The Karousel has landed

[Bob Edwards]

Bob,
When Rick at Audio Alternative last serviced my LP12 he fitted a Tranquility levitation device (along with a Hana cart) that really improved the sound. This was pre-Karousel. Did Rick describe the plus and minuses of each? Worth upgrading? Are they an either/or upgrade?
Dan

Dan -

He had a couple of Tranquility's in the pile of old bearing/subchassis in the work room, and said he'd had a few upgrade to the Karousel. He was pretty quiet about the Hana (I asked about the ML). In effect, he said the Karousel was the single best upgrade possible for a LP12 (and it's the one part that mine has in common with his top end ones - the Stiletto'd LP12 in the main room and the full Klimax LP12 upstairs.

I'd call and ask him, but I bet he'll tell you the Karousel should be your next upgrade. My LP12 had a Cirkus bearing that was in excellent shape, and the before and after was stunning.

 

[Mr Pig]

Vinyls please, vinyls.....

I'm sorry but vinyl is correct.

It's a casual reference to the material the disks are made of. It is not the technical name of the individual disks or format.

So a pile of long playing microgroove records can be referred to as vinyl in the same way you might call a lorry load of sheet steel... steel. Or a stack of wood planks a pile of wood. You would not refer to a pile of woods because the individual items are not called wood. Wood is what they are made of, so they are planks of wood. And LP records of vinyl.

You can have plural of the name for the individual items, a pile of planks, but refer to the material that they are made of as plural is wrong. So it's not vinyls, woods or steels. I have a collection of LPs or vinyl.

 

[RichardH]

I think Nero was being ironic....

 

[david ellwood]

He is too fast, he would catch it.

 

[MichaelC]

Micheal it will also subtely improve with run in; so there is more brilliance to come.
Once you have the Karousel no way would you want to go back to any other bearing.
It just sounds so right.You just can't fault it at all.

Agreed, wholeheartedly.

 

[MichaelC]

Well, a few more days down the line. Yup, it’s still ticking all the boxes and some.

A good test is Harmonium, Cinq Saisons (not Saigon’s courtesy of the iPad). The definition of the bass is astounding and when it all gets busier there remains that clarity, definition between the instruments and vocals.

Makes me wonder, at what stage in the various iterations of an LP12 does the Karousel make sense. At entry level? Or at the top of the pile? What I can say is the Karousel’d full fat Tangerine LP12 kicks ass.

Another observation. Whatever I throw at the Paradise, it keeps on giving too. I feel it is not holding anything back and in all likelihood is capable of more. Bit of a star performer too!

 

[allthingsanalog]

The Karousel for me was a fantastic upgrade over the Cirkus and had zero regrets.

 

[Gaius]

^^^ I would agree.