The Oxford comma is the traditional comma used to delineate members of a list prior to the “and.”
Apples, bananas, and oranges. That’s an Oxford comma.
Apples, bananas and oranges is acceptable. But I do prefer the Oxford comma in this usage.
And I’m not above starting a sentence with “But.” Or “And.”
Goodness, what do you do when cleaning your cartridges if you fear accidentally damaging them so much that you have to buy cartridges with boron cantilevers?
I just clean them normally, but boron cartridges give me greater piece of mind against accidental damage, espeically considering the expense of them. The aluminum kind are very fragile by comparison.
So can we start talking about the Solstice again?
Well, you’re the one who has one, so say something about it. 
This usage of so is what grammarians refer to as a discourse marker, a word or phrase used to organise speech or prose into meaningful segments, without having any meaning in itself. Discourse markers have been around forever and are present in most languages. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with them.
If someone is irritated by your “so”, so (ahem) be it, but saying that out loud is as rude and unnecessary as saying they dislike your clothes or the way you part your hair.
I thought that trying a Chord Music arm cable would be interesting and Chord were kind enough to loan me one with a 90 degree connector. But neither that or a straight connector can be routed when the Solstice sits on a Fraim with it’s glass platform. It’s a pretty flexible cable but the position of the ARO connector and the deck’s underside exit area means that a 45 degree connector like on the ARO cable is needed. Chord said they can’t source one that will accept the Music cable. So as toughened glass can’t be cut without shattering I’m left with the options of either keeping the existing cable or using a different platform to sit the deck on. I’m sticking with the former.
Much as I love my Solstice it has been a labour of love because of the way that it doesn’t easily accommodate upgrades. Even changing to DVXV1T necessitated three copper washers having to be placed between cartridge and the underside of the headshell. I got the idea from an historic Richard Dane post when Naim were having problems with some cartridges inducing static with ARO 1. I was experiencing some of the same but the primary reason that I did it was to create the clearance needed to avoid the under side of the headshell obstructing the white cartridge tag when the DV is set to the correct overhang/ null point position. The positive side to doing this was that it did indeed eliminate static and as a bonus, maybe due to the decoupling effect, seemingly improved sound quality.
Another example of poor flexibility to accept modifications/ upgrades is the bias mechanism. It was fine with Equinox, but even when set to maximum doesn’t quite provide sufficient anti skate with the DV. Not enough of an issue to effect the sound quality or worry me of undue stress on the boron cantilever/ inner LP groove wear but I’m hoping that Roy George can provide a solution to this. I will hopefully find out when I’m at the factory this Thursday.
I have no regrets buying the deck because it sounds fabulous. With a top cartridge and Superline phono stage replacing the stock ones it sounds even better that a Klimax level LP12 IMO. But it’s been an eventful journey and one that will please SOME of the dedicated LP12 owners who can be very sensitive to any suggestion that their decks can be bettered sonically :-). I would argue that it can be with a Solstice but not the SE version and not without some upgrading challenges.
Not sure I quite understand the overhang thing, do you have a pic? It is a bit worrying that the arm would not be compatible with different cartridges without modifications
Interesting and sounds a bit of a pain to change things easily going forward.
Having an arm that can be easily adjusted for any cartridge and then also have the required adjustments to fine tune that cartridge is a must at this level really, as if not its always going to be compromised.
I guess naim wanted it to be difficult to change things and with that designed it like it, but good to see you trying things and working out work around solutions.
Anyway who knows how to set up a cartridge will understand me Ryder.
I agree. I just have to be honest and tell it as it is. Great as my deck sounds now I believe that mistakes were made on the conceptual side because the turntable and arm are that good when fully exploited. In SE guise it just doesn’t do that. Maybe I will can find out more later this week about any future planned changes and if Jas agrees report back.
Well clearly, I don’t understand anything about set up… hence my question
The moulded shape of the underside of the arm head shell is such that the back of it interferes with the top inner cartridge tag ( white) when the DV XV1t is installed in its correct position overhang wise ( front to back) and rotationally ( side to side) to gain correct alignment with the two null points. By lowering the cartridge by around 1mm this is no longer the case as the white tag clears the obstruction.
As it happens the slight extra weight from the three washers means that the counterweight is now fully engaging the sprung bearing which was a problem that I (and I think Chris with a Lyra) found because of the DV being lighter than the Equinox.
Ah thanks. The word tag is what was confusing me, I always thought of them as pins🙂
I Am weighing up a solstice, LP12 or sticking with either my rega or brinkmann. I suspect if I went solstice I would just stick with the provided cart, as I have with the rega but it is good to know such things
Got it. I meant the white tag which covers the sleeve. Pins being on the cartridge.
The Solstice in SE guise is still a very nice deck and some of the discounted prices that I’ve noticed surely would make one worthy of consideration.
Those tags do look awfully long. If they were half the length the problem with the white one very likely wouldn’t happen. They do seem rather oversized and rather spoil the look.
Exactly. When they first came out they cost almost as much as a klimax LP12. Now the LP12 is £23k I listened to both at my dealers and have the LP12 on home demo at the moment. Problem is I don’t have £23k lying around so would have to go roughly selekt level. In the shop demo I found it hard to find a preference.
Hard to find a preference between Solstice SE and LP12 Klimax or one of the lower spec combos?
As they are though there’s likely an actual cartridge length/overhang constraint that owners could do with knowing before they consider replacing the Equinox with something else. If nothing else I wonder if it might be good for Naim to publish that if they haven’t already?
Stubby cartridges only need apply.
Equinox: hey, who you callin’ stubby!?
