In Spin Doctor 13, I said that the Acoustic Signature Verona NEO turntable doesn't come with a record weight—or anyway that my review sample didn't. I pressed the excellent Ultra Carbon TC-40 weight from Poland into service in its place. Well, when I went to pack up the Verona to return it, I found a record weight in the box. In my haste and excitement to get the Verona set up and playing, I somehow managed to miss it. Imagine my red face at the AXPONA show when I tried to explain to Acoustic Signature sales manager Robert Hagemann why his beautiful Load S record weight didn't make it into the review. He passed the weight back to me. I promised a follow-up.
At 715gm (1.6lb), the Load S has about ¾ of the heft of the TC-40, which is pretty surprising considering it's made from aluminum alloy rather than the TC-40's steel. The Load S uses five of Acoustic Signature's highly effective silencer dampers to control resonance. Last year, Acoustic Signature head honcho Gunther Frohnhöfer demonstrated their effectiveness to me using two identical platters, one with the dampers removed—that platter rang like a bell when you tapped it—and another with the dampers installed; when tapped, that one felt like it was made from concrete.
While the Load S relies mostly on gravity to apply pressure to the record surface, it also has a collet-type spindle hole that you can tighten by twisting the upper half. In use, I found that tightening the weight made it difficult to remove from the platter, even after releasing the collet, but I expect this will loosen up with repeated use. Sonically, the results were quite similar to the TC-40: Under the right conditions, there is a small but repeatable improvement in resolution and low-level detail with the record weight in place. It arrives beautifully presented in a high gloss painted case, as it should given its not insignificant cost: $749 to $899, depending on the finish.
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COMMENTS
Who still rides a horse with carriage here just for the sake of nostalgia? A false kind of romance!
We have put this behind us, music storage is digital these days. The challenge for today's audiophile is how to get that right. I swear by buying and downloading music digitally (not streaming) and a good R2R ladder dac. This gives a better result than old-fashioned and user-unfriendly vinyl. And is cheaper as well so ....
"Stop liking what I don't like."
the sum of my posts is hopefully a (constructive) criticism and above all down-to-earth view of audio, motivated by involvement and enthusiasm.
Yes, I know I'm the autistic one who's ruining the party for others here, I'm simply too much of an individual, idiosyncratic thinker and not a (compliant) social group animal.
You are mostly full of shit and very under-informed. Even your ego is trite.
You wrote nothing of the product nor the column in any way. You trolled this column, bringing nothing unique here. The same garbage every month.
Stick to the topic or stop posting garbage.
why this tone? what does this reflect?
Your complete lack of respect to the author or the column, hence my deepest disdain of your trite ramblings.
Learn how to write to the topic at hand or stop blathering on altogether. You add nothing.
Roaming the site shitting on LP playback is simply juvenile, not autistic.
Are you simply showing off for the lemmings at another site??
... can be another person's habit of buying & downloading digital music files and run them via an R2R dac.
I'd love to hear those phantastic record players, perhaps with Darren Mayer's PSA phono stage.. and a good pressing of say Weather Report or whatever (it always felt more special to listen to the media of original release, as if a time travel was included). Like you I am limited to digital (though plus radio, Qobuz & Spotify) at the moment, and if properly done (a wide field of discussion & tinkering), it can be very nice. But what can I say about the quality of today's prime vinyl playback? Not much, really.. what counts is the music and whether it moves us or not.
hb72
I always laugh at record players with a USB or Bluetooth output. Is this for real? Are they really made and sold? (okay, here on Stereophile we don't talk about record players like that)
I also started with a record player as a teenager. But actually I mainly used my cassette recorder because of the possibility of making compilation cassettes, playlists so to speak. The CD player was already a considerable improvement in terms of quality and ease of use. But digital music only really became "nice" (to use) with the arrival of iTunes and the iPod. I put all my CDs in full quality (AIFF) on my Mac and created playlists in iTunes and put them on the iPod. To listen with headphones on the go (I don't do that anymore, listening to music has become a sacred moment for me) or to listen to the iPod on my stereo system via an external DAC. The iPod has been replaced by an iPhone (a kind of iPod with which you can also make calls, take photos and surf the Internet anywhere) and physical CDs have been replaced by purchased music files (HiRes or 16/44) on Qobuz (still in AIFF ). The iPhone is connected with a cable, so no Airplay. I think this is the best method qualitatively.
I recognize your curiosity, what would it sound like. I have that with new music, what would the new Billie Eilish, or Noah Haidu or Masaaki Suzuki sound like on my set. It's tempting to buy too much music too often.
I would kill for this table and arm. Pricing has gone up this month and I'm sure it brings the Maximus Neo up in price as well. Thanks for reviewing the clamp as well this month as a follow-up.
Disappointingly, non-interested parties above have once again hi-jacked the conversation to bring this to another topic altogether. Not one comment about the product or the column.
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