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Vinyl Asylum: REVIEW: Well Tempered Amadeus Turntables by the analog kid

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REVIEW: Well Tempered Amadeus Turntables

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Model: Amadeus
Category: Turntables
Suggested Retail Price: $2,800
Description: Turntable & Tonearm
Manufacturer URL: Well Tempered
Model Picture: View

Review by The Analog Kid on September 08, 2009 at 12:32:25
IP Address: 67.162.213.196
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The Well-Tempered Amadeus turntable is a triumph of parsimony. At a time at which turntables (like everything else, it seems) display greater and greater degrees of complexity (e.g., the Clearaudio Statement), the Amadeus is simply and cleanly designed, with minimal features, easy and manual adjustability, and phenomenal, world-class, sound quality. I have yet to have a listening session with it – even when it was breaking in – during which the emotional power of the music played through this wondrous instrument failed to bring tears to my eyes (literally; not hyperbole). Yeah, I may be a passionate guy, deeply emotionally connected to my music, but this table ROCKS.

I first heard about the Well-Tempered Amadeus table when I read Robert E. Greene’s rave review in TAS. I’ve long been a fan (if not an owner) of Bill Firebaugh’s approach to table design. But what put me over the top with this table was the golf ball. I can’t stand golf, actually. Hitting a tiny little ball with a tiny little stick across endless expenses of perfectly manicured grass into a tiny little hole holds absolutely no fascination for me. But the sheer genius of the idea rocked me: what kind of person looks at a golf ball, and thinks, “Gee, if I sink THIS into a well of silicon, it will make the PERFECT pivot for a tonearm”? Answer: Bill Firebaugh.

So, I contacted Jim Pendleton at Osage Audio, a national dealer for Well-Tempered. We chatted for awhile, and he echoed the raves about the Amadeus. I told him that I was interested in the “GT” version (being a sucker for gloss black acrylic). Our conversation ended with me saying I’d probably go for it in the fall. Well, a few days later, Jim called me, and told how the Opera factory in China (where the Amadeus is produced) was discontinuing production of the acrylic GTs. Apparently they didn’t like working with it (no surprise to any of you with a black acrylic table – their tendency to scratch is obvious and problematic), and were switching over to aluminum. Jim had a line on the very last acrylic GT to be imported into the States. Would I like it? You bet!!!

So, several weeks later, my black acrylic Amadeus GT was shipped to me; "the last of a breed" as they say. Props to Jim Pendleton, too. I would never have gotten this table without his encouragement, and throughout the process he was all that a high-end dealer SHOULD be: knowledgeable, friendly and helpful! Anyways, opening up the box, I was delighted to see how well packed the entire unit was. I’ve been pretty skeptical about Chinese manufacturing, but let me say, the packing materials of the Amadeus have no rival in my experience with tables. Each Styrofoam insert (of four) was custom cut to fit the particular parts it held – including special cutouts for the platter, various boxes, plinth, etc. In carefully unpacking all of the various parts, I was immediately struck by the manufacturing quality – the folks at the Opera factory really know how to build things. Everything from the tonearm pillar to the platter to the cup to the plinth itself were beautifully machined and perfectly finished. Not the slightest hint of slop or imprecision anywhere.

I assembled the table in a series of three sessions; the total time being probably about 2 hours. The instructions are clear and clearly illustrated (available online as well). Only two minor “glitches” of sorts: (1) the lack of any mention regarding the plugging in of the power supply to the motor, or switching of motor speeds (both of which were easy enough to intuit; but surprisingly absent in the instructions, given the level of detail devoted to everything else), and (2) the casual manner with which putting the “belt” (a tiny piece of filament) on the platter was discussed (it’s MUCH harder to get it around the platter than the instructions would have you believe, until you get the hang of it) .

The only deviation in my personal setup was that I eschewed the “isolation platform” (which appears to be little more than sorbothane pucks and a piece of MDF), and instead mounted the table on three Mapleshade Heavyfeet, on a 4” Mapleshade isolation base (I’m a huge Pierre Sprey fan, and have always found sonic improvements from the use of his stuff). As a side note, I always use the Ionoclast demagnetizer with my records – and the thing reduces surface noise (most of which is actually STATIC CHARGE) down to virtually zero.

Mounting my Grado Statement was a snap, because Bill Firebaugh has set the cartridge mount in a fixed position. This means you can easily adjust VTA (through raising or lowering the damping cup), can adjust azimuth even easier (by manually rotating the wheel from which the tonearm filament hangs), but cannot adjust overhang or alignment. It bears mention that despite the “lack of flexibility” in this design, my cartridge has NEVER sounded better on any other table, so I suspect the settings Bill came up with are spot on. Tweakers and detractors may dispute this, but the proof (as always) is in the sound.

Jim told me to expect a 20 hour breakin on the tonearm cable, but it was clear within the first five hours that this table is something TRULY special – a gift from the audio gods, if you will. My experience, in my system, almost perfectly mirrors the TAS commentary of Robert E. Greene. The most immediately noticeable characteristic of the Amadeus is THE QUIET – I mean, pitch black backgrounds. Think about it: you can pay tens of thousands for tables (and many of you likely have), but still have an arm that’s hard-mounted to the plinth, and prone (correspondingly) to airborne vibration through the plinth (no matter how thick, rigid, or high-mass). There simply is no better damping mechanism than having a tonearm completely mechanically detached from the plinth(dangling from a tiny thread) and floating in damping fluid. Or, more precisely (in this case), tonearm attached to GOLFBALL, and GOLFBALL floating in silicon!!! It bears noting that I played around for an hour with raising and lowering the damping cup – and I vastly prefer the silicon about 2/5ths of the way up the golfball. Going “deep” – more half way up the ball – tends to make the sound muddy and congested.

What having an unbelievably low noise floor does is allow music to leap forth unimpeded. And when liberated, the music plays forth naturally, openly, clearly, and accurately. The purity of tone, top to bottom, is the finest I’ve heard. Take “Pyramid Song” from Radiohead’s “Amnesiac. The air around the piano; and the tone and timbre of Thom’s voice as it shifts from whine to grit; were both the best I’ve ever heard (and I’ve heard this track on MANY different systems, at all kinds of price points). But when the drums and bass come in, and the ride cymbal, it’s bust out the tissues time. The shimmer and decay of the cymbals (the various timbres; the way they linger in the air) are astonishing. Flipping the record over, spinning “I Might be Wrong” the BASS is HUGE. Not bloated, or overwrought – but just deep, phat, and riveting. In fact, I had to turn the volume down, because all the crap in my basement started rattling around. Hadn’t had any other table of mine literally rock the foundation (or at least, the junk RESTING on the foundation). Switching to Death Cab’s “Brothers on a Hotel Bed” from Plans, again I’m floored by the tonal richness, quiet, accuracy, and frequency extension at both ends. Macro and micro-dynamics are reproduced flawlessly.

One of the most telling indicators, in my experience, in distinguishing mid-level from high-level systems (or components), is their ability to simultaneously reproduce instruments of vastly different timbre within the same localized space in the soundstage, accurately. So, for example, bells, piano, drums, voice, and gritty electric guitar – all close together, at the same time, and all with their authentic timbres reproduced. The Amadeus does this.

The tonearm takes some getting used to. It lacks both a raising and lowering spring (cueing mechanism), and a finger lift. With the golfball resting in the silicon, it tends to move slowly, so cueing isn’t too frightening. And it DOES come with a finger lift, but if you install it once the arm is set up, then the arm tips over sideways in the silicon cup because of the one-sided weight (something I learned the hard way, almost spilling silicon on the plinth). I left the finger lift off. This means that you have to very carefully – and manually – lower and lift the arm with your own fingers. I rest my hand on the arm rest to stabilize when I’m doing this, but it’s still a nerve-wracker. Those with shaky nervous hands should get a different table. Then again, less complexity means greater purity – why have a cueing mechanism that only will add more mechanical contacts, resonance and complexity to the arm?

Yesterday, I had my best friend in town and long-time audio bud Joe over to check out the Amadeus. He was stunned. “It’s INCREDIBLE” he said, again and again, shaking his head in disbelief, especially given that his table cost three times more. “Don’t EVER sell it!!!” In discussing it further, we both agreed that it vastly outperformed all of my previous tables (that I’ve owned over the last 20 years), including Rega P3 and P9; Basis 1400 and 2001; and Music Hall MMF-7. The closest would be the 2001, but there’s something about the Amadeus that is just more MUSICAL than the Basis (for all the phenomenal qualities and undeniable “precision” possessed by the latter).

So, to wrap up an already WAY too long review, is the Amadeus “the greatest table in the world”? Ridiculous. I don’t even know what it would take to be such a thing, or how such a claim could be quantified or defended. What I will say is three things: (1) The Amadeus is destined to be one of those rare audio products that people will look back at, years from now, and sigh, “Damn, I should have bought one.” (2) the Amadeus is arguably the best BANG/BUCK table in the world. It’s performance is world class, while its price is mid-level. (3) you won’t find a table anywhere on the planet that better embodies parsimony and genius in design. Or one that looks cooler. Golfball, indeed!!! Thanks Bill Firebaugh, for creating such a phenomenal MUSICAL INSTRUMENT, and Jim Pendleton at Osage Audio, for bringing this instrument into my life!!!



Product Weakness: a bit nerve-wracking to cue tonearm, until you get used to it
Product Strengths: Incredible low noise floor; authentic reproduction of tone and timbre; macro and micro dynamics; BASS!!!


Associated Equipment for this Review:

Amplifier: McCormack DNA-1
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated): GNSC Ultimate ARC SP-14
Sources (CDP/Turntable): Amadeus
Speakers: Snell D
Cables/Interconnects: Nirvana SX IC's; Elf power cords; Clear Day speaker cables
Music Used (Genre/Selections): Prog; Alt; female vocal
Room Size (LxWxH): 22 x 11 x 9
Time Period/Length of Audition: 1 month
Other (Power Conditioner etc.): Mapleshade maple bases; Triad cable lifts; Heavyfeet
Type of Audition/Review: Product Owner




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Topic - REVIEW: Well Tempered Amadeus Turntables - the analog kid 12:32:25 09/8/09 ( 14)