When building our systems we can sometimes delude ourselves and allow our natural bias towards the equipment we use to cloud our judgement of how good it actually is in comparison to what else is available.
Therefore, to counteract that effect, periodically, I like to test my gear against other high-quality kit, particularly when I suspect that it’s likely to be a little better than mine, as this improves the quality of my existing benchmark and also makes me raise the game further in terms of improving the components I use (should I consider it necessary), which of course in turn benefits my system as a whole: a win-win situation, in my book.
With that in mind, I made a return trip to Dave Anderton’s place, who posts here as 'dandy', after having visited him in Chester a few weeks back and been very impressed with his system; in particular his Kenwood L-07D direct-drive turntable. This is a superbly engineered 'no compromise' vintage turntable with a justified enviable reputation, which I rate as one of the best T/T’s I’ve so far had the pleasure to listen to. Therefore, me being me, I just had to see how close my modified Techie would get to it!
To recap (as I’ve already mentioned it elsewhere) Dave’s system is as follows:
Turntables: Kenwood L-07D/ Linn Troika. Also, Nakamichi TX-1000/SME 312S/ZYX Airy 3
Phono stage: ASR Basis Exclusive (battery-operated)
Network streamer: Linn Klimax DS
Preamp: Music First Audio - Reference
Active crossovers: 2 x Pass Labs XVR-1
Power amps: 2 x Meridian 559 (stereo), 2 x Albarry M408 (mono)
Speakers: Naim DBLs (on Mana sound stage)
Racks: Naim Fraim
Also PS Audio Powerplant Premier mains regenerator.
Cables: various, including Nordost Valhalla.
Equipment I brought with me:
Technics SL-1210 MK5G turntable with Sound Hi-fi mat and Isonoe support feet/Paul Hynes SR3 external PSU, powered by a Furutech-modified Mark Grant DSP 2.5 mains lead/Jelco SA-750D, with heavy counterweight balance/standard Denon DL-103 fitted in an Ortofon LH-9000 headshell, wired with Ortofon LW1000S 'super high purity' silver cartridge leads/A23 MC step-up transformer, and an Ortofon SPU Classic GM MKII MC cartridge.
Music used (amongst others): John Lee Hooker - 'Mr Lucky' and 'Stripped Me Naked' from the album 'Mr Lucky'. Hafdis Huld - 'Fucked up Mind' (7” single), taken from her superb award-winning album 'Dirty Paper Cup'.
'Chuck Es in Love' - Ricky Lee Jones, from her self-titled debut album, and The Robert Cray Band: 'Sonny' and 'False Accusations', from the album 'False Accusations'.
The first thing we did was to listen to both the Kenwood and Nakamichi, which Dave had already set-up side-by-side on his Naim Fraim racks, so Hafdis Huld’s 'Fucked up Mind' was cued-up on the Kenwood (you can listen to a sample of the track here: http://www.amazon.com/Dirty-Paper-Cu.../dp/B000I0SGPS) and we sat back, mugs of freshly-brewed tea in hand, and listened…
Dave’s system is undoubtedly one of the finest I’ve heard in terms of its ability to access the minutiae of subtle nuances and temporal shifts within music, thus ensuring that the artist's 'message', if there is one, is successfully communicated. Effects such as this allow music to 'breathe', and this is where the best systems are able to portray a much more convincing illusion that one is listening to real music, as opposed to merely a recording of such.
His system does this so well, equipment and speakers aside, mainly because it has such a vanishingly low noise-floor, in no small part due his attention to detail in terms of set-up, and in particular the way the PS Audio mains regenerator removes any trace of 'grunge' from the mains supply. This combines with the effect of the battery powered ASR Basis Exclusive phono stage to create a deathly quiet backdrop, stripping recordings bare for inspection, so one is left with the blackest of black backgrounds from which voices and instruments emerge with a rather disarming crystalline clarity.
On 'Fucked up Mind', Hafdis Huld’s voice has a stark, rather haunting quality, but is also charmingly melodic, and this was explicitly captured by the L-07D/Troika combination, allowing subtle inflections in her voice full reign, making for a truly enchanting and captivating rendition of this simple but beautiful piece of music; the ghostly quiet background and rock-solid imaging of Dave’s system adding to her atmospheric vocals, ensuring that the track was rendered as realistic and believable.
One thing I love about high-quality direct-drive turntables (and idlers, too) is their ability to hold music in an almost vice-like grip, I suspect due to their superbly accurate speed stability, without the wavering of the pitch of notes I often hear with belt-drive T/Ts (particularly those of the low to medium-mass variety), and their, certainly subjectively, very low levels of coloration. This in my experience showcases music in all its glory, with seemingly little influence from any inherent sonic signature of the drive system and associated internal mechanisms - and in turn providing a near sonically neutral platform for the tonearm and cartridge to reproduce recorded information on vinyl as accurately as possible.
The Kenwood achieves this with consummate ease and thus exhibits the calmest assuredness I’ve heard from any turntable, easily in this respect trumping the SP10s I’ve experienced to date - and it comes with its own (rather good) tonearm and housed in a top-notch plinth, too! The L-07D is extremely heavy and massively over-engineered in every conceivable way, and this I’m sure is largely responsible for the particular way it sounds. Here is a picture of the beast in question:
More detailed information in terms of its construction is on this website: http://www.l-07d.com/
In my opinion, when it comes to turntable design, there is no substitute for solid engineering principles, as turntables are largely mechanical devices, and so the Kenwood epitomises the benefits of this design philosophy, and indeed, encapsulates and maximises it in quite spectacular fashion, at the same time retaining an elegance which belies its 'hewn from stone', almost industrial, aesthetics. In terms of its sonic qualities, the Kenwood’s superb engineering is showcased in the way it handles music with unflustered aplomb, and with it an addictiveness which makes one simply want to listen to music all day long - and then some more….
So after enjoying the Kenwood immensely listening to the Hafdis Huld track, Dave transferred the record to the Nakamichi TX-1000, shown here:
To be continued......
Marco.