Hi, I'm back, the central scrutinizer...
. I spent a week with the TN 550. Played with 3 cartridges. The AT440ML is spectacular. Brings a very large spectrum in the high frequencies which make records sound like crystal. I guess is an A.T. signature. I don't remember when, in what circumstances and for what I buy it, but I'm glad I did. If she would be "the bad girl", the Sumiko Blue Point Special would be the "good mummy's girl" ; it plays on the more calm and "be wise" side. Beautiful reproduction though...To have the VTA right with this one I put the records directly on the acrylic platter, and with the record clamp it works very nice. Great on small groups of acoustic instruments and with the voice. Always nice to compare. For example, the stylus of the AT440ML grabs the dirt from the bottom of the grooves and so it requires to take special care of the records, a good washing is mandatory. Even the brand new records that came out from the plastic. Re learning...
I also changed the original modulation cable with a cheap cable (in the range of 15 Euros), for line levels, to witch I added a grounded shielding. It was catastrophic... The level of electrical back ground noise made a huge bound ! Obviously the original cable, even if it looks very cheap, is very well chosen.
This being said about my experiments, back to the reality of the TN 550. Today I decided to return it. The mechanical noise I heard at the beginning of the listening is coming mainly from the motor, not from the platter, as I thought at start. But the platter is not perfectly silent either. On long enough silences between the tracks I realized that is audible in the speakers... I used a stethoscope to listen to it and compared to the hum of the Tesla NC430, and I was unpleasantly surprised to find that the Teac have that much noise...
About the marble plate : I found is not at all inert to vibration. In fact is quite the opposite - it sounds like a resonance box... This explains why the turntable is that much sensitive to the dust cover's resonance... With it closed, at a rather strong volume the music starts sounding like in a closet... With it up but still attached is much better, but removing it completely from the hinges is what it takes to have an audition clean from its resonances... That made me think that Rega might have a point in using low density materials for the body of their turntables... The Tesla, that is build from a stratified wood plinth on which is mounted a non suspended chassis (screwed into the frame) made out from a thick metal sheet (see my actual avatar), so it has a cavity inside, could have been more resonant... bit it isn't... In fact is more silent... Much more inert...
I really liked the look of the TN 550, but I'm very disappointed by what seems to be the result of a poor conception and engineering... I have the TEAC DV 50 that delivers a very high quality sound, so I wanted to believe... It doesn't prevent from enjoying music, but the rumbling in the speakers keeps reminding me that is not at all worthy of a top of the range turntable... I don't know how many people have it, but I think that few of them looked in detail, so I can understand why those 'flaws' are not reported more often on forums... It's not "bad sounding", it's just worth less then 200 Euros... And at that price I wouldn't have look at it... I'm kinda snob...
The good side of this is that I know now that I will make another experiment : once I recover my SME 3009, I'll install it on the Tesla (I will regret again the auto stop missing), because now I know that is rather well built...