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Thread: Royal Ascot HiFi Show

  1. #31
    Join Date: Jan 2008

    Location: gone

    Posts: 11,519
    I'm gone.

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    I dare say they are looking Far East for most of their sales.
    I bet they'll sell as many as they can make!
    .

  2. #32
    Join Date: Mar 2016

    Location: Barnet, london UK

    Posts: 2,146
    I'm Adam.

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    Quote Originally Posted by jandl100 View Post
    I dare say they are looking Far East for most of their sales.
    I bet they'll sell as many as they can make!

    indeed.
    "lack of passion is fatal"


    Vinyl: Thorens TD-124mk2 / SME-312 Aluminium 'special' / SME M2-9R / STEREO: Etsuro Urushi Cobalt / Shure M3D / Ortofon SPU A95 / Cartridge Man Music Master / Shure - SC35C (US) / SAEC C3 MC MONO: Miyajima Zero B 0.7mil mono / Miyajima Premium 1.0 / Amps & SUTs: Radford STA25 mk3 / AD Audio 'Satchmo2' pre & LCR phono / Hashimoto HM-7 SUT / ETR-MONO SUT Digital: Audio Note 4.1 (with DAC5 upgrades) DAC / Roon / Tidal Speakers: Tannoy 12" MGs' in RFC custom 'Rutland' Cabinets with RFC crossovers / Tannoy ST-100 Super Tweeters Cables: LFD Grainless phono / RFC Mercury / Duelund DCA16GA tinned copper / Kimber 12TC / SW1X Audio Design USB-SPdif / Duelund DCA20GA interconnects / SW1X Audio SPDIF Aero 6 / Mains Power Conditioner / Box Furniture rack / Audiodesk Systeme Vinyl Cleaner / a very beautiful & understanding Wife!

  3. #33
    montesquieu Guest

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    Astonishing Adam. I wonder if they'll actually sell any?

  4. #34
    Join Date: Oct 2012

    Location: West London

    Posts: 153
    I'm Steve.

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    I went on Sunday and thought it was fantastic.

    The venue is superb as were the staff and because the rooms were spread out there was plenty of room.

    I thought the sound in the rooms was much better than other shows I have visited and the exhibitors I found very friendly.

    Some have commented that it looked empty but the stand is quarter of a mile long and on 6 levels. Ascot has a capacity of 70,000 so no wonder it looked quiet.

    Stand outs for me were KEF room, Gato, Monitor Audio, Henley with Klipsch speakers and the Chord Co speaker cable presentation. I enjoyed the new Cambridge Audio high end kit and Elite showing Manley amps.

    The vintage gear was good but a bit tucked away and Absolute Sounds was high class porn.

    I saw a bit of Fremer but it was easy to lose some sections. They may improve on signposting and central locations next year. I would also have liked a few show specials on kit as buying stuff at a show is always tempting.
    Thorens TD550, Ortofon 12", Ortofon Jubilee or Koetsu Black; Rothwell MCL SUT, VTL 2.5 pre, XTC POW 1 power; Naim CD5x; KEF Reference 3.2's; Van den Hul interconnects and speaker cables.

  5. #35
    Join Date: Jan 2009

    Location: Essex

    Posts: 31,846
    I'm openingabottleofwine.

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    Quote Originally Posted by WESTLOWER View Post
    Nope!
    I had a very long chat about the SME / Garrad 301 with the chap who's project it was to get it up and running.
    It's actually £18,800...

    I was trying too ascertain where the dough is in the TT.

    Basically, it's a Stock oil bearing 301, No bearing change, No platter change, No power Supply.

    So they have taken a stock 301, stripped it, polished it, sourced the correct paint (apparently has lots to do with the sound stripped the linkage, recoated in less harmful stuff, new face plates held in place by the very very correct rivets which were very very hard to source, eventually they manufactured their own as all others were inferior (!!) .

    They have also recut the platter strobe markings on the platter.
    They spent an age recreating the exact Garrad mat with the correct rubber compound which he said is also absolutely sound critical... So thats the 301.

    The plinth: a 3 way isolation solid Walnut plinth, made by Spendor. (based on the Loricraft approach)
    The 3 isolation ways seem to be the feet, the metal arm pod within the plinth
    (no options other than an SME cut, although he did say it was a straight drop in for other 3rd party pods)
    and the inner top board which has some kind of isolation material (air-filled decouplers) between the main frame... Is that a posh name for a snazzy tweaked Squash ball...?!

    The arm, is the stock SME current production SME M2-12R (very nice arm btw)

    There are no deviations from this combo, no 2 arm options etc.

    Yours for just £18,800 guv! 4 month wait, guv.


    So they are just 'tarting up'/refurbishing existing Garrard 301s? What will they do when the supply of used 301s is exhausted - make new ones: and at what price?

    There is a well known refurbisher of 301s, who advertises here but auctions his work on eBay. I doubt if any of them sell for anything like a fraction of the asking price of the SME effort.
    Barry

  6. #36
    montesquieu Guest

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    Quote Originally Posted by Barry View Post
    So they are just 'tarting up'/refurbishing existing Garrard 301s? What will they do when the supply of used 301s is exhausted - make new ones: and at what price?

    There is a well known refurbisher of 301s, who advertises here but auctions his work on eBay. I doubt if any of them sell for anything like a fraction of the asking price of the SME effort.
    I'm sure he does a better job too.

  7. #37
    Join Date: Nov 2008

    Location: North Down /Northern Ireland/ UK

    Posts: 19,484
    I'm Neil.

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    Quote Originally Posted by WESTLOWER View Post
    Nope!
    I had a very long chat about the SME / Garrad 301 with the chap who's project it was to get it up and running.
    It's actually £18,800...

    I was trying too ascertain where the dough is in the TT.

    Basically, it's a Stock oil bearing 301, No bearing change, No platter change, No power Supply.

    So they have taken a stock 301, stripped it, polished it, sourced the correct paint (apparently has lots to do with the sound stripped the linkage, recoated in less harmful stuff, new face plates held in place by the very very correct rivets which were very very hard to source, eventually they manufactured their own as all others were inferior (!!) .

    They have also recut the platter strobe markings on the platter.
    They spent an age recreating the exact Garrad mat with the correct rubber compound which he said is also absolutely sound critical... So thats the 301.

    The plinth: a 3 way isolation solid Walnut plinth, made by Spendor. (based on the Loricraft approach)
    The 3 isolation ways seem to be the feet, the metal arm pod within the plinth
    (no options other than an SME cut, although he did say it was a straight drop in for other 3rd party pods)
    and the inner top board which has some kind of isolation material (air-filled decouplers) between the main frame... Is that a posh name for a snazzy tweaked Squash ball...?!

    The arm, is the stock SME current production SME M2-12R (very nice arm btw)

    There are no deviations from this combo, no 2 arm options etc.

    Yours for just £18,800 guv! 4 month wait, guv.

    And ladies and gentleman what we have is a rip off. One of Audio Grails decks and a Bob C plinth and a nice arm will cost less and be better at a guess. SME are taking the piss.
    Regards Neil

  8. #38
    montesquieu Guest

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    Quote Originally Posted by Spectral Morn View Post
    And ladies and gentleman what we have is a rip off. One of Audio Grails decks and a Bob C plinth and a nice arm will cost less and be better at a guess. SME are taking the piss.
    Having said that it's probably a better effort than Thorens's reborn TD124 - I snapped this at Munich, though nothing's been heard of it since.

    Essentially they have taken the design of the TD124 and built a relatively lightweight direct drive deck (my guess would be using their new 799 Euro direct drive TT announced earlier this year - their first DD for decades) around the shape. It has nothing in common with the original at all apart from the shape. Even the material is plastic rather than metal - only the two speeds (33 and 45), the on-off is a lightweight switch (not satisfying clunk), I didn't get to hear it but from brief encounter, disappointing. Though I doubt it'll be £18k!




    EDIT a bit more research and found this, it's 12,000 Swiss Francs - about £9.5k. https://nzzas.nzz.ch/wissen/thorens-...7?reduced=true

  9. #39
    Join Date: Mar 2016

    Location: Barnet, london UK

    Posts: 2,146
    I'm Adam.

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    Blimey !!
    It seems they all want to cash in on the history of these great old girls.
    Shame.

    Btw something strange happening on the Image I posted of the SME Garrard 301 ...
    it’s Basically been deleted (not by me !) from Imgur ! Wtf!?
    Did someone’s cage get rattled!
    "lack of passion is fatal"


    Vinyl: Thorens TD-124mk2 / SME-312 Aluminium 'special' / SME M2-9R / STEREO: Etsuro Urushi Cobalt / Shure M3D / Ortofon SPU A95 / Cartridge Man Music Master / Shure - SC35C (US) / SAEC C3 MC MONO: Miyajima Zero B 0.7mil mono / Miyajima Premium 1.0 / Amps & SUTs: Radford STA25 mk3 / AD Audio 'Satchmo2' pre & LCR phono / Hashimoto HM-7 SUT / ETR-MONO SUT Digital: Audio Note 4.1 (with DAC5 upgrades) DAC / Roon / Tidal Speakers: Tannoy 12" MGs' in RFC custom 'Rutland' Cabinets with RFC crossovers / Tannoy ST-100 Super Tweeters Cables: LFD Grainless phono / RFC Mercury / Duelund DCA16GA tinned copper / Kimber 12TC / SW1X Audio Design USB-SPdif / Duelund DCA20GA interconnects / SW1X Audio SPDIF Aero 6 / Mains Power Conditioner / Box Furniture rack / Audiodesk Systeme Vinyl Cleaner / a very beautiful & understanding Wife!

  10. #40
    montesquieu Guest

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by WESTLOWER View Post
    Blimey !!
    It seems they all want to cash in on the history of these great old girls.
    Shame.

    Btw something strange happening on the Image I posted of the SME Garrard 301 ...
    it’s Basically been deleted (not by me !) from Imgur ! Wtf!?
    Did someone’s cage get rattled!
    Strange! There is a video of it on youtube from Munich


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