The system grew slightly, as some are aware. The SQ-N150 has, by all accounts, a very decent phono stage for both MM and MC and it seemed a shame to let this go to waste. And it feeds into a project I have taken on to clean and digitize all of my mum’s 60s-70s vinyl for her.
The TEAC TN-4D
It has been commented on that the turntable seems a bit low end compared to the quality of the rest of the system. And to be honest, my dealer felt the belt driven TEAC TN-3B ultimately performed better for a third less than a direct drive TN-4D. However, context is important. Vinyl is not my main source and it never will be. This is largely for a bit of fun and for music discovery via second hand bargain bins. Direct drive makes it extra low maintenance and the optional USB digital out serves my purpose of digitizing my mum’s collection for her. It doesn’t hurt that the TN-4D and the Luxman SQ-N150 have become somewhat of a paired set in the local market - though usually in piano black which, with the silver trim very closely matches the Luxman styling. As you can see, I went another way.
As we know, music is an emotional experience and as I was going to be playing a lot of oldies that I hated from my childhood (some, like first pressing of Johnny Cash I now know are great. Others like her Marty Robbins collection I might still roll my eye at), I’ll be honest and say that looks were important. How looking at this thing made me feel when spinning these old discs was, I knew from the outset, going to be an integral part of the experience. The walnut finish with the 70s aluminium trim just hit all the right emotional notes for me.
Superficial selection criteria aside, this isn’t a cheap toy. It comes in at around the cost of an RP2 and by the time I had finished dressing it up, was just shy of an RP6 in terms of cost. The build quality is exacting and it comes from a Yokohama factory just down the road from Luxman. The direct drive motor is low torque and although faster to come up to speed than a belt drive, it isn’t instantaneous at about 2 seconds. Something that really sets it apart is the tonearm. The SAEC designed tonearm is just brilliantly crafted and frankly from a slightly different class of turntable altogether. It obviously looks very different from SEAC’s $15k flagship offering, yet has kept some of the basic DNA such as the S curve and the SEAC Knife Edge virtical pivot.
Dressing it up
As mentioned, there’s a few things I did to this turntable to push it’s performance as far as possible within it’s very modest price range. First up was the cartridge. The supplied Sumiko Oyster was a bit overly smooth and warm for my tastes. Nice for background jazz, but not what I was after. Going for a replacement at a decent jump up but careful not to outclass the turntable, I fitted a Sumiko Rainier MM for about $170. This has a presentation that is far more dynamic and extracts a massive amount of higher frequency information that the Oyster just ignored. Sumiko is yet another company that manufacture in Yokohama, so this was fast becoming the Yokohama System.
Finally, no turntable is complete without a really good power supply. The supplied SMPS got replaced by this nice 24v linear PSU you can see on the bottom shelf next to the fanless micro PC that serves as both digital transport for the DAC and recording station for the TEAC. The power supply wasn’t expensive but was particularly nice. A quick look inside revealed superb hand soldered joints, and good board layout. The readout is more than just pretty. As you may get a slightly different voltage depending on your mains, you can adjust the output up or down by about 2v and I did need to get it spot on. Would have preferred the readout on the rear though. Coupled this to the turntable with a Cablecraft silver DC power leads with Oyaide plugs. The addition of a quality linear PSU really helped
with tonal neutrality and brought things a lot closer to the presentation I’d come to expect from much more expensive sources.
Last, I picked up a second hand Zonotone phono lead for half price (new it would have been half the price of the turntable). A bit overkill, but a sensible new Chord Co cable would have cost the same and I was keen to go Japanese all the way on this system.
Suffice to say, the TEAC never embarrasses itself. Even in the company of such a source as the D-N150, which might be edging out my NDX/XPSdr, the TEAC has a sonic character with the Rainer cartridge that is really engaging and allows for a degree of serious listening I had not in fact planned or expected.
Over time, and after calm reflection, the only gripe I have about the Luxman/Omega system compared to my Naim/PMC (and it isn’t a true gripe), is that I miss the off axis response of a dedicated tweeter. If you have a listening spot (and most people do), the Omega’s are just nothing short of incredible. They convey so much emotion and have such a beguiling soundstage it is really astounding. But outside of that zone, they do sound totally different. And I do have to do a lot of listening while doing things with the kids in other parts of the room. It’s a bit of a shame for the company actually. You have to hear them set up just for you to understand how beautiful they sound. You’re never going to pop you head into a dem room at a show or in a session with 30 other people seated off to one side and think “wow these sound good.” That can only happen when seated directly in front of them with a captive audience of one. Personal listening room or den, hell yes! In the living room for all to hear? Maybe not.
