Teres, Galibier and Redpoint

Saturday in Denver was, if nothing else, a tremendous amount of fun for me. As you can imagine, traveling almost 3700 miles in one weekend is very tiring and it really took a toll on my wife and me on the way home. Flight delays and cancellations put us back in New Hampshire about 4 hours late. Add to that the fact that we came home to a state of emergency due to some intense rain and subsequent flooding. But we dodged the floods and washouts and made it without serious mishap. We're high and dry but there are many people around us that are going through a very diffcult time up here.

I'll try to hit my main impressions here and then continue with follow up posts because I know more memories will pop as the conversation flows.

As Thom mentioned, I spent good deal of time with his system. We did go through the arm/cartridge combinations he mentioned and I do have some thoughts and observations on those but I want to first get out my impressions of the tables that I heard. I have had the pleasure of hearing Doug Deacon's Teres 320/Triplanar/UNI no too long ago so I was over the initial first impressions of how massive these table are. The first thing I noticed was how much these tables, both Teres and Galibier, just completely remove themselves from the sound. Both at Thom's and again at Chris's some less than pristine LP's were played, because what good is a table that won't allow you to also enjoy those 25 cent garage sale records as well as the expensive audiophile LPs. All of the tables I heard did an excellant job here. So you get to have fun with these tables as well.

I must admit that I did bring some expectations with me concerning what I thought I would hear between an all wood table and an all metal table. There are differences in the sound to be sure, but perhaps not near as much as one might expect. The Galibier, the Stelvio model, was very dynamic across the entire range. Nothing unexpected here at all. Lots of attack and plenty of decay with cymbals. Bass was very detailed and controlled. Several times I heard that bass string growl I'm always listening for.

What makes it tough is that I heard much of the same from the Teres 320. I do think there is a smoothing effect that may be the characteristic Teres sound. Keep in mind I'm trying to relay what I heard from the tables in two different systems and with a good two hours in between. I should also point out that the 320 was set up with a Moerch DP 6. No slouch at all but no where near the dynamics of the Triplanar and DPS. I think it possible to totally screw up the presentation of either table with the wrong arm and cartrige. Naturally, screw up is entirely subjective but I have no doubt that both tables will give you exactly what you ask for.

If you haven't caught on by now here it is. I'm not going to decide this for anyone because I can't even do that for myself at this point. If I take a bit off of the Stelvio to get to to the Gavia (I have not heard the Gavia) and then try to hold that up against the 320, now try to compesate for two different systems and rooms. I cannot make a real stand either way. Everyone is going to have a slight preference one way or the other. Anyone considering Galibier and Teres (Redpoint as well) owes it to themselves to make the trip out and hear for themselves which table they might prefer. If nothing else you get to meet two of the nicest people you could ever hope to meet. They would be Chris's and Thom's wives! They're both good guys, too.

Here's some even more fun stuff. Chris has a new, all Birch model (280 I believe) that is really cool to watch spin. The platter is made from the good, multi-layered, cabinet grade birch plywood sandwiched between birch hardwood top and bottom. Nicknamed "The Blonde", it gives this iredescent strobe effect as the end grain spins by. Some of us are quite sure there are subliminal messages implanted within. This table has the characteristic Teres smoothing but it is a step down in dynamics from the 320. But it is also a big step down in cost. Really could be something of interest to the mid-market owners looking to upgrade.

Here is where the rubber hits the road. The most profound experience of the weekend for me was the new Teres Direct Drive 380! Hands down the best sound of any table I heard. The attack and tempo this new beastie puts out is awesome! Dynamics were very good but I expect this since there was Schroeder Reference and ZYX Universe mounted on it. These don't account for the obvious superiority in timing. Naturally, the cost is much higher starting around $9K. Every genre was played on this table and it just powered right through them. Classical, jazz, piano, mandolin, big band, even Stevie Ray Vaughn could not make the 380 even break a sweat. Chris says he has some more improvements to make to the controller and the final form of the platter and plinth to get to where he believes the table has the potential to go.

Dan,

Great report. Glad to hear you made it home okay and that you're high enough not to be flooded. We didn't think about it when we bought our home, but I'm glad we chose one on a ridge line and not down in some valley bottom. Some of our neighbors are suffering, though some of yours are suffering more.

CB told us about his DD project over a year ago and I've been biting my tongue. I kinda wish you'd said it was no big deal. Sigh...

Just out of curiosity, how much bigger/taller/wider is the 380 compared to a 320. (I'm hoping you'll tell me it's the size of a refrigerator, so I'll have a reason to stop thinking about it!)

Regards to you and your incredibly patient wife,
Doug

Dan,

Sounds like it was quite the experience. The rains up north were serious.

You listened to two of the finest TT's. Their high mass, solid design and excecution should should create many similarities as you noted. The fun part is that you're picking from the finest and either way you go you'll be at the very best end of the spectrum.

Andrew

Doug, I thought of you and Paul right off the bat when I heard the pacing of the 380. Sorry to give you the bad news, but you guys need to start saving your spare change for this one. I would say the difference easily surpasses the differences between Nick's pre/phono and the Aesthetix gear by an order of magnitude. Chris has a pot on the controller to vary the torque so we had to play with that. It was very easy to hear the effect that excess torque had on the leading edges. All of us agreed that he should have that adjustment on the finished controller, perhaps with a much smaller range of torque adjustment. The 380 was about the same size as a 320. I wish I had remembered to take a few pictures although it is probably better that I didn't because Chris is not happy with the look. But,hey, it's a prototype. I believe it weighs around 120#.

Andrew, SirSpeedy is correct in that we did compare the Triplanar with a DPS. This is just my opinion, but I would go with the Triplanar for no other reason than it is much easier to adjust. The Schroeder is very well thought out and elegant in it's simplicity. Thom was able to tweak the DPS with the Dynavector so that it was very close to the same sound as the Triplanar/Dynavector. It did seem that the Schroeder was not quite up to controlling the edge attacks with piano stikes, but Thom and I both think that it could be done with some diligence in tweaking. The Universe did seem to lack a little dynamically compared with the XV-1s on the same arm. But I heard a very different result latter on at CB's open house. Now, if someone wants to wait for a Schroeder just be aware that the lead time is much greater than it used to be.

Another observation concerning the ZYX Universe. I realize that the arm used has a great deal to do with the outcome, but any talk of the Universe being somewhat slow or rolled-off is not what I heard at all using CB's Reference. This combo was also mounted on the torque monster 380. I can't explain why the Universe I heard at Thom's seemed to lack some dynamics. It could be that it is a better match with the Ref or it could be that the increase in torque unlocks the transient response. The Dynavector gives the Zyx a good run and costs good deal less.

Dan,

The 320 and 380 are about the same size? Egad! You'll have to help us out my friend. I just mailed Nick some RatShack resistors for your new preamp and suggested he wire it with lamp cord, instead of that exotic stuff he normally uses. He thanked me for a great cost-control idea and - here's the good news - he's splitting the savings with me. Woo-hoo! We're on our way to a 380! ;-)

Interesting differences you heard between Thom's UNIverse and Chris's. If Thom's was set up on a DPS while Chris's was on a Ref, that alone would cause dynamic differences. The Ref has more powerful magnets. In our direct comparisons at Cello's it had more stability on big dynamic hits and a lower noise floor on trailing edge decays. The DD table probably contributed also, as you said.