AE's award to DSo is the Da Vinci LP Clamp. The plot is to drag him sooner into the world of vinyl. But never do we expect he bites the bullet sooner than anyone's forecast.
The infrastructures are all there. AAS Gabriel resting on Craze2 and Zanden phono mk3 sitting on two separate Ohio XL+2 platforms. The Troy by Tripiont is there for grounding connection with the phono power supply. The only trouble we had was grounding the power supply of the Gabriel. We did not have the right screw driver to untighten one screw for grouding.
Probably, the first track was played at around 6:00pm. Everything is brand new. The tube amplification took time to warm up. But at 6:45pm, after several fine-tuning steps by our LP specialist, the quality was basically there.
The Gabriel is extremely dynamic and yet stable. There is a lot of energy. The presence of the orchestra can be felt with breath and depth when spinning Pierre Fournier's intrepretation of the Dvora's Symphony No.9 through the properitary "Teldec" curve for all DGG recordings through the Zanden 1200 Mark 3 phono stage.
I am sure he will take time to understand every single parameter to excel this masterpiece further.
But the setup was very smooth yesterday. Probably, it was because I worshipped the God the night before going there. I can relieve now.
Wow! I am a big fan of Da Vinci. I wish I can afford the Gabriel though the Unison satifies my musical needs tremendously.
The major differences between the Unison and the Gabriel, even without listening, are in the areas of stability, scale, presence, and micro-details which all add up to a live concert feeling.
Let us know your adventure. It is very important to share the skills in the analog domain in my opinion.
Grounding the power supply of the AAS Gabriel will offer you more of everything. Based on my experience, the overall voicing of the system dictates the setting of VTA and cartridge weight completely.
You have a source that is capable of reproducing extremely colorful tonality. At the same time, you have an amplification chain that comes with a strong and passionate character with emphasis on the lower mid bass and below. Due to the fact that the Gabriel platter is magenetically floated, the cartridge weight cannot be too low. I suspect you may begin to lose weight if the cartridge weight is below 2.1. At 2.2 and above, the lower mid-bass will become too dominated. As a result, I speculate the majority of the fine tuning is done via the VTA. This is easy. It may not be a bad idea to have a secondary amplifier just to serve the AAS Gabriel, when you are become more familiar with the voicing.
This is a turntable that will service music for many years to come till we grow old. The musicality it offers is unique. It is a easy turntable to operate. I love it a lot.
Nice to see you join the Gabriel camp. Enjoy! You can try move d phono far away from the power supply after every things settle down.
Raymond, How do you connect the ground cable on d Gabriel? I still can't understand why grounding on a belt drive tt with isolated motor will carry benefit???
You got me. I may only be well versed in thosep physics related to hi end audio. Why grounding the motor which is mechanically isolated from the platter is not an easy question for my rusted mind? I do know it has to do with "stray current" inside the power supply section. You can think of stray current is "excess current" which is extremely tiny. They are normally drained by the ground wire of the AC line. In my case, the AC power cord going to the Gabriel power supply has no ground connection. If there is stray current, that means, the AC ground will not take care of the drainage job. Instead, the drainage job is done via the Troy through a dedicated ground wire to the power supply of the motor.
The improvement is there, but not as dramatic as grounding the power supply of the zanden phono stage to the Troy.
I suspect a dedicated ground for the motor power supply prevents sporadic stray current from entering into the AC circuit to contaminate other components. (Indirect influence is the way to approach thinking this problem.)
Correct me if I am wrong.
DSo, how is the sonic evolvement of the Gabriel now?
Although I am a vinyl idiot, I did audition a few vinyl systems before and found lots of them have significant mechanical noises which make them cannot completely outperform my CD source. That’s one of the main reasons why I joined the vinyl club so late. After 2 nights experience with Gabriel plus Crazy Square 2, I found the mechanical noises are very minimal if they were there. Without proper run-in, the sound of course is still a little bit tense, but the soundstage is already huge and crazy stable. The tonality, transient speed, macro and micro dynamics are superb, it also makes me understand what’s the meaning of the right proportion of decay mentioned by Raymond. My first impression with Gabriel? It only speaks the truth.
The Zanden phono matches the Gabriel very good, the curve selection function is very user friendly and effective. I am kind of curious how the sound coming from a universal RIAA phono can be always right?
Raymond, the initial setting by master Chik is already very impressive and the cartridge weight is now settled at 2.2. I will do some fine tunings after the system is fully run-in. I am still a beginner in vinyl world and believe still have a lot to learn from you and Mr. DV.
Comments
welcome home DSo!!!
點解唔玩個細佬uni臣? 唔夠價囉！
呢壇嘢郁手要半球以上，唔係點襯得起得獎既蘇先生呢?
唔係旗艦Reference, 送我都唔要啦！係咪咁話呀Mr.蘇....哈哈哈哈哈哈哈...
Probably, the first track was played at around 6:00pm. Everything is brand new. The tube amplification took time to warm up. But at 6:45pm, after several fine-tuning steps by our LP specialist, the quality was basically there.
The Gabriel is extremely dynamic and yet stable. There is a lot of energy. The presence of the orchestra can be felt with breath and depth when spinning Pierre Fournier's intrepretation of the Dvora's Symphony No.9 through the properitary "Teldec" curve for all DGG recordings through the Zanden 1200 Mark 3 phono stage.
I am sure he will take time to understand every single parameter to excel this masterpiece further.
But the setup was very smooth yesterday. Probably, it was because I worshipped the God the night before going there. I can relieve now.
The rest is in the hand of DSo.
The major differences between the Unison and the Gabriel, even without listening, are in the areas of stability, scale, presence, and micro-details which all add up to a live concert feeling.
Let us know your adventure. It is very important to share the skills in the analog domain in my opinion.
Grounding the power supply of the AAS Gabriel will offer you more of everything. Based on my experience, the overall voicing of the system dictates the setting of VTA and cartridge weight completely.
You have a source that is capable of reproducing extremely colorful tonality. At the same time, you have an amplification chain that comes with a strong and passionate character with emphasis on the lower mid bass and below. Due to the fact that the Gabriel platter is magenetically floated, the cartridge weight cannot be too low. I suspect you may begin to lose weight if the cartridge weight is below 2.1. At 2.2 and above, the lower mid-bass will become too dominated. As a result, I speculate the majority of the fine tuning is done via the VTA. This is easy. It may not be a bad idea to have a secondary amplifier just to serve the AAS Gabriel, when you are become more familiar with the voicing.
This is a turntable that will service music for many years to come till we grow old. The musicality it offers is unique. It is a easy turntable to operate. I love it a lot.
Play it in good health. Congrats!
Nice to see you join the Gabriel camp. Enjoy! You can try move d phono far away from the power supply after every things settle down.
Raymond, How do you connect the ground cable on d Gabriel? I still can't understand why grounding on a belt drive tt with isolated motor will carry benefit???
You got me. I may only be well versed in thosep physics related to hi end audio. Why grounding the motor which is mechanically isolated from the platter is not an easy question for my rusted mind? I do know it has to do with "stray current" inside the power supply section. You can think of stray current is "excess current" which is extremely tiny. They are normally drained by the ground wire of the AC line. In my case, the AC power cord going to the Gabriel power supply has no ground connection. If there is stray current, that means, the AC ground will not take care of the drainage job. Instead, the drainage job is done via the Troy through a dedicated ground wire to the power supply of the motor.
The improvement is there, but not as dramatic as grounding the power supply of the zanden phono stage to the Troy.
I suspect a dedicated ground for the motor power supply prevents sporadic stray current from entering into the AC circuit to contaminate other components. (Indirect influence is the way to approach thinking this problem.)
Correct me if I am wrong.
DSo, how is the sonic evolvement of the Gabriel now?
The Zanden phono matches the Gabriel very good, the curve selection function is very user friendly and effective. I am kind of curious how the sound coming from a universal RIAA phono can be always right?
Raymond, the initial setting by master Chik is already very impressive and the cartridge weight is now settled at 2.2. I will do some fine tunings after the system is fully run-in. I am still a beginner in vinyl world and believe still have a lot to learn from you and Mr. DV.