Teac have been around since the 50s and played an early part in what today we would call offshoring or badge engineering: In the 50s there was a US semi pro machine called the Berlant-Concertone, internet example here from 1955:
Compared that Epicon 2 to the ATC SCM7, epicon has huge issues with bass, room contributing to it aswell. Few of my friends and myself preferred the ATC to the epicon. ATC sounded more resolving, less harsh and more detailed than the Dali. With Dali, find myself to get fatigue faster than the ATC. Only issue is that the ATC needs so much power, thank god my poweramp was able to deliver it until the atc bend it’s knees to it. Haha
If you can’t find the time, or find it too challenging, my chum Manfred Stein at QUAD Musikwiedergabe (in Gering, Germany) and his team will get those lovely old QUAD valve units into at least as good a condition as they were when they left the factory in Huntingdon over 50 years ago. Just have a look online.
And for Leadpin, they can make from new, or restore, old QUAD valve units.
Oh…what a shame - like I say - I have not tried it - I seem to remember the unit itself sounded really very good - on it’s own. How did you connect it - bnc?
I can’t recall exactly, although something tells me it may have only offered up a Toslink optical s/pdif output, which might account for the comparatively underwhelming performance.
I seem to remember - that the 333 sounded pretty good - but a touch bass heavy (which could make it sound slow) - I assumed at the time it was my Epos ES14’s … well I don’t have anything to loose - I will feed back. I am struggling for space…as a 500 system is a mass of boxes resembling a shrine in the corner…of my humble room. Oh the days of the Bush music center…
That’s good to hear, Still looks good today as it did when I purchased it, unfortunately I don’t have a photograph of the rest of the system it partnered, Meridian active, happy days.
It’a a fine looking deck, which is not helped by an industrial, old-fashioned looking arm. (Perhaps something like a carefully refurbished SME arm would be better.)
And is it still the ‘done thing’ to have an acrylic platter without a felt or rubberised mat? Doesn’t that risk scratching or scraping whatever LP is in use? (I think that an appropriate Herbie’s Mat would be an improvement, although our Moderator doesn’t agree on that.)
Hi Graham, the arm is a Linn basic, when purchased it was fitted with an Ittok, when I committed to CD the ittok went to live on friends LP12 hence the basic in its place, agree an SME would be better, but I don’t own a single piece of vinyl, so would be a waste.
Your comments regarding the platter are interesting, when I owned vinyl it always sounded better without a mat than with a mat, scratching or scraping LP’s I never noticed any of that.
Arcam Alpha amplifier and tuner first generation of the Alpha series. My first serious amp back in 1988. Still a pleasure to listen but the poor shielding of the transformers (no toroids) radiates everywhere. The tuner is damn good when connected to the huge Ron Smith Galaxie 17 on the roof.
I had TT2 with a Mission 774 arm and an AT31E cartridge.
I changed to my LP12 and upgraded later with Ittok and Asaka.
I think the TT2 was much more footfall tolerant as I remember.
Here we have an ION Obelisk 3X with X-Pak 1 and a FMT1 tuner. All three units were serviced by Phil Balaam of Nytech Audio some years ago. Pleasantly smooth sound, excellent soundstage and realistic voice reproduction. Almost like a good SE tube amp. Good MM and MC phono boards, especially the MC-Super board with the many electrolytic capacitors on it. Dynamics are not the Obelisk’s strong point. To cut a long story short, I think the Nait 2 is the better amplifier.
