GoodSoundClub - Romy the Cat's Audio Site

In the Forum: Analog Playback
In the Thread: Schroder Tonearms

Post Subject: Oswald Mills Audio & othersPosted by Stitch on: 3/9/2013

Romy the Cat wrote:

The only valuable foe myself history lesson I took after Jonathan Weiss visit was Jonathan’s quote. It was where we were sitting in his listening rooms and I was making one of few very fruitless attempts to explain to him why his speaker to sound in the why they are. Jonathan was listening but I saw that he did not understand what I was saying to him. I asked him and he discerned what I was talking about. He replied: “People out there might be very surprised to learn that I have absolutely no clue about audio and have very little understanding how the things work”. This was actually his quote and it is not taking out of context. Listening what he was saying about audio, listening about his interests in music and sound reproduction it was very self-evident that he is very accidental and very primitive participant of audio. If Mr. Schroeder feels that this level of people are a proper re-presentation of his views then anathema to Mr. Schroeder and he can stick his arms in own ass.
Romy the Cat

Some time ago I had a conversation with Jonathan Weiss from OMA, he promoted the Schroeder and Schick Arms as the two finest Arms in the world....I asked him why....I am wondering, that someone who manufacturers so expensive stuff, has absolutely no, and I mean no, nada, nothing, even below zero, knowledge about items he sells or promotes. Normally nothing shocks me, I survived the Schroeder BS and his DIY idiots and others in his dust, but Mr. Weiss is a class on its own. I gently asked, do you know, why this or that is/was done and what it is good for? He never replied or gave a kind of answer which was filled with a hair of information. Is he a member of a kind of religious group? Or are there really so many wealthy morons out there that he can sell and survive from his crap?
The next one, Mike Lavigne
When you read his promotion site (he is linked with Jonathan Tinn and supports him) you will remember that he owned a Rockport Sirius III Turntable and it was the holy grail. Also for his countless visitors who fell onto their knees too.
Anyway, he sold the table and the owner invited me for adjustment and for listening.
First, the table never worked the way it should. And it never did at Mike's Place, simply impossible. The reason is a design problem, the leads from the Arm are wrapped in a rubber hose, this rubber hose is stiff and creates so much resistance, that only the first three tracks were playable, then it stopped. No way to move the arm closer to the middle, it always moved to the outside based on that.
Maybe the rubber hose was soft when Payor built the table, but after all those years it became stiff (or was always stiff and Payor simply used high VTF cartridges...).
The only way to go on, was to increase the VTF to a very high level (min. 2.5 gr or much more) to force the cartridge to move on. This worked but it will kill the cantilever in very short time.
I was so astonished about that that I asked a few visitors from ML how much they did listen to the Rockport, did Mike ever played a full record or only the first 2 tracks? ALL confirmed, ML never played a full side, he acted always as a DJ, a track here, a CD there, a Turntable here, another track there, changing the record....
I asked ML what he thinks about that defect sale and he swore he never realized that and at his place the Rockport was working without any problem....the new owner also bought the cartridge from ML he mainly used with the Rockport....it came back freshly from manufacturer rebuilt, with new suspension and cantilever .... :-)
And honestly, even the first two tracks showed clearly that this Rockport is a thin, uninvolving, ultra boring reproduction unit, the new owner had an old Seiki too and even he (!) said after two tracks he will sell the Rockport asap ..... total waste of time....
So, I ask myself, what kind of guys are these visitors from ML when they aren't able to detect such a technical and sonically fact????Year in, year out they raved that turntable as an analog Altar and Mike never got tired to write that, too....
The more I read Romy's comments about audio people the more I have to agree with him. Even when he uses very drastic comments, from what I was able to check, he is always spot on.
Copulare Racks
that is a Manufacturer in Germany for ultra expensive stands. Steel frames with a piece of wood onto. Sometimes the wood is pure or filled with lead shot. I had a discussion with him because I was looking for a rack and without any reasons he explained me his design ideas...the the amp has to breathe...Electron flow into his super filled Board---rigid stand against amp shaking....and that his coral units (that is a kind of foam which gets hard after a while and can be painted, a platform which is sold for 1.5k$ each and which broke at my home) have a load capacity from 100kg but only when they are above a complete frame. After one broke, I knew why....
it is a foam which gets hard, a few cent per tube and 1.5k$ in sale..anyway, his explanations where so out of ANY knowledge that I asked him multiple times : Do you really believe this nonsense you are telling me for 20 minutes now???A stone somewhere in a desert has more knowledge about vibration control and material mix....
What kind of ultra idiot. I was so mad about that bullshit, I took his items, drove to the junk yard and threw all out.There is a lot of Bullshit in Audio... and Master BS...and then there are such guys....

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