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Thales – an arm that costs an arm & leg

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Comments

  • Dear vinyl lover, get the Shilabe by Miyajima - a cartridge with perfect tracking ability.
  • Ray, where did you mount the Shilabe? Bergman?
  • Heavenly match with Bergman.
  • Can you elaborate?
  • Answers:

    Weight of Shilabe: 10.4kg - good for air tonearm. Anything less than 10gram, the arm may stop in the middle if air flow inadequate. If too heavy, may not pass the last two tracks due to insufficient air flow.

    The structure of Bergman - acrylic platter - resonance speed is fast - concentrated in the high frequencies. The tonarm made of aluminum - fast resonances behavior - The spike is made of aluminum too. The wood chassis is the only balancing act. Shilabe is made of wood. The tricky part is that this wood has fast resonance characteristic too, less damping than other cartridge with metal or hard material case - so more harmonic.

    The stylus-cantilever-damper construction is totally out of the box design - extreme freedom in tracking grooves. From the eyes of Miyajima san, mistracking begins right at the stylus, not the tonearm.

    I fancy Shilabe with the Thales probably will have absolute perfect tracking ability.

    Unlike most Japanese cartridge focus either too much on high frequency or excessive warmth in the mid range, this one has speed from top to bottom. Imagine the speed of Lyra Titan but carries the natural harmonic extension.

    I hope my answers make sense to you.
  • I will know in a matter of minutes how Thales would first sound like together with EMTJSD6G....AE's engineer is endeavouring to put everything in place...what an exciting moment!!

    Marvel
  • How about some pictures?
  • Mounting up the JSD6G on to the Thales arm....
  • EMT JSD6G - I am setting the tracking force to 2.4g according to the spec...any advice by current Thales / EMT user if it is the right setting...of course, I will try to alter it when the whole set up starts to settle in.

  • With Thales and EMT, the initial impression is a magnificent soundstage with very solid images from Track 1 to the last track. This is especially apparent when I play saprano on female vocal....it is the live like voice till the end of the harmonic tail that really differentiate this new combo from all my previous combos....it really tells it is in full control in delivering the ultimate realism that I have never experienced before....bearing in mind, it is just an initial ad hoc set up without any fine tuning....

    Marvel
  • I am using a SMREE as the interconnect. This is just an interim setup and regretably I have to use an adhersive tape to fix the connector base with the arm board. Thales/DV will deliver a better integrated armboard to me later....everyone knows, audiophiles are all in a hurry including me so I am happy to wait while getting the arm first....

  • Marvel Bro, when your EMT phono will be on board?
  • Wow! That's one hell arsenal of exotic arms and cartridges! It seems the German preamp is able to tell complete differences on anything. Are you saying the DV arm/cartrige/Unision combination is not better than the foreign invasion of german cartridge on a different arm done by a young swiss lad?
  • Voy,

    Not entirely conclusive at this stage...certainly when listening to Fanfare for the Common Man by Copland (Telarc) has opened a new page for me on how bass can be sound like in my tiny room....If DV is like Zanden, then Bergmann is like Heritage and what I am hearing now from Thales/EMT is like Vekian 'Junior' because I have not fine tuned the yet burnt in combo.

    Too early to say anything conclusive la....

    Marvel
  • Mr.Zanden,

    I heard that you are enjoying glorious musicality with the Shilabe mounting on the Thales. That's a glorious match, isn't it? Without an error-free tracking arm, how could the cartridge even perform properly? You know the stuff well. By the way, where have you been lately? Your great writeups on the Thales triggered my desire of getting one last year.

    Finally, I got mine today. Drop us some notes when time permits. At least, I miss your presence. There are not too many who understands the "stuff" though we must have some differences on certain perspectives. You are one of the rarest few.
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