I agree with that in general but optimal cartridge set up is certainly not plug-in play. Belt attention can also make a difference. I would Add speaker set up too.
Are SOTA systems worth the effort?
- Thread starter KeithR
- Start date
I agree with that in general but optimal cartridge set up is certainly not plug-in play. Belt attention can also make a difference. I would Add speaker set up too.
I dunno. I got the Triplanar and the arm is so easy to set up since everything is so adjustable. Takes 10 minutes. But I agree setup is the Achilles heel of analog. I've been running a belt drive (Atma-Sphere 208) for the last 20 years and not had to pay attention to the belt other than giving the platter a spin at start up. The platter is pretty massive and you'll fry the belt if you give it a bump because the motor has so much torque. But its been replaced by the Technics SL1200G with a custom armboard and the Triplanar.
My speakers weigh about 270 pounds each but they are easy to move on their footers (I have sliders that allow them to be moved without damaging the hardwood floor). They could only go in one place in my new listening room so really it was just a matter of how much toe-in. But I get you're point- if you don't have a horn midrange speaker placement can be a lot harder!
I can't exactly understand how edifice systems are related to SOTA - and surely a system that incorporates SOTA equipment needs critical assembly and set up. But theycan be very variable and diverse.
It is part of the definition of SOTA. But even after they are no more the current SOTA most of them are still excellent equipment for long. Steve X2's or my XLF's are still great speakers.
It depends on us. If we are sensitive to the denigrating of audio forums or other forms of negative bias it will happen very fast. I move because I enjoy the game, not specifically because I object to previous equipment - I would happily return to the ESL63, Soundlab's or the Sonus Faber Aida's.
Yes, we should live the hobby the way we enjoy. But what is the relation between it and SOTA? For me, if some equipment is intrinsically unreliable it is not SOTA.
The great Avalon Osiris need a large space and two powerful amplifiers and are really big. I would have not declined the offer, once I listened to them using four conrad johnson Premier 8.
I often asked myself why people who object to the presence of the speakers do not hide them behind an acoustical transparent curtain, like Alastair Robertson-Aikman did in the SME listening room.
Do we have any examples of a SOTA system here on WBF? What would people nominate and why?
Do people think that a SOTA system must sound the closest to live music or is it really just a snapshot of the best of what the industry is currently producing? Does the SOTA always improve overtime or can the industry go backwards?
Do people think that a SOTA system must sound the closest to live music or is it really just a snapshot of the best of what the industry is currently producing? Does the SOTA always improve overtime or can the industry go backwards?
Funny. I've yet to hear a plug'n play system worth listening to regardless of cost. As far as I can tell, high-end audio is exactly like any other performance-oriented industry.
IOW, extreme results can only occur from extreme efforts. Never by token or half-assed efforts and certainly never by no efforts.
It took three people to get my speakers in the house. But I literally just hooked everything up and the system was making music. I didn't have to do anything to the amp, nothing to the preamp. The turntable and preamp do have their own anti-vibration platforms, ensconced in a custom-made Sound Anchors stand but as far as I'm concerned that stuff is part of the system. Others might regard it as a massive 'tweak'....
Bruce B
WBF Founding Member, Pro Audio Production Member
Bruce B
WBF Founding Member, Pro Audio Production Member
The only one I've heard is Winston Ma's system/room. I was able to master a few of his albums in that room in record time because I could hear exactly what was going on and fix it to his standards....
Rats. It only took two people to get my speakers into the house. You do realize that you make no mention whatsoever of electrical? Which IME is by far the biggest performance bottleneck every last one of us faces. Also, you make no mention of anything being done at the amps or pre-amp and whatever vibration mgmt already comes with your other gear is already good enough without bothering to try other products / methods.
No doubt some here might regard this as a massive tweak but might it be that a few others regard all this as a miniscule tweak?
I can't speak for others but I prefer to treat this as a performance-oriented hobby which I think was its original intention when they coined it hi-fi or high-end audio. Whatever happened to balls-to-the-walls, pedal-to-the-metal type strategies? Or are those strategies and mindsets only applicable to other performance-oriented hobbies?
This forum is named What's SOTA? Please not another thread asking that.
Another modern vs vintage?
This is where Ron will ask you to refer to his list of 4 points
SOTA is SETs and horns. We all know that. Any more questions?
Sorry, I am just trying to understand what is being discussed. Shame on me for asking the question.
I’d have thought it was D’Agostino and Wilson or CH precision and Magico. It seems there is no consensus and so we are talking about something that none of us agree on. I’m not sure I understand the point of the thread anymore.
You're right. And I replaced the receptacles with Hubble units with the brass strap on the backside when I moved in and added another outlet on the right side of the room that had its own line back to the breaker box. I just did that because the house had some really old AC outlets and since I was doing it, might as well do it right.
Bruce B
WBF Founding Member, Pro Audio Production Member
The house is just less square footage... but still with all the high-end amenities....
I don't even know the words defineing the acronym for SOTA.
I always associated it with some sort of most magical best system. Usually very expensive. But in my mind, i don't know why someone wouldn't call a single driver in the right room with the right amp and front end SOTA when playing chamber music or small jazz. That could knock your socks off too. Especially if its what you enjoy for music. Your friends might scoff, but your the one listening day in and day out.
I always associated it with some sort of most magical best system. Usually very expensive. But in my mind, i don't know why someone wouldn't call a single driver in the right room with the right amp and front end SOTA when playing chamber music or small jazz. That could knock your socks off too. Especially if its what you enjoy for music. Your friends might scoff, but your the one listening day in and day out.
Manufacturers usually define SOTA as the best that they know how to produce based on their phylosophy - the cutting edge. So for Magico that would the M9, for Wilson it would be the WAMM or XVX, for Tech Das, the Air Force Zero, etc. If you purchase all SOTA components and put them together as a system will it be SOTA in terms of sound? Probably not, as you would need a SOTA room with SOTA acoustics, SOTA power, SOTA isolation, then hire a SOTA sound engineer like Jim Smith to get it to sound good.
Similar threads
