I had to visit Tom's place yesterday on some other business aside from Vinyl music reproduction, but, inevitably, within a couple of minutes of stepping foot in the house, the old Thorens TD 124 Idler was spinning!

So I had the pleasure of enjoying a taste of what the Timestep T-612 tonearm arm can deliver.
The arc of the arm tube is just beautiful, a really lovely thing. I have to say, it did intimidate me slightly so I politely declined Tom's offer for me to spin a record with it. Maybe it was the the Arc of the arm or the
cantilever-less cartridge that was sitting proudly at the end of it.. anyhow it threw me and I declined!
Funny how we get used to our own set ups and then others equipment seems scary (I've had this with people who visit my place and confront the task of the dreaded unipivot handling

Paired with Tom's other new toy, (there are a few) an Ikeda 9C III, cantilever-less design MC cartridge, the Tilmestep T-612 tonearm, was a perfect partner for such a cartridge, indeed it was also a great partner with the other cartridge Tom employed during my visit, the Ortofon SPU Royal N moving coil.

It was with the Ikeda 9C III the real magic appeared though. The Timestep T-612 being a 12'' arm was relaxed but no slouch and helped deliver simply amazing dynamics from this cartridge and a truly sumptuous midrange. It was very special. Was it the arm or the cartridge that was shining? Well both. On another Tonearm the AT 1010,
Tom assured me the Ikeda 9C III cartridge was pretty poor. It takes quite an arm to control this special cartridge, which the Timestep T-612 did with real authority.

We had previously in the session played a CD of The Ray Brown Trio Solar Energy, Concord Jazz, with the fabulous Gene Harris on piano, using Tom's CD / DAC set up (a very nice CD/DAC combination indeed!!) and it really was fantastic, just great timing, music swinging, the toe was tapping.

Off Tom went and had a rummage in his racks and pulled out a Vinyl cut of the same Ray Brown record.
(always a nervy thing to do comparing A/B CD to vinyl, too many variables)
The needle dropped, Oh Sweet Lordy!! the music basically burst into life, one of those moments where you just nod your head and mutter, 'there it is!" I can't do all that Audiophile jive talk, but the music got squeegeed
like someone had put a defibrillator on the music, but not just the extremes, the subtle beauty was all still present.

And there it is indeed, The Tilmestep T-612 'Banana' tonearm, paired with something I'd never experienced before
a Cantilever-less design MC cartridge. A terrific combo, as indeed are Ray Brown and Gene Harris.
Audio Bliss!