advertisement


System Pics 2020

Status
Not open for further replies.
hockman said:
I've probably said this before, Theo, but I love your space. It looks like a wonderful room to enjoy music surrounded by all your favorite stuff. I don't mind the cluttered look, in fact I rather like it. Mine is even more cluttered but in reality it is just downright messy! I really need to get the piles and piles of records off the floor on to (to be acquired) shelves.

Great TT too.
Click to expand...

Thank you :) Though I now feel the need to tidy up...
 
The cabinets have that classic speaker geometry and are rear ported.
21.5L internal volume and port tunes to 38Hz
They are internally damped With 4mm bitumen pads on all sides with 10mm mid density foam on top of that.

I design them and Wilmslow Audio built them for me.
 
Cereal Killer said:
The cabinets have that classic speaker geometry and are rear ported.
21.5L internal volume and port tunes to 38Hz
They are internally damped With 4mm bitumen pads on all sides with 10mm mid density foam on top of that.

I design them and Wilmslow Audio built them for me.
Click to expand...
Wish I had those skills.
 
monty said:
Ha - It's a Kronos Sparta with Helena arm and Transfiguration Phoenix MC
Click to expand...

Looks interesting. Lots of engineering in these then?

Found a nice image of one:

49614354276_df66b8c2e4_c.jpg
 
krenzler said:
For my money the best looking TT out there. Love the purposeful industrial design. How does the Kenwood arm stack up with the SME?
Click to expand...
By sheer coincidence I have the same combination as Theo in an L-07D with its own arm and the addition of an SME V in the secondary arm position. I added the SME V about 10 years ago, but I have owned the L-07D from new for 35 years and felt no need to change it.

To be honest when I bought the SME V arm (It cost twice what I paid for the TT new in 85) I was expecting a bigger improvement in sound quality than resulted as some off the original L-07D reviews considered the arm the slightly weak link. In practice that turned out not to be the case.

It really depends which cartridge you are using and its compliance. The effective mass of the SME V is about 11g and the L-07D arm is 17g. At the time I was mainly running a Koetsu Rosewood and it wasn't as good in the SME as in the L-07D as it prefers the higher mass. I have had a number of Ortofon's Quazars and Cadenzas that are better matched to the SME arm and sound more detailed yet still smooth with great sound staging in the SME. A Denon 103D I have is much better in the L-07D arm and 'punches so far above its weight' in that arm that it makes you question the improvement from cartridges 10 times it's cost. This was the usual cartridge that Harman used at HiFi shows 35 years ago to demo the TT. The interchangeable Headshell does not seem to compromise the sound making cartridge change here relatively easy. Another advantage of the L-07D arm is you can easily set VTA/SRA on the fly by ear making it easy to dial in the best sound.

It's nice to have a choice of presentation. Or as at present type, as I am usually running a new (still bedding in) Cadenza Bronze in the SME V, and a Mono cartridge in the L-07D arm.
 
Yes 4D speaker cables, 5D interconnects and 7D coax from the SBT to the TAD. Assembled my own mains cables using oyaide and furutech bits.
 
I use 5D speaker and interconnect cables for my system. Loves Belles amps too, and have a Aria integrated myself.
 
poco a poco said:
By sheer coincidence I have the same combination as Theo in an L-07D with its own arm and the addition of an SME V in the secondary arm position. I added the SME V about 10 years ago, but I have owned the L-07D from new for 35 years and felt no need to change it.

To be honest when I bought the SME V arm (It cost twice what I paid for the TT new in 85) I was expecting a bigger improvement in sound quality than resulted as some off the original L-07D reviews considered the arm the slightly weak link. In practice that turned out not to be the case.

It really depends which cartridge you are using and its compliance. The effective mass of the SME V is about 11g and the L-07D arm is 17g. At the time I was mainly running a Koetsu Rosewood and it wasn't as good in the SME as in the L-07D as it prefers the higher mass. I have had a number of Ortofon's Quazars and Cadenzas that are better matched to the SME arm and sound more detailed yet still smooth with great sound staging in the SME. A Denon 103D I have is much better in the L-07D arm and 'punches so far above its weight' in that arm that it makes you question the improvement from cartridges 10 times it's cost. This was the usual cartridge that Harman used at HiFi shows 35 years ago to demo the TT. The interchangeable Headshell does not seem to compromise the sound making cartridge change here relatively easy. Another advantage of the L-07D arm is you can easily set VTA/SRA on the fly by ear making it easy to dial in the best sound.

It's nice to have a choice of presentation. Or as at present type, as I am usually running a new (still bedding in) Cadenza Bronze in the SME V, and a Mono cartridge in the L-07D arm.
Click to expand...

With Kenwood's considerable R&D budget behind it, it is no surprise to me that the tonearm was of an equally high stature to the deck and the deck is considered one of the all time greats. It is a tragedy, to me, that much of the equipment that I now use was given so little attention in the UK when it was launched. I have owned a lot of high end gear but I feel that the equipment I have now is right up there. There clearly was a lot of prejudice in the UK hifi press at the time.
 
pjdowns said:
I use 5D speaker and interconnect cables for my system. Loves Belles amps too, and have a Aria integrated myself.
Click to expand...

Never heard the Aria gear though have heard or demo’d a lot of Belles gear over the years. Transparent gear. Currently got the LA01 gen II pre amp. Probably of more interest is the room and electrics powering the system. I dug up the drive way and put a 85amp armoured plated cable split from the external meter to the house with direct electrics too hifi. Avoiding all the electrical devices in the house.
 
oldius said:
With Kenwood's considerable R&D budget behind it, it is no surprise to me that the tonearm was of an equally high stature to the deck and the deck is considered one of the all time greats. It is a tragedy, to me, that much of the equipment that I now use was given so little attention in the UK when it was launched. I have owned a lot of high end gear but I feel that the equipment I have now is right up there. There clearly was a lot of prejudice in the UK hifi press at the time.
Click to expand...
Yes Kenwood (Trio in the U.K. because of the brand conflict) built these turntables and the accompanying L-07 series of electronics as examples of there engineering expertise. No expenses was spared in there production and the total number produced was quite small. The L part of the name signifies 'Laboratory Series', the 07 because they put together a team of 7 of their best engineers in the late 1970's with the brief to make a no compromise series of products. The D is for the turntable, C preamp, M amplifiers and T tuner. Part of the brief for the turntable and arm was to deal with the problem of unwanted vibrational movement affecting the point of contact between the stylus tip on its cantilever and the record groove. They tackled this by designing a very ridged closed loop system and laminating different materials to cancel out inherent resonant frequencies. Hence the massive heavy locking chuck that fixes the arm to the TT and the innovative, for the time, use of carbon fibre in the arm itself.

In the U.K. when released in the early 80's the turntable cost £1,150 which is what I paid in 1981 (not 85 as I said above - so 39 years ownership - tempus fugit). They apparently loss money on every one they sold. In general the British LP12 loving reviewers were fair dismissive. The only fair review that I remember was Dave Berriman's in Practical HiFi in 1981 where he compared it to an Oracle turntable and references it to an LP12. This came out just after I had made exactly the same comparison at Subjective Audio and his description pretty much mirrors mine. I traded in my LP12 and have had the L-07D since then.

I supplied a copy of that review and some other material to Howard Stein for his excellent L-07D.com website that is a mine of information on the turntable. The review is on this page, scholl down:
http://www.l-07d.com/literature.htm
 
Status
Not open for further replies.


advertisement


Back
Top