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Stabi R, Bardo & Viella

Hello Fellow Analog Travelers,

I am after some advice on choosing a turntable after taking a hiatus from the hobby.

I used to have TW Actustic Raven (with AC motor) and Rola (Australia idler broadcast turntable) severl arms including Graham Phantom, ubiquitous Jelco 750 LB (RIP) and cartridges including Denon Dl-S1 (again RIP) Allnic Puritas…and few moderately pried cartridges fed through either Audia Flight phono or locally made tube phono stage.

I listen to all sorts of music that includes blues, vintage rock , world music, 80s synth….Not much jazz or classical (say 20% of my music collection)

3D holographic soundstage with airiness is more important that resolution or dynamics.

Compact size, uncomplicated set up, immune to dust and humidity is a bonus.

So the question is what would you recommend between Bardo, Stabi R and Viella, noting Bardo and Stabi R are similar priced buy Viella is bit more

Whatever the choice would be fed through a SET system with single driver speakers.

Thank you

pulinap
sksos1
431 posts
 

my limited experience suggests that bardo is less maintenance given less moving parts?

Actually I've had no issues with my Stabi R but had some speed issues with my Bardo which was why I did sell it. (Not for sonic reasons but the speed issues). 

pulinap OP
5 posts
 

@kennyc & @sksos1 thank you for the input.

lewm
14,686 posts
 

If you had speed issues with a Bardo, wouldn't that have to be due to an electrical fault, since DD has no belt or other physical design elements that intrinsically make it possible for speed instability to be a problem.  And since you are a dealer (though maybe not a Brinkmann dealer), weren't you in a position to get the problem solved?

sksos1
431 posts
 

You would think it might be the electricity coming into my room, but that measured fine. I used a Sutherland Timeline to verify speed and the Bardo always "floated." around the correct speed. Could I hear the speed inaccuracy? No. It was just bothering me. This was also at a time when Brinkmann had a US importer (who said nothing was wrong) but then went with their own Brinkmann USA division. 

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