The Great Big TT Reveal

[AJSki2fly]

So as some regulars on ApS know I have lucky enough due to an unexpected but pleasant windfall been able to purchase a new turntable. After considering several different makes including VPI, Nottingham Analogue, Clearaudio, and Origin Live to name a few I found what I thought would work for me and as it was within budget.

It arrived on Friday delivered by the dealer who spent 2 hours setting it up showing me at the same time and chatting. My initial thoughts on listening was oh this rather good, more depth and detail, but time had disappeared and Sue was home so it was time stop listening after only 5 tracks.

One thing I felt we had not quite got right was the VTA and subsequent checking in the morning revealed the arm was slightly down at the rear, which is quite critical on an LP-S. So I carefully took the. TT off its shelf with some trepidation and started to investigate. An hour or so later having changed the head shell and completely reset up the arm, I wanted to be certain it was spot on back it went to its pride of place.

On went a random track to check how it sounded and there was that lovely moment of euphoria when everything just sounds right. Lots of darkness in quiet passages, great detailed bass, and wonderful mid and top end and superb timing, and the music sounded alive. I had not chosen the best track, in fact it was a spare copy of Wishbone Ash live dates track one, I use this for arm cartridge set up and an initial listen.

So feeling very happy I and my friend Dave went off to Clock Tower Records in Bridport for the first time to see what it was like and satisfy our vinyl lust. I have to say this is a great vinyl shop, on arrival wet from a downpour we were warmly welcome and offered a code or tea, Roy the owner explained the set up and made us welcome saying if we had any stock issues just ask. He pointed me to a reasonable blues and jazz section and said I have a new lot out back I am just about to put out let me know when you are ready look at them. So after. About 2 hours I had a pile of about 20 records ranging from £2 to £15 each of various genres. Too much for my pocket o carefully chose the must haves and ended up with 12 for £60, a good buy I thought.

So we got back home early afternoon and selected records that looked clean an popped them on the new TT, generally listening to one side of each album and moving on. What quickly became apparent to us both as we listened and talked about what we heard was this was a rather special TT. It just sounded right, dynamic and lively but not OTT, notes just hung in the air, particularly evident on one Procal Harum track with guitar solo with a hanging note no wavering or wow/flutter here, just wonderful. My friend commented on how natural and tonally right it all sounded and completely unfatiging. Later in the evening I put on an old favourite and I just knew this was the best I had heard it on my system.

I think that I have been quite lucky in that the new Turntable was a bit of a leap of faith in some respects, although I had read about it and been told it was good, I could not confirm this before buying, anyway its here and I am pleased.

I will post some pics later, in between listening. Cheers Adrian

[AJSki2fly]

Here is the box it came in, and it was heavy. The top box if the PSU.

https://i.postimg.cc/mkdDpxwz/IMG-1488.jpg (https://postimg.cc/fS9Dkr1D)

[struth]

when we get to see it?

[Slawts]

This is click bait. :eyebrows:

[smangus]

A TT that comes in a coffin! Well cool[emoji41][emoji41]

Sent from my SM-G975F using Tapatalk

[AJSki2fly]

Here we are :) The more I listen to it the bigger the grin factor. My friend suggested we listened to Bach's Toccata and Fugue, just stunning superb ambience of the church and the organ sounded stupendous with deep darkness in quite parts. Then we listened to R. Strauss - Also Sprach Zarathustra, the opening 2 minutes blew use away with the detail of the orchestra and the light and shade, lots of depth, and the organ note at the end of "Sehr Breit—Von Den Hinterweltlern" was something else. This TT is certainly worth its price and more IMO.

https://i.postimg.cc/WbgWL2rP/D2023513-70-C9-4740-B3-F7-52283-F96-E0-EC-1-201-a.jpg (https://postimg.cc/XpNc96Q2)

https://i.postimg.cc/Mpwszhbf/BA7-DFED8-5-B1-E-4581-8-B25-7-C07438-BB5-E3-1-201-a.jpg (https://postimg.cc/hfC8rZYK)

https://i.postimg.cc/rpFQrxH8/9-F9-E6-BDD-F3-AE-41-A3-9-A7-A-74868-D079301-1-201-a.jpg (https://postimg.cc/pm4fNhx7)

https://i.postimg.cc/CKPJHdyb/552-FA3-A7-6-CA3-4-FE6-81-B7-D1844-D9-D6088-1-201-a.jpg (https://postimg.cc/rd4SqVwp)

https://i.postimg.cc/GmjXtqq7/500-EEF4-C-7-EA1-4398-BE4-D-2-AA4-F5398-EE3-1-201-a.jpg (https://postimg.cc/FY7yngt3)

[Bigman80]

Here we are :) The more I listen to it the bigger the grin factor. My friend suggested we listened to Bach's Toccata and Fugue, just stunning superb ambience of the church and the organ sounded stupendous with deep darkness in quite parts. Then we listened to R. Strauss - Also Sprach Zarathustra, the opening 2 minutes blew use away with the detail of the orchestra and the light and shade, lots of depth, and the organ note at the end of "Sehr Breit—Von Den Hinterweltlern" was something else. This TT is certainly worth its price and more IMO.

https://i.postimg.cc/WbgWL2rP/D2023513-70-C9-4740-B3-F7-52283-F96-E0-EC-1-201-a.jpg (https://postimg.cc/XpNc96Q2)

https://i.postimg.cc/Mpwszhbf/BA7-DFED8-5-B1-E-4581-8-B25-7-C07438-BB5-E3-1-201-a.jpg (https://postimg.cc/hfC8rZYK)

https://i.postimg.cc/rpFQrxH8/9-F9-E6-BDD-F3-AE-41-A3-9-A7-A-74868-D079301-1-201-a.jpg (https://postimg.cc/pm4fNhx7)

https://i.postimg.cc/CKPJHdyb/552-FA3-A7-6-CA3-4-FE6-81-B7-D1844-D9-D6088-1-201-a.jpg (https://postimg.cc/rd4SqVwp)

https://i.postimg.cc/GmjXtqq7/500-EEF4-C-7-EA1-4398-BE4-D-2-AA4-F5398-EE3-1-201-a.jpg (https://postimg.cc/FY7yngt3)WTF is it!?

Or did I miss that bit [emoji1787][emoji1787]

[AJSki2fly]

WTF is it!?

Or did I miss that bit [emoji1787][emoji1787]

Oh sorry I thought identifying it was part of the reveal fun, or would you prefer 20 questions?:eyebrows::lol:

[karma67]

whatever it is it looks bloody lovely :cool:

[Sherwood]

You are placing a lot of confidence in those support cables!!! :uhho:

[Bigman80]

Oh sorry I thought identifying it was part of the reveal fun, or would you prefer 20 questions?:eyebrows:[emoji38][emoji1787][emoji1787][emoji1787]

I'm only kidding, enjoy the reveal.

It's certainly a beauty.

[Bigman80]

You are placing a lot of confidence in those support cables!!! :uhho:B'jesus! I hadn't noticed those lol.

I'd prefer chains lol

[struth]

very nice indeed.. whatever it is :lol:

[struth]

B'jesus! I hadn't noticed those lol.

I'd prefer chains lol

they wont break.. but hope they are secure at both ends

[Sherwood]

If you use Google's search image feature all is revealed .......

https://cloud10.todocoleccion.online/segunda-mano/tc/2018/10/01/20/135051398.webp

[AJSki2fly]

You are placing a lot of confidence in those support cables!!! :uhho:

Yes Geoff it was a bit of a concern so a few days before it went on there I put a 21kg JBL speaker on the acrylic shelf to test it out with suitable protection on the speaker below and the shelf. The wall brackets that support the shelf are held on place with expanding bolts so they should be good and the stainless steel cables at the top are held by 3 raw pluged screws each into the wall.

[Bigman80]

If you use Google's search image feature all is revealed .......

https://cloud10.todocoleccion.online/segunda-mano/tc/2018/10/01/20/135051398.webp[emoji1787][emoji1787][emoji1787]

[struth]

Pro-Ject Signature 10 ??

[Sherwood]

Yes Geoff it was a bit of a concern so a few days before it went on there I put a 21kg JBL speaker on the acrylic shelf to test it out with suitable protection on the speaker below and the shelf. The wall brackets that support the shelf are held on place with expanding bolts so they should be good and the stainless steel cables at the top are held by 3 raw pluged screws each into the wall.

There is a local coal mine near me (Pleasley) now long defunct but operated by ex-miners as an industrial museum and social history project. They have been restoring the huge steam winding engines which are masterpieces of engineering. One thing that freaked me out was how they secured the huge winding cables. Effectively, they put the end of the cable into a metal cone and unravel the end strands. They then pack material into the end of the cone to stop the cable strands from compressing again ( a resin IIRC). I know intellectually that it is safe fixing, but it would still freak me out being lowered hundreds of feet knowing that was what was securing the cage.

[Sherwood]

Pro-Ject Signature 10 ??

+1

[Vrajbasi]

lovely turntable I have heard this and its bigger brother at great length they are certainly good value for money. The model above is quite abit better at projecting the midrange and providing sheer weight, but this is no slouch either great buy and designed by a man who is certainly a Vinyl nut and owns many great turntables.

[willbewill]

Pro-Ject Signature 10 ??Looks like it to me.

[AJSki2fly]

Yes guys you win it is a Pro-Ject Signature 10, as I said a big leap of faith as I could not hear it before purchase, but so pleased i did. I think this will be a keeper for several years at least.Apart from sounding very good and punching above its price in my view, it certainly looks lovely. The arm is an interesting design, and slightly unusual, but I can hand on heart says it performs as it should, I am getting the same level of detail and more from my Benz Micro LP-S cartridge as I did in an SME and the JELCO, so that is great. So the designer must have spent spent time ensuring it worked well and partnered the TT well.

Thanks to all for the kind compliments on it.

[gwernaffield]

Technical Specifications
Speed 33, 45 (electronic speed change)
Motor control system Precision generator
Platter 10.4 kg, TPE damped
Platter puck 405 g
Main bearing Ceramic (ball/plate), magnetically decoupled
Tonearm 10”; single-pivot, alu (SME headshell)
Effective arm length 254.8 mm
Overhang 16 mm
Effective arm mass 15.5 g
Suitable cartridge mass 4 - 10 g, several counterweights included
Tonearm cable included Pro-Ject Connect it 5P-CC
Power supply 16 Volts DC/1600 mA included
Standby power consumption < 1 Watt
Dimensions 475 x 195 x 354mm (WxHxD)
Weight 23 kg net
a very good turntable ,, A++++++

[Jimbo]

Is the tonearm a unipivot Adrian? I suspect your speed control will be a little more precise than my VPI.:rolleyes:

[Sherwood]

Adrian,

I have the same Ikea led light. I noticed that when I had it near my TT arm it generated a lot of noise even though it is low voltage and powered by a wall wart. I moved it to the other side of the TT and things improved but then moved it away altogether.

[Jimbo]

Adrian,

I have the same Ikea led light. I noticed that when I had it near my TT arm it generated a lot of noise even though it is low voltage and powered by a wall wart. I moved it to the other side of the TT and things improved but then moved it away altogether.

Exactly the same happened too me Geoff. When I had it anywhere near my TT and valve amp I could here lots of nasty electronic noise.

[AJSki2fly]

Hi James, its what is called a restricted unipivot, so the pointed post it sits on is in a slotted hole, so stops side ways wobble, this can introduce some friction but the pillar the arm sits on has some form of friction free coating and it seems to work well. I think there have been a couple of other arms with this type of pivot. Also unusually a S shaped arm on a unipivot. I suspect Pro-Ject may have done this so you could use a SPU, and they do have a good relationship with Ortofon. The arm is certainly able to take the weight of one and on the edge of its recommended tracking force. So might be interesting to try in the future if I can ever afford one.

[AJSki2fly]

Adrian,

I have the same Ikea led light. I noticed that when I had it near my TT arm it generated a lot of noise even though it is low voltage and powered by a wall wart. I moved it to the other side of the TT and things improved but then moved it away altogether.

Mmm that's interesting, I have had some low hum that I thought was due to transformer radiation to SUT, but I will certainly investigate the light issue, and now thinking about it a friend has been getting interference type noise and he has an light as well. I will investigate and advise him as well. thank you

[Hibster_2000]

Here is the box it came in, and it was heavy. The top box if the PSU.

https://i.postimg.cc/mkdDpxwz/IMG-1488.jpg (https://postimg.cc/fS9Dkr1D)

Not much of a reveal when you update your equipment in your signature before you post pictures. :eyebrows:

It looks like one serious turntable. Enjoy....

[AJSki2fly]

Not much of a reveal when you update your equipment in your signature before you post pictures. :eyebrows:

It looks like one serious turntable. Enjoy....

Well I didn't want to frustrate everybody.:)

[chris@panteg]

Very impressive, love the tonearm just looks so gorgeous.

[Vrajbasi]

I have heard both the project 10 and 12 sigs with various isolation platforms the improvements these make to both turntables is absolutely stunning in every way, the best I heard was the superb Vibraplane and even heard the Minus K takes the turntable to a whole new level. Once used with serious isolation these are truly great turntables. The problem one could easily spend as much on the turntable doing the job properly. The seismic sink would is also quite a big improvement on the cheap.

[ovlov854]

Now that is quite a beast! If it sounds as good as it looks..................:clapclapclap:

[Patrick Dixon]

Oh sorry I thought identifying it was part of the reveal fun, or would you prefer 20 questions?:eyebrows::lol:

The thing is, that you had already put 'Pro-Ject Signature 10 TT & arm' in your signature, so even after the first post, we all knew what it was!

[EDIT] Ahh, I see someone beat me to it!

[paul(555)]

Should be nicely run in for an appearance at the SE Cornwall bakeoff Adrian!

[AJSki2fly]

Should be nicely run in for an appearance at the SE Cornwall bakeoff Adrian!

Not so sure about that it weighs 40kg packaged and is beyond me lifting it with my ailments. :eek:

[paul(555)]

Yep, that was my excuse for not taking my lighter TT as well.

Sent from my Moto G (5) using Tapatalk

[ovlov854]

Not so sure about that it weighs 40kg packaged and is beyond me lifting it with my ailments. :eek:

Not to mention the screaming wallet syndrome :lol:

[Natara]

That cartridge looks rather special just read a few reviews and then saw the price :uhho: cost more than my entire system. It must sound very special indeed congrartulations.

[The Black Adder]

Very nice looking turntable. I've never heard one myself but it looks smashing. Bet it sounds superb.

Congratualtions!! :)

[Audio Al]

Adrian , No wonder you can't sleep with a new toy Opps ! sorry TT :)

Ree this comment " but time had disappeared and Sue was home so it was time stop listening after only 5 tracks." How did Sue respond when the good lady cast eyes on it :stalks:

Did you get away with it by saying " What that old thing , I dragged it out of the wardrobe , Had it years , Don't you remember it ? " :D

Looks a lot different to my Pro-Ject 10.1

You enjoy every single minute with the new acquisition :)

[AJSki2fly]

That cartridge looks rather special just read a few reviews and then saw the price :uhho: cost more than my entire system. It must sound very special indeed congrartulations.

Hi Nat

Yes the cartridge is rather pricy, I was very fortunate when I purchased something else I negotiated and extremely good deal for cash for it, a main dealer who keeps stock and this was at discounted at old stock prices, even so it was not twice what I had previously paid. Having heard my friends LP-S I new it was very detailed, natural and neutral with good bass grip so it was high on the list.

Cheers

Adrian

[AJSki2fly]

Very nice looking turntable. I've never heard one myself but it looks smashing. Bet it sounds superb.

Congratualtions!! :)

Thanks Josie, I was aware of them, a friend sent me a link this one which was an ex-demo, hardly used, at a great price. Initially I had no funds so just discounted it then out of the blue a few days later we had an unexpected windfall so it then became feasible. It sounds very good, I think Pro-Ject produced the Signature 12 and 10 to show what they can do and as a flagship statement, from the quality of the TT and Arm I would be surprised if they make a lot of profit on it, I doubt they sell a huge number, but I could be wrong.

From a sound perspective, it is definitely very musical with great depth, and produces lovely 3D imaging with a good recording. The platter/drive is silent so this must help with the darkness and the timing aspect is rock solid, I presume due to the 11kg mass of the platter. So I am very pleased with it indeed.

[AJSki2fly]

Adrian , No wonder you can't sleep with a new toy Opps ! sorry TT :)

Ree this comment " but time had disappeared and Sue was home so it was time stop listening after only 5 tracks." How did Sue respond when the good lady cast eyes on it :stalks:

Did you get away with it by saying " What that old thing , I dragged it out of the wardrobe , Had it years , Don't you remember it ? " :D

Looks a lot different to my Pro-Ject 10.1

You enjoy every single minute with the new acquisition :)

I know better than that, Sue keeps a watchful eye on my vinyl comings and goings, and a hawk like gaze on any serious pieces of kit, so sneaky swap is a no-no! :eyebrows::D

[AJSki2fly]

Been fiddling this morning, wanted to check I had the arm geometry set up spot on. The arm is adjustable in virtually every direction, so its worth checking. I used some engineering dividers and checked the spindle to pivot distance and this was a couple of mm off, I guessed this was due to the position of the cartridge in the head shell which was slight forward when initially set up.

So I set the arm to the default factory position indicated by two vertical lines which you can line up with the sledge adjustment, I then re-measured and it was spot on at 238mm. Then the tricky bit to get the cart in the right position and get it aligned properly. After several attempts and reseting the azimuth on the head shell a couple of times I got it spot on, and it lines up on the inner and outer hairline points and with the cartridge dead parallel to the alignment tool markings. So a final re-check the VTA which was still good and then reset the tracking weight to 1.9gm, as I had moved the cartridge.

So the moment of truth I put on my recently purchased HiFi News setup record and listened to all the tracks, and every thing passed with flying colours, even the horrendous last track on side 1 it tracked. I found the low frequency resonance test tracks somewhat disturbing, watching the cartridge wobble around erratically, but both results were good with a resonance of around 8-9hz, so reasonably low.

Next was to listen to some music and I put on my usual Ravi Shankar and Eva Cassidy listening tracks, the result is a very slight improvement, imaging and soundstage seems a little more focused, and possibly a bit more 3D, if that makes sense.

So that's it for now sit back and enjoy the tunes.