Hi Mick,
I hope you and your family had an excellent festive season.
The 501 is an engineering tour de force, at a Chesterfield show it stopped three of us in our tracks just by its physical presence. When Terry took the platter off and showed us the working parts we were further astounded, as the finish and quality of moving parts were by a mile the best we had ever seen.
All of this would have counted for nothing if it hadn't done the business sonically. Fortunately it does this in spades, tons of detail, secure imaging and an absolutely rock solid bass. There is something very direct sounding about an idler driven turntable evident even in an obviously unfamiliar system. Idlers are prone to problems of noise and need to be very tightly engineered and finished if speed stability is to be spot on. The 501 is deadly quiet and absolutely stable. The cost is very high but from examination and listening I would have to say it's worth it. I suppose you could console yourself by the thought that your great grandchildren will almost certainly be using the beast reliably.
I hope you and your family had an excellent festive season.
The 501 is an engineering tour de force, at a Chesterfield show it stopped three of us in our tracks just by its physical presence. When Terry took the platter off and showed us the working parts we were further astounded, as the finish and quality of moving parts were by a mile the best we had ever seen.
All of this would have counted for nothing if it hadn't done the business sonically. Fortunately it does this in spades, tons of detail, secure imaging and an absolutely rock solid bass. There is something very direct sounding about an idler driven turntable evident even in an obviously unfamiliar system. Idlers are prone to problems of noise and need to be very tightly engineered and finished if speed stability is to be spot on. The 501 is deadly quiet and absolutely stable. The cost is very high but from examination and listening I would have to say it's worth it. I suppose you could console yourself by the thought that your great grandchildren will almost certainly be using the beast reliably.