holbo MK 2 turntable

@reynolds537 

If Richard has a current cartridge recommendation I'd like to hear it.  

Holbo has much more experience, and somewhere on their website there is a list of reviews and the cartridges they have.  I can only tell you what I am actually doing! 

I have a DS003 optical cartridge on order from DS Audio and I am very much looking forward to hearing it!  It seems to me that DS Audio has the same sorts of engineering advances in cartridge design that Holbo brings to the (turn)table / arm combination.

When you have several unique selling propositions, coupled with truly enthusiastic reviews, you are probably on to something.

I am coupling my optical cartridge with a just released SoulNote E-1 Ver 2 Equalizer which can switch between optical and MM or MC cartridges.  It is so new, there are no professional reviews.  The improvements it has made with my old Shure V15 are quite remarkable.  SoulNote is another manufacturer with unique selling propositions, many of which fly in the face of conventional wisdom but make complete sense from an engineering perspective if you shift from frequency analysis to waveform analysis.  I find it hard to stop playing records with this combination, which seems like the cliche'd end of a professional magazine review, but it is true!

I find it interesting that the Holbo is compared with tables costing 20 or more times as much, yet it is often regarded as a reference system!

I’ll accept this challenge:  put up a serious competitor and I’ll do a desk top analysis of where different engineering approaches might affect the sound quality.

Put it another way, it seems that some in North America would spend more on a power cord!  Most here can afford a Holbo and you’ll be getting a world-class system to play with your favourite cartridge!

@rsf507 

So(u)lution 787 tturntable

I had not come across this before, though they do make an Equalizer for DS Audio optical cartridges, so I recognise the brand.  At the Munich show, they had two turntables, one fitted with a very expensive DS Audio optical cartridge.

I'd just comment that the mechanism to keep the stylus in the groove differs markedly.  The Holbo feeds air into the tonearm bearing, which allows it to float friction free on its support rod.  The T-shape keeps the arm rigidly at right angles and it is just side pressure on the stylus that keeps the tonearm lined up.  I have just acquired a record which is off centre, and the entire Holbo tonearm visibly moves smoothly back and forth sideways without a touch of drama.  The moving parts weigh around 40-grams compared with 5,000-gms for the platter!

The motor that drives the air-pump is metres away from the deck itself, and is inaudible to me.

The Soulution on the other hand has to move a very weighty platter.  It needs some sort of servo assisted motor to do this.  The sensors that control the servo need to get an error signal, which almost certainly comes from some horizontal rotation of their tonearm.  The fact that they quote Horizonal Tracking Error ranges supports this bit of reverse-engineering!  Their arm also swings aside at the end of play.

Now consider the extra sources of vibration introduced by the servo-controlled motor, plus the friction of the sideways sliding platter.

In this case, I think the KISS principle might well win.

Just from your verbal description, the Soulution tonearm sounds very much like a modern version of the Rabco SL8E, which was probably the very first LT tonearm on the commercial market, dating back to the 70s.  It was invented and marketed by a guy who lives in my area, but it was widely accepted and he probably sold a lot of them. As you say, the arm wand is allowed to describe a tiny fraction of an arc. As it rotates on its anchored pivot, it eventually actuates a tiny electric motor which drags the pivot point along a rail until the arm wand is at the extreme of its arc toward the outer grooves.  Then the process repeats itself, thus generating a series of tiny arcs at the stylus tip, as the cartridge progresses to the run out grooves. Goldmund marketed a higher quality replica of the SL8E, they called the T3F. The T3F was standard on their massive TOTL turntable, the Reference, which is still highly prized.

Richard,

This quote I also find it particualry interesting as well and have seen the basic concept in several different reviews of the Holbo MK 2 in different forms.  

"I find it interesting that the Holbo is compared with tables costing 20 or more times as much, yet it is often regarded as a reference system!"

I have currently narrowed my personal "audition" listening search down to just two typical belt driven set up options after listening to about 9 different decks with as many different cartridges and tonearms. Some in particular, are a very good match to the deck.  However, to my ear I have found that the less massive decks, but not super light weight, seem to apeal to my "ear".  The two I really like are in the 45-50 lb range. I am reluctant to just say what those are on a more public blog like this.  But, it is attractive to me that for a much less costly deck and tonearm I could maybe put a much better cartridge in place and spend more on the phono stage with this potential "giant killer" deck with some very well executed engineering that is an air bearing platter and air bearing tangential tone arm, for the same $$$ that I would like as well or maybe much more. 

But, I am also very reluctant to try this Holbo deck out as I have no personal exposure to it, and no one I know where I am has one.  I believe in the general advice on high end audio gear, "you need to listen to it yourself" especially with analog things like turntable systems, and a particular emphasis toward the fact that if you can arrange it,  where you are going to listen to it. 

I have asked Bostjan at Holbo (long email thread) about a referal to someone in the Pacific NW with one I could go listen to.  No go so far.  I have just asked again.  So the question;  do you think I should just order one, set it up with a willing dealer of other things (the cartridge and phono stage) and try it out?  What do think I can expect to find out with my ears?  "Giant Killer" or not?

I know this might be a bit much to ask, but I am a little frustated in this case with the "direct to consumer" model.  I do have many components I have bought on that principal in the past, Legacy Audio and Anti Cables for instance. But it just seems like analog turntable systems are in a differnt catagory. 

Sincerely, 

ACR