What hath Leif wrought
The basic air-bearing mechanism is very simple. First, take a hollow rod and hold it stationary, in a horizontal position. Next, close off one end, and force pressurized air outward through numerous tiny holes drilled radially in the wall of the rod. Now slide a sleeve over it, keeping the clearance between the two pieces to about one thousandth of an inch (25um), and attach an armtube for the cartridge. You're in business (footnote 2). Well, almost. In the Airtangent, one end of the hollow rod is attached to the "mounting tower," a block of acrylic roughly 2½…
Once again, Leif came through. Except for a called-for ½" drill bit, everything necessary for mounting, setup, and adjustment was supplied. He has assembled a very comprehensive collection of tools, templates, and alignment aids to simplify the installation of his tonearm. Most everything you can think of was included here: the necessary Allen wrenches, a drilling template, the hardware, and a number of setup jigs. These last consisted of a blank record to help set the final level of the turntable, and the straight-line jig for positioning the stylus of the cartridge. I was impressed. …
That goes for every cartridge I used—each responded with more detail. And since detail is the staple of such desirable sonic commodities as air, space, nuance, intonation, and harmonies, just about every recording became an exciting adventure. Most of the drama materialized in a soundspace presentation of billowing proportions. The soundstage not only grew considerably as far as width and depth was concerned, but became more coherent and seemed filled to capacity with ambience cues. The performers, in general, remained in their accustomed positions, but now their presence was more…
I found the Airtangent to be my preference sonically as well. The smooth demeanor and wealth of new details of the Airtangent significantly contributed to its overall performance. The SME V was found to be more robust in the low end, and slightly more aggressive. It contributes a more forward and direct quality at the higher frequencies, and, while fast and detailed, falls short when compared to the Airtangent's extension and delicacy. Furthermore, the soundstage is not as ornate, or as rife with crucial details. Spectrally, the Airtangent is smoother, with better extension at the higher…
Sidebar: Specifications Description: Air-bearing, parallel-tracking tonearm. Made in Sweden. Price: $3200. Approximate number of dealers: 30. US Distributor: Krell Industries (1989). None (2001).
BECK: Mutations
DGC 25309-2 (CD), Bong Load 004 (LP). 1998. Nigel Godrich, Beck Hansen, prods.; John Sorensen, eng. AAD/AAA. TT: 49:17
Performance *****
Sonics **** With Beck, you basically have to toss out all the rule books—Get a Gig the Right Way! (Revised Ed.), Mel Bay's 1001 E-Z Guitar Chords; hell, even Strunk & White's Elements of Style—and commence investigations at ground zero.
This is not to say that Al Hansen's grandkid is a self-involved iconoclast aiming for cult hero-dom. Despite his well-documented postmodern envelope-pushing, Beck is… Stuff that works, stuff that holds up/
The kind of stuff you don't hang on the wall/
Stuff that's real, stuff you feel/
The kind of stuff you reach for when you fall. Guy Clark's paean to dependability, "Stuff That Works," almost always makes me take a mental inventory of my own most favoritest things: my wife and helpmeet, one or two friendships, my best pocketknife, and my Linn Sondek LP12. You may laugh at how short the list is or at how skewed my priorities seem, but don't you dare laugh at any of my choices—over the years, time after time, they've proven themselves. They've…
"Synthesized sinewaves look pretty on a scope and allow you to easily change speed from 33 1/3 to 45rpm, but they just cannot control the motor as well. By using synthesis, you have to utilize oscillators—which then introduce their own filter problems—and we just feel simpler is better." The conversion from a Basik Linn is quite simple—although best left to a dealer. In my case, it was more complex, as I had the Valhalla power supply already installed, complete with its 50Hz synchronous motor. The first step was to replace the motor with the Basik's 60Hz model. I put the turntable up on…
I did convince Laura Atkinson to loan me her Valhalla'd Linn LP12/Ittok rig for comparison, to which I mounted a second SHO. For the LP12/Valhalla/Ittok/SHO vs LP12/Armageddon/ARO/SHO comparisons, I set the tables up side by side on The Shelf by Black Diamond Racing, supported by German Physics cones, and feeding Gold Aero's dB phono section, which in turn supplied signal to Stax's SRM-T1S—the tubed amplifier/driver for their superb Omega headphones, which I also used. Later, I took the LP12/Armageddon/ARO/SHO rig over to JA's, where we compared it to his LP12/Lingo/Cirkus/Trampolin/Ekos/…
Switching over to the full-blown Linn, we listened to about 32 bars before staring at each other in disbelief: there was much less detail and sparkle on the top, and the pace didn't brim as much with vim, but the Linn had, perhaps, an extra octave of bass! We switched back to the Naim unit to check. Yep, it really rocked more, and there sure was a lot more overtone information. What about the bass? It was tuneful, well differentiated, tight, and quite punchy—nothing to complain about. We switched back to the Linn. No doubt about it, it had tons more bass extension. The opulence of Vaughan's…
