You’re just another shill for proven ridiculous audio product scams.

Why are rè issues so expensive?

The best brush to use is a cheap makeup brush.

Sounds a bit muffled to me with that or the ortofon blue. Not sure if it’s the table or the cartridge or the way you may have misaligned the cartridge to the tonearm.

Everyone always compares to stock cables and we all know they're crap. So any expensive cable compared against unshielded cables could do better in a noisy environment. What i want to know is if you go one step up, a shielded hospital cablemfor example, will that get you to the same point as the GR research? Or do cables above the GR Research give you more?

Show us the darn thing. Lol.

Sound emitted by the speakers reacts with everything it contacts, delayed by the speed of sound. The floor is reacting to.the airborne sound as well as everything sitting in contact. All slightly out of phase, Even deadened speakers will release and react to air and solid bound noise. Like the effect of inaudible power supply noise lightening the black background. I find decoupling the speakers deadens this unnoticed background noise letting me hear deeper into the music. I confess there’s no documentation for this, but it makes sense to me. Turn up the dark!

Sounds like it has too many flaws with fine finished cleaning ..Maybe it is good for people that constantly have many dirty LPs to clean ..I only use a old broke belt drive dead motor Technics and Lart Du Son mix and a wet dry vacuum cleaner

interesting. I've been using the Onzow zerodust since 2008. I've been getting 3-5 years out of my Dynavector cartridges before needing a re-tip (depending on how heavily I listen to vinyl) so I'm not detecting any reason for concern. I dont go overboard with cleaning though. some people dip their stylus into the zerodust at the start of every side, which to me is total overkill. I may use the zerodust once or twice a month, that it's. my records are clean and I prefer using the zerodust to clean a long gradual buildup of dirt, not as some "every vinyl" ritual.

Agree. It depends. 25 years in the business: the equipment, various interactions, the room, the human factors, all contribute. Not all listeners listen the same.

Why didn’t you just play a record before and after ? That would have been a lot more interesting to watch than your demonstration ?

It does cost 33% more 😢

Scripted review is lifeless and sounds phony. Maybe the PA is ok.

I still have all of my Alice Cooper albums.

"i doubt we'll see it this low again" - Funny enough I just grabbed the Degritter Mark II (normally $3300) from a store in Berlin selling it for $2600 (about $2800 after shipping to the U.S.) shout to HHV, huge save imo. Didn't even get held up in customs too bad.

Could you hear any differences when playing?

This video could have been less than 5 minutes..

The Hegel is better compared to the X3/5

I just ordered the RT85N, my first turntable in 35 years. I didn’t have the option of auditioning the Ortofon-equipped version, but I tend to favor a warmer, more relaxed sound over a brighter one. The Nagaoka appears to be perfect for me as a starting point. Thanks for your review!

Yes it's the shielding and better conducting materials but honestly I wouldn't spend more than a few hundred bucks on a cable if it's a very high end system however multi thousand dollor cables do exist that's a bit extreme

Ty for reviewing this light. I just upgraded my turntable and was thinking about adding a light as im getting older. I hope that i didn't miss the raffle as id love to win this!! I live in Canada and would gladly pay the shipping fee.

If this is so magical, i wonder why speaker makers have not thought of that.

I bought a ubecube. But no way to let them know you sent me…

The Kill 'em All set is great of course, but content wise, it's clear it's their first album. Something like the Black Album or Justice is rammed with cd's and LP's.

Got them all so far and loving them. I'm less excited to pay up for the Load/Relaod, but I'm not having gaps in this collection, even St Anger. While that's not a good album, I did get my username from it and it did come with a new live sound from the band which I loved. I distinctly remember finding a copy of the Rock AM concert and the new very hard and loud sound was amazing, so I am looking forward to the live CDs and DVDs

Hi Chris - I just discovered your channel, thanks to Danny. I'm impressed by your spoken work - very stylish in a literary way. In a recent video, Danny referred to your imminent visit as I'm sure you're aware, so I decided I needed to discover your channel. KUDOS! Amongst many other tweaks I've experimented with in my 53 years in this wonderful hobby of ours, cable risers is my latest and in my revealing and carefully matched system, I immediately heard a difference which I characterize as an improvement. Freer extreme highs, faster transients as well as a better soundstage and imaging. I think it's no surprise that many high-end systems have cable risers. I made my own from oak offcuts so they color-match my wooden flooring. A previous tweak is decoupling the loudspeakers from the floor, which I tried after watching Max Townshend's convincing demo on KZfaq. I was gobsmacked what a difference this made, liberating the high mids and top end and cleaning up the bass. Imaging made a big step in the right direction too. Previously I had been a spike disciple. And yes, of course in this system and with ears used to 53 years of critical listening in a revealing high-resolution system, despite my ears' worsening frequency response cables DO make a difference! Wishing you all the best, especially years of musical pleasure, Rob in Switzerland

So my take-away from this experiment is, to reduce static, place the record on the turntable! 😂😂😂

This man hates paper sleeves more than Garfield hates mondays

For me, I use a tube-based Fosi Audio preamp. Being tube-based, I can swap-out the tubes to fine-tune the audio. I'm happy.

Awesome review with great detail. I just bought the zen air from Crutchfield based on this review and many others. Nobody has anything bad to say about this unit. It’s right up my alley as I’m always looking for good sound at good prices.

Odd how part of the video your face was blurry...Useful content though

What about just sitting the record on a esd mat and then placing it on the turntable while wearing a esd strap?

I bought a bunch MoFi OMR's in 1981 & '82 while stationed at Wright-Patterson. I paid $15.25 for them while regular pressings were $5 and consider it some of the best spent money I have ever spent. These things still sound amazing 40+ years & hundreds of plays later, wouldn't trade them for the world. BUT... if MoFi used false advertising or made false statements about their later products I can see why people are pissed. Should MoFi be put out of bussines??? Hell No. Should they pay for the lies, Hell Yes. They need to lower prices and make more pressings available since they have that DSD file that doesn't degrade like a magnetic tape does. Y'all can sue if you want, get your money back if the lawyers don't take it all, they will btw. Class action law suits are a lawyers wet dream, they fight like hell to use Your problem to put money in Their pocket while You get pennies. P.S. Great video and well thought out. You just got a new subscriber here.

Ain't gonna use it again.

"Can't be empirically proven" Well that's the rub now isn't it? The "take my word for it, and just buy my overpriced cables BS" is the reason for the snark. Being cordial to people who intend to rip you off is idiotic.

I just want to say, I have watched about 10 similar videos in the past few days to narrow my choices down and you explained everything in such a clear concise way that I can say I've learned more from this one video than all of the others combined. Thank you for making this!

After a fresh retip from Soundsmith they took caution about liquids and recommend blu tac,I have yet to try the blu tac but now I am hesitant

I own the 250 LVB Ortofon Black 2M. I graduated from the 2M Bronze. I am very glad I did as wonderful as the 2M bronze was. My equipment is a Denon PMA 1600 amp., a technics SL1210 GR, an EAT E glo petite for phono preamp and B&W 702 S2’s connected with Audio Quest AWG 12 cable. I also have 2 REL’s R7 subwoofers in the system. Kimble silver cable between the turntable and pre-amp and the pre-amp and the Denon amp. I took the time to describe this so if you are seriously reading this it will offer you a detailed view. The move to the LVB stylus was well worth it. Soundstage became larger than the bronze, there is much more detail than the bronze and there is NEVER inner groove distortion, which with the bronze it happened occasionally. Although badly pressed records had more to do with it. The timbre and detailed of a mass of strings, as in Beethoven’s 9th, was the best I ever heard out of my 30 yrs old Decca Recording ever. On single voices : they sound more real and intimate. In sum I made a great decision. Now the boron cantilever is fragile. You have to handle this cartridge carefully. Boron is more rigid than aluminum but also more susceptible to splitting if you you get sloppy handling the tonearm. I also increased the mass of my tonearm. My thought was, and I was right, a little extra weight at the back would prevent the dog from wagging the tail. So I added the extra weight that came with the SL-1210 GR. -If you know what I mean.- Yes, I also did rebalance the tonearm even though most people might think that just changing the tip would be enough. Come on, we all here take this seriously right? I also use a double slice of blue moon gel over the hesdshell, installed before rebalancing the arm. As a whole all this improvements increased my set up’s ability to benefit from the increased output and energy this cartridge produces. But I am assured the toner arm remains cool and staid in spite of the shibata transmitting all that energy through the boron cantilever up stream. I also confess I also have a K.A.B. Silicone liquid trough at the base of my SL 1210 GR tonearm. And when needed, mostly for bad recorded records, I might bring down a notch the capacitance on the phono preamp. But that is it. This is a dream of a cartridge that being a moving magnet easily positions itself in the echelon of a Hana ML. Which I also own. Although the LVB behaved more daringly, with quicker response which brings a feeling of more immediacy than the beautifully relaxed Hana ML. Last keep your records impecable. If you need info on how to do this let me know. Enjoy!

I learned a long time ago that once you hit a certain level the quality of the recording makes or breaks the experience. You can have $100k invested but a shitty recording stays a shitty recording.

I’m def not an expert, but from what I’m reading on google the ultrasonic power figure seems to be most important when considering the volume, or watts/gallon ratio. It seems that many of the cleaners have the power scale to the volume of fluid, and small capacity cleaners like this one seem to be 30-50w on average. I used to own a small capacity ultrasonic jewelry cleaner from sharper image that’s probably in the 30w range (or less) and it did a surprisingly great job with jewelry. Not sure if that’s accurate or helpful, just what I’m reading. I worry about the labels getting wet on occasion with this unit.

So is it the cables or possibly the connectors for these cables? The cables themselves might matter in that they have some impedance and might add some coloration to the sound, but like you said, it is super marginal...so much so that you don't always hear the difference. There are tons of other things that matter in terms of sound too in your system. If you can't always tell the difference, imo the difference is super marginal, and might not be worth it. Your wine example doesn't apply. Same alcohol content and grapes doesn't mean they measure the same. The barrels in which they are fermented, any additives that are added - the grapes themselves even from the same bunch taste very different many a times...all these factors affect the taste.

I prefer coax to toslink. Sounds better IMO.

I'm strongly thinking about replacing my 20 year old Stanton ST-100. With my research, I keep coming back to the RT 85.

I visited my local boutique hi-fi store on a sunny Saturday afternoon in september. They were having a closing down sale. Their third closing down sale that summer. I noted a 5 feet ultra exotic mains cable, reduced from $5500 to $499.99. I bought it, on a whim, well actually, I bought it on my Amex Platinum card. I proudly took it home. When my wife saw the receipt, armed with a cast iron frying pan, she put me in hospital for a week. On my return home, I donned my motorbike crash helmet and decided to fit the cable to our 1800 spin speed washing machine. The difference it made was astonishing. It now heated the water to the required temperature 4.05 seconds faster than it did previously. I calculated that if I did 4 washes a week for 785 years, the energy savings would cover the cost of that cable negating the need for me to hide that cast iron frying pan. It also allowed that washing machine to reach its maximum spin speed of 1800 rpm without shaking like a thing possessed and dancing around my utility room. Though I attribute that to the cable’s binding qualities, not its electrical properties. The caveat, because there is always a caveat. My teenage daughter used to derive immense pleasure from sitting astride that machine as it reached maximum spin speed. That damned ultra exotic mains cable has denied her that basic, primal pleasure. Now, neither my wife or teenage daughter speak to me. That has dramatically lowered the noise floor of my hi-fi making listening far mor rewarding. The best $499.99 I ever spent. 😊

Still using an arcam a80 for my fronts but i wonder how i will be blown away when i take the next step to this tube amp. I always wanted a tube amp and this seems to be unbeatable at this price range. It's gorgeous.

I have one coming in the mail. I need a way to suck the loosened crud out. I have used the Spin Clean for years, but I have long known there is a lot left behind. One day I will get a Loricraft, but until then, this should work much better than my current method. I will definitely put on the ol' earmuffs intended for firearms when using it, though. Funny dilemma there with not having another dirty record to test the other solution on. I wish I had that problem!

I've always been in the camp that cables can matter, but properly constructed cables that are functioning correctly should not sound different on the types of systems that 95% of people (not audiophiles) actually use. I would frankly be shocked if cables and risers did not have any influence on a battery powered system, the cables probably introduced some electrical movement in the ground. How much different cables matter in audiophile systems is probably very dependent on how the system grounds, its noise floor, and how much external electrical interference can be picked up in the cables. In short, cables are the last thing you should worry about and the last thing to sink money into.

Fantastic video. The transparency of your methodology was a breath of fresh air. Given all the responses I'd say you've gotten a lot of folks thinking about a really amazing hobby is really constructive ways. Good form, man. I just picked up a desktop ionizing air blower used to eliminate static for electronics work and micro-pipetting. For under $100 us it's worth a shot...maybe... we'll see.😂 Cheers!

Chris are you still around?

Doors