Rosewind
Lost in Translation
Today I went across Aarhus to pick up two vinyl records by Baxter Dury (New vinyl: Prince of Tears) and Ian Dury (S/H vinyl ex+: New Boots and Panties!!). Since I was just 2 kilometers away from the dealer, "Tape Connection mk. ii" (there was an mk i), I decided to drop in to have a look at their turntables. I knew that they had to return an Attessa TT because of a fault, so I hoped that they would have a new one in. Which they had, so I watched the unpacking of a white Roksan Attessa TT, which was very easy to set up.
We just needed to adjust the height of the arm rest, check the cartridge alignments and make sure that the anti-skate left enough clearance for the arm to finish playback. Then we listened to two songs from Baxter Dury's "Prince of Tears," - "Miami" and the title track. I know both tracks well from listening on Qobuz, and played through the onboard MM riaa of a Rega Brio and some Monitor Audio speakers, the sound was finely etched and clear - a bit on the dry side with distinct "T"s. Bass was as controlled as the rest of the sound spectrum. After listening to the two tracks, I asked if we could listen to "Miami" on a Rega P3. It was duly moved next to the Roksan Attessa and we listened to "Miami" all through.
The Rega P3 with Exact MM cartridge sounded rounder, fuller with more loosely defined bass. Still very much enjoyable. Then we returned to a 1 minute re-listen to the beginning of the track on the Roksan Attessa TT. The brief re-listen confirmed that I prefferred the Roksan Attessa's better defined and - to me - more neutral or faithful rendition of the track.
Before we listened, the salesman said that he was sure that a Rega P6 would be much, much better than the Roksan Attessa TT, and suggested the Rega P3 as a more even comparison. On the basis of what I heard, I am not sure I agree. This is my subjective impression.
We did not use the onboard Roksan Attessa MM Riaa.
We just needed to adjust the height of the arm rest, check the cartridge alignments and make sure that the anti-skate left enough clearance for the arm to finish playback. Then we listened to two songs from Baxter Dury's "Prince of Tears," - "Miami" and the title track. I know both tracks well from listening on Qobuz, and played through the onboard MM riaa of a Rega Brio and some Monitor Audio speakers, the sound was finely etched and clear - a bit on the dry side with distinct "T"s. Bass was as controlled as the rest of the sound spectrum. After listening to the two tracks, I asked if we could listen to "Miami" on a Rega P3. It was duly moved next to the Roksan Attessa and we listened to "Miami" all through.
The Rega P3 with Exact MM cartridge sounded rounder, fuller with more loosely defined bass. Still very much enjoyable. Then we returned to a 1 minute re-listen to the beginning of the track on the Roksan Attessa TT. The brief re-listen confirmed that I prefferred the Roksan Attessa's better defined and - to me - more neutral or faithful rendition of the track.
Before we listened, the salesman said that he was sure that a Rega P6 would be much, much better than the Roksan Attessa TT, and suggested the Rega P3 as a more even comparison. On the basis of what I heard, I am not sure I agree. This is my subjective impression.
We did not use the onboard Roksan Attessa MM Riaa.