Spent the first half of this Sunday with my good friends Sonic Artistry in Toronto. Played various records on Jonathan's system: Doehmann Helix 1 turntable with Schroeder 12” CB Carbon Fiber arm and HANA MH cartridge TechDAS Air Force V turntable with SAT LM-09 arm and Audio Technica ART1000 cartridge soulution 725 preamp, 550 phono stage and 511 power amp Ubiq Audio Model One loudspeakers Synergistic Research Galileo UEF cables Massif Audio Design rack, amp platform and cable risers When I arrived, Jonathan was cleaning his Stanley Clarke - s/t record, which we played after the cleaning and it sounded fantastic. Then we tried my record - Uriah Heep "The Magician's Birthday" (Mercury – SRM 1-652, Gatefold Canadian pressing) without cleaning. David Byron's vocals sounded good, but the rest of the presentation was lacking. Short video can be seen here: https://vimeo.com/302689295 Initially a degausser machine was used and we heard some improvement. Next the record was cleaned using Keith Monks record cleaning machine and we played it again. The difference was striking. A veil has been lifted and each instrument was heard clearly. Imaging as well as air between instruments have improved. Following this, Jonathan used KirmussAudio ultrasonic cleaning machine. After this, imaging tightened even further and vocals were crystal clear and sounded almost live. Jonathan then showed a real jewel of his massive record collection - Led Zeppelin Classic Records Box Set. You can read more about it here: https://www.discogs.com/Led-Zeppelin-Led-Zeppelin/release/5882431 We then played: Led Zeppelin - s/t (200 gr, 45 RPM, Clarity Vinyl) Nazareth - The Greatest Hits Ayreon - The Final Experiment (from my collection) Never heard LZ or Naz sounding this good!
Some photos from my visit.
