Grand Prix Audio Monaco Turntable

Dear Henry: Certainly I will do it sooner or latter and thank you again for the HiFi+ link.

Obviously there could be no same Monaco level performance but my SP-10MK2 ( with out plinth, very important subject. ) is doing things very well and in many ways better than my BD ones.

Anyway here through the Monaco design all of us have a " different very high quality performer new kid on the street " and this fact is a welcome one to all audio industry!!

Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.

It is a pleasure to find this thread. In fact just few days ago I had never heard of Grand Prix Audio. I stumbled upon this turn table when I found out that this TT was used with all Zanden system at CES 2008. Then I read Hifi+ review by RG- a very well written and pretty thorough review, as always and find it real fascinating. I don't know if it is true or not but it was kind of embarrassing to find him uncover the fact that the Emperor (Typical high end analog sound) has no cloths!

Also glad to read that closest similar sound spectra is produced by the Clearaudio Master Ref Deck ( which I happen to own and love). I have lived with the Clearauido MR TT for more than a year and still amazed at the how transparent sound it reproduces. The sound is (MR) anything but lean. The bass is deep, tight and has plenty tonal colors rather than just sound warm , big and fluffy. High freq. extension also is there but nothing that stands out unless it is present in recording/note. Mids are 'big' and life like. Percussion notes are fast as well as well 'spread' (duration and substantial and enough mid/high freq content- don't know how else to describe. In other words there is no short high freq bursts but has some character that you can 'look' into. Closely mike triangles have distinct impact, body and reverb. The drum sticks sound substantial, present and woody I could go on and on))
In fact, occasionally I have wished for bass to be round and big but I know that real life acoustic bass has definition and varied tonal colors. On Electronic music, which I listen to a lot, the bass is practically earthshaking and I mean like 'center of earth bass'. I would call this sound anything but lean. I am not describing to toot my own horn but trying to get handle on well set up GPA's reproduced sound characteristics

If this sound characteristics is any indication then, GPA hifi+ sound report/review probably is right on mark. I have not read the MF report yet.

Only question is would anyone pay $20k plus for mere 40 pound puny looking TT which probably don't entitle you for any bragging rights- like say TWRaven or walker or even Clearaudio MR ;-)? (I am kidding of course. )

Okay, just read the Stereophile review also. Both review kind of indicate similar sounds signature (Top to bottom clarity) but at the same time could not be more similar based on Tone arm and cartridge choices. It is obvious that MF found the sound dry and etched based on his set up vs Roy found it right based on his set up. Who is correct? Probably both in the respective set up and systems tried.

Thanks for the link, I've been waiting for the issue to be released here, but no luck. Its always good to have a 2nd opinion.

So much talk about speed stability. Hi-Fi+ says the speed accuracy of the Monaco is better than .002%.

I'm posting something I posted in another thread. Below is my account on how you can achieve as much as .000083% accuracy with your own turntable.

Conversely, what if you manage to time the speed of the platter perfectly. I would think one should take into account the vinyl micro-slipping on the platter.

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I have the same album for vinyl and cd. The cd plays on my headphones. The vinyl plays on the speakers.

I play the vinyl a split second earlier than the cd then I slow down the platter down by dragging my fingers on the platter. I do this until both are synced. You know this when you have the headphones on and the speakers seems to disappear completly in the background. It's a zen-like experience in itself.

So both are synced right now. If the drums are still locked synced after one minute. You are more accurate than the KAB speed strobe.

The KAB has a .03% error rate. A .03% error rate between the CD and the vinyl has a slight "reverb" sound. It's very obvious.

---technical-----
My profession is in the visual effects industry for tv/film. I did a test on Adobe After Effects on how a .03% error would sound. I did this by slipping an audio track one frame ahead of it's duplicate. Video is 30 frames per second. 1 frame error is .03%. Now I know how 'bad' a .03% error sounds like and use that as a baseline.
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On my vinyl speed test. My vinyl was able to hold up to 6 mins. before it sounds like it has a .03% error, (or .03 seconds time shift between the cd and the vinyl)
6 mins = 360 secs.
.03 / 360 = .00008333

conclusion:
It takes several times to make the vinyl lock in with the cd before you can start timing how long it is synced. But after such, you can brag your turntable is accurate to ten thousandth of a second. :)

Would like to see how long you guys can keep both sources synced. Would make a great contest.