LT-cartridge combination can actually be worse than an approximately-calibrated pivoted arm.

I returned to pivoted arms about 20 years ago. But that could change again. The ultra-straightforward Thomas Schick is especially planted in its musicality and detail retrieval in balance. Another champion in my pivoted tonearm inventory is the now 50 year old Stax 12". But, sure, I could go back to LT. It's by no means unimaginable.

Phil

Check out the Simply Black Cantus arm. finicky to set up but works well and had better bass than any of my pivoted arms. Cantus style LT with rollers instead of an air bearing. Cheap enough to not worry about too much if you don't fall in love.

 

[MrC.]

add another galder owner to the list. Joe and Ron’s enthusiasm for vinyl finally won me over. Placed an order with Joe for a Galder with vacuum hold down and Odin tonearm with sound smith hyperion cartridge. I decided not to skimp because I really want a firm foundation and i want a System to equal or better my MSB set up. Hera ya go @Philip O Hanlon

The Hyperion is definitely the finest sounding cart I've ever heard. You will likely have an amazing system from the two. What is your phono pre?

 

[HughP3]

The Hyperion is definitely the finest sounding cart I've ever heard. You will likely have an amazing system from the two. What is your phono pre?

Glad to hear. And yes the system is sounding terrific. Very pleased with it. My pre is Gryphon pandora with legato legacy phono pre option.

 

[bazelio]

The Hyperion is definitely the finest sounding cart I've ever heard. You will likely have an amazing system from the two. What is your phono pre?

The Hyperion is excellent, indeed.

 

[Xaverius]

Hi all,

I have the Galder + Odin + vacuüm holddown + VDH Colibri.

Problem is (volume sensitieve) electrical noise in the speakers when starting motor/pump using Stealth Hyperphono cable.

Previously had the Sindre with same VDH and cables with no electrical noise in the speakers whatsoever.

Any ideas What’s going on and how to solve This ? (I contacted Johnnie and am waiting for reply).

Thanks

renaat

 

[Ron Resnick]

Has anyone put a non-Bergmann tonearm on the Galder?

 

[bonzo75]

Has anyone put a non-Bergmann tonearm on the Galder?

I heard that in Oslo at Leif's friend, Kuzma 4p and Schick in addition to Odin

Decisions

After many upgrades on my Avenger Reference (Si3N4 grade 3 bearing, sapphire thrust, calibrated epdm orings and belts, rim drive mass, Phoenix Engineering Eagle and Roadrunner) and a new Kuzma 4P with Kondo straight wiring to balanced Swiss Lemo connectors (what a sound revelation comparing to...

www.whatsbestforum.com

 

[Ron Resnick]

I heard that in Oslo at Leif's friend, Kuzma 4p and Schick in addition to Odin

Decisions

After many upgrades on my Avenger Reference (Si3N4 grade 3 bearing, sapphire thrust, calibrated epdm orings and belts, rim drive mass, Phoenix Engineering Eagle and Roadrunner) and a new Kuzma 4P with Kondo straight wiring to balanced Swiss Lemo connectors (what a sound revelation comparing to...

www.whatsbestforum.com

How did the sound of Allaerts on Odin compare to the sound of Dynavector xv-1s on the Kuzma 4Point?

 

[bonzo75]

The best in that room was the lowest model Avis with SME V and vdh master strad by far. The owner said I was liking the SME vdh combination because whatever he puts that on sounds good. Allaerts top two models are very difficult with phonos so not are his

 

[Ron Resnick]

Thank you.

 

[sefischer1]

Has anyone put a non-Bergmann tonearm on the Galder?

I wanted a dual arm solution without the awkward positioning at the front. I designed and had Johnnie fabricate this elegant solution which places the surface mounted VPI at a 45degree position.
The mount is a sliding key slot locked disk which allows for distance and orientation adjustment over a wide range. While the air bearings eliminate all acoustic feedback via the platform, the rigidly coupled arm was prone to somewhat prone to it through the rigid feet of the Bergmann. This was eliminated by the use of properly spec'd sorbthane pads between the Bergmann feet and the platform. This allows for the rapid changing of the arm/cartridge in less than a minute. Great for changing to a mono cartridge.

 

[sefischer1]

The only thing I don't like about the turntable is the air pump box, I wish they could put it in a "fancier" box that shares similar dimensions with the turntable, like Techdas is doing.
To illustrate:

Of course, minor nitpick, but that would take it from 9.5/10 to 10/10 aesthetically IMHO

I would place the pump housing on the floor and not the rack shelf. While it is very quiet and low in vibration, there is still some. I have mine way away on a carpeted floor where it is not noticeable or taking up valuable real estate.

 

[parnass]

Hello - is there any owner of Bergmann Magne? I'm considering the Magne and am interested in experiences. thanks