Fosi Luna 3 Turntable..

[antcollinet]

View attachment 466006
Do you have an estimate? More than $10k?

I'd love someone to set up a blind test between the Macintosh and the Fosi turntables, using the same cartridge.

 

[DSJR]

Couple of points from a once Linn dealer (oh Gawd, here he goes...) -

The arm has two main weaknesses for me, the first being a detachable headshell which normally causes tonearm resonances in the upper bass to lower midrange (some pickups may be immune to this however - maybe... The other is yaw as the headshell moves up and down due to the vertical bearings not being in line with the offset angle. So many so-called hi-end tonearm people totally ignore this and maybe they regard it as irrelevant as most records should be flat. I just regard the latter as design laziness myself.

Oh, and one of the pics on the site shows the pivots set too high when playing, the arm having a 'tail-up' stance (of feck, I've completely lost it now...).

Yes I know, digital is better by far these days, but many peeps have a collection of lps they'd like to play on something 'new.'

 

[jmchrislip]

Is the AT-95E the same as the AT-VM95E? I think the first is the older version, is it not?

Good catch, I meant the AT-VM95E.

 

[antcollinet]

Is the AT-95E the same as the AT-VM95E? I think the first is the older version, is it not?

The AT-95E is no longer made - so we can assume this is using the VM95E - and that is what is shown in the images also.

 

[DSJR]

According to the German Lowbeats site, the VM95E benefits from the slightly 'sharper' elliptical profile of late 95Es and should 'sound' a little better because of it (they have measurements too but not in later pickup tests, sadly). They claim the VM95E does 'sound' a little better than the evergreen AT95E predecessor, but I've not compared the two directly myself. There was a AT95EX I think (red stylus housing I recall) but by the end and before the VM95 series came out a good few years back now, the stylus specs on the brochure were the same I remember.

If this arm does the VM95E well, an easy upgrade later would be the 95ML stylus, which should tidy the hf up nicely over the closed in (by comparison) basic E spec. I've yet to hear the 95SH stylus, as I suspect that would improve the hf further on a decent pressing.

 

[JeffS7444]

View attachment 466006
Do you have an estimate? More than $10k?

By high-end standards, MTI100 is value-priced at 6500 USD per Worldwide Stereo (as of early 2024)
https://www.worldwidestereo.com/blogs/guides/mcintosh-mti100-integrated-turntable-review
Turntable parts and design by VPI.

 

[JeffS7444]

I spent a few years machining it to make drift chamber components for HE Physics, and the static created by it was enough to drive us nuts, and we had the entire P.Dept wood shop at our disposal, including all manner of clothing, masks, and humidity control...and the stuff still went everywhere.
Cleanup of the ensuing 'sawdust' everywhere took about 2 hours every day, even though we had great exhaust/filtration systems.
Seems like putting a diamond stylus on spinning hunk of the stuff is just asking for problems...

A pity you didn't use Miracle Surface 317X (I am shocked that @mhardy6647 didn't beat me to this!)

 

[mhardy6647]

A pity you didn't use Miracle Surface 317X (I am shocked that @mhardy6647 didn't beat me to this!)

News to me, I am chagrined to admit.
Some kind of surfactant, I reckon.
Wait, this just in:
https://www.worldradiohistory.com/ARCHIVE-RCA/RCA-Engineer/1960-10-11.pdf page 18ff.

 

[Petrushka]

Most important feature: it’s orange.

 

[mhardy6647]

A pity you didn't use Miracle Surface 317X

part 1: https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Audio/Archive-Audio/60s/Audio-1964-11.pdf pg. 22ff.
part 2: https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Audio/Archive-Audio/60s/Audio-1964-12.pdf pg. 44ff.

 

[Neddy]

In 1971 we weren't that sophisticated yet? But I see it was apparently available then.
And, since we were cutting up 4x8 sheets into 'sticks' for the chamber frames (surfaces were filon) and were very carefully sanded and cleaned (w/alchohol) to adhere the copper strips for HV feeds, things did have to be nearly clean room (for then).
Vacuum clamping the chamber; electronic QC (and cosmic ray testing)...there's a PDP 11? in the background somewhere.
I think it was probably one of the last drift chamber experiments run at Fermilab...

 

[antcollinet]

In 1971 we weren't that sophisticated yet? But I see it was apparently available then.
And, since we were cutting up 4x8 sheets into 'sticks' for the chamber frames (surfaces were filon) and were very carefully sanded and cleaned (w/alchohol) to adhere the copper strips for HV feeds, things did have to be nearly clean room (for then).
Vacuum clamping the chamber; electronic QC (and cosmic ray testing)...there's a PDP 11? in the background somewhere.
I think it was probably one of the last drift chamber experiments run at Fermilab...

What on earth are we looking at? And what has it to do with the topic?

 

[Neddy]

Acrylic TT platters and static electricity.
Just my experience with fabricating with it decades ago, and an unusual 'use case'.
(My version of yelling at the clouds, as I was too young/dumb to realize my good fortune at the time.)

And that same lab/shop designed and built the electronics for this:

Solving the mystery of the missing neutrinos - NobelPrize.org

www.nobelprize.org

Which I also have pics of....

 

[mhardy6647]

My version of yelling at the clouds

In the context of subatomic particle detection, this feels like an epic pun!

 

[egellings]

That’s a rather absolutionist attitude, I think it looks quite neat/cool.

The world is analog, and we digitize it.

 

[mhardy6647]

The world is analog, and we digitize it.

I mean, yes and no... right?

(this latter phenomenon is actually of some interest to those of us who do molecular spectroscopy of various kinds... but, not uncharacteristically, I digress)

Critical stuff vis-a-vis vinyl as a medium for encoding information!
I am sure some of the top companies in the field are working out the wave function for polyvinylchloride even as I am typing this...

 

[JeffS7444]

The world is analog, and we digitize it.

It could be if we refashion ASR as a pen-pal society, so start sharpening those quills! Everything starts to look suspiciously quantum-y if examined really closely, which may be a sign that I need to step outside for awhile.

 

[Petrushka]

The world is analog, and we digitize it.

Quantizing the continuum.

Found that phrase on the internet and fell in love with it.

Sounds deep.

 

[Sernyl]

According to the German Lowbeats site, the VM95E benefits from the slightly 'sharper' elliptical profile of late 95Es and should 'sound' a little better because of it (they have measurements too but not in later pickup tests, sadly). They claim the VM95E does 'sound' a little better than the evergreen AT95E predecessor, but I've not compared the two directly myself. There was a AT95EX I think (red stylus housing I recall) but by the end and before the VM95 series came out a good few years back now, the stylus specs on the brochure were the same I remember.

If this arm does the VM95E well, an easy upgrade later would be the 95ML stylus, which should tidy the hf up nicely over the closed in (by comparison) basic E spec. I've yet to hear the 95SH stylus, as I suspect that would improve the hf further on a decent pressing.

On my Audiotechnica LP5X I changed the E stylus for the ML : it is worth while.

 

[joqueval]

I can only say that it offers very correct performance, in the Fosi Audio product line.