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Elite Audio San Francisco July 30th 2016 - Fremer turntable setup seminar

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  • Elite Audio San Francisco July 30th 2016 - Fremer turntable setup seminar

    Went to an event today in San Francisco hosted by Elite Audio in San Francisco and co-sponsored by the SF Audiophile Society. The main attraction that drew me to the event was Michael Fremer giving his turntable set up seminar, which is always entertaining. Even though I've set up my fair share of turntables, it was good to get a refresher and hear Mike explain how he does things. He came with a bag full of Wallytractor tools, which unfortunately aren't available any more, and step by step explained how he does it. He recommended doing setup when calm and relaxed so don't drink too much coffee before you start. He also advised against too much alchohol although admitted to having setup turntables when he'd had more than a few. He went through setting overhang, zenith, VTF, antiskating, and azimuth and shared that his preferred alignment is Loefgrens A. All this was done in a nice conversational manner and Mike always kept it interesting. Highly recommended if you get a chance to see him in person. He was also hawking his setup DVD at a very reasonable price, so I picked one up. Attached are a few pictures showing Mikey in action.




    In addition to the turntable seminar, Elite Audio also invited a number of manufacturers to mingle with the crowd and give short talks about their equipment. There were reps from Audi talking about their high end B&O car systems, George and Carolyn Counnas of Zesto, the local Meridian rep discussing their new DAC, Andreas Koch from Playback Designs discussing his Sonoma series Merlot DAC, Syrah Server, Oppo Mods, and the about to be released Pinot ADC which Andreas says is being released in the next 1-2 weeks. We also heard from the local Sony video / home theater rep discussing their very high end projectors. And Allen Perkins of Immedia/Spiral Groove was hanging out and glad to chat with anyone interested in talking to him.
    I especially liked chatting with Andreas Koch who was very passionate about the design of his equipment and explaining exactly why they sound as good as they do. Playback Designs hadn't been on my radar screen but I now want to give them a more serious listen. The short listening session we had paired his equipment with amps from Viola Audio and speakers from Manger and the combination sounded very fine indeed. I'm impressed by the ability shown by Elite Audio to put together good sounding systems.
    And to put the icing on the cake, Elite Audio was raffling off various pieces of equipment to attendees of the special event and I won a pair of Audeze EL-8 closed back headphones. A great way to wrap up the day!

    ---Gary
    Analog: Scheu + Immedia RPM tonearm + Koetsu Black + Pass Xono or Threshold FET 10pe
    Amps: First Watt F7, HK Citation II
    Pre-Amps: CJ Premier 14, Threshold FET 10e, DIY 417a with output transformer
    Speakers: Horning Eufrodite, Reference 3A mm de capo
    Tuners: Sansui TU9900, McIntosh MR78
    Digital: i7 Server (Roon) + SSD, Sonore urendu + Mutec MC3+ USB + Berkeley Alpha Dac, Audiomeca Mephisto
    Power: Audience AR12, Torus Tot, DIY filters

  • #2
    Thanks for the report Gary and congrats on the headphones!!! Saw Mikey had posted some pics too on his Facebook page! See Andrea's new A/D does quad DSD and is around $6500?
    Myles B. Astor, PhD, Administrator
    Senior Editor, Positive-Feedback.com
    ________________________________________

    -Zellaton Plural Evo speakers
    -Goldmund Telos 440 and 1000 Nextgen mono amps
    -Goldmund Mimesis 37S Nextgen preamplifier
    -Doshi EVO and Goldmund PH3.8 phonostage
    -VPI Vanquish direct-drive turntable
    -VPI 12-inch 3D Fat Boy dual pivot tonearm, VPI 12-inch 3D Fat Boy gimballed and SAT LM-12 arm
    -Lyra Atlas SL Lambda, vdh Colibri Master Signature, Mutech Hayabusa,
    -Technics RS1506 with Flux Magnetic heads, Doshi V3.0 tape stage (balanced)
    -Assorted cables including Skogrand, Kubala-Sosna, Audience FrontRow; Audience FrontRow, Genesis Advanced Technologies , Goldmund and Ensemble Power Cords
    -Accessories including Stillpoint Aperture panels, Cathedral Sound panels, Furutech NCF Nano AC receptacles; Silver Circle Tchaik 6 PLC, Symposium ISIS and SRA Craz 3 racks, Audiodharma Cable Cooker, Symposium Ultra and assorted SRA OHIO Class 2.3+ platforms.

    Comment


    • #3
      BTW Gary, did you get to hear the new Magico M3s?
      Myles B. Astor, PhD, Administrator
      Senior Editor, Positive-Feedback.com
      ________________________________________

      -Zellaton Plural Evo speakers
      -Goldmund Telos 440 and 1000 Nextgen mono amps
      -Goldmund Mimesis 37S Nextgen preamplifier
      -Doshi EVO and Goldmund PH3.8 phonostage
      -VPI Vanquish direct-drive turntable
      -VPI 12-inch 3D Fat Boy dual pivot tonearm, VPI 12-inch 3D Fat Boy gimballed and SAT LM-12 arm
      -Lyra Atlas SL Lambda, vdh Colibri Master Signature, Mutech Hayabusa,
      -Technics RS1506 with Flux Magnetic heads, Doshi V3.0 tape stage (balanced)
      -Assorted cables including Skogrand, Kubala-Sosna, Audience FrontRow; Audience FrontRow, Genesis Advanced Technologies , Goldmund and Ensemble Power Cords
      -Accessories including Stillpoint Aperture panels, Cathedral Sound panels, Furutech NCF Nano AC receptacles; Silver Circle Tchaik 6 PLC, Symposium ISIS and SRA Craz 3 racks, Audiodharma Cable Cooker, Symposium Ultra and assorted SRA OHIO Class 2.3+ platforms.

      Comment


      • allenh
        allenh commented
        Editing a comment
        I was just going to ask the same!

    • #4
      Originally posted by MylesBAstor View Post
      BTW Gary, did you get to hear the new Magico M3s?
      Sorry to say that I didn't stick around long enough to hear the M3s - in fact I didn't even see them. Makes me wonder if they were actually demo'd yesterday. I got there around 10am and stayed until 2pm. It was too nice of a day to spend entirely indoors. I briefly heard 3 systems - Magico S1s being driven by Zesto equipment, Mangers being driven by Viola Audio and Playback Designs components, and Kharma Exquisite Midi Grands being driven by CH Precision gear. The Kharma's were really, really impressive, as well they should be at their asking price. I also really liked the Manger system since they are almost full range drivers with just a bit of bass reinforcement. The Magico's weren't sounding their best but that's not surprising since the listening area was rearranged for Michael Fremer's turntable seminar. I'm sure with proper set up they would have been better.

      Originally posted by MylesBAstor View Post
      . . . Andreas' new A/D does quad DSD and is around $6500?
      If memory servers, the Merlot DAC and the Syrah Server were $6500 each. I think that the Pinot ADC was slightly more than the DAC at ~$7500. They offer an upgrade to the Oppo 103 for $1850. This is a drop in board that let's the Oppo output any format including DSD via optical interconnect to the PBD DAC. What is cool is that the USB connection between the Syrah Server and the Merlot DAC is bidirectional meaning that one can record whatever is being played on the Merlot DAC if one hooks it up to the Syrah Server.
      When I was chatting with Andreas, he expounded on his design philosophy and why he thinks that FPGAs are the only way to design digital equipment. FPGAs are essentially a sea of digital gates that can be configured via software. So the use of FPGAs turns PBD equipment into a platform that can be redesigned and upgraded as digital progresses without the customer having to buy new equipment. Andreas pointed out that he's released a large number of upgrades to his designs over the years so that his customers investment is never obsolete. As an example, he said that the only reason that the MPS-5 was taken out of production was because Esoteric stopped making the transport. Its architecture could have gone on longer.
      Regarding the Pinot ADC, he mentioned that he'd intentionally added lots of capability so that it would have the same ability to evolve over time. I think he mentioned it having two FPGAs so that there was plenty of room for digital circuit upgrades and he also pointed an extra AUX port of the back that didn't yet have any function but could be used in the future if needed.
      Sorry if this sounds like an ad, but I was impressed by the PBD design philosophy. My quick listen in the store says it also translates into good sound but I haven't listened to enough DACs in this price range to say how PBD compares to the others playing in this neighborhood.

      ---Gary
      Analog: Scheu + Immedia RPM tonearm + Koetsu Black + Pass Xono or Threshold FET 10pe
      Amps: First Watt F7, HK Citation II
      Pre-Amps: CJ Premier 14, Threshold FET 10e, DIY 417a with output transformer
      Speakers: Horning Eufrodite, Reference 3A mm de capo
      Tuners: Sansui TU9900, McIntosh MR78
      Digital: i7 Server (Roon) + SSD, Sonore urendu + Mutec MC3+ USB + Berkeley Alpha Dac, Audiomeca Mephisto
      Power: Audience AR12, Torus Tot, DIY filters

      Comment


      • GaryB
        GaryB commented
        Editing a comment
        Btw - forgot to answer Myle's question about quad DSD. The answer is yes - the A/D does do quad DSD.

    • #5
      A friend of mine posted some pics of FB with Alon and the M3s, so I do believe they were shown.

      I visited Elite when I was in SF last year. Yes, the Kharma's with CHP sounded excellent!
      Kronos Sparta -> Trinity Phono -> Trinity Pre -> CH Precision A1 -> Magico S7s

      Comment


      • #6
        Here's Michael Fremer's write up of the same event - http://www.analogplanet.com/content/what-i-learned-visiting-elite-audio-systems-san-francisco#KeWB4LL31KTQs4pS.97
        ---Gary
        Analog: Scheu + Immedia RPM tonearm + Koetsu Black + Pass Xono or Threshold FET 10pe
        Amps: First Watt F7, HK Citation II
        Pre-Amps: CJ Premier 14, Threshold FET 10e, DIY 417a with output transformer
        Speakers: Horning Eufrodite, Reference 3A mm de capo
        Tuners: Sansui TU9900, McIntosh MR78
        Digital: i7 Server (Roon) + SSD, Sonore urendu + Mutec MC3+ USB + Berkeley Alpha Dac, Audiomeca Mephisto
        Power: Audience AR12, Torus Tot, DIY filters

        Comment

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