Grand Prix Monaco review in new Stereophile- OUCH


Anyone read Fremer's review of the Grand Prix Monaco in the latest Stereophile?

Ouch that has to hurt. I am familar with the design of this table, and of course on paper it seems groundbreaking, but if I were in the market for a $20K table, (I'm not) this review would completely kill my interest in this seemingly stellar product.

Any other opinions?

(actually this is a great issue of Stereophile - lots of gear I am intersted in)
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That you are stooping now to question my motives, my intentions, my personal feelings toward Mr. Lloyd, who I barely know, is indicative of the bizarre way in which this review has been received.

Don't forget: I've critically reviewed hundreds of products and have experienced hundreds of reactions, but none like this one. Not even close.

If you were in my position, you'd see this as a "Village of the Damned" scenario.

I mean do you want to read pure advertising copy?":

"it seems to me that Mr Fremer does not like Mr Lloyd and his endeavors, shaking up audiphile establishement with forward thinking ideas and technologically advanced solutions."

Mr. Lloyd is doing nothing all that different from what other competent individuals are doing in audio. What is he "shaking up?" Andy Payor built a dd turntables years ago. I reviewed it. Carbon fiber? Is that something "advanced" to you? Is Black Diamond Racing a name you're familiar with?

Just to be clear: I don't mean to disparage Alvin Lloyd's accomplishments here, nor did I in the review. Quite the opposite in fact.

However, I do mean to disparage the poster who wrote what's above because it's silly. Mr. Lloyd is hardly the only one designing "technologically advanced" audio products. I review such products all the time. Why would I, or any reviewer hold that against him?

A few months ago I reviewed the Kuzma Reference 'table and Airline tonearm. I wrote a review that was no more positive or negative than the one I wrote about the Monaco. I described what I heard, using adjectives, not superlatives. Much of what I found was sonically attractive, however I found the overall balance of the combo BRIGHT and said I wouldn't recommend using a Lyra Titan i or any other cartridge on the analytical side of the sonic fence on it.

GUESS WHAT? That review did not generate the hysteria the Monaco review has created. It's positively bizarre. Some of you are behaving as if I have desecrated a flag.

Snap out of it. The Monaco is just other audio product. It is nothing sacrosanct. Stop treating it as such. I wrote my opinion of what it sounds like. It's that simple, so get over it.
The three things that stand out in my mind here are the stand issue, which has been fully discussed, the assumption that the sonics can be traced primarily to DD vs. BD, and the fact that aside from the Monaco's many obvious strengths, one way its problems showed up was in a lack of dimensioality, in other words, a lack of resolution. This is not an issue of altering the flavor through tweeking; it is a lack of information. IMHO, VTA, loading, etc. should not change this once optimized in a truly reference system. The only issue that makes sense to me aside from that of the stand is perhaps the way an arm and table handle resonances and how they interact around that.

I throw my vote in with those that think Michael has done an unusually good and honest job of ferreting out the deal here. We can only aspire in such situations though. This is planet earth after all and there are many logistics that will forever remove us from situational perfection.
Dear Piedpiper: +++++ " VTA, loading, etc. should not change this once optimized in a truly reference system. " +++++

I agree but that never happen..

Regards and enjoy the music.
raul.