Trans Fi Salvation rim drive tt and Terminator air-bearing linear tracking arm

Finally after 22 long months, I get my analog rig reinstalled. If there’s any interest in it, I’m very happy to chat further.
To kick off, here’s the link to the designer’s web page:

www.trans-fi.com Step009.jpg
 
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That's the one.

My friend, why is yr tt still in a box?

I need a couple things: The balanced cable (my phono preamp is the BMC MCCI) and a cartridge. Still doing research into which cartridge I'll be going with. As of right now, looking at the Etsuro Urushi Blue Cobalt.
 
Getting the balanced cable has not been easy. Hopefully Andrey can do it. He says that he can, and I'l be incredibly happy if it happens.
 
Sure, good luck w that. If Andrey could secure that, that would be great. I'm using a Soundsmith Straingauge w TOTL stylus profile and Peter Downs bespoke psus to both this and my tt motor. Plonked on a Stacore platform, my lp playback has never been better.

Terminator is the real deal, the greatest performance/price ration one could imagine. But it needs careful setup, esp level and isolation from vibrations to give of its best.
 
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Ordered the carbon fiber arm wand and 2 meters of balanced cable to go directly from the clips to the phone preamp.

Excited.
 
Certainly hoping it's gonna be a case of From Russia With Love.

If a carbon fibre armwand is good enough for Vyger owners, it's good enough for me.
 
Lordcloud, my armwand has arrived from Andrey. I'm hoping to install in the next couple of weeks. Vic the arm designer is quite taken w Andrey's idea. It's more neutral, quieter, and reveals more detail. All good stuff.

Good luck w yr armwand/balanced Litz wire.
 
Lordcloud, my armwand has arrived from Andrey. I'm hoping to install in the next couple of weeks. Vic the arm designer is quite taken w Andrey's idea. It's more neutral, quieter, and reveals more detail. All good stuff.

Good luck w yr armwand/balanced Litz wire.

I'm very excited to hear your feedback on the difference between the old and new. Neutrality and information retrieval are what I'm after, and I have faith that this is a way closer.
 
Lordcloud, Andrey's carbon fibre armwand installed, and a couple of lps sampled.

Other than a couple of ergonomic quibbles, the change is hugely positive.

First, soundstage and imaging are much improved. The stage is not so much bigger as more pertinent and solid. A vague haziness is gone, replaced by a much more stable presentation. Imaging is enhanced too, not the slight CGI pin pointness I hear elsewhere, more just better separation of lines and greater palpability leading to a greater definition in space and presence.

There is greater natural warmth and detail, but it's this greater engagement w the musicians hewn in their own space that is the major take for me.

I'm just loving that a tt/arm that was already hugely impressive on day one purchase at stupidly low entry ticket has gone on to be a truly sophisticated playback machine w careful attention to detail.
 
Lordcloud, Andrey's carbon fibre armwand installed, and a couple of lps sampled.

Other than a couple of ergonomic quibbles, the change is hugely positive.

First, soundstage and imaging are much improved. The stage is not so much bigger as more pertinent and solid. A vague haziness is gone, replaced by a much more stable presentation. Imaging is enhanced too, not the slight CGI pin pointness I hear elsewhere, more just better separation of lines and greater palpability leading to a greater definition in space and presence.

There is greater natural warmth and detail, but it's this greater engagement w the musicians hewn in their own space that is the major take for me.

I'm just loving that a tt/arm that was already hugely impressive on day one purchase at stupidly low entry ticket has gone on to be a truly sophisticated playback machine w careful attention to detail.

That is very good to hear.

My wand and balanced cables are on the way!
 
LC, things still good here despite the odd ergonomic quirk. I'm getting an interesting balance of greater overall detail (walking basslines on my 60s Coltrane classic quartet lps are so much more revealing and expressive), w just a tad more warmth than I'm used to. I need to dial in my setup a little more, and my new stylus has less than 20 hours on the clock, so scope to open up more and the sound to become a little more pertinent and expressive.

I'm certainly picking up on differences btwn pressings and good and poor productions than I ever did before. So, a good sign, w maybe some caveats. Thus it ever was in audio, esp analog.
 
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Carbon fibre armwand continues to really astound. I'm losing a major constant source of opacity that always allowed digital to be more transparent in comparison. This is allowing a greater sense of freedom from mids into treble, more air and energy.

A real watershed moment in my analog evolution, bookending the radical change wrought by going w the Stacore 18 months ago.

I am one happy analog camper.
 
Who would have guessed this late into the system building lark, that a simple change costing no money really, has wrought the most massive turnaround in my analog fortunes.

So this carbon fibre armwand is bedded into the system, along w reoptimised tt and arm setup, new stylus, and Pathe Wings panzerholz/metal record weight.

My lp playback hasn't just incrementally improved, it's a whole quantum leap. After a decade of always playing catch up as my digital has reached new heights (Emm Labs CDSA cdp to SE grade, updated transport and output stage, and current Eera Tentation cdp), I've flipped things around 180, and now my analog is in the box seat.

And what's most fascinating is that I've rediscovered greater upper freqs sweetness and air, way better transparency and imaging/staging, tighter and heftier bass, but most critically a massive elimination of lower mids/upper bass opacity and colouration.

Fascinating in that I often blamed my Zus for being cloudy and murky here, but in fact it was my arm all along.

Put it this way, ten days in, and I haven't reached for a cd once, and I'm playing the vinyl that prior to this change was not best served by my system.

Bartok and my 60s/70s Miles Davis original US/Japanese pressings have never sounded so clear and communicative.
 
Slateage/North West Analog single tier all-slate tt rack arrives today. On it will go my Stacored Salvation tt. Will finally get my tt off the floor and thus out of the way of my down firing Zu subs.
 
I received my wand and cables. This is my first time setting up a table, and as I said before, I am still waiting on a couple things before I can truly begin (mainly a cartridge), but I'm wrapping my head around the setup process.

The packaging almost made me angry with how little attention was paid to it. But they arrived seemingly unscathed, so all is well.

I am excited to get it all up and running. Especially with how much of an improvement it has brought to your listening.
 
LC, Andrey's packing skills a pretty poor. I'll get around to passing my comments to him.

I remain dumbfounded by what this 5" piece of carbonfibre is bringing to proceedings.
 
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Three days, on and off and on again, reinstalling my whole analog from scratch.

Hoist a 50kg all-slate NorthWest Analog/Slateage single-tier tt stand up my spiral staircase, site and level it.

Re-position my Stacore Advanced platform on the Slateage stand, level again.

Re-install tt and Straingauge energiser box, latter on Symposium Rollerblocks, on the Stacore.

Level the tt, platter and LT air arm gantry/manifold. Take massive care to optimise Straingauge cart/stylus install, checking stylus absolutely drops on a line scored from centre hole to periphery of a test lp.

Set up an lp, pour a stiff drink, drop the stylus, listen.

And have the warm satisfied glow (aka smug satisfaction), that this has been a wholly worthwhile exercise, analog has never come close here to what I'm currently experiencing.

And the realisation I was only at 90% before. At this level, that 10% feels like 200%, so dramatic is the uptick.

Finally I'm getting proper realism on timbral accuracy, air and microdynamics. Music both floats from my Zus but also packs a proper punch, allied to a very start/stop presentation, v much like live music.

Classical and jazz are really transformed here, I'm properly differentiating instruments, real flesh, colour and delicacy. Esp noticeable in jazz where eg Miles Davis and Wayne Shorter, and John Coltrane and Pharoh Saunders, absolutely differentiate, yet lockstep on timing.

In addition to the joy of first discovering tubes and the revelation of improved room acoustics here, this rediscovery of the total magnificence of analog, rates as my most rewarding experiences in this hobby over two decades.
 
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