Reviewer: Jeff Day Listening Panel, Technical Advisors, Set

Reviewer: Jeff Day
Listening Panel, Technical Advisors, Set-Up & Fine Tuning Artists: Terry and Leslie Cain, Stephæn Harrell,
Pete Riggle and Bill Van Winkle
Licorice Disc Source: Garrard 301, Cain & Cain plinth, Denon 103 cartridge, Origin Live Silver arm [in for
review], Pete Riggle Audio VTAF (Vertical Tracking Angle on the Fly), Auditorium 23 moving coil step-up
transformer [in for review], Monolithic Sound phono stage
FM Source: Vintage early 1960s Scott 370 FM vacuum tube tuner supported by Yamamoto ebony audio bases,
Magnum Dynalab ST-2 Vertical Omnidirectional FM Antenna
Digital Source: Meridian 508.20 CD player used as a transport with the Audio Logic 2400 vacuum tube DAC
crunching the digits
Preamplifier: Tom Evans Audio Design Vibe
Integrated Amplifiers: Almarro A205A EL84 single-ended pentode; Sonic Impact Class T digital
Amplifiers: Fi 2A3 single-ended triode monoblocks with Tung-Sol JAN-CTL-6SF5GT (5842) inputs, Sovtek 2A3
outputs and Phillips 5V4GA rectifiers
Speakers: Avantgarde Duo 2.0, Omega Super 3 & matching Skylan Stands
Cables: Nirvana S-X interconnects between DAC and preamplifier; Nirvana S-L interconnects between
preamplifier and amplifiers; Nirvana S-L speaker cables between amplifiers and speakers; a custom Nirvana
wiring harness to connect the Duos midrange and tweeter horns and woofer module; Nirvana Transmission Digital
Interface [on loan]; Cardas Neutral Reference digital cable; Auditorium 23 speaker cable [on review]
Stands: Atlantis Video Reference equipment rack, Billy Bags 2-shelf rack
Power Line Conditioning: none
Room size: 15' x 25' x 8', short-wall setup
Review Component Retail: £599 in the UK, Export £509.79 GBP ($959.32 US at the exchange rate at the time
the article was written)
While we were working on the ongoing Garrard 301
transcription turntable restoration project, audio pal
Pete Riggle mounted a temporary outboard armboard -a wood block -- with one of his VTAF™ (pronounced
"vee-taff") bushings onto the smelly old plywood plinth
that came with my eBay purchased Garrard 301. We
wanted to get the 301 up and running and give it a quick
listen to make sure the old fossil was in working order.
Pete then installed his Origin Live modified Rega RB250
tonearm mounted with the Denon 103 cartridge he
normally uses on his beautiful vintage Thorens 124.
After Stephaen made sure table speed and cartridge
setup were correct, we put on a record and dropped the
stylus. As I wrote in the Garrard 301 introductory article,
"We were all floored. The unimposing-looking Garrard
301 in its scabby old plinth and with our makeshift
outboard arm mount, budget Origin Live-modded Rega
tonearm with VTAF and the Denon
103 cartridge sounded stunning. Friends Pete, Bill (revered blind master piano restorer), Stephæn and I enjoyed
spinning records for the rest of the afternoon. We were mesmerized and astonished at what the old Garrard could do."
I was so impressed that I contacted Origin Live about a review loaner of their Silver tonearm, which seemed like a
good match in price and spirit to the Garrard project goal of building an "audio everyman's" super table at a real world
price. I really wanted to comment on how a newer and highly respected tonearm like the Origin Live Silver compares
to an equivalently respected vintage tonearm like the SME 3012 in the upcoming Garrard Restoration installment that
focuses on tonearms. The Silver arm didn't impress straight out of the box for reasons that shall shortly become
obvious but boy did it deliver the goods in the end. I was so impressed by the Silver arm that I decided it deserved a
stand-alone review and coverage in the Garrard Restoration Series. But I'm getting ahead of myself here. Back to the
main story.
Enter Origin Live
Let's talk about Origin Live for
a moment. Gentleman audio
enthusiast, Garrard 301 nut
and Shindo USA importer
Jonathan Halpern was kind
enough to loan me his
personal vintage SME 3012
12-inch tonearm for
comparison. With Pete's hotrodded Rega, the Origin Live
Silver from England and
Jonathan's mint SME 3012, we
were ready to rock! Or so we
thought. Due to a snafu with
the mounting template for the
SME 3012, we couldn't get it
mounted in time for today's
review. To get the full skinny
on how the Silver stacks up
against the vintage SME 3012,
you're going to have to wait for
the Garrard Restoration
"tonearms' article. I'm getting
ahead of myself again so let
me switch gears. I'll tell you a
little
more about Origin Live located in the Sholing district of the city of Southampton, England. When I read through their
website, I was really impressed with the obviously thoughtful consideration of what they believe to be the most
important factors for reproducing music in a HiFi rig. Their system philosophy brochure emphasizes the importance of
high musicality, outstanding sonics, simplicity of design and a high value for the money approach and thus mirrors my
own criteria for evaluating and buying HiFi gear.
Accurate musicality is my term for describing that rare piece of equipment that portrays the full emotive and artistic
qualities of a piece of music and sounds good in the traditional HiFi sense of imaging, soundstaging, tonality,
separation of musical lines, pace, rhythm and timing, etc. A piece of equipment that has accurate musicality
reproduces music that both feels right and sounds right, a fairly rare thing in today's HiFi world as odd as that may
seem. A lot of good sounding gear can't play music to save its ass, sounding for all the world like a symphony of
typewriters clicking out their notes in synchronous sterility. Then there's gear that plays music well but sounds like
poop. If I had to choose between those two extremes, I'd pick the gear that plays the music well and not worry about
the sound. But I want it all. I want gear that sounds good and plays music well, and I want it made by small cottage
industry craftsmen and craftswomen known for excellence in quality of construction and attention to detail.
According to Origin Live, one of the key technical parameters for achieving accurate musicality is exceptional transient
speed. Notes must be able to start and stop on a dime and decay naturally. Compromised transient speed causes a
blurring of notes and a reduction of accuracy by introducing noise to the signal. If, says Origin Live, you have ultra-fast
transient speed and accurate timing, then you will hear its benefits as a "natural unforced sound, wonderful imaging
and depth of sound stage, superb tonal balance free from edginess, and (paraphrasing here) a separation of all voices
and instruments that allows the listener to clearly hear everything without masking". That last sentence sums up
exactly what I want in my own HiFi rig.
Origin Live also believes the issue of timing of the bass notes (and all notes for that matter) is very important. They
describe how some of the more analytical turntables "have a noticeable slow and overhung bass decay - in other
words the timing of the bass is out of synch with the rest of the music." Musicians sometimes use this same timing
effect with notes to make music feel faster or slower. If you play a note slightly ahead of the beat, it makes the music
feel faster, if you play it slightly late, it makes the music seem slower. A piece of equipment with timing issues overlays
all of the music played with a timing thumbprint it's not supposed to have. It's okay for the musician to do it but not for a
piece of HiFi gear. One is the artist's intent, the other a blatant design screw up.
The Origin Live guys have been tweaking and refining their tonearm design ideas for about fifteen years.They are
hard-core analogue hammerheads who believe that vinyl replay is inherently better not only for its more musically
satisfying subjective listening qualities but also for its technical superiority. For the full skinny on why they think vinyl
stomps digital, check out Issue 4 of the Origin Live newsletter. To briefly summarize, they admit that both formats
have issues to overcome but at least for now, digital cannot overcome the disadvantage of digitally sampled analogue
signals. No matter how high the digital sampling rate is, it is always only an approximation of the analogue signal,
never the full Monty. To add insult to injury, the analogue signal has to be recreated which introduces further problems.
Can a shattered Humpty Dumpty signal put back together again ever be as good as the original? Probably not.
Without access to musical stem cells, Humpty is screwed - and so are you. Analogue's 'infinite sampling rate 'can't be
matched by any digital sampling rate. For the moment at least, there is no such thing as musical stem cells that can
heal a digitally sampled Humpty signal.
Of course there are analogue issues too and that's what Origin Live is dedicated to solving or minimizing to the extent
possible. Accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative! That's pretty good advice for HiFi, too. In the case of your
stylus reading information from the record groove, there are good vibrations and bad vibrations. Accurately tracking
the groove is a good vibration, but resonance from the ground, air, turntable motor and other sources rattling your
delicate analog gear is bad vibration. The stylus being modulated only by the information in the record groove is the
ideal while extraneous vibrations contribute to the stylus modulation as noise degrade the sound and music as a
result.
To minimize these effects, Origin Live believes that the pursuit of low resonance is a key design criterion. Non-signal
vibration is transmitted through the cartridge to the tonearm, then up the tonearm where it is reflected back down the
tonearm to reinforce the original vibration for additional and time-delayed noise. Origin Live strives for low resonance
to deaden the resonance pathway inside the tonearm.
Origin Live also considers high rigidity in the arm key to obtaining maximum dynamics from the signal. If the arm isn't
rigid, its play will result in a loss of detail and dynamics of the modulation of the stylus by the groove. In the words of
Origin Live, "the reason rigidity is important is that the cartridge needs something to 'kick' against if it is to generate a
dynamic signal. Designing for rigidity extends far beyond the choice of materials - it influences everything from the type
of joints to the dimensioning of components."
Not only does Origin Live desire to give you the best in sound and music, they also want to do it at a fair price. They
focus their budget on high quality engineering & materials with a minimum of marketing & glitz. "Our top design priority
is to recreate the original sound and thus to offer a definite upgrade to your listening experience. Some products offer
showy engineering at the expense of sound quality - on a tonearm, for example, arrays of spring-loaded dials may look
high-tech but in fact degrade the sound by introducing distorting resonance into the structure. We'd rather invest in a
better bearing than an engraved dial."
If your tonearm is more than a couple of years old, Origin Live believes that you'll get a big improvement by upgrading
to one of theirs due to advancements made in recent years. In fact, you're promised more improvement by upgrading
your tonearm than your cartridge: "Unlike cartridges, a tonearm upgrade will produce a far more profound
improvement and last a great deal longer. It is also transferable to other decks should you ever want a change." If you
happen to have a Rega arm, Origin Live can work it over to give substantially improved performance, just like they did
on Pete's impressive Origin Live modded Rega RB250.
We've all heard those sorts of claims before. Most of the time, they are more marketing fluff than reality. What kind of
'advancements' could accomplish those braggadocio claims? Origin Live attributes them to two primary factors,
decoupling the armtube and minimizing ripple effects. De-coupling is the same principle Terry Cain -- known for his
gorgeous hand-made double horn speakers -- used in making the plinth for my beloved vintage Garrard 301. The
turntable base is rigidly decoupled from both the motor assembly and the tonearm and it sounds superb. The light
wood is solid maple, the dark wood walnut. The arm board is combination of walnut and maple, with a handhammered brass covering the top plate. The brass leveling devices are onion-shaped like the domes on Russian
churches and rest in little indentations you see in the inverted brass discs. The plinth has some interesting features.
The base of the plinth is leveled to level the arm board, which then is decoupled from the Garrard motor assembly.
The solid maple upper plate with the motor assembly is leveled separately and rigidly decoupled from the armboard
and lower base.
It's the same principle also used in the Pete Riggle Audio VTAF to decouple the tonearm from the arm board. Given
the quality of sonics and music making ability I've heard from Terry's 301 plinth and Pete's VTAF design, there's
something to the decoupling theory. It might be counterintuitive when you hear it in words, but you know it's right-on
when you hear the music playing.
Mohammad Ali: "Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.'
Origin Live uses this principle in their floating bearing philosophy where a high quality bearing is placed into bearing
housings deliberately machined to a tolerance that allows the bearing to float and decouple the armtube. Origin Live
found that when you clamp the bearings down too tightly, it significantly degrades tonearm performance. But they don't
want you to confuse a floating bearing with bearing play that causes chatter - their tonearms have absolutely zero
bearing chatter. Origin Live claims there are "very strong technical arguments to suggest that tightly coupling the arm
to the deck via tight bearings is detrimental' but that the true test is to use your ears: floating bearings sound better.
The other reported Origin Live breakthrough is their attention to minimizing ripple effects. I wondered what the heck
ripple effects might be. The only kind I'm aware of are those afflicting street corner winos. Origin Live says that
"vibration transmits through the surface which supports the tonearm in various ways. Most significant is 'rippling' - not
just a simple 1 or 2 dimensional movements as some imagine. Ripple exerts twist or angular force into the structure.
The mechanism of ripple is seen dramatically with very fast frame photography taken inside ships undergoing
underwater explosive shock. When a mine explodes under a ship, the inside becomes a death trap of flying fittings that
have become detached due to the underwater shock wave. Anything attached to a sidewall or part of the ship structure
detaches at speeds of up to 600Km/hour. The reason this happens is due to the shock waves setting up ripple in the
ship structure.' Well okay, but a tonearm isn't exactly a battleship - or is it?
Analogue works because the vibrations of music are recorded onto tape, transferred to master disk, then pressed into
vinyl for your cartridge to pick up and turn back into music. In the micro world of analog signal decoding, Origin Live
says minimizing ripple effects is very important because they blur bass notes by making your cartridge an
unpredictable flexi-flier due to those non-signal shock waves sneaking into the armtube from under the deck. Being
that Rega tonearms are probably the most popular tonearms in existence, it was quite shrewd of Origin Live to use the
same base geometry in their own arms. If you have a Rega arm, the Origin Live arm is a drop-in replacement.
Origin Live Silver Tonearm
The Silver tonearm uses a large diameter slotted arm tube in an effort to minimize ringing effects while at the same
time providing high torsional strength. It also uses the afore-mentioned low friction floating bearings widely spaced
outside the arm tube to improve tonearm tracking while minimizing the amount of vibration transmitted to the armtube
from the armboard and plinth. Origin Live claims this gives a more articulated bass response and an “increased focus,
stability and resolution throughout the frequency range.”
The associated cabling uses gold-plated copper beryllium cartridge tags, silver-plated and PTFE insulated cartridge
wires, Litz internal wiring, and external wiring terminated with Australian Bullet plugs reputedly 4 times more
conductive than the usual brass phono connectors. There is a separate ground lead from the head shell to attach to
the phono stage. The headshell is milled from a solid block of low-mass alloy but high in rigidity to give an optimum
environment for the cartridge. The cartridge is further decoupled from the head shell.
Listening Impressions Round 1 - Straight Out of the Box
The review system used for round 1 consisted of my usual Tom Evans Audio Design Vibe preamplifier, Fi 2A3 singleended triode monoblocks, Avantgarde Duo 2.0 loudspeakers, all strung with Nirvana strings (Nirvana S-X & S-L
interconnects, S-L speaker cables, and a custom Nirvana wiring harness to connect the Duos midrange and tweeter
horns and woofer module). In addition to my usual gear, Stephaen Harrell loaned me his Monolithic Sound phono
stage -- I don’t have a phono stage of my own yet -- and Pete brought over his George Wright vacuum-tube phono
stage. The turntable is the aforementioned cream oil-bearing Garrard 301 in a Cain & Cain plinth Terry whipped up for
me one night in a flurry of inspiration. The arm rests in Pete Riggle's Vertical Tracking Angle on the Fly (VTAF)
adjuster installed into the hand-hammered brass covering on the walnut and maple armboard of the Cain & Cain
plinth.
After getting the Silver arm set up, Bill Van Winkle the sightless master piano re-crafter and tuner, TASmanian devil
Stephaen, Pete Riggle, Terry & Leslie da Cains and I sat down for a little preliminary listening. Since Pete had fitted
the VTAF bushing to the mighty Garrard, it was really simple to swap tonearms back and forth - as easy as unplugging
and lifting the Origin Live Silver arm out of the VTAF bushing, dropping Pete's Origin Live modded Rega RB250 into
the VTAF bushing, plugging it in. We spun Count Basie's Farmers Market Barbeque, the Soulful Moods of Gene
Ammons, Bill Evans' Waltz for Debbie, Chet Baker's Chat, Doc and Merle Watson's Pickin' the Blues, Miles Davis'
Cookin', the Tony Bennett and Bill Evans album, You Get More Bounce with Curtis Counce and Bob Dillon's Oh
Mercy, most of them Chad Kassem's excellent test pressings.
Stephaen noticed immediately how incredibly quiet Bob Dillon's Oh Mercy album was. 'Where'd the noise go? Pete,
what did you do to that record? It was noisy on your table," said Stephaen. Pete replied, "Not a thing. I haven't washed
it or brushed it or anything." While pondering that little mystery, we decided to drop in Pete's OL modded Rega into the
VTAF. Pete's Origin Live # 4 RB250 tonearm has the Origin Live structural modification (counterweight and stub),
internal rewiring and external rewiring. Back when he bought it from Galen Carol Audio, he paid $575. My review
Origin Live Silver arm is one up in the line from Pete's modded RB 250 and adds to the Rega base assembly a custom
arm tube & head shell machined from high-strength aircraft aluminum. The bearings are also upgraded to a higher
specification and positioned outside the arm tube to give "greater torsional stability and lower resonance".
After swapping arms, we noticed immediately that the modded Rega RB250 had Dillon's
voice position further back in the recording and there was more air around it. Stephaen said,
"With the Rega, the music flows better and is less mechanical. The vocal shadings of Dillon's
voice come through better on the OL modded Rega than on the OL Silver." Stephaen also
thought the pace, rhythm and timing elements sounded artificially enhanced. 'Sounds like
techno-artificial bass. If you're a fan of silicone boobies, you'll like this arm," said he. "I think
the Origin Live modded Rega is more musical-sounding than the Origin Live Silver arm."
Terry Cain concurred. "The Silver arm sounds overly sibilant and lacks depth. I can't get past
those sibilant high frequencies. It also takes the tonal 'color' out of the bass notes and there's
less nuance." Pete piped up and said, "The bass sounds like a rhythm machine on the Silver
arm and the modded Rega RB250 gives a more holographic sounds stage, with more frontto-rear dimensionality. I hate that flat arm lift on the Silver arm. It slips off your finger too
easy. The curved lift on the Rega is easier to use."
"Yikes, what I am going to tell the Origin Live guys?" I thought. That wasn't exactly a glowing
recommendation from my audio pals. The boys thought the less expensive modded Rega
stomped the twice-as-expensive Silver arm. I didn't have quite as negative a reaction to the
Silver arm as they expressed but it was pretty clear that the modded Rega was the more
musical of the two.
Listening Impressions Round 2 – Using a CD Player Output to Burn In the Tonearm Cable
Origin Live says “Origin Live arms take a very long time to burn in their cables and do not sound anything like the final
performance when first used. To speed up this process we offer the ‘burn in cable’ which speeds up the process
enormously.” Origin Live recommends that you burn in the tonearm cable using the output of your CD player and the
supplied burn-in cable for a minimum of 24 hours. Essentially you turn the tonearm cable into a high-level interconnect
with voltage passing through it from the CD players output that is thousands of times greater than it will ever see from
any phono cartridge.
To prepare my system, I first plugged the RCA connectors of the burn-in cable into the outputs of my Audio Logic
vacuum tube DAC, then connected the pin connectors on the other end of the burn-in cable to the headshell cartridge
clips and finally plugged the RCA outs from the tonearm into my Tom Evans Design Vibe preamplifier. I used the
fabulous new Ning An piano recording of Haydn, Mendelssohn, Berg, and Rachmaninoff [New Art Inc JCD070012] for
listening while burning in the tonearm cable to see if I could hear changes taking place as the tonearm cable cooked.
6moons reader Ning An is a professional classical pianist who enjoys listening to classical and jazz on his Harbeth,
Simaudio and Marantz-based system. Ning An is an Artist in Residence at Lee University in Tennessee and recorded
these performances with recording engineer Alan Goodwin at the New England Conservatory's Jordan Hall on a
Hamburg Steinway, using high-end electronics for signal duties directly to a hard drive at 96KHz. Ning An's
musicianship is fabulous and full of life and emotive color that stunningly captures these works in their full glory. Upon
hearing it, my good friend and piano aficionado Bill -- who happens to be a sightless master piano restorer and tuner -said "Wow! Who's playing on this CD? This is great!" The recording quality is extremely good, creating a beguiling
combination of sound and music that makes Ning An's CD easily my favorite new classical CD - you'll be hearing me
rave more about this disc in future reviews. Sharp-eyed readers may recognize Alan Goodwin's name as the same
Alan Goodwin of Goodwin's High End in Boston, who also happens to have an awesome website. If you are going to
be stopping in Boston on your travels, be sure to stop in and say 'Hi!" from the cats here at the moons. Before you do,
check out Alan's website section on Food and Fun in Boston for some great recommendations to enhance your visit
while there.
Everyone who has been in audio for any length of time has heard that it's important to allow cables to burn in before
making any kind of judgment on their performance. Now I know that it holds true for tone arm cables as well. If the
Silver tonearm is any indication, it particularly holds true for tone arms [Alan Kafton of CableCooker fame would agree
because of the minuscule voltage output from cartridges which never break in tone arm wiring under regular use - Ed].
I was rather astonished at the dramatic transformation that I heard as the music played and the tone arm cables
burned in. The air and space of the arm opened up, the tonal properties of the arm became more natural and colorful,
the abundant detail relaxed more in its presentation. Pace, rhythm and timing elements also grew more natural while
remaining emotionally riveting.
I e-mailed Pete and told him about the transformation burning in the tone arm wiring for 24 hours with the Audio Logic
DAC. I suggested we get together again for another listening session, with his Origin Live modded Rega used for a
comparator. As before, both arms were set up with identical Denon 103 cartridges and swapped in and out using the
handy VTAF bushing.
Pete still thought that the Origin Live modded Rega was warmer and had more dimensionality than the Silver arm. He
also thought the modded Rega was a little more liquid but he thought the gap was now much narrower than before.
Pete also noted that the bass is bigger and warmer on his modded Rega. He thought the Silver arm more accurate
and true to the sound of real musical instruments than the somewhat romanticized sound of the modified Rega.
As I listened, I thought the Origin Live Silver arm was more detailed than the modded Rega while having a greater
sense of image solidity. The Silver arm also moves the images much closer to the listener, making the presentation
more immediate and direct sounding - think front hall sound compared to the modded Rega's mid-hall to rear-hall
sound. Bass is tauter and punchier with the Silver arm which, no doubt, is less warm than the Rega. The Silver arm
makes percussion sound more 'percussiony', accurate and incisive. The modded Rega is a little more romanticized, a
little more beautiful in its presentation. One thing that Pete and I discovered was how important the anti-skating force
adjustment is to getting the best sound out of the Silver arm. Set too low and the bass becomes unnaturally lean,
causing the upper midrange to accentuate in an unpleasant way. Setting anti-skate to max makes the bass of the
Silver arm sound taut, defined and realistic. However, even after burning in, the Silver arm maintained a bit of sheen in
the upper midrange, with slightly more vocal sibilance than I cared for. Not a lot but it was there.
The Origin Live Silver arm sounds 'snappier' than the modded Rega, more accurate to the sound of real instruments.
Flat top guitar strings sound more like steel strings - a bit metallic and percussive. The modded Rega made them
sound softer, almost like nylon strings. The Silver arm sounds somewhat more electronic than the more romantically
balanced modded Rega. Interestingly, the modded Rega is a little more opaque and less detailed but it does PRaT in
a more musically convincing manner, albeit less dramatic than the Silver.
Don't take Origin Live's recommendation to burn in the Silver tonearm lightly or you'll likely be disappointed. If you
don't burn in the Silver tonearm, I doubt you'll ever hear what it's capable of. I mean it: Don't take this burn-in stuff
lightly.
Listening Impressions Round 3 - Using the Auditorium 23 Step Up Transformer at Terry's Place
After burning in the Silver arm further, I thought it sounded really good, marginally preferring it to the modded Rega.
Pete felt just the opposite, that the Silver arm sounded better but the modded Rega played music better, with a slight
sacrifice to the sound. I think it could go either way for you depending on your audio tastes. The modded Rega has a
somewhat romanticized, big warm bassy sound with natural PRaT and lots of spaciousness - a real music maker to be
sure and one that many people have found a lot to like about. I liked the extra detail of the Silver arm and its snappy,
dynamic and direct presentation, which makes it easier to pick out the guitar lines while playing along with Doc
Watson on my Gibson Advanced Jumbo, for example. But I wish the Silver arm was a touch warmer and fuller,
handled the notes in a little more liquid and fragrant fashion while maintaining its excellent detail recovery and
snappiness. I'd like to banish that last little bit of sheen and sibilance Pete and I were hearing on female vocals, too.
Guess what? I got my wish with the Silver arm - and had a big revelation in my understanding of its performance
capabilities to boot!
I drove over to Terry Cain's famed Cain & Cain world headquarters in Walla Walla/Washington with the full-boat
Garrard 301 restoration project with his plinth, the VTAF and Silver arm and Denon 103 cartridge tucked carefully into
my Miata. I also brought along a little surprise that had come from Jonathan Halpern - the Auditorium 23 moving coil
step-up transformer designed for the Denon 103 cartridge. The Auditorium 23 is an unassuming looking step-up
tranny that is about the size of a pack of cigarettes with RCA inputs on one side and RCA outputs on the other. That's
about it. Jonathan Halpern of Shindo USA is so enamored of the design that he's begun importing it to the US so
others can get in on the fun. But I'm getting ahead of myself again.
Terry set up the Garrard 301 Project table in his system of Studio BEN (Big E-Nuf) ES double-horn loudspeakers that
use a full-range 8" Fostex driver and a horn-loaded Fostex super tweeter. For amplification, Terry had the full spread
of Josh Stippich's wondrous Electron Luv 45 amplifiers and preamplifier, which are easily the most gorgeous
amplification devices ever created by human hands. They should be on display in the National Gallery of Art - really. I
wish I could afford the Electron Luv gear; I'd buy a pair in a second. For phono amplification, Terry was using a big
underground favorite known for its giant-killing performance: The George Wright-designed and -built vacuum tube
phono preamplifier. When I got to Terry's place, his Teres turntable was sitting idle and music was playing through one
of Vincent Sanders' computer hard-drive digital powerhouses to warm up the system. Terry's system has it all:
Beautiful tone, great dynamics and a very musical yet detailed presentation.
Then we dropped the needle on one of the many LPs we would spin that day and heard pretty much what Pete and I
had heard with the burned-in Origin Live Silver in my system - good but not great. "Hey Terry," said I, "Whaddya say
we drop in the Aud 23 step-up tranny and see what happens?" "Sounds like an idea," said he. So we did and dropped
the needle again. "Whoa!" said I. "Whoa!" Terry tossed right back at moi. All of a sudden everything that had troubled
me about the Origin Live Silver arm vanished. In its place was one of the most stunning portrayals of the analogue
kingdom I have ever heard - breathtaking! The vocal sheen and sibilance were gone and in its place was real fleshand-blood vocal magic. The arm now conveyed music that was warmer, darker and fuller without losing any of the
detail and snappiness that made it so engaging in my system. The notes became more liquid and fragrant too. Fed by
the Auditorium 23 to amplify the Denon 103, I couldn't find a nit to pick with the Origin Live Silver arm. It was a
beautifully emotive as well as a great-sounding presentation of the music. If you have a Denon 103 and a low-gain
phono preamplifier, you should run out and get an Auditorium 23 tranny right now! Don't even think about it - just do it!
Terry and I ended up spinning disks all day and never got around to getting the second armboard mounted. I left it
with him to work his magic, hoping it wouldn't take too long.
Listening Impressions Round 4 - At Terry's Place with the Washington Light Bulb Mafia
Terry's underworld HiFi informant, Rumpsky Beatoffski, sent out an invitation for a big jam session planned for the
coming Friday with some of Washington's other audio nuts:
Theres is to be a meetnz of da NW audio mafioso on Friday de 11th in
Wallyz Wallyz at dat Cainz n Cainz.
If you are readin dis den your invited.
In attendance will beez da followingz:
"Pido" the Riggler Riggle aka "da Mechanic"
"Bilo" the watchdog Tuner and babe magnet VanWinkle
Uncle "Stephaen-O", who we all owe something, but I cannot think specifically what that is right now
Jeffy da "daze" Day
Clark "da kid" bambino face Blumenstein, bringing a tweako $37 dvd player wit his mods.
Honored guest, and guest of honorz Paul-ly the "Pimp" Weitzel who's gonna demonstrate magic with a new tubeless
"toy" amplifier. His main men, Joel "the Jockey" and Brian "the Brain", Steve "The Battery Man" Brooks aka
"TriodeSteve", will help selecting an appropriate wine from the valley.
In attendance might also be Ken, "Mr. Clean" (Spectral/Maggies - if he comes in to listen note the high frequency
enhancement and imaging anamo-lee)
Hopefully we can convince the "Doctor" Schmally and "Papa" the Joppa that we are mederately cicilized and
attendance by thes twoz would be in their best interest of the "family"
And hopefully security will be tight, no-one gets hurt and we all have fun see.
Yo, and all dat.
Rumpsky Beatoffski for Terry 10 fingers Cain
Who could resist an invitation like that? On cue, all da boyz started arriving at Cain & Cain headquarters about
moonish-noonish on Friday, coinciding with the icy fog starting to clear off the Walla Walla moors. The assembling
gang consisted of first yours truly, then Triode Steve, the way-cool vino aficionado; TASmanian devil Stephaen and
babe-magnet Bill; Paul Weitzel, Brian and Joel from Tube Research Labs in Quincy/Washington with a decidedly and
ironically non-tube silicon-state amplifier and modded SACD player in tow; Pete and Harry of Two Bald Buys Audio
fame and John Loranger (the 'Ranger' in Rangers Audio ) from Portland & Beaverton/Oregon; Clarke Blumenstein
and Annabelle (four-legged woofer) with his SEX amp and modded DVD player; and Doc Bottlehead and Papa Joppa
from Poulsbo/WA with all kinds of goodies like trick SEX amps and single-driver speakers.
We started with the same system that Terry had set up during my last visit: The Garrard 301 Project table, the Studio
BEN ES double-horn loudspeaker, Josh Stippich's Electron Luv 45 amplifiers and preamplifier, the Auditorium 23 stepup transformer and the George Wright vacuum-tube phono preamplifier, the only difference being that the Garrard was
mounted up on a pedestal next to Terry's Teres table. The vinyl was spinnin' on the Garrard and sounding incredible.
We all had a ball swapping in and out different gear and giving it a listen. The Tube Research Labs boys' silicon-state
prototype mule-amp sounded great on the awesome Cain & Cain IM Bens, as did their modded 595 SACD player.
We managed to get some great and some not so great sound on occasion (that old synergy thing), but a ball was had
by all. Pete said, "Things got worse for a while but really good when we got to Jeff's Garrard 301 turntable with Origin
Live Silver tone arm and Denon DL103 cartridge, mounted to a Cain & Cain plinth, through a VTAF, going through a
phono transformer whose name I do not know but need to, to a George Wright phono stage, thence to Doc
Bottlehead's new experimental version of his old S.E.X. Single Ended Experimental amp, thence to Cain & Cain
Abbey speakers with cryogenically treated drivers. The Garrard 301 with the Cain & Cain plinth were out of this world.
I was in the foyer when the stylus hit the groove and my mind just blew!"
I don't think it could be said better than Pete already said it; the vinyl front end was awesome. To sum up the sound of
the Origin Live Silver arm, I'd say the Origin Live guys hit it right on the head with their own description: "The result of
these changes is an incredibly transparent arm with superb tonal balance. The sound produced is free from coloration
allowing previously unheard low-level information to be noticed clearly. The arm exhibits a clean dynamic sound
coupled with a tight and powerful bass."
What's more, I think the experience I've relayed to you may be just the beginning of probing the true capabilities of the
Origin Live Silver arm. What dawned on me -- my major bit of revelation -- is that the Origin Live Silver arm is so
neutral and revealing that it will transmit with unvarnished clarity and level of detail whatever it is being fed, much like a
good single-driver loudspeaker does. That's a really good thing because whatever you lose off the front end is lost
forever. However, that also puts the burden on you to match it with equally excellent downstream components that are
complimentary in nature. But that's not all: I have a hunch that the magic number for burning in the Silver tonearm
cable is really closer to 100 hours than 24. So as soon as I can get my Garrard Project table back from Terry after he
finishes mounting a second arm -- Jonathan Halpern's beautiful vintage SME 3012 -- I'm going to try burning in the
Silver tonearm cable for another 76 hours and report back during the tone arm installment of the Garrard Project
Series.
A bit of a teaser: I was telling Don Garber of Fi fame about my experience with the Auditorium step-up tranny and he
told me that he thought the best way to amplify the signal for a moving coil cartridge is to use a low-gain movingmagnet phono stage fed by a step-up transformer. "It's the best way!" swears the Don. Just so I can find out for
myself what Don's hearing, he's going to send me a Fi phono stage so I can tell all of you what the combination of Fi
phono stage and Auditorium 23 step-up tranny can do for the music. Stay tuned and be sure to come back and see
us here in the Great Pacific Northwest [above]!