08/12/2024
Hello all, I hope you're enjoying this great summer! Over here I've been continuing experiments with the new redesigned Grease Bearing, refer to my earlier post for details below.
After the astonishing revelations from the redesign of first my budget Classic Lenco MKII bearing which raised one of my budget models to Reference levels of performance, and the ensuing redesign of my Reference Grease Bearing to accommodate the new shaft and other elements to a similar astonishing improvement (including supernatural levels of high frequency extension, delicacy and purity) I then spent the last few weeks testing the new elements in my Ultimate Bearing (Ultimate Lenco, Reference Lenco MKIII) in an Ultimate Lenco.
Now the Ultimate Lenco is so good it was hard to imagine what could possibly improve, so I had to do the experiment the hard way, I had to ensure that all elements save the Ultimate Bearing itself were identical, and the only way to do this would be to use the same machine, with the same tonearm and cartridge and wiring, in other words, I had to have the original Ultimate Bearing installed, and the new Ultimate Bearing with the new shaft and other elements standing by. I would listen intently to an album side or song, take apart the turntable, swap in the other bearing, reassemble and relisten and keep repeating night after night for weeks.
At the very first it was not as easy to detect as it was for the lower machines, due to the extreme performance of the Ultimate Lenco. My ear also had to become accustomed to this highest level of performance. The key in identifying the sound of the breakthrough new Ultimate Bearing MKII - after which it was easy to hear the differences in others, acclimatizing my ear - was "Down In It" on the Nine Inch Nails LP Pretty Hate Machine, perhaps the best recording ever made to test the abilities of a system in the bass. There's a lot going on throughout in UNBELIEVABLE low bass, "normal" low bass, mid bass and upper bass, not to mention midrange and high frequency details. A must have in system set-up!
My Reference system includes a six-tube preamp (6SN7s) with massive power supply which excels in every area, but particularly the limitless bass and dynamics, a variety of amps (my preferred being Wyetech Onxys) and a pair of Coincident Total Eclipse loudspeakers with the famed Scanspeak Revelator tweeters and superb bass. These speakers, which I have often thought of replacing, time after time have been shown to have no upper limit, no matter what I do, they keep showing a new upper ceiling in terms of highs, bass, imaging, detail, dynamics, and speed while being immensely entertaining!
Playing Down In It via the original bearing on the Ultimate was as always an amazing roller-coaster ride of unbelievable lowest frequency bass, dynamics, bass lines at several different frequencies and the midrange vocals and high frequency details, the Coincidents apparently stretched to their limits: where else could it go ๐ค?
Down came the Ultimate Lenco after removal of the tonearm, out came the original Ultimate Bearing and in went the Ultimate Bearing MKII. Nothing else in the system was touched including the volume which was precisely as I left it. Down came the needle to the start of Down In it, and IMMEDIATELY the difference in the lowest bass was APPARENT: the unbelievably low bass of the original bearing was there, but now even lower and LARGER and DEEPER, as if four giant subwoofers had been installed IN THE BASEMENT. The floor itself became a giant drumskin vibrating to each note. Details in the form of a previously inaudible growl/tremolo in this lowest bass note was now clear, the room was shaking and I wasn't sure if it was in the recording or due to the vibrating house (to each note), it later became clear it was in the recording. In fact my thought at the time was THIS IS PHYSICALLY IMPOSSIBLE, I wasn't sure if the speakers would survive, but in repeated experiments it was clear they did survive, though the reaction remained THIS IS PHYSICALLY IMPOSSIBLE. I had no idea previous to this my Coincidents could go anywhere near this low, with this much IMPACT, the shaking of the room hard to distinguish from the possibility that what I was hearing/feeling, like THX at a theater with the shaking in the chairs, wasn't in fact the woofers tearing themselves apart!
Going up the bass frequency range the detail, impact and three-dimensionality/physicality of the bass was also apparent, all while the midrange and upper frequencies all stood out more from the literally subterranean lowest bass. Once all these things became apparent - and my speakers indeed were undamaged (for which I have no explanation) - it all became easily audible on all other tracks from a variety of albums and music styles: three-dimensionality (perhaps most of all), detail and separation, high frequency extension and of course BASS all improved.
I invited a customer of mine over to hear it, owns my Reference Lenco MKIII with Reference Platter, has heard my Ultimate Lenco many times in my system, who had also owned the same Coincidents. Upon the first new notes his reaction was precisely the same as mine, and with the exact same words: "THIS IS PHYSICALLY IMPOSSIBLE!" He literally could not believe the bass, in track after track, though he owned the Concidents for decades with the top Wyetech Topaz monoblocks (famed for their bass and SLAM). He just shook his head and paid immediately to have his bearing rebuilt to the new specs, report coming after it's installed.
There's a lot to unpack still from this literally REVELATORY change, I spent weeks testing its effect on equipment (specifically the bass: does it make amp A do impossible thigs, YES!), and this continues. It's obvious that the original shaft was blocking the abilities of both my plinths and the Lenco as rebuilt and modified by me (and who could know this considering the extreme high levels of performance at all price levels, and reported worldwide???). The new shaft and related elements removes this roadblock, realizing all that potential, so my Classics become References in terms of performance (and will be relaunched for reviews), my References become Ultimates (and beyond) in terms of performance, and my Ultimates now accomplish the PHYSICALLY IMPOSSIBLE.
More coming!