Grand Prix Monaco review in new Stereophile- OUCH

Actually Monsieur Fremer, in all seriousness, thanks for giving us a "warts and all" review. Having seen your post, I reread your review... and yes, "damning with faint praise" would be, in retrospect, an overharsh opinion. It is obvious that there are things you have a hard time with on this turntable, and things you really like about it.

The sad fact is, for most of us, we cannot hear 4 tables with three arms and 4 cartridges, etc, the best we can do is maybe a dealer comes with one recommended setup to your house, in my experience. So sadly, we have to depend on turntable, cartridge and arm reviews way more than either you or we would like, I am sure. Many dealers will schlep an amp or a cd player, or ship one for an inhome demo, the same cannot be said for turntables.

Cheers,
Chris

Dear Grooves: +++++ " If one wishes for "accuracy," you're better off with a CD player, which "measures" far better than any turntable. " +++++

I don't mean it in that way, I speak of accuracy because reading your review and the white papers of the Monaco design the word accuracy takes a very wide meaning and along with that the Monaco people are experts on damping/vibrations/dissipations devices. His design was very well thinking, unfortunately I never had the opportunity hear it for to have a more precise idea of what you report on your review and what other report on different reviews on the Monaco.

Obviously the Caliburn is a top performer ( well at that price anithing must be. ) and between other advantages it has a vacuum hold down record that is a real advantage over any other TT design with out it.

Any way the Monaco is an audio item that any of us have to hear and it looks like a top TT alternative for any analog music lover.

Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.

Good for you, Rauliregas, for coming out and saying that you had not heard the Monaco.

Mr. Fremer, thanks a lot for taking the time to post the horse's-mouth info this discussion needed (and outing your nick).

I am sorry to disagree with you Mikey.I am entitled to my own opinion.
Understand,when I read how a product,like the "beautiful" Monaco does not sound so hot,and does not "appear" to be extremely costly,from a parts standpoint(at least not 20 grand),it is not too big a stretch to think it is over priced.I don't buy the direct drive reason for this either.Carbon fibre...maybe-:)
Looking at another very precise design,like an Oracle Delphi MK ( "what ever is the latest"),something I don't own btw,and seeing the Monaco costs FOUR times it's asking price,I feel(only an opinion)that the Monaco is way too expensive.
Both designs are precise,and beautifully made,but the Delphi "sounds good"!
Sorry,and I understand the "nickle defense" of a mfgr,but you owe your readership something as well!
No wonder High End is in the state it is in,and so many mfgrs are hurting!Do you remember the OLD TAS?I cannot believe "that" scribe would have had nothing to say about "this" asking price!
Sorry for the sarcasm,but I/we don't have to go gracefully into "over priced land" without an occassional objection!There was a time that the journalists of the day were on our(the consumer's)side!
BTW,I am not in condemnation of you,as a reviewer.Just your last post!It cannot be easy being in your shoes,and you "DO" do a credible job.
Best.

I think the simple answer (which unfortunatley isn't easy to do) is to let a mastering engineer hear the table and compare it to what's on the master tape.

There has to be some objective truth as to what provides the most faithful reproduction of the master tape. (objectivity in what is most faithful to live acoustic music is more difficult)

Perhaps an LP mastered from digital recording could be compared with the SACD release. In that instance, the SACD should be a closer estimation to what the 96 or 192K master sounds like rather than a downsampled CD.

Maybe even better would be a Linn records release that was offereed in LP and 96K/192K download because they seem to be offered in their native sample rate, and I read one post that seemed to indicate that those high res downloads sounded better decoded by a PS audio DLIII than the SACD's

Forgive the digital diatribe, I'm just trying to see if digital comparisons can help us make better assesments of our analog playback systems.