Yes it’s very different and the quality is of the highest and that goes with all of it, you can certainly see that he comes from the watch making industry.
The cartridge is going to take me a while to run it in, but starting to get glimpses of what to expect from it all and looking forward to it
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Well it’s changing day by day, bass is getting stronger and certainly less harsh sounding on some top notes, but still early days yet.
One thing I have had to do that I didn’t have to before or just didn’t notice it, I have had to be very careful how I run the arm cables to the phono stage as they can produce hum if near other cables, only noticed as I accidentally nocked the volume up on the remote
We’re looking forwards to your post run-in verdict…it will be it will be interesting to know how the application of the engineering principle sounds.
Is it too early to have an impression on how it compares vs SME 20/2 with top Dynavector ?
Yes to early so far, but I have a brand new dynavector to try, but that will also need running in, but it will happen
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Was busy finishing a job off on my last post, so didn’t have time to go into my findings so far.
So the SME with V arm, not using the damping and with a run in dynavector drt xv1t.
This sounded lovely, nice detail, nice weight, warm and relaxing sound, so why go looking for something different?, well I fanced a 12inch arm and so was looking at the SME 20/12 with V arm, this is hugely expensive and a large deck that also brings with it problems, as it wouldn’t fit on the fraim.
So this got me looking at other solutions and that brings me to the thales. So far I can tell it has all the detail that the last turntable had and a bit more, certainly a bit brighter and less weight right now and a bit harsh on certain notes sometimes, but I am certain things are going to change as only about 5 hours in so far.
But this set up certainly has more speed to it right now and expecting that to not change, if it gains more weight and losses the harsh Ness, then it could be a winner.
Also as I mentioned I also have a brand new dynavector drt xv1t cartridge as sold my other one along with the SME 20. Once I feel this new cartridge has settled down, then a battle between the thales and a SME 30/12 with be organised to see if this can actually sound better than it, I will also at some point mount the dynavector up and run that in as well, as I am sure that will sound different to the exquisite ST
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Very interesting days and readings to come
Yes should be interesting.
But so many good turntables and cartridges to choose from these days, to hard to really know which way to go.
I think we will see more complete packages like the solstice and the SME one come out as it takes away all the guess work. The problem is I like messing lol
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Feeling ambitious lol and have some spare time, so why not use it mounting the new dynavector cartridge into the sledge so it’s ready to go.
The thales uses this special way to mount the cartridge, you loosely mount it to the special sledge part and then slide it into the jig. Then it’s a case of lining it all up and tighting the screws.
Then you can just slide it on the arm, connect the wires and set the vtf and you are ready to go, obviously you can adjust it more after this, but cartridge placement will be spot on
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That jig is pretty cool…
It certainly much easier than doing it on the turntable, as you can see it much better and have a definite point to aim for, plus less chance to damage the cartridge
As I noticed I was getting some hum from the tonearm cables I decided today to try and find out why and see if I could fix the problem.
To start off, it’s probably my fault in the first place as the arm cable is un shielded as its ment to be the better sounding one over the shielded, but obviously this can bring problems as I have found out.
Moving the cables about it was clear that something in the wall was effecting them and the further I got them away from this the better, first off on the floor in front of my rack was great, no real hum, but not great obviously, but it proved that I could get it to work if I could find the right spot.
Anyway in the end I have had to swap a few things about to get it to work, mainly moved the dcs kit over to the other rack and the turntable and phono stage to the right hand rack, but the hum is gone.
I did run it like this before and for now I am running my dcs kit stack once again, as it looks much better like this and I can’t tell right now if its any worse for doing it like this, also made myself a nice large fraim to fit over the dcs out of 2 standard height legs joined together, just for fun really as it protects the dcs top as I use it to place stuff on all the time
Decided as I been left on my own tonight to have a much better go at getting this cartridge properly set up, so microscope purchased and round 2, off we go.
Obviously so much easier to see what’s going on and it was plain to see it wasn’t quite right, so adjustment made and then back on the arm
Quick pic of the stylus
Took this pic from a video I did, as the video allowed me to see if the cartridge was straight and alignment correct
So once I had re fitted the sledge, I double checked the arm for level, once again I needed to adjust it as it was running down to the cartridge.
The results of this is the harshness has gone, so much detail coming it’s un real, playing niles lofgen tonight, it was stunning, never heard it as good, you can pick up things that I haven’t heard before very easily and I wasn’t expecting that, especially after my last turntable set up.
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I applaud your tenacity in wanting to get things just right 
I am a firm believer in taking your time with cartridge set-up and not letting things go when they are “close enough”…The USB scope is a step farther than I do but obviously has reaped rewards. Well done!
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I must say I haven’t gone this far before, but with the jig you can really see what you are doing, the only problem with that is you need very good eyes, mine are 53 years old, so not as good as they could be and I did think it was right.
But using the microscope made it possible to dial it in and be very confident that its right and that’s a nice thing to know and only leaves a few other things to worry about once mounted on the arm.
But with this unique arm, if you get the cartridge not quite right, it’s not quite right for the complete album, unlike a normal arm, so it really needs to be as close to right as possible.
But after just playing the first few seconds of a record it was plain to hear that it wasn’t right before, plus the scope was less than £20 delivered
How did it get on ?
Well I couldn’t resist it, so last night off came the exquisite st cartridge and on went the dynavector drt xv-1t, was expecting a difference but not the difference I got, I know the exquisite is a lot more expensive but the dynavector is the top off the tree in there range, well the dynavector sounded dull and boring in a direct fight and its certainly not.
So tonight I tried it again and same conclusion, so the exquisite is staying and might as well now sell my brand new dynavector as that’s never going on now
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