Rocky Mountain Audiofest 2006 - Show Coverage
- John Atwood's Clarisonus Blog:
"Vinyl is doing quite well - many rooms relying on LPs as their high-definition source. There were lots of big turntables around.
Thom Mackris’s company, Galibier Audio, had a good set-up with his turntable, the Artemis Labs preamp, Lynn Olson’s latest version of his
push-pull power amp, and the Azzolina speakers. The sound of Thom’s room varied over the course of the show as the speakers and equipment
were tweaked, but at the peak, was quite good, if a bit lean. Here is Thom giving the spiel in his room:"
- Positive Feedback Online:
"Located in one of the big corner rooms was a system composed of a Galibier Design Stelvio ($12,500) turntable with
Triplanar arm and Dynavector XV-1s. The phono stage and preamp were one-off designs, amplification from Karna Push Pull 300B amps from
nutshellhifi.com."
"The speakers were Azzolina Audio Grand Sfera. Cables by Chimera Labs. I played my audiophile approved Sara K., then the Pete Townshend track.
Since no one else had any other vinyl to play, I played the Nirvana cut."
"All the other attendees present left the room, but several more people came into the room and sat down with big smiles on their faces."
"After Nirvana I played The Eurythmics and Judas Priest to more smiles. So what did I hear from these five LPs. The Sara K. is a true
audiophile recording—superbly recorded and pressed. What I heard was like her sitting and singing right there in the room with me.
Very nice."
"On the Pete Townshend track I heard every detail, every movement of his fingers. Quite a toe tapping performance. Kurt Cobain's voice on the
Nirvana cut was not quite as realistic as in the Walker room, but still very nice. The Eurythmics track is heavily mixed. On a high resolution
system you can hear each separate track of the mix. I heard all of the tracks. Turbo Lover is actually fairly well recorded and pressed, but I
played it just for fun. Judas Priest sure beats hearing Jazz at the Pawnshop for the thousandth time."
"A very nice sounding room to which I returned several times."
- Stereophile Blog:
"Thom Mackris of turntable manufacturer Galibier Design (whose Stelvio costs $12,500) had me smiling when he played a hilarious track
by Red Knuckles & the Trailblazers. Although a little raucous on top, the system (Schröder Reference SQ tonearm, perversely entitled
ZYX Universe cartridge, Artemis Labs PH-1 phono stage, preproduction Karna push-pull 300B 15W amp from Nutshell Hi Fidelity, and
Gran Sfera Horns by Azzolina Audio) offered a compellingly huge, all-enveloping, elevated soundstage coupled to a beautiful midrange."
"One room over from Galibier, and again sporting imposing Azzolina Audio speakers, Hagerman Audio was showing another all-analog system.
With no time to tune the system due to emergency equipment repairs necessitated by shipping damage, the system offered wonderful size and
considerable midrange beauty, nonetheless."
- Enjoy the Music
"In a large suite Azzolina Audio was showing their $15,000 horn-loaded full-range Gran Sfera. Using the exquisite
Galibier Stelvio turntable as a source, I was impressed by how delicate and detailed the sound was, and yet by the power as well.
Superb stuff if you have the room (and budget) for it."
09/09/2005 - John Pessetto on his Galibier purchasing experience
Hi Thom,
Thanks again for your recommendation of the Artemis PH-1 phono-preamp. I listen to it non-stop. When you and John Atwood brought
an PH-1 up to my place about 6 weeks ago, I couldn't believe how much better it was than the Loesch home-brew phono-pre I already had.
I thought the Loesch was pretty good at the time. John was kind enough to leave the PH-1 with me for a week. That week was
listening heaven. I hated to part with it and when it was gone it was a big step down. I got used to the good stuff. Now that I
have my own PH-1, I'm back in listening heaven!
I also want to thank you for the other wonderful analog products I have purchased from Galibier Design. As you know, I first got a
listen to what you were up to when you had an open house about two years ago. Peter Clark, your partner at that time, demonstrated the
differences between different platters.
I was shell shocked. I couldn't believe what a big difference the platters made. It wasn't just the weight of the platters that made
a difference but also the materials. I was so impressed that I wanted my friend Grant to listen to the differences.
You were kind enough to set up another listening session about a week later.
During this session you not only demonstrated the various platters but you asked me to bring my turntable (Townshend Rock Mk III) so we
could listen to the your motor-drive pods. Once again the platter demonstration was very impressive.
After we listened to the platters, we listened to my turntable with your separate tape-driven motor pod driving it. My jaw dropped!
The sound was more open and the rhythm was much improved. It really had drive.
After hearing this, I bought you motor pod and it ran flawlessly.
Next you recommended a Denon 103R phono cartridge. I took your word and sure enough it turned out to be a hit as well.
After this I began thinking about upgrading my table and arm. About a year later you brought your table, the Quattro Supreme, and a
Schroeder Reference arm up to my place. That combo blew me away. I had never heard a table and arm sound this good.
The Schroeder Reference was very easy to adjust. Because it was so easy to work with, I was able to "dial" it in in a short time.
Each adjustment resulted in improved sound. For a while there I couldn't stop playing with it because each adjustment made an excellent
improvement. I recommend Galibier Design to anyone interested in analog reproduction. Your extensive knowledge and experience with
analog is world class.
Put me on your very satisfied customer list!
Sincerely,
John Pessetto
[Note: John is a friend, and we've always felt uncomfortable about giving the
apperance of "stacking the deck" with testimonials like this one. His standards are extremely exacting however and he has auditioned
quite a few highly regarded turntables before deciding (in incremental steps) that our work is worth of his attention. Thank you John.]
08/12/2005 - Bob Mahony on the Motor Controller and Anvil upgrade to his
Simon Yorke turntable.
"Well I can attest to the fact that I am now hearing more air and
expansive sound, using your motor pod. One gets the illusion of the tape
guiding the platter very quietly as opposed to the York rubber belt
"pulling" at the platter. With the Yorke belts, up close, you could
always hear a friction sound of the rubber gripping the platter. With
the Mylar belt, only silence."
"The soundstage background also seems "blacker" and tends to disappear.
Must be your motor not "exciting" the platter like the rubber belts did.
I am no expert in the science of this, of course, but I can hear the
(beneficial) difference."
"I have only tried the Anvil so far without the O-ring, but I can tell
you that the bass response with Anvil in place is quite astounding. Take
it away and it becomes a bit sloppy again (although I never realized
this before)."
[Note: We never know what to expect, or what to attribute improvements
to when we apply either a motor controller or Anvil to another design. There is too much design synergy in order to predict this.
While our Anvils have had a 75% success rate, our motor controller upgrades have been at 100% to date.
We don't quite know what to make about Bob's comments about belt noise. Belt noise is perhaps the last thing we would have expected
him to comment on. Our Mylar belts are not quite dead-silent - at least to our ears. In spite of this, they are the best drive material
we've tried to date. Certainly we don't know what all of the hoopla about silk thread and ribbon is all about. Everyone of our customers
who has tried them (along with our own listening sessions here in Colorado) has commented on the blurred presentation.
]
"I have never listened to so many records non stop since I bought your table. Honestly I have probably listened to a total of
5 or 6 CD's since you delivered the table to me. I have between 2500 and 3000 records, and all I do is pull out new ones to
enjoy, they never sounded so good."
"I'm using the SPU on the old 16 inch Ortofon RMG-309 arm, it is a little richer sounding top to bottom. Anyway it matches
beautifully with the table. The Micro and Denon are also still mounted,
[Micro Seiki Mx 282 tonearm / Denon DL 103R Cartridge] but
it seems like I mainly listen to the Ortofon combination, but it is nice to have a table that I can mount both arms on at the same time!!"
Thanks so much,
Kevin
In November, 2005 he wrote us:
"It's been a while since I talked to you. I have been enjoying the
Supreme table very very much to say the least! You know how some products
really turn you on at first, and then it begins to wear off. Well it is
just the oposite with your table, it never lets me down. I have never
experienced this with a product before except with the Ale speakers. I
absolutely love it!!"
[Note: We consider Kevin to be a partularly discerning customer.
He previously owned a Platine Verdier for 3 years. The switch to the Supreme was a revelation to him as he indicates above.
Kevin distributes the extremely rare Ales compression driver based speaker systems. To say that his electronics and speakers
are world-class is an understatment.]
01/11/2005 - Jeff Weiner on his Quattro
"The Quattro arrived on Saturday. I set it up Sunday afternoon & I've been in
Quattro heaven since then. I listened to about 6 or 7 albums & every album
is better than the next.
I listened to so many cd's while the Quattro was on
vacation that I started believing in the digital format. I even considered
buying eventually, a new cd player. I slapped the vinyl on & all that ended."
[Note: Jeff had returned his original Quattro
for a platter/bearing upgrade. Because we match the bearing and platter, Jeff spent a short while without
his Quattro.]
November, 2004 - The Listening Column in the October Issue of Stereophile Magazine is now online
.
Click here for the article
and here for our published manufacturer's reply, and
here for our further comments.
Rocky Mountain Audiofest 2004 - Show Coverage
6moons.com
had this to say about our main room which we shared with Exemplar Audio:
"Thom Mackris of Galibier Design turntable fame shared this room in person and with his table and Jim Hagerman's
Hawaiian Trumpet phono stage can be seen tucked between the massive legs of the table's support.
John and Thom had another one of those really good-sounding rooms that made it essentially
impossible to pick any unequivocal "Best of" exhibits."
6moons.com
- in the Hagerman Technology room
Enjoy the Music
- in the Hagerman Technology room
[Bill waxes on about his Gavia which replaced trusty Linn LP12.
Bill kept his Hadcock tonearm and the same cartridge when he made the switch.]
Bill recently wrote us an e-mail which said about as well as you can say it, what this is all about. I was so struck by it
that (with his permission) I added it to our Rants page. Click here to read it.
"The Galibier has even convinced my missus, and believe me that is saying something!
Anyway a brief précis of my experiences over the weekend.
My main amp (the AN 300B SET) is still giving some problems and was not in
service, so I initially used the AN Kit4, which has upgraded coupling
caps and cathode bypass caps, but is essentially a pretty cheap amp.
Everything I played just stunned me - one way or another. Of special
interest were two charity shop bargains, (1) Caballe doing Lucrezia Borgia
on EMI (I think), and (2) a recording of Janacek's Sinfonieta. I had played
both of these (after cleaning of course) and was definitely underwhelmed.
[hearing it through his
LP12]
The opera was not by one of my favourite composers and in fact is not one of
his (Donnizetti) most proclaimed works, so I was prepared to be disappointed.
The Janacek was a real bummer though, this is one of my all time favourites
and when played with the Linn just left me thinking "Well perhaps its not
such a great piece after all" - but I know it is.
[after hearing it through the Galibier]
Right, so first off what did the Galibier sound like with female singing?
First on was an Elisabeth Scharzkopf recording of R. Strauss "Four Last
Songs", this sounded great on the Linn and even better on the Galibier - no
surprises here.
Now being lazy and the only piece of Italian opera actually
in the listening room being the Lucreazia Borgia I mentioned above, I
decided to give it a spin. Well, from something that made no impression at
all the first time I listened to it, we are all of a sudden in spine
tingling areas - it was truly awesome. Next on was the Janacek, now I knew
why I love this piece so much, it was absolutely towering!
The interesting thing about the Janacek is that the first version I bought
and that I really have enjoyed in the past, is by Simon Rattle (with City of
Birmingham Symphony Orchestra but now with the Berlin Philharmonic I think and
not really my favourite conductor) and not only that it is also on CD!
Now going back to what Art
[Dudley - from his Stereophile review in October, 2004)] said to you about
dynamics. I reckon my CD player has greater dynamics than my old Linn (everything else
is worse) and the Sinfonieta without dynamics in the replay system just ain't gonna work.
With this work on the Galibier you get the best of both worlds - dynamics and the high
frequency response that only vinyl gives you.
The more I listen then the more I am rediscovering things, for example, I
was playing some Leonard Cohen and was completely bowled over by "Sisters of
Mercy" and you can hear stuff in it that I had never heard before.
But to call this holographic or anything like this is wrong. I have heard such
systems and quite often they sound sterile and unnatural - this now sounds
so natural, I have never been closer to the live sound than I am now.
I have just bought my last record deck!"
[the following is from a subsequent e-mail ...]
"I am still amazed at your deck, I am hearing things in a different light.
One of my favourite bands of the mid/late 60s was Canned Heat, I loved the
Bear and the Sunflower and I recently cleaned my copy of "Boogie With Canned
Heat". Now, this is a mono recording that has been battered around, you
know duff equipment, taking LPs to parties (this was common in the 60s!!!)
etc. Compared to a CD "Best Of Canned Heat" I have, the tracks common to
both were so much better on vinyl - not a little bit!
Who said that rock don't work on Vinyl and SETs?
You can tell I am working through my collection because every e-mail from me
mentions different conductor/orchestra combinations or rock bands!"
[Note: even if you're not an opera fan, listen to a talented, well recorded soprano. This is one of
the cruelest tests you can put a vinyl playback system through. With a good tracking arm and cartridge,
a Galibier turntable may just convert you into being an opera lover.
August, 2004 - Kenneth Cheong's vist to Galibier
We entertained Kenneth on his vist to Boulder - en route back home across the Pacific.
Click here to read his account. Kenneth is one
of those music lovers who makes this entire effort worthwhile.
06/19/2004 - Dave Vorhis on his Gavia
"My new Gavia is everything I had hoped it would be. I knew it would look great---I could tell that
from the photos---but the sound quality has exceeded even my high expectations.
There is subtle detailing and little shifts in dynamics that I simply never heard on my VPI 19 Mk. III or
Thorens TD-124. I was concerned that I might lose some of the Thorens' rhythmic involvement, the PRAT factor,
but your table has that in spades!
I also had some doubts about buying a table without first seeing it or hearing it. However, your consultations
by phone and email made the process easy and convenient, and they gave me the confidence to place the order.
The table arrived safe and sound in three double-boxed cartons. Setup was easy. I was listening to Miles Davis
two hours after opening the first box.
Thanks Thom!"
[Note: to date, we've gone head to head against numerous "modern" turntables. Dave's reaction when comparing
his Gavia with the humble PVC platter against one of the well regarded classics of yesteryear is particularly
gratifying to us. When your appeal spans widely divergent tastes, you know that you're approaching the musical truth.]
October, 2003 Coverage of VSAC, 2003 in Silverdale, WA
Our last show as Redpoint Audio Design, Scott Faller reviews the room we shared with Welborne Labs equipped with
a Quattro. Scroll to the bottom of the page.
"Very impressed with Anvil as you can see ;-) Works brilliantly!!
Only prob for wide low carts like Clearaudios - they can hit the edge
and not get to the inner most groove on most records. Maybe a thinner
edge might help? But then I just read your new site and you know that ;-)
Yet another layer of grunge disappears, leaving more music - yay. What's
really neat is the o-rings form an air seal and so pushing down on it hard
at the start squishes out all the air. At the end of play that side, remove
Anvil and record is stuck to platter most times - mini-vac hold down :-)
Needed both o-rings and a nut from a phono connector under to get it up high
enough on Teres. Found the marvel mystery oil so that awaits another day as
does the tape drive.
Well done on your new site."
03/31/2003 Larry Keatts on the ease of setup
"I really do like the arm pod with the screw adjustments. I can see that the
longer you use this the harder it would be to go back to cartridge
adjustments in the headshell. Several times I pulled the arm pod out so it
would be easier to make adjustments and replaced it and the alignment was
still dead on."
01/28/2003 Phil Sieg - Knoxville, TN on his motor controller upgrade
to his Platine Verdier
"That’s a Platine Verdier with a Fidelity Research FR-66s arm. The arm block is solid Rosewood
and custom step-up transformers are mounted in the block. Cartridges are an Ortofon SPU Meister
Silver GM, an Ortofon SPU Mono GM and a 1979 vintage Koetsu Rosewood (rebuilt in ’98 by the
Suganos to Signature specs) in a RS Labs RS-3 head shell. The motor assembly is the
Redpoint [Galibier] Audio/Maxon S controller and motor mounted on a poured concrete
base. Power for the motor is supplied by a rechargeable 12VDC sealed lead-acid battery pack that sits behind
the motor."
[Note: Although Phil's review in the now defunct Listener Magazine (Sept/Oct 2002 issue) is
of a Redpoint Testa Rossa, it shares the same blood lines with our Quattro with many common components.
We consider his comments to be representative of what we do.]
The Listener Review
"Thanks, Thom! I really appreciate your quick work on the motor/controller. It really came out beautifully -
and sounds great. I sold my SDS power supply the day after I tried your controller. You can put that on
your website too!"
07/09/2002 G. Munger - Wappingers Falls, NY (former VPI owner) on his Anvil and Rega VTA
(implemented on Teres s/n 31):
"the Anvil is an incredible device, I think, (only with silicone oil Igor added) and wouldn't leave home without it.
The K-worked arm-cable seemed as if it was not there; as if the preamp/amp were inside the cartridge; the clarity seemed
so effortless; 'Breathtaking' is the word.
...You might think me biased here, but, after the VTA was set-up (VTA is cool; a must for a Rega 250), and the oiled-Anvil,
any 'acrylic-platter-brittle factor' was disqualified;
...A magnificent implementation! ... you have what I would highly recommend to ALL TERES-Rega owners (likely to many
others, too). The Anvil's weight does require extreme care; the manufacturer might be advised to call attention to
the proud user of same; it could be a 'record breaking' experience, for better or worse.
[Note: the central chamber in the Anvil was designed for mass loading (lead shot provided) as well as fluid damping
(it has an o-ring groove to form an oil seal). While this facilitates user experimentation, we have found lead shot
alone to work best in the majority of systems. This is how we deliver the Anvil. Of course, we can't predict how it
will behave in your system, and hence, the tuneability feature. Reference the
Anvil Page for application notes.]
07/08/2002 Dan Dicker - Great Neck, NY (former Linn LP12 owner) on his
Quattro Classic:
"You will see that the picture was taken WHILE a record is playing, that's because that's been the state of the
device almost constantly since it first got wired in. I'm having one of those few audiophile 'fun times' where
the sounds are not marginally better, but so monumentally improved in so many ways that I can't seem to find a fault.
Everything that analog always did for me, and all the things that analog did that digital never could do is here
in the Redpoint [Galibier], but by a factor more apparent than I'd ever expected. It's not in your face, but so alive,
with size and space and overtones and separation of sounds.....all the things that digital will 'never' do and which
only a very few TT's do really, really well.
04/27/2002 Phil Sieg's comments on the
Bottlehead forum
04/23/2002 Ed Kotsides' comments on
Vinyl Asylum
Ed's evolving system can be seen here.
[Note: these comments date back to 2002 when we were building our turntables
under the Redpoint name, in partnership with Peter Clark.
]
02/13/2002 David Suess on the Rega VTA
"To me the Redpoint [Galibier] Rega VTA adjuster
looks like what Rega would have done if they hadn't forgotten to give the user VTA
adjustment. And you can quote me on that, too!!"
