joel said:
Not that that will ever apply to you, Merlin, what with one of those pimping blingfest VPI thingies
It's even got a start button. What a total wimp out
To be honest I suspect Auntie would love the look of the TNT (though probably not as much as the Clearaudio. Or at least she would until she realised it was the size of small car
joel said:
'cos you hadn't heard a dias
WAF be damned. Aesthetics be damned. The NAS sounds bloody fantastic, satisfies "local" build standards, and all for a very reasonable price.
Joel,
On one level I agree - An extended listening session last night has now put me firmly in love with my Spacedeck - But on another I disagree, the aesthetics of the thing are important and not just because Auntie says so. I know I've been poking a bit of fun at her, but I actually agree with her to a large extent. Having had a good poke around with it now, I think its fair to say the aesthetics of it could be radically improved with no effect on its sound and probably not a huge effect on the price.
Of course one person's "improved" might not tally with someone elses tastes, But from an aesthetic point of view I like decks where the materials and engineering are there to see rather than hidden behind black paint and faux marble
The NAS Dais is a case in point - the finish of the platter sides looks fantastic and you can see what its made of (well not specifically, but you get the point).
I love its sound so I can forgive its shortcomings and there's no question its beautifully made and engineered, but put it this way - the thing costs a grand - that may be relatively cheap next to some high end decks, but it sure isn't cheap in absolute terms - why not make it look a million dollars - it might not sound different but the perceived value goes way up.
Some folk have a real hairshirt approach - so long as it sounds good, it doesn't matter if it looks like it was knocked together in someone's shed, I don't (I know the Spacedeck is far, far from that bad). If I'm spending a fair bit of wedge, I want it to sound fantastic and if possible look and feel fantastic too.
Same thing applies to features - I know there are compromises to be made, but if it didn't affect the sound my perfect Spacedeck would have button controlled speed change, a finger lift, calibrated VTF and bias adjustments and an on/off switch (even if you still have to spin the platter to get it going - I like that bit
).
Bottom line - I love the thing, but I also think Mr Fletcher could improve the aesthetics without compromising the sound or the budget. He could even charge an xtra couple of hundred for it and call it the Spacedeck Custom
.
