Analog Corner Michael Fremer

hat’s this? The new synchronous motor set into a cutout on After removing the 850’s felt met Thorens turntable? It the plinth. An outboard power supply (feh!) and replacing it with a Ringmat, I “Wdoesn’t look like a synthesizes a 60Hz sinewave, so the began my listening with Linn’s latest Thorens turntable.” turntable motor is totally independent moving-magnet cartridge, the appropri- That’s what I thought as I unboxed of power-line fluctuations. An inboard ately named Adikt ($349). It’s designed the new Thorens 850 — part of the potentiometer allows for precise speed for Linn tonearms, so I had to chop off a new 800 line from the rejuvenated co- adjustments within ±8%, but my review few plastic protruding posts, which was a 1 mpany. Sure, I’d seen mockups at trade sample ran at precisely 33 ⁄3 and 45rpm. pain but no big deal. I wanted to hear shows, but until I get the finished prod- Hallelujah! The speed is chosen via a what an unknown cartridge sounded uct in my hands, I really don’t pay care- switch on the controller’s front panel. like first, and use it to check a few things. ful attention. The plinth features a 15mm steel I put a test record on and I knew the 850 would have a Rega- plate sandwiched between two checked the speed accuracy with sourced “TP300” arm. Gee, I wonder 19mm slabs of “high density wood” a hertz-reading voltmeter. which arm in the Rega line that Perfect. Then I listened corresponds to? I’d bet that was through a stethoscope and more a Rega OEM marketing found the 850’s plinth to be decision than Thorens’ choice, absolutely free of motor- but why bother? Everyone induced noise and vibra- knows the answer to that tions. Finally, a finger-tap question. test revealed this plinth The more I examined this design to be among the new 46-lb ’table, the less it most effectively damped looked like your dad’s Cutline here. Cutline here. Cutline here. Cutline here. I’ve come across. I could Thorens and the more it turn up the volume very looked like the Acoustic Signature Final high, tap the plinth, and hear very little Tool ($2000) I reviewed in the coming through the speakers. What did September 2001 issue —especially the get through was a brief, innocuous, damped 8.8-lb aluminum platter and MICHAEL FREMER high-pitched pop — none of the thunk bearing assembly. Well, if you’re going you get from many other designs. to copy, I figured, copy from a company Bottom line: The 850 runs at the right that’s building a great product at a ri- speed, with no motor-noise leakage in a diculously reasonable price. The 850 one-piece design, and ultra-effective costs $1995 with tonearm, $1599 with- damping. Impressive. out. Trian Electronics — (608) 850- Although I wasn’t familiar with the 3600 — Thorens’ US distributor, can Linn Adikt, I knew from listening that supply a variety of pre-cut armboards. Linn ADIKT MM cartridge the Thorens 850 had good rhythmic Setting up the Thorens 850 was a authority. The bass on some of my snap: the arm comes mounted, con- (I suspect they mean high-density fiber- usual-suspect LPs was clean, tight, and tained within a VTA adjuster with lock- board). “Steel? Are they crazy?” I hear free of overhang. Extension and texture ing collet system — totally un-kosher in you. The plate has a laser-cut groove were only so-so, and the extension was the Rega world, where both VTA and along the stylus path, so there’s no mag- not first-rate, but that could have been dirt have no effect on vinyl playback. I netic interference with the cartridge. the Adikt. I let the cartridge break in for don’t mean to mock Rega — I really do The bearing system features two sin- a few days and I decided that the basic love their stuff — just the Rega-Linn tered bushings and a polished, stainless- sound of the Adikt was clean, crisp, fast, orthodoxy about VTA nd groove dirt. steel shaft fitted with a tungsten ball reasonably detailed, and a bit cool. It did Mount the platter, slip the surface pro- riding on a self-lubricating thrust plate. a nice, clean job with fast, high-frequen- tectors under each of the three ad- A terminal box with gold-plated cy transients, such as cymbal smacks and justable, polymer-damped feet, level RCA jacks is affixed to the back of the female vocal sibilants. Fitted with a the ’table, connect the motor cable to plinth, and the ’table comes with a de- removable Gyger II stylus, it proved an the electronic motor controller, put the cent set of low-capacitance, RCA-ter- excellent tracker at 1.75gm, quietly square belt around the motor pulley, minated cables. All in all, the Thorens coursing through the grooves. Na- plug it in, and — aside from mounting 850 is a very neat, compact design that turally, it lacked the subtle harmonic your favorite cartridge and placing would appear to have great mechanical and dynamic gradations of far more the counterweight on its shaft — integrity and sonic potential. And why expensive cartridges, and it was less than you’re done. should it not? It copies so much from super-transparent, but it costs only The Thorens 850 features an AC- the proven Acoustic Signature line. $349. If you want a warmer, more laid-

Stereophile, February 2004 1 Analog Corner back MM, don’t forget Shure’s V unsuspended turntable. I think I’ll 15VxMR, which is still excellent try it under the Manley Steelhead after all these years. and ASR Basis Exclusive phono sec- Being in a playful mood, I tions . . . switched to a cartridge that’s been One of the problems with this job gathering dust on the shelf after hav- is that I don’t have competing prod- ing being used only once. I hadn’t ucts here for comparison, so I can’t been impressed with the Garrott tell you how the 850 compares. Brothers’ P-88, a venerable low-out- What I can tell you is that the put (0.36mV) moving-coil, but this Thorens 850 is a solid piece of work, time I was. What a sweetheart. Of and a hell of a turntable for $1995. course, it changed the “sound” of the It’s smartly designed, well-built, and Thorens 850 completely — once has the dynamic “pop,” musical grip, you get past the fundamental level of MICHAEL FREMER image focus, and excitement I crave turntable design, which the Thorens Garrott Brothers P-88 MC cartridge from vinyl. If you want more lush clearly did, the transducer reigns presentations, some suspended supreme in terms of affecting sound virtually independent of the load. The designs will deliver that. quality. With the Garrott P-88, the measured results showed that “attenua- Right now I’m now listening to sound was richer, bigger, more dynam- tion is exceptionally good if compared Cisco’s reissue of Ian and Sylvia’s ic, and yet more immediate. (Garrott to the best, state of the art, air suspend- Northern Journey, with the Transfigu- cartridges are availbale from Jerry ed optical table,” according to the re- ration Temper W affixed to the Raskin’s Needle Doctor, www.needle port. Of course, this is in the vertical Thorens 850. The cartridge costs far doctor.com.) dimension only. Air-suspension plat- more than the ’table, so it’s not a real- Playing Peter Gabriel’s “Shock the forms like the Sounds of Silence world choice — I just wanted to hear it, Monkey,” I compared this combo with Vibraplane are equally effective vertical- and the TP300 arm was easily up to giv- my Simon Yorke Series 7 turntable, ly and horizontally, and cost far more. ing the Temper W a credible ride. I Immedia RPM-2 tonearm, and Lyra really like what I’m hearing. Titan MC cartridge. Of course, this ref- erence rig sounded better, but the The Thorens 850 Down a Notch in the Thorens Line Thorens-Garrott pairing wasn’t that far One step down the Thorens line from behind in reproducing subtle musical is a hell of a turntable the 850 is the 800 ($1299), which uses gradations that the Adikt skimmed over. the same feet, bearing, and motor The Thorens-Garrott combo was for $1995. drive. The plinth is the top section of damned involving, thanks to its really im- the 850, less the steel plate and lower pressive bass extension and articulation. section. The 800’s platter is a lighter (6 In fact, the P-88 more closely resembled The Thorens 850’s sonic charms lbs), thinner version of the 850’s, and the musical take of the Titan than of only improved with the better isolation the arm is the Thorens TP250. That some older Lyras, which sounded a bit provided by the Relaxa 3+. Image brings the weight down to a dietetic less rich. When I played Acoustic focus, and the subtlety and clarity of 17.6 lbs from the 800’s 46 lbs. Now, Sounds’ 45rpm version of Count Basie’s musical transients, seemed to be ren- considering that some Rega connois- 88 Basie Street, the Thorens-Garrott beat dered more cleanly. Backgrounds were seurs think the RB250 arm sounds bet- any CD player I’ve heard. already “black,” so I couldn’t hear that ter than the RB300 because it doesn’t I was inspired by the improvement that aspect was improved dramatically, use a coil spring to set stylus pressure wrought by the substitution of the but the 850’s sound as a whole was and doesn’t have a O-ring–suspended Garrott for the Linn to set the Thorens more subtle, nuanced, and — I hate to counterweight, this $1299 turntable is on the Relaxa 3+ magnetic levitation say it — relaxed. The Relaxa 3+ may not looking mighty competitive with its platform ($795, made in Italy and beat an expensive Vibraplane, but it $1995 big brother — and, of course, imported by SAP Audio, www.sapau- was extremely effective, and it’s afford- with Rega’s P25. Although $1150 the dio.com). The Relaxa 3+ uses pairs of able. I don’t know if the Relaxa comes P25 comes with the excellent RB600 opposed magnets in each of its four feet. with a money-back guarantee, but if it arm, the Thorens 800 includes elec- These are stabilized using an ingenious does, you ought to try one under your tronic speed control — its platter is able 1 bearing-shaft mechanism. The to run at precisely 33 ⁄3rpm. That force between the magnets of counts for something.1 each pair is said to be within a I repeated all of the listening I’d few grams with loads of up to done with the 850, with the same 57 lbs, and higher with an optional fifth foot. I was sent a report, by the 1 Wally Malewicz, of Wally Tools, was physics department of the kind enough to procure a Leader LFM- 39A wow and flutter meter for me. Politecnico di Milano, that Soon, my turntable reviews will include stated that the resonant those measurements, but I still have a few questions about using the meter, frequency of an un- and until John Atkinson visits and loaded Relaxa 3+ was clarifies them, I don’t feel comfort- able telling you what I found mea- 2Hz, and that the reso- suring the Thorens 850 and 800 — nance appeared to be SAP Relaxa magnetic levitation stand not that the results were bad.

Stereophile, February 2004 2 Analog Corner cartridges, and the biggest dif- Xhifi Xducer 2.1 ference was that the 800 MICHAEL FREMER Ever since I covered the tiny sounded lighter. But in some but fantastic Acoustic Energy ways it was a tradeoff: Yes, the AEGO2 in the March 2001 bottom end lost much of its “Analog Corner,” I’ve gotten weight and grip, and dynam- offers to review small satel- ics were somewhat muted, lite-subwoofer speaker sys- but the mids and highs sound- tems for computers. I’ve ed more airy and easy. I don’t turned most of them down, think that’s necessarily better, but bit on this one because it but some listeners prefer a intrigued me: Designed by more “relaxed fit.” The Doug Goldberg (Camelot Thorens 800 delivered it. Technology, PS Audio Power After finishing my listen- Plants, etc.), the Xhifi Xducer ing, I called Brian Anderson 2.1 ($795) looks cool. at Trian Electronics, Thorens’ In fact, I wrote a computer US importer, to get some speaker piece for the New details. The only new thing I York Times’ “Circuits” section found out was that the turnta- back in 1998 that you can bles are available in either access on the Web: www. black or silver. I asked XDucer 2.1 nytimes.com/library/tech/ Anderson how business was, 98/07/circuits/downtime/ and he told me that the day the an- Thorens dealers who hadn’t carried ana- 30speak.html. See if you can guess why, nouncement that an American importer log in years. They wanted to get back in despite being told by the editor how had been named to import the Thorens because they see what’s going on with much he liked the piece, how well-writ- line hit the Web, the phone starting analog and don’t want to lose the busi- ten it was, how well I understood their ringing of the hook. He had to hire ness.” When I asked him how well the style, how little editing it needed, and someone just to take the calls. line has been received, Anderson told how much more work I’d get from the “We started hearing from old-time me that Thorens turntable sales were Times, I never heard from them again. five times what he’d optimistically pro- Like Camelot Technology), Xhifi jected when he decided to carry the (www.xhifi.com) is a Mel and Howard In Heavy Rotation line. (He also told me he worked with Schilling company (Camelot. What Butch Vig at the recording studio where they’ve done with the Xducer 2.1 is to 1) The Rolling Stones, The Nirvana cut Nevermind, but that’s anoth- take a beautiful-looking JVC sat-sub Rolling Stones, ABKCO 180gm er story ...) system featuring a ribbon tweeter in DSD/DMM TPs LP Anderson told me to expect a call each organ-pipe–like satellite, and a 2) My Bloody Valentine, Loveless, from the designer of the new Thorens hefty powered subwoofer that looks like Plain Recordings 180gm LP ’tables in a few days. Sure enough, the something Sonus Faber’s Franco Serblin 3) Charles Mingus, Mingus, call came from Germany. The first thing put together on his day off, and given it Mingus, Mingus, Mingus, Im- I said was something like, “With all due to Goldberg to modify the hell out of. pulse!/Speakers Corner 180gm respect, it seems to me you’ve taken Goldberg uses JVC’s built-in amp to LP much of this design from the Acoustic drive the sub, but substitutes his own 4) The Strokes, Room on Fire, Signature line.” high-quality crossover for the satellites, RCA 120gm LP The caller replied, “Michael, it’s driving them with a digital amplifier he 5) The Shins, Chutes Too Narrow, Gunther Frohnhoefer from Acoustic designed for this project. Thanks to the Sub Pop 150gm LP Signature! I thought you knew I de- dual-amplification, there are both mas- 6) The Who, Tommy: Special signed these ’tables.” ter and subwoofer level controls. Edition, Geffen/Chronicles I hadn’t. According to Frohnhoefer, Because the satellites —designed spe- SACD/CDs (2) he was approached by the new owners cifically for nearfield listening —use rib- 7) Bob Dylan, John Wesley of Thorens to design a line of self-con- bons, and ribbons are usually vertically Harding, Columbia/Sundazed tained turntables for them that would be challenged, you might think you can use 180gm mono LP simple to set up. The assignment result- this system successfully only if you put 8) The Beatles, Let It Be...Naked, ed in a new manufacturing business ven- the speakers on your desk and listen at Apple/Capitol 180gm LP, 7" ture held jointly by Frohnhoefer and ear level. But when I stood up, I found EP Thorens and separate from Acoustic the satellites surprisingly forgiving. On- 9) Granddaddy, Sumday, V2 150gm Signature. Frohnhoefer confirmed the axis, the response is said to be really LPs (2) worldwide success of the new line, smooth and extended out to 50kHz. I 10) The Jimi Hendrix Experience, adding that the Thorens name still has received a white paper written by the Live at Berkeley, Experience magic. He also told me it was somewhat tweeter’s designer that demonstrated Hendrix/MCA 180gm LPs frustrating to see the immediate accep- that an incredible amount of careful (2) tance of a design of his with the Thorens thought, and measurements galore, had name on it, when he’s had to fight so gone into the creation of the driver. Visit www.musicangle.com for full re- hard to build his own Acoustic Signature I ran the USB output of my views. line. Welcome to Amar Bose Land, Macintosh G4 into Onkyo’s SE-U55 Gunther Frohnhoefer. A/D–D/A converter (a neat compo-

Stereophile, February 2004 3 Analog Corner nent that I don’t think ever found a porate desk, and the $400 and the Thanks to what I read in Stereo Review, I market niche), and the analog outputs slightly less attractive sound didn’t mean chucked my tubed Dynaco PAS-3X from that into the Xducer. I’ve had the that much to me, I might go for the cool preamp in favor of Dynaco’s new, solid- Xducer in my computer system for looks of the Xhifi Xducer 2.1. state PAT-4, which sounded dreadful. many months because I haven’t had Unfortunately, as I remember, it mea- time to write about it until now. When sured better than the PAS-3X, and it got I first replaced the AEGO2 with the a glowing review in Stereo Review. (So Xducer 2.1, I felt the Xducer was some- The Xducer 2.1’s satellites did the “no highs, no lows” Bose 901 what brittle on top, and the subwoofer loudspeaker, as I recall, but that I got to seemed to be a bit “thumpy” compared seemed to resolve more hear for myself. I didn’t buy them.) to the AEGO2. I also had more difficul- detail than the AEGO2. I remember calling Dynaco to ask if ty blending the satellites with the sub, perhaps there was something wrong but I worked at it and got it as good as I with my PAT-4, it sounded so dead and know how. harmonically demoralized. I was told I played a bunch of CDs —I’ll spare Julian Hirsch that it would take time for my ears to you the titles —that demonstrate a vari- Julian Hirsch passed away the other day adjust to the “lack of distortion” com- ety of sonic qualities, then reinstalled at the age of 81 [see “Update” elsewhere in pared to tubes. I’ll never forget that con- the AEGO2, which had lain dormant this issue. — Ed.]. Despite my misgivings versation, and I never forgot my for many months. The AEG02’s bass about some of what Julian did, he was a disappointment at being misled. was still better, as was its sat-sub inte- true audio legend who probably did The good that came out of that expe- gration, thanks in part to the better mid- more to help create this industry than rience was that, when the compact disc band performance of the AEGO2 any other writer. He also did more to was introduced, I proceeded with cau- satellite. But the comparison pointed up confuse, demoralize, and tear it down, tion. Sure enough, the same sorry story the AEGO2’s tipped-up top end, and in my opinion, by relying too heavily unfolded in the mainstream audio the Xducer 2.1’s satellites seemed to on what was measurable and ignoring press, but I was prepared. Now, every resolve more detail. what could be heard. It then fell to J. time I write something, I think of Still, overall, I preferred the sound of Gordon Holt and Harry Pearson to myself as a teenager, and of Stereophile’s the Acoustic Energy AEGO2. It doesn’t build it back up, which they did. young readers, and try to make sure I look nearly as cool as the Xducer sys- (Thanks, guys.) don’t steer them wrong, the way I was. tem, but it costs only $399. I suppose if I was an avid Hirsch reader as a teen, Judging by most of the e-mail I get, so I was sitting at a heavily trafficked cor- and relied on his reviews for guidance. far, so good. s

Stereophile, February 2004 4