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)
emailists
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.