After the first track on Kogan (before the show began), we saw Eva's eyes were a little bit watery. We asked her why. She said she was so touched about Johnie's 20 years of work on air-bearing design materializing into a musical experience that touched right straight to her heart via Kogan's violin. Jlam was discussing probably about "business" with her about the future.
Another record that touched me the most were Studiogrey's Rachmaninov piano concerto no.2 as well as Beethoven's Pastoral symphony. The Zanden phono is lovely because the presence of DECCA curve makes listening a lot easier.
marvel, I am interested to know as you have them side by side. If you are using Tidal as the phono/preamp, the answer should be crystal clear. I shall see the comparison as one package (cart, tonearm, and turntable) versus one package.
I agree the answer will be or may be too "honest" if Tidal is used as the phono/preamp unless marvel deliberately alters the result by placing wooden stuff underneath the turntable to achieve imperfect leveling to cause mis-tracking. I don't agree that it's the interim solution, it's more of a destructive solution.
The setup of the Sindre in my place was pretty uneventful. Due to my personal engagement, I have to split the setup into 2 parts, one morning session on the basic setup and then another fine tuning session in the evening.
Before the setup, we sat down and listened to Raven in order to Mr. Bergmann an idea on how my system sounds on various music including vocal, string and percussion. We started the setup with the levelling of the turntable and immediately we replaced the wooden feet with the metallic ones which were the spike plates for the SRA. I will post some photos later on the set up and the laboratory level of instrument that Mr. Bergmann had used to do the levelling. The 2nd change that I have made was to use the Ortofon MC Winfield instead of the EMT not because I had listened to EmT on Bergmann, it was simply because Mr. Bergmann, upon the connection of the cartridge onto the tonearm, realise that the size of the MC Winfield matches better with his tonearm calibration and setting. He will provide more flexibility in the tonearm setting so as to accommodate the setup of other cartridges more easily.
So the comparison is on SRA+Raven+DV cartridge+DV Tonearm+DV phono cable vs Bergman Sindre+MC Winfield+ Argento SMR SE cable. No change on Tidal including the input impedance setting of 50ohm. The comparison happened only at 10pm last night after all the fine tunings had been completed. Again we played the same set of LPs that we listened in the morning: string, vocal and percussion. My immediate observation is the tonal picture is very clean and transparent allowing me to hear lots and lots of details with a very high 'energy' and 'jumpy' factoring into the musical notes cross the entire frequency. This Bergmann combo gives an extremely dynamic and natural playback cross frequency with clarity. I keep stressing on cross frequency because I really cannot identify any emphasis or de-emphasis on any specific frequency range while on the Raven combo, I can now say with confidence that it is comparatively more focused on the midrange and tend to produce a very steady but less 'energetic' bass dynamic and speed of dispersion.
The last LP that we listened was the Dvorak Symphony No.5 'From The New World' conducted by Ferenc Kubelik DG Red Stereo 1960 1st Edtion. My comment to Mr. Bergmann is that the playback has reached a record high in terms of performance. For once, I was touched by the feeling of Dvorak in his experience on the 'New World (America)' translating into the musical notes drifting and leaving rapidly from one page to another new page! I gave the LP to Mr. Bergmann as a small gift to signify this is a 'New World' that he just brought into my system.
My salute to Mr. Bergmann in inventing this masterpiece without comparing and listening to any other LP turntable and cartridges and most importantly without spending tons of money in his own hi-fi system in his laboratory. How can he make it, I have no clue, but with my limited experience on vinyl, he made it happened!!
Mr.Johnie Bergman is a very pure and honest person that is truly reflected from his creation. We are yet to listen to his favorite ROCK record but I have to say I am very surprised someone who has a preference for ROCK music can reproduce classical and symphonic scores so well.
The two records that impress Johnie the most in this own words before he departed today are:
1. Kogan playing Tchikovsky in Charles' setup
2. New World Symphony at Marvel's setup
The new turntable looks very interesting. From the reports of various users, it seems the turntable does a very good job on classical. How come the designer loves rock n' roll? My intuition says the turntable produces uncolored sound due to very low friction and torque.
Marvel or Charles, can you two comment more on the bass?
Comments
Before the setup, we sat down and listened to Raven in order to Mr. Bergmann an idea on how my system sounds on various music including vocal, string and percussion. We started the setup with the levelling of the turntable and immediately we replaced the wooden feet with the metallic ones which were the spike plates for the SRA. I will post some photos later on the set up and the laboratory level of instrument that Mr. Bergmann had used to do the levelling. The 2nd change that I have made was to use the Ortofon MC Winfield instead of the EMT not because I had listened to EmT on Bergmann, it was simply because Mr. Bergmann, upon the connection of the cartridge onto the tonearm, realise that the size of the MC Winfield matches better with his tonearm calibration and setting. He will provide more flexibility in the tonearm setting so as to accommodate the setup of other cartridges more easily.
So the comparison is on SRA+Raven+DV cartridge+DV Tonearm+DV phono cable vs Bergman Sindre+MC Winfield+ Argento SMR SE cable. No change on Tidal including the input impedance setting of 50ohm. The comparison happened only at 10pm last night after all the fine tunings had been completed. Again we played the same set of LPs that we listened in the morning: string, vocal and percussion. My immediate observation is the tonal picture is very clean and transparent allowing me to hear lots and lots of details with a very high 'energy' and 'jumpy' factoring into the musical notes cross the entire frequency. This Bergmann combo gives an extremely dynamic and natural playback cross frequency with clarity. I keep stressing on cross frequency because I really cannot identify any emphasis or de-emphasis on any specific frequency range while on the Raven combo, I can now say with confidence that it is comparatively more focused on the midrange and tend to produce a very steady but less 'energetic' bass dynamic and speed of dispersion.
The last LP that we listened was the Dvorak Symphony No.5 'From The New World' conducted by Ferenc Kubelik DG Red Stereo 1960 1st Edtion. My comment to Mr. Bergmann is that the playback has reached a record high in terms of performance. For once, I was touched by the feeling of Dvorak in his experience on the 'New World (America)' translating into the musical notes drifting and leaving rapidly from one page to another new page! I gave the LP to Mr. Bergmann as a small gift to signify this is a 'New World' that he just brought into my system.
My salute to Mr. Bergmann in inventing this masterpiece without comparing and listening to any other LP turntable and cartridges and most importantly without spending tons of money in his own hi-fi system in his laboratory. How can he make it, I have no clue, but with my limited experience on vinyl, he made it happened!!
Marvel
The two records that impress Johnie the most in this own words before he departed today are:
1. Kogan playing Tchikovsky in Charles' setup
2. New World Symphony at Marvel's setup
He said he will listen to more opera from now on.
Marvel or Charles, can you two comment more on the bass?