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Brinkmann Bardo

I just replaced a Clearaudio Avantgarde Magnum with a Brinkmann Bardo. Both had the Phantom tonearm II.

Wondering if anyone else has bought this table and what their thoughts are?

My initial impressions are that it grabs your attention and does not let you wander off in thoughts as you listen to music. Maybe a little less open then the Clearaudio, but more grounded and solid as a result.
I definitely like it more than the Balance, which I found to be too "damped" and a bit boring to listen too.

I also felt that changing the arm to the Graham resulted in a more profound change and improvement to the character of the system than the table swap.
dbjain
wjsamx
12 posts
 
I had the opportunity to demo both the Bardos and the Artemis TT's. I'm very impressed with both. If I had to briefly describe them, I would say that the Bardos is detailed, wide-open, and quiet. The Artemis is too but adds some element of magic, being more romantic, rich, warm, and smooth. The Bardos is definately tranparent, and the Artemis seems to be voiced like a finely manufactured and tuned instrument. There were LP's I brought that sounded better on one than the other. Looks like I need both :)
lewm
6,770 posts
 
Downunder, you guys should get together to compare the P3 with the GP Monaco. I would love to hear about that comparison, notwithstanding the difference in tonearms that is inevitable.
downunder
1,328 posts
 
Lew

Unfortunately Ian and myself live 1000km's away from each other. Its a big country downunder. But Jasper and Ian both live in Melbourne - so you never know in the future.

the p3 frankly is too big to move easily, the Monaco is considerably smaller in the real estate it uses.

Does anyone know the differences (outside of plinth) of the GP Monaco and Brinkman tables on the DD side of things?

homosapien's avatar
homosapien
70 posts
 
Question for Wjsamx - what was tonarm and cartrige on Bardo and Artemis during the demo?
Thank you.
wjsamx
12 posts
 
Answer to Homosapien - I brought my own tonarm and cartridges to be completely fair. New Ortofon AS-212s with 3 Ortofon LH-9000 headshells, one with a very low hour Micro Acoustics 2002e, one with a low hour Clearaudio Maestro Wood, and one with a low hour Ortofon 2M Black. Both tables set up using a Freikert alignment protractor, VTF set to exactly 1.25g for Micro Acoustics, 2.2g for the Clearaudio, and 1.5g for the Ortofon 2M via digital scale, VTA and azimuth set at level by using 2 Millennium turntable cartridge alignment blocks (http://www.m-puck.de/interanlageblockseite.htm). Both TT's leveled (at separate times) on same platform connected to the same sound (tube) system. In general, the Brinkmann to me seemed to have more toe tapping, Artemis seemed to me to have that too but gave a more emotional and natural presentation.
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