Art Dudley Listening

The very last chore was to fit the platter with the supplied cork platter mat, which brings me to the second thing that impressed me about the Kubrick: Its platter bearing and platter are so beautifully machined that, looking at the platter from the side, I couldn't tell when it was spinning. I could detect no platter wobble—zero. To put into proper context this often underemphasized aspect of turntable construction: Lack of unwanted movement in a device whose sole job is to measure, at correct and steady speed, bumps in the record groove that range in size down to that of dust-mite feces is always a good thing.

That brought me, in short order, to the third thing that impressed me about the Soulines Kubrick DCX: When I lowered the stylus of my Denon DL-103 to the lead-in groove of the first record I tried—Mendelssohn's Octet for Strings, performed by the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields Chamber Ensemble (LP, Argo ZRG 569)—I was shocked by how big the ensemble sounded. I'd been listening to that record a lot in the days leading up to this review, and the difference I heard compared to my Garrard 301–based player—which itself has a typically large sense of scale—was unmistakable. In previous columns and reviews I've wondered about which design aspects of playback gear might contribute to generous scale—and I've mused that, in loudspeakers in particular, one might consider that quality an additive distortion, owing to unintended sound reflections from physically large cabinets. I still haven't got the slightest idea what's responsible for this effect, but I like it.

Listening closely to that Mendelssohn recording, I heard that the Kubrick-based record player also focused more on the sound of the recording space than did my Garrard rig: reverb, like scale, was far more generous. Yet this did not come at the expense of any of the performance characteristics nearest and dearest to me. Musical momentum and flow were superb—and, especially in the final movement of Boccherini's Cello Quintet in C, Op.37 No.7, also included on this LP, the sense of bounce in bowed note attacks was delightfully real. Overall tonal balance was very slightly dark, yet with no lack of sparkle—and surface noise was never brought to the fore.

As I said: I was impressed!

I moved on to a new LP acquisition: the Incredible String Band's wonderful Liquid Acrobat as Regards the Air (LP, Island ILPS 9172). The first time I heard this record was in March, at the Montreal Audio Fest, in the room sponsored by Toronto dealer Sonic Artistry. It was also the first time I'd heard the Döhmann Helix 1 turntable and Frank Schröder–designed CB 12" tonearm—and it was to that player I attributed the remarkable touch and force and presence I then heard from that LP. I heard the same qualities when playing my own copy of that record on my idler-drive Garrard, and while the Soulines Kubrick DCX delivered the same nice things in somewhat smaller measures, deliver them it did. But the Kubrick told me what the Kubrick wanted to tell me, which was all about the very large recording space captured on this record. In the opening track, "Talking of the End," there are, among other instruments, a pennywhistle at far stage right and a violin at far stage left—and with the Soulines Kubrick, those sounds were spaced farther apart than with my Garrard. The other sounds—including those of a harmonium, an oud, and various percussion instruments—were also generously sized, and the first lead vocal, from Robin Williamson, had really good presence and body. No less important, his voice was clear and without apparent colorations, and the violin and harmonium in particular displayed believable, natural textures.

One eccentric British pop record leads to another, and so, as the time had come to get a handle on the Kubrick's bass extension, I reached for the better of my two copies of Genesis's The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (2 LPs, Atco/Classic SD 2-401), and listened for the bass pedals that begin halfway through "Fly on a Windshield," as well as the lowest of many similarly deep tones—a D-flat, I think—in "The Chamber of 32 Doors." From those experiences and that of listening for the weight and impact of the orchestral bass drum in the recording of Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius with Sir Adrian Boult leading various soloists, the New Philharmonia Orchestra, and the London Philharmonic and John Aldis choirs (2 LPs, EMI SLS 987), I found the Kubrick's performance better than average—at least as good as my Linn LP12 with the same arm and cartridge, if not up to Garrard 301 or Thorens TD 124 levels. That said, the Kubrick's very good momentum endured, making this an involving listening experience, and the combination maintained its composure throughout this set's many very loud moments.

But all of the above paled in comparison with the experience I had when I played on the Kubrick my copy of Sonny Rollins's The Bridge (LP, Japanese Victor/RCA RCA-6011) .For whatever reason, that record and that record player just fell in love with each other. Unsurprisingly, the soundfield was huge—and Jim Hall's guitar, in the left channel, had a size and presence that can be described only as magisterial. Bob Cranshaw's double bass had heft, power, speed, color, and, above all, drive. Ben Riley's drumming was energetic and well-paced. And Rollins's tenor sax had tone and substance, flesh and blood, in great abundance.

Dr. Feickert will now say a few words
And now for the measurements, such as they are, made with Dr. Feickert Analogue's Adjust+ test record and PlatterSpeed software for Apple iOS. Out of the box, the Kubrick was a bit slow, outputting a mean frequency of 3137.4Hz for a 3150Hz groove modulation. Using the appropriate trim pot, I brought the speed up to a remeasured mean frequency of 3149.5, and then got the wow measurements shown in figs. 1 and 2: decent, if not up to the standard of my late-1950s Garrard 301.

Fig.1 (left) Soulines Kubrick DCX, speed stability (raw frequency yellow; low-pass filtered frequency green).

Fig.2 (right) Soulines Kubrick DCX, speed stability data.

Unfailingly musical, and big, forward, and impactful—I keep thinking about the realistic sense of force the Kubrick DCX put across whenever guitarist Jim Hall raked his pick across those heavy-gauge strings of his—the sound of the Soulines impressed the hell out of me. And, again, this without adhering to any of the design approaches that, from experience, I'd associated with turntables that excel in all aspects of playback that are important to me. But there you go: Chinese statesman Deng Xiaoping, another communist, famously said, "It doesn't matter whether a cat is black or white: If it catches mice, it is a good cat"—a statement that put him at odds with Mao Tse-Tung's widow, whose mistrust of all things Western never dimmed.

How or why should a belt-drive turntable with a skeletal plinth, an acrylic platter, and an apparently lowish-torque DC motor pull so much impact, tone, and musical satisfaction from my LPs? Damned if I know—but it did. Next to the enduringly recommendable PTP Solid12 turntable—which itself uses some vintage components—this is one of the very best non-vintage turntables I've heard outside of the enormously expensive Döhmann Helix 1 ($40,000). Very highly recommended.