Analog Corner” in the November 2018 Issue
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INSIDERVIEWSONEVERYTHINGVINYL ANALOG BY MICHAEL FREMER THIS ISSUE: Auditions of OMA’s iron turntable plinth, Swedish Analog Technologies’ 12" CORNER tonearm, and Doshi’s V3.0 phono preamp. An iron plinth for Technics SP10s new and old ast May I got a text message from my vinyl-loving electrician: “Hey needle drops of the same music, played Michael, I’m listening to WFMU and a young 12 year old analog genius using the same turntable, cartridge, is guest DJ-ing, Malachi Lui. He mentioned you, and talks about master- and phono preamplifier, but switching ing and pressings—he’s incredible. I imagine he’s been in touch with you. among Swedish Analog Technologies’ LHope all is well, Craig.” original tonearm (over $30,000) and Malachi hadn’t been in touch, but his comments were all over AnalogPlanet’s their more recent, lower-cost LM- YouTube channel,1 and you’d never know they were from a 12-year-old. I re- 09 ($25,400) and CF1-09 ($48,000) sponded to one, and shortly thereafter I heard from his mother, who said he really models.6 I invited readers to listen to wanted to meet me, and that they’d drive over when it was convenient for me. the files and state their preferences and why, and to try to guess which file was We set up a day and time just before tagram account (officialjackwhitelive) recorded with which arm. I also posted Independence Day. I readied my video reads, “Jack is telling Malachi that he is a file recorded using the same music, camera, in case the encounter proved the future of audiophile sacred music cartridge, and phono preamp, but with worthy of YouTube. If you haven’t appreciation.” That’s not quite accu- a “mystery” turntable and tonearm. watched the video, please do.2 I guar- rate. Malachi is the present of audiophile The next day, Malachi responded. antee it will make your day, no matter sacred music appreciation. He’d correctly matched every file with how good your day is already going. Because now Malachi is writing the tonearm I’d used to record it, and After that encounter, a generous for AnalogPlanet, reviewing records his descriptions of each arm’s sound reader sent me a Rega P3 to give to and equipment and being paid the eerily matched my own. (My review Malachi, which I surprised him with going rate. His review of Jack White’s of the SAT CF1-097 had not yet been during a return visit.3 And Robert Ma- Boarding House Reach is perceptive,4 his published, and he hadn’t read my re- rino of Athena Productions, a pioneer writing clean and well punctuated. view of the LM-098 because his com- of vinyl reissues I’d not heard from in But when he asked if he could review plimentary subscription to Stereophile decades, was moved to send the kid a John Coltrane’s Both Directions at Once: hadn’t begun). I told him by return box of great records. The Lost Album, I balked. “Come on, e-mail that he was “the real deal!” He In the second video, Malachi refer- Malachi—you’re 12 years old.” responded that he’d made the correct ences Howlin’ Wolf and Captain Beef- Read the review.5 I suggested that he identifications in study hall, using his heart, along with Jack White, whose add a section outlining the albums Col- iPad speaker! label, Third Man Records, recently trane was releasing even as he left this Malachi’s family and their friends reissued Beefheart’s Trout Mask Replica one in the vault, and Malachi turned it have told me how fortunate he is to (1969) on vinyl. Shortly after the sec- in the next day. But the words are all have me as a mentor, but really—to ond visit, Malachi and his family moved his, with scarcely an edit. It reads as if have this remarkable yet selfless young to Portland, Oregon. The man who’d written by an erudite 45-year-old—or, man appear at this juncture of my life sent the Rega ’table mentioned that as one well-known record producer and career makes me think that I’m the Jack White was going to play Portland; pushing 70 texted, “Damn, that’s what lucky one. Joy has replaced the sadness I checked with Malachi’s mother, and I would have written!” He then added: experienced over the losses, in rapid found out that they planned to attend. “If I could have been guaranteed a kid succession, of Dave Wilson of Wilson So a surprise backstage visit with like that, I’d have had kids!” Audio Specialties, Wally Malewicz of Jack White was arranged. It wasn’t dif- Malachi’s parents, who are fully WAM Engineering, and loudspeaker ficult—White had seen the video, and involved in and supportive of all of maven Siegfried Linkwitz. he, too, had been bowled over by Mal- this, have provided me with a far more Back to those needle drops and achi’s references to Howlin’ Wolf and balanced picture of this precocious Beefheart. The turntable benefactor—a youngster, whom my wife describes as 1 See www.youtube.com/user/21stCenturyVinyl. Grammy-nominated music supervisor “an old soul.” When I told them that, 2 See https://youtu.be/HVzBWLGf9gc. based in L.A.—texted that White was on the phone and in the videos, he’s a 3 See https://youtu.be/dUscoreK0To. 4 See www.analogplanet.com/content/jack-whites- “psyched” to meet Malachi, adding sweet, bubbly kid, but in e-mail com- latests-album-excellent-case-you-missed-it. that his kids were “already a bit jealous munications he sometimes sounds like 5 See www.analogplanet.com/content/does-”lost”- because Jack talks about him so much.” a busy, middle-aged business executive, coltrane-album-live-hype. Probably a bit of hyperbole, but not his mom said, “That’s him!” 6 See www.analogplanet.com/content/listen-sats- original-pickup-arm-and-compare-it-new-lm- much more than a bit, I’m sure. How good is this kid? In Septem- 09-and-cf1-09. The caption for the photo of the ber, I wrote and published a story 7 See “Analog Corner” in the November 2018 issue. backstage encounter on White’s Ins- that included links to 24-bit/96kHz 8 See “Analog Corner” in the October 2018 issue. stereophile.com n February 2019 1 ANALOG CORNER those unidentified tonearms: Most with a Technics SL-1000R turntable— perfectionist-quality SP-10R motor responders, including Malachi, noted the one I reviewed in the November unit with plinth and tonearm—was that the “mystery” file didn’t sound as 2018 Stereophile and that’s pictured probably the SP-10R itself, though good as the rest, particularly in terms on that issue’s cover. I wrote in that at the time that was just conjecture, of background “blackness” and its review that the star of the SL-1000R— as there was no way to judge each overall soft sound. I produced that file an assemblage of the company’s new individually. OMA SP10 PLINTH SYSTEM precisely fit the SP10’s chassis as well footer fantasy can easily be fulfilled. Specialty audio manufacturer Oswalds as an opening for removable arm- The plinth, available in clear lacquer or Mill Audio, aka OMA, makes tubed boards, which OMA CNC-machines black powder, weighs 110 lb not includ- 1 electronics, horn loudspeakers, and, from torrefied ie( , thermally modified) ing the turntable, and it’s big: 26 ⁄8" 1 3 for well over a decade now, high- Pennsylvania ash wood. (Torrefac- wide by 4 ⁄8" high by 20 ⁄8" deep. The mass turntable plinths.9 Most of these tion involves heating the wood in the price has yet to be determined but plinths are made of slate, but recently absence of oxygen, which removes will be under $10,000, which means OMA has produced an iron plinth spe- from it residual water and volatiles, to that the combined price with SP-10R cifically designed for Technics’ SP-10R produce a material with no biological turntable will be under $20,000. and earlier SP10MK2 and SP10MK3 activity—ie, it will never rot or soften.) OMA’s Jonathan Weiss hoisted direct-drive turntables. OMA claims that torrefying ash the plinth, fitted with an armboard The SP10 Plinth System is a single wood produces a material that is both for a Schröder CB tonearm, atop my sand casting of hypoeutectic or “gray” extremely dimensionally stable—it Harmonic Resolution Systems M3 iron.10 This is not your grandmother’s won’t warp or swell or shrink with isolation base. I set up the CB (the cast-iron skillet melted down and changes in temperature and/or hu- initials stand for captive bearing) arm, poured into a plinth mold, but a midity—and has “superior acoustical with which I’m well familiar—it’s the more recent development. Gray iron properties.” The armboards can accept same Thrax-built arm supplied with combines high mass with exceptional tonearms with pivot-to-spindle dis- the Döhmann Helix 1 turntable—and rigidity and vibration-damping proper- tances of 9" to 12" or longer, and can installed an Ortofon MC Century ties. On the SP10 plinth’s underside be precisely swapped out in minutes. 9 See www.stereophile.com/artdudleylistening/ is a web of cast chambers, each filled Holes in the plinth’s feet are tapped listening_93/index.html. with a vibration-damping polymer. for M6 hardware. OMA supplies “basic 10 See www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/ The casting is CNC-machined to leveling feet,” but of course your every S0924013612000337.