SAT XD-1 Turntable Debut at The Audio Salon
- Thread starter Ron Resnick
- Start date
I don't. My friend is using Air Force One Premium. He is seriously considering trading his AF1P to XD1.
The demo SAT XD1 that I helped to setup was sold after one week. It was not my friend using AF1P, someone I didn’t know.
Highend expensive gears still have a market if it sounds good.
Highend expensive gears still have a market if it sounds good.
Does anyone have the overall dimensions of an XD1 setup?
And why do the tonearm wires stick out so much at the cartridge?
And why do the tonearm wires stick out so much at the cartridge?
There is no detailed specification about XD1 nor any other SAT tonearm. The Minus K CT-2 base is 457x508x68.6mm. You can work out the approx height of XD1 from the proportion.
All SAT tonearms has continuous phono wires from the cartridge to the plugs, either RCA or XLR. The phono wires from the wand to cartridge are quite long. As the cartridge has to be mounted onto the arm, the headshell cannot be detached during setup. A longer wire is easier to handle, but sometimes when it is too long it drops onto the record. I have seen some users use adhesive tape to attach wires to the wand.
Thanks @TLi - starting to think about maybe getting one… if I can get my head around the cost! It does look like a work of art, I get that it’s relatively inexpensive compared to the K3 and Air Force, for example… I also think Marc is good, decent guy, which is important (to me).
There‘s more to the story... all things equal, as an end customer, he may have gone a different route. Remember that the list price of the XD1 is half that of the K3…
In Fremer’s review of the XD1 he said it’s the best he’s ever heard. This was in 2020, with vacuum hold-down and the Ti arm (which was not the unit auditioned in this thread in 2019):
I've heard various XD1 iterations at shows and demos as Gomez refined his design. The earlier demos were underwhelming, especially considering the price. But one evening at Munich High End 2019, after hours, as I spun records that I'd shlepped halfway around the world for a crowd in the Marten Audio room, I said to myself, "That might be the best-sounding turntable I've ever heard!" … In my room at home, the fully finished XD1 whipped the Caliburn in every sonic way. Easily.
Vs. The K3 and AF0:
“The K3's "hit fast, hit hard, linger just long enough, and then get out of town" performance could not have been more different from the Air Force Zero's. That would come as neither a surprise nor a disappointment to either 'table's designers—although my time with Mr. Weiss leads me to believe he'll be disappointed that I didn't write that "the K3 blows the fat, sluggish, energy-retaining Air Force Zero out of the water."
I've heard my share of fat, sluggish, bulbous-sounding turntables and thin, lean, edgy, bass-deficient ones too. The sonic performance of these two super-'tables—and that of the SAT XD1, which sonically sits somewhere in between—isn't accidental. All three are purposeful and intentional in design and sonic outcome.
The K3 is brash and bold (which doesn't mean bright or mechanical), while the Air Force Zero is velvety and reserved (which doesn't mean timid or sluggish). I'd give the silent-backgrounds nod to the Zero (over every turntable I've yet heard) and the pristine, explosive transients nod to the K3.”
Seems like me like the XD1 is a veritable “bargain”, as it lists for half the price of the OMA K3 and AF0 and AF1P.
@TLi heard the XD1 and AF1 side by side and claimed the XD1 to be better (see above).
Fremer’s review of the K3 was positive, but not gushing… I didn’t read that he said ‘it’s the best I have heard’ - I recall he wrote that the XD1 splits the sonic difference between the AF0 and the K3, which could be desirable to most.
Finally, my take on the Technics components, which seem to come up now and then as a con. Like: ‘this is a $100k TT with the moto of a $10k Technics!‘Tthe fact that it’s (very limitedly) based on the Technics motor and controller is actually a big plus in my book.
Motor design and control software is very R&D intensive. Getting motor control software right, especially for direct drive, is not trivial. It’s great that OMA spent 1000 hours on this, or whatever; but I’d rather have a massive company with decades of DD experience (Technics) program the motor. How likely is it that the bespoke motor in the K3 will be serviceable if Weiss shuts down OMA? With Technics at the core, you could probably get it serviced far into the future. I’d rather minimize the risk of having a $200k++ paperweight in the future!
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Hi Zeotrope, you have a great summary of the situation.
There are a few points I can made. As a user of Air Force One, Air Force One Premium and Air Force Zero, it is fair to say I am familiarized with their characteristics. They are air suspended belt drive turntables. The key words are air suspended and belt drive. Air suspension is provided in all areas in Air Force Zero: footers, motor bearing and spindle bearing. So it is super quiet. The air pumps in TechDAS are also super quiet and that is important too. The quietness is sustained by belt drive, that takes the motor noise away from the platter.
OMA and SAT are direct drive turntable, they sound quite different when compared side by side with Air Force tables. The bass is stronger and has more punch with direct drive but they cannot be as quiet as Air Force. The motor noise, however small, will pass through the spindle to the platter.
Different designs have different sounds. You have to choose according to your preference. Turntable can be regarded as a musical instrument. It is more musical instrument than any other audio equipment in a way that user can tune the sound significantly by different settings and tweets. Reviewers usually do not apply any tweets to the equipment they reviewed. They are reviewed as it is presented, but that is not the final sound if it is in your room.
You have a point in the long term maintenance issue. TechDAS is very good in reliability and after sale service. SAT should be reliable as well since it is based on Technic motor.
The final thing is the tonearm. OMA and SAT come with their arms. I use SAT tonearm and it is a light arm but I don't know about OMA arm. OMA arm looks massive. It must be a heavy arm, so it would limit your choice of cartridges. For TechDAS, of course, you can use any arm.
Before I bought Air Force One, I seriously considered Kronos Pro. Kronos Pro was slightly cheaper than AF1 at the time, that was about 6 years ago. I knew it was good but there was no demo unit in the dealer while AF1 dealer was very aggressive in their service. Demo unit was available and ex-stock was ready for immediate delivery and installation.
I finally bought AF1 because of the suction. I placed the order and AF1 was delivered and installed the next day.
Idk there is a lot of speculation there, it can be counter argued no one wants to pay so much for a technics motor which always has been around, and he was quite gushing about the OMA technics sp10r which was much cheaper. It can also be that many don’t want a TT that is the middle of the two, want one or the other. He has been quite positive of the SAT arm for years and there is at least one install in Greece where he himself helped set up the SAT alongside continuum and AF1p so he knows it well, has good relationship with Gomez, yet didn’t buy it and chose K3 proto
regarding what he wrote, he did not make it clear which he preferred in any direct way, he kept it all more or less equal, so all that is open to speculation, only thing is clear is what he did buy
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I listened Kronos Discovery many times. It is digital quiet but has analog tone.
Having that much tonearm wire pulled out of the SAT arm tube is neither normal nor correct. Your setup person has pulled way too much wire out and that could conceivably affect the arm’s travel across the lp or at worst break the wire.
Your setup person needs to get something like a pipe cleaner and make a hook in one end. Then the pipe cleaner is inserted to the top of the tonearm tower with the hook lined up with the wand. Then very gently turn the hook and gently pull down until you feel the hook engage the internal wire. Then very carefully pull the pipe cleaner down until you see wire retracting back into the tonearm to the proper length. Then your setup person needs to the next time you change cartridges to be careful with not pulling the tonearm wire out of the ar tube.
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AF0 - $450k
OMA K3 - $450k
XD1 with the Ti arm and vacuum - $300k
The fact that the XD1 is in the same sonic league for considerably less is a huge achievement for SAT.
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Yes but you don’t know the background. Fremer can easily replace any component at any time, so I wouldn’t read much into what he bought (apparently it was a pre-production K3).
We know he likes all three: AF0, XD1, and K3. It’s personal preference and other factors beyond that.
He didn't replace Continuum for over a decade. He didn't replace the SAT arm for so long. In his Brinkmann Balance review he wrote that he was going to buy it as his reference before a good deal on Continuum came up. He still likes the BB though there are some tables he prefers more. I haven't seen him change things that easily. His Ypsilon phono has also been there for very long, as well as his Dartzeel amps. He only upgraded his model of Wilsons but has been loyal to them.
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I've wondered this same thing.
According to some reviewers, the new Kronos Discovery and the RS tonearm, are breaking new ground in terms of information recovery and resonance management.
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