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Rockport Technologies System III Sirius turntable and tonearm Page 2

So Much for So Much!
It takes sixty vendors and six months to create and assemble a Sirius III, which, after testing, must then be broken down and crated for shipping. The basic components consist of the active pneumatic isolation system and the stand on which it sits, the plinth and associated machined parts, the air-driven spindle/bearing/motor drive-unit, the electronic motor-controller unit, the air-bearing tonearm system, the air-supply regulator, and, finally, the compressor.

Starting with the foundation: The four active piston isolators are integrated into the tops of a…

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According to Payor, the system's speed accuracy is "on the order of 10 parts per million, even under the most extreme groove-modulation conditions." Is that kind of accuracy worth $15,000 in parts cost? Or $30,000 cost to the final buyer?

The vacuum holddown electronics (and thus the vacuum lines) are also located in the box part of Payor's design, which isolates all possible sources of electronically induced noise in the shielded controller chassis. The three-dial air-regulator termination block sits at the bottom of the box. It pre-regulates the air coming from the compressor, and…

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Air Supply
Air is supplied to the System III Sirius via an industrial-duty two-head compressor. The system includes an active refrigeration/accumulator that cools and removes moisture from the warm, compressed air, and provides a stage of pulse filtration. The air is then filtered and precision-regulated to 30psi. A 50' air line (which does double duty as a remote power On) is provided so the not-too-noisy, suitcase-sized compressor can be located well away from the listening environment.

Setup and Use
Once the System III Sirius was assembled and was only waiting to be fired up…

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In over a dozen years of writing about this stuff, I've used up my bankroll of superlatives. I now have to make a withdrawal from Verbal Overdraft Protection and pay the interest. Here goes.

Every record I played—records I thought I knew backwards, forwards, and inside out—yielded new, useful musical information. But, more important, the big stuff—the vocalist or solo pianist you can hear on your bedroom radio or poolside boombox—was presented with a focus, solidity, and "thereness" I've never before experienced. No other turntable in my experience has been able to present a piano as…

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Conclusions
The Rockport Technologies System III Sirius has been designed to rotate the record at an exact and constant speed. Based on its technology and the sonic results, I'm confident that it does so with greater authority than any other turntable in the world. It also puts the stylus on a straight and true path across the record surface, while allowing for precise adjustment of all performance parameters, which it then reliably holds indefinitely. Designer-manufacturer Andy Payor has tackled the linear-tracking tonearm's problem of moving mass and brought the resonant frequency…

Rockport Technologies System III Sirius turntable and tonearm Specifications

Sidebar 1: Specifications

Description: Air-bearing, servo-controlled, direct-drive, pneumatic-suspension turntable with linear-tracking air-bearing tonearm and integral stand, compressor, 50' of air tubing, and 3 counterweights.
Dimensions: 24" W by 32" H by 19" D. Weight: 550 lbs.
Serial number of unit reviewed: none noted.
Price: $73,750 (50% deposit required with order, balance to be paid one week in advance of shipment). Factory-direct only. Warranty: 2 years, parts & labor.
Manufacturer: Rockport Technologies, 229 Mill Street, Rockport, ME 04856. Tel: (207) 596-7151…

Rockport Technologies System III Sirius turntable and tonearm Associated Equipment

Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment

Analog source: Simon Yorke turntable; Graham 2.0, Immedia RPM2 tonearms; Lyra Helikon, van del Hul Black Beauty Colibri cartridges.
Digital source: Musical Fidelity X-Ray CD player, Marantz DR17 CD recorder.
Preamplification: Audio Research Reference, Zanden phono stages; Lyra Arion step-up transformer; Audio Research Reference 2 preamplifier.
Power amplifier: Musical Fidelity Nu-Vista 300.
Cables: Interconnects: Yamamura Millennium 6000, Silver Audio, Wireworld Gold Eclipse. Phono: Hovland DIN/RCA, XLO Signature 3.1. Speaker: Yamamura…

Listening #31

I wish the domestic audio industry of 2005 were more like the pop-music industry of 2005, with its variety, vitality, and ability to reach beyond its boundaries to move people. And its sense of fun, which hi-fi often seems to entirely lack.

Despite what you might think, this is a pretty good time for pop music. We're unlikely to hear the unself-conscious emergence of any genuinely new styles, as happened a number of times during the previous century. But we can at least buy great new records by such original talents as Bonnie "Prince" Billy, Golden Shoulders, Spoon, TV on the Radio, Will…

Listening #31 Page 2

The Cox SM-081 was also so explicit—I hesitate to say detailed if only because some people can't help but interpret that as bright, which the SM-081 really wasn't—that I noticed, for the first time, the way Paul McCartney plays a simple cadence on the piano, deliberately tracking the rising and falling of his vocal line, during the verses of "Hey Jude"—the version on the Beatles' Anthology 3 CD (Apple CDP 8 34451 2). And, truth be told, I'd forgotten what it was like to have a pair of speakers that were not only very good in a snooty audiophile sense, but that could play very loud without…

Listening #31 And the Winner...

Editor: The bluegrass guitarist mentioned in Art Dudley's July 2005 "Listening" column (p.45), who took an eight-measure solo on the fiddle tun3e "Panhandle Country" in the 1963 Bill Monroe concert, is Del McCoury.—Chris Foray, chrisforay@yahoo.com

Yes! Del McCoury is correct! [Other suggestions from readers included Ed Mayfield, Clarence White, Lester Flatt, and Peter Rowan—Ed.] Chris, please send me your physical address so that I can send you the Doc Watson LP for being the first to correctly identify the guitarist. Thanks for reading my column.—Art Dudley