Grand Prix Audio Monaco Turntable

It's interesting to note that despite the clear measurable technological superiority of the Monaco table (speed stability and resonance control), certain people, including one industry expert, try and attribute coloration to its design.

The coloration heard is that of the combined associated equipment choices made that suit a personal taste and put in an environment optimzed to that personal flavor. Even the standard reference vinyl used will obviously sound different because they were never heard with such speed stabilty until played through the Monaco.

Recently I had the opportuntity to listen to the top VPI with Koetsu Urushi on the Verity Lohengrin II's driven by top Accuphase (A-45, C-2810) top MIT cables retailing at $250.000+! This table was easily beaten by the Accuphase DP800/DC801 combo. It would not have made me a vinyl convert. If I didn't have the Monaco, I would have used this experience as a reason NOT to get into vinyl.

But I realize too that if you like sugar in your tea, or music, its difficult to change. Here's my analogy. Kinda like stopping smoking, until you do it you don't really know how good food and fine wine really tastes!

Keep on spinning!

Pieppiper, there is only ONE absolute measure of speed stability (ie the correct speed, the exact time it takes to go from a to b), and that is only correctly measured at the platter, and that is errors per million measurements. No rocket science degree required here. No other turntable measures speed accuracy at the platter level, so any claim to a speed accuracy figure is nul-and-void because its unverifiable. Now, when the GPA Monaco claims a maximum of 2 speed errors per 1 million measurements it means appr. 20 mintes of vinyl playback can be played without errors as Roy Gregory explained. It would be interesting to measure all other top tables out there with the same technology, I'll bet ya, they'd all fare miserably against the Monaco due to their older, lower performing technologies. And how does this best of speed stabilities express itself? Well in the most accurate and truest playback through the entire - yes entire - audio bandwidth as it was recorded and transferred to the vinyl disc. That is not coloration due to the Monaco. Coloration comes from all the other attached equipment, and resonances that impacts measurable speed stability. IMO therefore the Monaco is the MOST admirable attempt to date and audibly so.

I agree with you that this measurable technological superiority is indeed a starting point, for Grand Prix Audio turntable design and hopefully all tt designers, imagine the improvements on this table GPA have in store! The rest of the comptetition better start waking up to a new champ, you know what they say about betting on old horses... shake up old paradigms!

Speed accuracy, speed stability, lack of stylus drag, lack of temp drift and other variables was all overcome in all intents of purpose by late 1970s' to mid 190's Japan Inc. direct drives, especially quartz locked ones.

Ability to spin an LP with a high level of accuracy at least to a point of being imperceptible to the human ear is nothing new. My Technics SL-1200MKII offers superlative speed performance and sped accuracy specs.

The Monaco has solved any sped issues, from there like every other turntable, cheap or expensive it's all about tuning the sound to give the end user a table that makes them happy. One will find that no table be it the $299 specials to the $100,000+ uber brands will be perfect. All will have things listeners may like or not. Of course one expects a higher priced table to basically perform better than a cheaper one, but this is not always the case. It's a black art vinyl spinning that is and price is only one loose indicator of apparent quality.

When I came back to vinyl after 16 years being without was initially brainwashed into thinking direct drive sucks. Boy was I wrong. It is not noisier than belts and it offers certain advantages no belt drive can give. I'm not saying belts can't work exceedingly well, but I am saying direct drive is not junk and has proven to work very well too. As I said Japan Inc. darn near perfected the speed performance of direct drives back in the 70's.

A great test to compare would be the Monaco vs the Teres Certus.

Teres Certus 460 looks like a nice piece of furniture for my grandfathers living room. But keeping to the discussion, those speed accuracy figures they publish are probably not measured at the platter level. Just for fun I will ask Teres this very question and see what they say. No comment about the Technics, other than I purchased 2 of them 20+ odd years ago for a friend who needed them as a discjockey for parties, you know the kind of music/rap you need to scratch to back in the 80s...

No, a great test would be, independent of course, in a top system against the Continuum Caliburn and/or RT Sirius III, but with multiple experts present.

Albert Porter and I compared his extensively rebuilt Technics SP10 sporting a SME 312 with his Walker Black Diamond, using identical Airtight PC1 cartridges. IMHO, the Walker "walked" all over the Technics in most respects EXCEPT for speed stability due to stylus drag which showed up only on one record where it was shockingly obvious. It is conceivable that the Walker could be tweeked to overcome this issue at the possible expense of isolation from the motor. That is the choice Lloyd Walker made.

A.J. Conti of Basis claims that his top of the line table, a motor controlled belt drive, compared favorably with the Technics.

My point is that to claim across the board superiority of the Monaco has more to do with religious fervor than sense.