Is the Teres a

Doug: Nice to hear someone else point out the critical nature of speed control/stability. Too often overlooked among talk of materials.

As far as PRAT goes, everyone seems to have their own definition. I would think that if anyone is referring to PRAT in the context of a table, they are referring to the table's ability to convey the "PRAT" as exhibited by the musicians in their work (as you mention), and not wishing for same conveyance to be "colored". Then again, I could be wrong. ;-)

Hi,

For me, a humble vinyl guy (I only have the Basis 2000), PRaT would be a Basis 2000 with the RS-A1 arm.

If I still had the 2000 with the stock RB300 arm, then, definitely, there's no PRaT.

I do hope the Rocky Mountain High shoot-out come to fruition. I'll be waiting, with abated breath, the outcome of a Quattro Supreme/Teres 340/Basis Work-of-Art/Clearaudio what-have-you High Noon.

Will it be messy?

Cheers,
George

Thom,

Great post. If you could ever get the rest of them in a room for comparison, I would be there in a NY minute. Maybe we could get Albert to forget his camera and bring his TT, too.

P.S. I of course meant butt-ugly in a good way. =X

Thom,
That would be one wild shootout. Say, how about a SW Audio Fest? Maybe in Tombstone? I hear they have a corral that's supposed to be okay, even if things get as messy as NGeorge hopes!

You make an excellent point about the futility of trying to judge any material in a vacuum. Synergy is critical and difficult to predict. A perfect example is in the two best tonearms I've heard. The Schroeder Reference and TriPlanar VII sound more alike - which is to say, invisible - than the other good arms I've heard. But they could hardly be more different in materials and engineering choices. IME anyone who summarily ruled out one or the other based just on materials would be doing themselves a disservice.

I'll have to check out AD's Graham Robin review, just to get an idea where he was coming from. BTW, any sign of your TriPlanar yet?

David,
I hope you're right (about PRaT in the context of a TT review). But I see the term bandied about so often by fans of colored TT's, arms and cartridges that it always makes me wary. Clearly one man's PRaT is another man's PRiSoN!