[Sonny]

Ok,

Thought I give a shout out to how enjoyable it was to get a chance to visit with Wilson and listen to his Amadeus set up!

Wilson, when you get a chance can you describe your set up?

First off, just been let go from my job on Friday and I will have lots of time to listen with some stress about financial needs etc., but that can be a worry for tomorrow (Monday).

I spent a bout 5 hours with Wilson, listening to some great, if you can believe it, digital recording that he just picked up from Goodwill in SF (Haight District) for $119, a double LP album of Bach on London ffrr...very musical for sure!  The combo of Wilson's Amadeus, tweaks (he's a Herbies guy), good music and best of all, friends makes for a great Saturday, even if I was just recently unemployed!

Tuan

[watercourse]

Hey Tuan,

Thanks for the kind words - it was cool to hang out, listen to tunes, and enjoy the 71-degree weather in January Oh, the summer outfits we saw on Haight St scouring the LP bins.

Yeah, the Andras Schiff recording of the Goldberg Variations on Decca was $1.19 (not $119 - I'm cheap, remember?) - pristine and didn't even need cleaning. Got some nice Tony Williams LPs too.

The system is as you describe: a stock Well-Tempered Amadeus with Benz Micro Ace SL, with Herbie's Turntable footers and other Herbie's tweaks, including Grungebuster strips on the platter under an A23 black mat. Yes, I'm a Herbie's 'Hore because it just dang works without sonic penalty - even in industrial-strength applications like vibration isolation from a nearby light rail train!

The rest of the system is Aleph Ono stage to the INT-30A driving DeVore Fidelity Gibbon Nines. Cabling is a mix of Tuan's Sweet Spot Reveals (all-copper version), Nordost Heimdall 2, and silver/palladium cables from RS Audio (now defunct). Speaker cables are Discovery Essence.

Come over any time, and keep bringing the nice weather buddy!

Wilson

[watercourse]

Tuan, when you thought that the Benz cart sounded better on the Amadeus than VPI arm, in what way would you say? More details retrieved? More dynamic? Or something else?
Also, would you say this was true for stereo cart only, or were you comparing mentally to the mono version sound? We can also take this conversation offline if you want.
I know with my experience using the Dynavectors (up to the 20XL) compared to the Benz, dynamics with DV carts are always impressive, where the Benz might be a bit more laid back, but more coherent. Both very musical carts, and for around $1K, hard to beat.

[watercourse]

Here's a pic of the Grungebusters in action (the off-white strips adhered to the platter, visible through the vinyl in the "starburst" pattern).

I use the strips to optimize the VTA for 180g and heavier pressings. I add the Auditorium 23 mat on top of the strips to increase the platter height for regular pressings. Why am I doing this? I had noticed with the slightly "tail down" VTA when playing thicker records that there was some loss in high frequencies, and associated drop in imaging and dynamic information.

There was a time when I had two Auditorium 23 black mats, and tried to have "adjustable" VTA by using one mat or two. However, the two "thin" mats did not sound good together - smeared and dulled the sound.

This configuration on the other hand does not suffer any loss of information, and it's no muss no fuss! If I had the thinner A23 mat, as well as the thicker Hommage, this would likely achieve the same goal of adjusting VTA depending on the record thickness - but not stacking two mats. I'd consider switching out mats instead, given my experience with two black mats. However, it sounds great as is and I have no plans to try anything else at this point.