Vinyl Asylum: A Journey with Top Prize to the Teres Verus by Dave Billinge

My vinyl system has undergone many revisions in the past year or so. About a month ago I added the last item, the Teres Verus motor. This has proved to be more than the icing on the cake, it has changed the recipe of the cake itself, and wholly for the better. I listen exclusively to classical music of all genres and ages and my collection has been building for over 45 years. I attend literally dozens of orchestral, chamber and operatic performances every year which keep the reality check to the fore.

Last year the system had arrived at: Nottingham Analogue Hyperspace (heavy platter version) with a Moerch UP4 and an Ortofon Jubilee. The playing desk was resting on a heavy wooden cutting board placed on the top shelf of my nondescript metal and glass rack This fed my Graham Slee Elevator EXP and ERA Gold V and then the line inputs of my ATC SCA2 using home made silver cables. Speakers were, and still are, ATC50ASL active speakers used in balanced mode. I enjoyed vinyl very much, but tended to listen to a lot of CD/SACD too on the Sony SCD777ES VSE Level 5+. I was egged on by fellow enthusiasts, who remained stolidly unconvinced by the system, to be more radical. Iâ€™m sure they enjoyed spending my money.

Now the system is: Nottingham Analogue Hyperspace (heavy platter version) with the Teres Verus rim-drive motor, an Origin Live Illustrious 3 tonearm and the same Ortofon Jubilee cartridge. This rests on Nottinghamâ€™s own supplied plinth (taken back out of storage) which in turn rests on 3 Equarack footers, still on top of the old stand. This feeds a Musical Fidelity kW phono stage and a Music First Silver TVC passive preamp, still connected balanced to my ATC 50ASL speakers. Cabling is Missing Link Silver Reference. Vinyl now steps well ahead of CD despite the latter benefiting from the purer pathway provided by the MF Silver. It is not actually in the system, but the change from the Moth RCM to the Loricraft RCM has at last solved the cleanliness issue. The charity shop (thrift shop) LPs can be rejuvenated and my oldest discs as well as newest ones given the bath theyâ€™ve been needing. The Loricraft recommended cleaner (Lâ€™Art de Son) is better than my alcohol-water mix too.

Every single change has brought audible benefits but there have been key changes and they should be given in order of significance. Most extraordinary has been the recent change from the NA belt drive motor to the Teres Verus rim-drive. It was hard to accept the amount to which this lowered an already low noise-floor. Make no mistake, this motor has turned my NA Hyperspace into something altogether better in terms of clarity of treble, dry and controlled bass and an opening up of the soundstage so that at last I have stereo beyond the speakers. As for LP noise â€“ well, there isnâ€™t any if the LP is a good one. The NA bearing proves to be silent. Even the poorer vinyl has so much music that the noise comes from another place and doesnâ€™t intrude. Nottingham owners really should see this as top priority. Chris Brady too deserves a mention for being so helpful, especially during the transit of his motor to the UK when the tracking systems were unaware of my parcel!

The next best change was the Musical Fidelity kW phono stage. This unit is a huge and heavy monster but it has a very low noise level, probably due to its very complex power supply, and just seemed to allow the Ortofon to play more of the music. The walls of the recording venues were coming into view. The change in the bass response was very large. The doubles basses were there after all and clearly playing separate lines to the cellos. I could almost have stopped there, but the Verus was already on order!

The Origin Live Illustrious tonearm oozes quality and gave a much cleaner treble than the Moerch UP4 plus a greatly improved bass probably due to improved stability. Until the arrival of the kW and the Verus it only hinted at its capabilities but even before they arrived vinyl was moving ahead of digital.

The Music First Silver TVC passive is a lovely piece of kit and simply steps out of the way allowing me to hear the sound of the sources without restriction. The SCA2 was not assumed to be in any way poor, but it was a powered pre-amp and with powered amplification comes a need for really good power cleaning. No matter what I did (including a 6-channel â€˜Feliciaâ€™ circuit) all my experiments did not remove the feeling that this old and utterly reliable pre-amp was colouring my system its own way. I was sorry to remove it, but its absence is better than its presence, even into the same companyâ€™s active speakers which have continued to sound better and better and better as the sources improved. The very critical friends have started talking about the lovely orchestration of the Haydn Symphonies weâ€™ve often listened to (mainly Dorati Decca), instead of muttering darkly about lack of musicality, unreality and missing bass.

Anything I havenâ€™t mentioned specifically added detail or removed distortions (which might well be the same thing) but not to a big enough extent alone to warrant more than a small smile of satisfaction. I learned something I should have known long ago, that system weaknesses are mostly due to distortions obscuring what is present. Remove the distortion and you reveal more music.

This has not been a cheap year, but the changes have been very worthwhile indeed. I probably havenâ€™t finished, but it is definitely time to slow down for a bit. I listen to LP a lot now, and discovering my oldest and most treasured LPs all over again continues to give me great pleasure. This forum has been a constant source of interest throughout so a general â€˜thanksâ€™ to contributors / fellow travellers who have unknowingly triggered my thinking.

Dave