TechDas Air Force One

Bob,

Welcome ;) With regard to the elite upgrades, can one purchase this arm w/o the TechDas ? I love my Supreme 10", but am always looking to wring out the most fidelity I can. I use a Clearaudio Master Innovation table. Thanks in advance.

Just place your order Christian, you know you want it :D. I am sure Bob will upgrade yours with the Nordost cable and new pivot. Then let us know how you find the upgrade :cool:
 
It seems that all of the other top tables that used to generate buzz have become buzz-less with the introduction of the Air Force One. Bob's new tonearm also sounds very interesting.
 
Just place your order Christian, you know you want it :D. I am sure Bob will upgrade yours with the Nordost cable and new pivot. Then let us know how you find the upgrade :cool:

I'm ready to buy one...I always felt that the guage of the tonearm wires on the current supreme are a little big and could be improved upon namely by using a higher quality/lighter guage wire that would provide less resistance to the delicate phono signal transmission.
 
Arm, get the whole deal , that table would be at home with the pass gear ...:)

you know, I wouldn't mind a head to head with my table in my system. Only then could I determine if the extra cache is worth it to me. Based on how my table sounds now, I would only expect a modest increment in musical enjoyment. (Could be wrong.) That table floats on air, mine on opposing magnetic force (less moving parts to worry about ;)). Right now compared to tape, my table is very close. The real quiet pressings makes it hard to distinguish from tape...still, no turtable deliver's the bass like well sorted 15ips 1/4" RTR playback.
 
you know, I wouldn't mind a head to head with my table in my system. Only then could I determine if the extra cache is worth it to me. Based on how my table sounds now, I would only expect a modest increment in musical enjoyment. (Could be wrong.) That table floats on air, mine on opposing magnetic force (less moving parts to worry about ;)). Right now compared to tape, my table is very close. The real quiet pressings makes it hard to distinguish from tape...still, no turtable deliver's the bass like well sorted 15ips 1/4" RTR playback.

I have heard the Clearaudio Statement - the floating suspension is quite wierd but brilliant.
If the tech das builds on the best Micro Seiki's ( 5000 and 8000), it will comfortably be in the top 3 or 4 tables available. Micro Seiki bass has always been superb. It may well be better value than your amp upgrade.

I am sure after CES, Bob will be able to demo it for the asking entry price.

I am going to fly down to the Aussie distributor when he gets his in Feb with his Lyra Atlas and Ypsilon phono stage - he had a Continuum before - not that I can afford either.
 
you know, I wouldn't mind a head to head with my table in my system. Only then could I determine if the extra cache is worth it to me. Based on how my table sounds now, I would only expect a modest increment in musical enjoyment. (Could be wrong.) That table floats on air, mine on opposing magnetic force (less moving parts to worry about ;)). Right now compared to tape, my table is very close. The real quiet pressings makes it hard to distinguish from tape...still, no turtable deliver's the bass like well sorted 15ips 1/4" RTR playback.

Even a head to head comparison in your own room is hard to do fairly unless you have identical supports for both tables not to mention two of the same cartridge handy.

None the less I wish Gary would bring his TechDas over for a comparison.;) Not that I could afford it anytime soon.
 
Even a head to head comparison in your own room is hard to do fairly unless you have identical supports for both tables not to mention two of the same cartridge handy.

None the less I wish Gary would bring his TechDas over for a comparison.;) Not that I could afford it anytime soon.

Sean, even having identical supports for both tables is not ideal. Depending on the design philosophy of the table, the optimum support would be different. You were privy to moving the Air Force One from one type of support to a different one and the resultant change in sound.
 
I think it will be very interesting to see if the current Air Force One buzz has legs. It sure looks like an awesome table. I hope I get a chance to hear it. The best table that I have heard to date is the one that Christian owns and I lay no claim to having heard all of the major contenders. Maybe the Air Force One will be the new King of the Heap. I look forward to hearing more about this table. It's funny that there is still room for improvement in this stone-age technology!
 
Sean, even having identical supports for both tables is not ideal. Depending on the design philosophy of the table, the optimum support would be different. You were privy to moving the Air Force One from one type of support to a different one and the resultant change in sound.

Ultimately that is true. I've also done experiments with some of my own TT's. Each one needed to be tweaked differently. I expect that if you do end up keeping the TechDas that you will squeeze even more performance out of it.

For people that don't want to or can't tweak their setup then equal footing will at least tell them which TT sounds better on the support they have.
 
I have the cheaper LED one (only 36" range). I put a piece of reflective tape on top of an LP, and it measured 33.333 rpm.

That is quite remarkable if the table is stable and locked at the 33.333 rpm reading. I just finished pitch adjusting my table using th PLT200 Laser tach. At 33 rpm with record playing and stylus down, I get 33.33X, where the X (thousandth's of an rpm) fluctuates by up to 5 1/1000th's of an rpm. Not too shabby, imo. Same thing for 45 (45.00X). My table uses infra red optical speed control.
 
That is quite remarkable if the table is stable and locked at the 33.333 rpm reading. I just finished pitch adjusting my table using th PLT200 Laser tach. At 33 rpm with record playing and stylus down, I get 33.33X, where the X (thousandth's of an rpm) fluctuates by up to 5 1/1000th's of an rpm. Not too shabby, imo. Same thing for 45 (45.00X). My table uses infra red optical speed control.

Christian, did you try the Platterspeed app to get a confirmatory reading? With the app, I get +/- 0.08% which translates to only +/- 0.0267 rpm. However, as BruceB noted, that could be due to the inherent inaccuracy from the mastering lathe used to cut the test LP. In order to even get to that, I had to adjust the belt tension.

If you watch the speed readout on the table itself, it goes to 33.33 rpm, hunts up and down, and then locks and displays 33.3 rpm. I only took the one reading at 33.333 after I had adjusted the belt tension and got the reading of +/- 0.08% on the Platterspeed app but I didn't have a record playing.
 
Christian, did you try the Platterspeed app to get a confirmatory reading?

No I didn't. It was very close using laser measuring to what I had measured using the Fluke multi-meter and the analogue productions 1000 Hz test track. I did have to fine tune the pitch to get the readings I got, but not by much (micro turn). I measured from the side of my platter. I'm pretty satisfied that my table is quite speed stable. The laser tach's are calibrated before they ship and come with the calibration test document.
 
Fairtangent116.jpgor the second arm
 
1167690391.jpgAn ultimate DIY by KfTool on Audiogon. You can have it all.
 

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