It was great fun having our editorial coordinator, Jana Dagdagan, shoot a video profile of me in my listening room. As I write this, it's had more than 88,000 views. While the ratio of thumbs up to thumbs down has remained consistently around 10:1, some of the negative comments, particularly about our industry and about this magazine, do enrage me.
Being called a "snake oil peddler" and a "haberdasher to emperors" is bad enough, but having high-end audio characterized as "the biggest shill industry ever to hit humanity since the age of alchemy," and as one based solely on greed, sets me off. I don't know anyone who got into this business to become rich.
I get angry when people write that they prefer science to observational reviewing, and that I "lose them" when I claim that power cables "sound," though they can't be bothered to take a listen because they "just know" power cables can't possibly affect sound quality. After all, science is based on (or is nothing without) observation and inquiry.
Stereophile takes hits from some as being "anti-science" because we almost never conduct blind listening tests. That really sets me off. "So Stereophile is a credible, peer reviewed, scientific source in the fields of psychoacoustics and audiology. Who knew? Lol." When did the magazine make that claim? My final comment to that sarcastic poster:
"Stereophile does measure almost all reviewed equipment. So you do not consider those measurements scientifically valid? Only blind tests will do? Blind tests have nothing whatsoever to do with the listening experience. Blind tests, like measurements, have their place but in the end we don't listen to measurements and they can be seriously misinterpreted and abused. There was a time when all that was measured was on-axis frequency response and that was considered dispositive . . . .but IMO nothing beats the human ear/brain particularly when it's experienced and understands the pitfalls.
"When I review a speaker I put my listening skills on the line in describing the sound I hear. The measurements come afterwards and then I get to see them in print in the magazine. Do you want to try that? I've made my share of mistakes but for the most part what I note in my observational review is confirmed by the measurements. And that's not good enough for you? I need to do blind speaker tests?
"I've done those at Harman and proven my listening reliability but for some no matter what I do and after 30 years of doing it I am asked to be a nice fellow and take shit from people and be called a 'snake oil peddler' (etc.). . . . Have a nice day!"
TechDAS Air Force III turntable
It's hardly news that designing to a price point is usually more difficult than designing without budgetary constraint. That's probably why many of us are more in awe of Andrew Jones's inexpensive ELAC loudspeakers than we are of well-respected, bank-breaking high achievers. When I first set out to review the TechDAS Air Force III turntable for this month's Analog Corner, it was the company's least expensive model (footnote 1). But at the fall 2017 Tokyo International Audio Show, TechDAS introduced the even more basic Air Force V—they skipped over IV, which is a "bad" number in Japan—and so the Air Force III ($29,500) is now one model up from the bottom of the line. Yet it retains all of the more expensive models' key features, in somewhat simplified form (as does the new V).
Hideaki Nishikawa, CEO of TechDAS and designer of the Air Forces, is an audio legend. Formerly chief designer at Micro-Seiki, he created many of that company's turntable models of the 1970s, which are still highly desirable. Before that he worked for Stax, engineering that company's equally desirable electrostatic headphones. Between Micro-Seiki and the vinyl revival, Nishikawa took over the Japanese distribution of many of the premier brands of America's "golden age" of high-end audio—Krell, Mark Levinson, and VAC among them—from another audio legend, the late Yasuo Nakanishi, who was widely regarded as Japan's "Godfather of high-end audio."
TechDAS's parent company, Stella Inc., today distributes many brands in Japan, including Graham Engineering, Einstein Audio Components, Swedish Analog Technologies, Vivid Audio, Marten Audio, CH Precision, and, most recently, SME. Nishikawa is not afraid of distributing potential competitors. He's a good designer and a good businessman.
The growing worldwide interest in vinyl playback brought Nishikawa back to turntable design. He strongly believes in platters with air bearings and vacuum hold-down of LPs, both of which are included in every Air Force model. He wants to bring down prices, but also to stick with core technologies that he strongly believes in.
To produce an Air Force turntable with a retail price of $29,500—about $20,000 less than the Air Force II—Nishikawa reduced the 'table's footprint to 12.28" wide by 14.17" deep. The III is 6.3" tall without the tonearm base and still heavy at over 40lb, 20lb of that weight accounted for by its platter of machined aluminum. (The platter of the Air Force One is a far heavier sandwich of stainless steel and your choice of four upper-platter materials.)
To get the Air Force II's cost down, its aluminum chassis is cast, not machined. The Air Force III's chassis, however, like that of the big Air Force One ($105,000 without tonearm), which I reviewed in this column in April 2013, is machined from a solid block of aluminum (the One's chassis is of a complex, tri-laminar construction). Some people objected to the II's pebbly painted finish (I liked it). The III has the satin-smooth look and feel of TechDAS's current most expensive model; the cost-no-object Air Force Zero will arrive later in 2018.
The Air Force III's fit and finish make many other turntables, of any price, look primitive, almost unfinished. (Among the exceptions are Brinkmann Audio's Balance, Spiral Groove's SG 1, and a few others.) Some others may look chromed and jewel-like, but the III's satiny finish and gracefully machined accents take things to another level. I just kept gazing at it. The same is true of the machined control panel, and its buttons and digital display. The ways the buttons feel and work were as satisfying as how they look.
Another cost-cutter: the Air Force III has no suspension. That's hardly a problem, as long as you place it on a sturdy stand, hopefully one that's in some way isolated. The chassis sits on four feet, one at each corner. Each foot attaches to the chassis well up inside the III, via a large-diameter machined spike of stainless steel. This provides a degree of isolation, and lowers the chassis' center of gravity. Four chromed aluminum posts, one at each corner of the III's top deck, let you mount up to four tonearms of any length. TechDAS supplies a single mounting.
You can always upgrade later by adding one of the isolation platforms made by Minus K Technology (prices start at $2010), or an air-suspension platform such as the Vibraplane (prices start at $2500 for audio-specific units). The review sample rested on my big Harmonic Resolution Systems base supported by an HRS SXR rack.
The Air Force III's platter is driven by an outboard synchronous AC motor that appears to be the same as the one supplied with the II, and controlled by the same or similar quartz-oscillator DC amplifier. The Air Force III uses one air pump for both the bearing and vacuum system, unlike the AF One, whch uses separate pumps for each. Motor and platter are linked by the same nonstretch belt of polished polyurethane fiber used in all Air Force models. The motor's power supply and the silent, low-vibration air pump are housed in a plain black box measuring 13.8" wide by 6.3" high by 10.6" deep and weighing 19.8lb.
Easy Setup
It was relatively easy to set up the Air Force III. Place and level the chassis, use the supplied tools to lower the platter onto the spindle bearing—the platter rests on a smooth glass disc until air is pumped in—level the outboard motor housing, then connect the air hoses and electrical umbilical from the pump and motor.
Footnote 1: TechDAS (Stella Inc.), 51-10 Nakamarucho, Itabashi-ku, Tokyo 173-0026, Japan. Web: www.techdas.jp. US distributor: Graham Engineering, Inc., 25M Olympia Avenue, Woburn, MA 01801. Tel: (781) 932-8777. Web: www.graham-engineering.com
It's hardly news that designing to a price point is usually more difficult than designing without budgetary constraint. That's probably why many of us are more in awe of Andrew Jones's inexpensive ELAC loudspeakers than we are of well-respected, bank-breaking high achievers. When I first set out to review the TechDAS Air Force III turntable for this month's Analog Corner, it was the company's least expensive model (footnote 1). But at the fall 2017 Tokyo International Audio Show, TechDAS introduced the even more basic Air Force V—they skipped over IV, which is a "bad" number in Japan—and so the Air Force III ($29,500) is now one model up from the bottom of the line. Yet it retains all of the more expensive models' key features, in somewhat simplified form (as does the new V).
It was relatively easy to set up the Air Force III. Place and level the chassis, use the supplied tools to lower the platter onto the spindle bearing—the platter rests on a smooth glass disc until air is pumped in—level the outboard motor housing, then connect the air hoses and electrical umbilical from the pump and motor.
Footnote 1: TechDAS (Stella Inc.), 51-10 Nakamarucho, Itabashi-ku, Tokyo 173-0026, Japan. Web: www.techdas.jp. US distributor: Graham Engineering, Inc., 25M Olympia Avenue, Woburn, MA 01801. Tel: (781) 932-8777. Web: www.graham-engineering.com
