Out of production reference turntables

"Only heard a Rockport briefly and thought it excellent but tuneless"......now there is a credible piece of info.....spoken like a true Naim 'crazy'.

the Rockport will simply reveal what the Lp, cartridge and phono stage is telling you. it really has no 'color' of it's own.

and btw, i like Naim 'mostly'.

Bob, any generalized putdown like "tuneless"......especially based on a brief, totally unqualified and nonspecific experience......begs for an 'ad hominem comment'......don't you think? if you take cheap shots you gotta be able to handle the blowback.

being critical requires specifics to be credible. are you saying that 'all' Rockport's are 'tuneless'? how brief was your experience with the Rockport? was the Rockport in a system with another tt to compare with?

in any case, you clearly know your stuff and i don't want to make a bigger deal here than is reasonable. i have a few Naim fans as friends and i mostly like what they like......but they definitely have a particular perspective on things.

as a multiple Rockport tt owner that has owned a few other tt's i certainly have my biases too.

Bob, thanks for the explaination. i now understand what you mean't. i must admit to not haveing heard a tt that is more 'propulsive' or 'revealing of the energy of a recording' than my Rockport. these issues are central to my musical enjoyment.....and i think yours too.

i also think that the Rockport gets into much more microdynamics than ANY other tt......which to me is more like 'live' music than other tt's. when you listen to the Rockport 'big events' get revealed as lot's of 'little events'. it can be 'off-putting' if your reference is your previous listening experience.

the extreme isolation of the Rockport does put more demands on the ancilary gear. if a cartridge is voiced for a tt/arm with more 'distortion' and then has 'none'.....'something' can seem missing. also, the air bearing arm does favor cartridges with low compliance......without which you do get a softening of the dynamics.

my Colibri has a very short, stiff canteliver that mates perfectly with the Rockport arm for explosive dynamics and lots of musical tension.

do you know the specific model of Rockport that you heard?

no, i've only read about that rumor on the web recently. i do know Paul but never heard him speak about making a tt. i've been out of circulation for the last year or so.....maybe it's out there.

Paul came to our local club meeting last year and did a 'live' recording there of solo 12 string guitar.....and played it back in a few different formats.....that was a treat. he is a pretty talented guy.....i have heard his amps a few times. he thinks his new DAC and transport is better than the Meitner....it may be (i haven't heard it).

i guess i better get back into the 'fray' if i want to maintain my reputation. :)

jes45, my doubts about Paul's digital being better stem from the fact that Paul's context is while using a hard drive into the Meitner and into his dac. since Paul doesn't have a transport that will input consumer software into the Meitner (the best way) he has no way to compare actual performance with real cd's and sacd's. the Meitner approach to jitter control (slaving the clock into the dac and using the ST optical cable)is really unique.....and to my knowledge not used by Paul on his dac.....so in any case unless you can actually compare the 2 approaches fully optimized you would just be guessing.

i hope i didn't give you the impression that i was in any way upset. in fact, it would be great if the SOTA is advanced.....and i can't think of a nicer guy than Paul to do it.

my point was that Paul was basing his opinion on hard-drive performance.....not consumer software performance.....at least up to that time. if since that time Paul has got a modified Philips SACD 1000 and compared the consumer level software performance of his DAC/transport to Meitner's then i would enjoy hearing about the result. i'm not sure that the PRO DAC8 will work with the modified SACD 1000.

if you can provide details about this comparison i would love to hear about it.