What a great system, love seeing more DBL’s
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Prompted by a few recent posts on the system pics thread, about tightly coupling the bearing and arm mounts, an approach stated to be followed by Rega and Linn, I wondered if Naim took a different approach with the Solstice? This picture seems to me to show decoupling between bearing and motor, but also bearing decoupling from the arm mounting. Anyone know if that is the case, and if so what the benefits are?
The bearing and arm mount are both located on the same “island”. The island is then suspended from the main chassis.
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In my simple understanding, that’s just the same as the Linn and pretty much all suspended subchassis designs - fix the arm and bearing together, and isolate both from the motor and the plinth, as far as possible. In the case of Rega, which is not suspended, the arm and bearing are linked but there is no subchassis. The motor is suspended from the plinth for isolation, just like it is in suspended decks. I can’t see any situation where not connecting the arm securely to the bearing could be helpful, as it just introduces the possibility of movement that will reduce the ability of the stylus to track the grooves.
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It does make total sense when I took a few minutes to think about it too. But searching around a bit does turn up another (albeit rare) school of thought that favours the tonearm on a separate tower - to separate it from bearing noise (maybe that should have been a question X) ). I think the Kuzma XL uses a separate tonearm tower, so the approach does have (very heavy brass based) advocates.
[edited to add that they must all be suspensionless designs]
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A separate tower does not rule out a secure arm - platter bearing connection, though, if the whole construction provides sufficient rigidity. I think what Rega have figured out is how to create such a rigid coupling for comparatively low cost, and maybe how significant it really is. Although, one could argue that money invested in a separate tower with sufficient rigidity would yield even better results if applied to a Rega-style solution (which ends up as the Naiad, I suppose). As always, there a many ways to skin the cat, there are are great high-mass players and great low-mass players, great suspended players and great fixed players …
What seems like a bad idea for obvious reasons is something like this, as cool as it is when implemented as mag-lev.
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“This” was a video (moderated) of the Mag-lev player with the floating platter, which has no coupling between the arm and the platter at all.
Yes, sorry Suedkiez. I had to remove it as it was a commercial.
No worries, I hadn’t realized the commercial character, sorry
Neat - you just need to automate them so they part to reveal the Solstice as you approach 
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A bit like the Wizard of OZ only more impressive 
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Any answers from the experts?
May be Clare or Richard?
I’ll be glad to hear your opinions…
I think this issue belongs to any one who own the Solstice and want to switch to Linn Kandid…
I have heard of ‘removing a veil from across the music’ but…
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Sorry Ariel, I’m still waiting to go down to Salisbury to get hands-on with the Solstice and listen to it with Jason. Until then…
You still haven’t heard one Richard? Blimey, surprised, I thought you would have heard one by now given your passion for the format.
Is the RP10 still your primary source?
I was supposed to go down to Salisbury last autumn but it got cancelled at short notice. Have been trying to arrange a new date since then.
I still use an RP10, as well as a Loricraft Garrard 401 with Aro, and of course have a bunch of other classic decks standing by, including a Luxman PD300, Thorens TD126 MkII and, as I recently realised, far too many Linn Sondeks (they must be breeding) among many others! It’s probably past due that I rationalise things as many haven’t been used in years.
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Ah, perfectly understood - frustrating I’m sure. Given the the access to the number of decks you have, then it will be an interesting experience when you finally get to hear the newcomer.
Have you heard the P10 yet? From all of the rave press & owner reviews, and reading on the forum, it has been very well received.
And, multiple LP12s - wow! Perhaps, make one exceptional example from the others?
No, not yet. The RP10 has been a delight so far and there’s always that nagging feeling that if you have a particularly good one then you may be making a mistake letting it go (yes, I’ve done that before and the regret is horrible!). I’ve also been told by at least one person whose opinion I rate highly who reckons it’s probably not worth making the move to a P10 - in many respects they slightly prefer the RP10 - but rather wait until there’s something like a P11 or P12 in the future. I may well try the latest Apheta 3 on it though.
As for the LP12s they are mostly early ones. One is my Armageddon, Aro deck, another is a really lovely last of line pre-Cirkus with Ittok and de rigeur black ash plinth, there’s an early one from the '70s, and a nice Valhalla deck with Alphason tonearm. Don’t even ask how many Thorens decks there are, especially TD-150s, even after selling off a load over the years! And my childhood love of Technics is very much in evidence too, especially for the SL-150 MkII, but that’s another story altogether. A few other favourites are the Trio PC-400 - a kind of Japanese Thorens TD-124 with a belt drive idler system, a Pioneer PL-61 component deck which just looks so cool, and a Systemdek III which was a refinement of the original Systemdek and used an ingenious clamping system for the disc on the platter. Only downside of the Systemdek is that they persisted with the nextel finish which is horrible and just about all will need to be refinished these days, and mine is no exception. However, performance-wise it’s very, very good indeed, and must have been one of the best decks of the early '80s.
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You could sell the lot, get yourself a Naiad and c*ck a snook at those plebby Solstice owners. 500 of them. Call that limited? Pah!!
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